Friday, June 1, 2007

Day One – Thursday May 31 – Foster City CA to Munich, via Boston

In spite of the excellent pre-planning, including Paul’s newfound neurotic desire to “test pack” several days before the trip to make sure everything would fit into a single rolling carry-on, there was still a bit of last minute running around, looking for a particular missing paperback, while the taxi idled in front of the house. Fortunately, Friday morning traffic was light and despite our cabbie’s unfamiliarity with local roads (even with a nav system suctioned to his windshield, he still managed to miss the well signed on-ramp to the 101 freeway!), we made it in plenty of time.

At SFO, we grabbed a scalding hot Peet’s decaf, took our seats in the First Class section (ahhhh), and settled in for the first leg to Boston. Within minutes of sitting down, Annette was zoned out, mouth slightly open (the sure sign that she’s really asleep).

When we arrived in Boston for our short layover, we were greeted by Stephanie, who had come out to Logan Airport to join us before the next flight. We popped into the Legal Seafood restaurant at our arrival terminal, and Steph, having waitressed at the Cambridge location of Legal Seafood when she was an undergraduate, guided us to a few favorite items on the menu. Even though we knew we had a meal ahead on the next leg, we were hungry and enjoyed a bottle of wine, soup, salad, fish & chips, tuna & some calamari. What was going to be a little snack for us turned into a major meal.

After heading to Terminal E and saying goodbye to Steph, I had to log on for a quick little email exchange with work, causing Annette a slight bit of discomfort as I was the last to board the plane. I was sitting with my laptop right by the loading area, and the airline gate attendee ladies were saying, “don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time”, but meanwhile inside the jet they were announcing “we’re waiting on one passenger to board, then we’ll push off…” so when I strolled into the Business Class section I receive a bit of a look.

The leg from Boston to Munich (Lufthansa # 425) was very uneventful for me. I slid the very high tech seat into as flat a position as possible, put on the eyeshades from the complimentary “grown up goodie bag”, took an Ambien and headed off to sleep. Annette watched Blood Diamond, enjoyed part of the meal and got some sleep herself.

When we touched down, it was Friday morning in Munich

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