GregWTravels

I love the concept of this little pork sandwiches at the end of the meal. I first saw them in a Rick Stein's Long Weekends episode where he went to Lisbon. I once was doing the Atkins diet (back in the early 2000s), and one night at a steakhouse, while my friends had cakes and pies, I got a crab dish off the starters menu, and learned the value of a savoury dessert. Now I live in the UK, love that most menus include a cheese plate as a pudding, which is a great way in my mind to finish a meal.

Enjoying the report. One of the prime reasons I went to Tokyo was being so fascinating after reading Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and A Cook's Tour.

dat4life

At fado, the crew agreed to meet at Sete-Rios station at 8am to catch the 8:30am train to Sintra. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and I didn’t wake up until 8:30 am. I got ready in about 60 seconds and headed out the door as the crew was already at the station. I hit another snag when three Uber drivers canceled on me. Fortunately, I spotted an empty cab sitting a few doors down and hopped in that. The cab screeched to a halt at the Sete-Rios station about 15 minutes later.



I brought my DLSR along anticipating some long distance shots. But the battery died as soon as I took that last picture leaving me with a 10 pound albatross around my neck the rest of the day. Oy vey.

The train to Sintra took about 30 minutes. SIntra is a historic, charming, and picturesque town with roots dating back well over 1,000 years.





We stopped at a little pastry shop in the heart of the village for breakfast.





I don’t remember what these are called, but they were delicious.



We stopped again two shops down for ginja. Needed a little liquid courage for what would prove to be a long but fantastic day.



And then we were off.





Our first destination was Quinta da Regaleria.









One of the most interesting and famous spots in the estate is the initiation well. Prospective knights had navigate to bottom of the well and then out blindfolded and with a sword pointed at their abdomen to earn their knighthood. That’s bold to say the least. In the present day, it was a great backdrop for a Tinder pic. So… practically the same.





To be perfectly honest, I had enough trouble navigating it without a blindfold. So I don’t think knighthood is in my future.













We then went back to through village for quick pit stop before finding the trail to Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle), which dates back to the 8th century.

Let us pray.





There were quite a few obstacle climb over or duck under along the way.





It took roughly 2 hours to reach the top. Per my Apple Watch, the climb up to the castle was the equivalent of 97 flights.



But it was totally worth it.



Of course, there were a few more stairs waiting for us at the top. But once you’ve climb 97 flights, what’s five more?





The view from the top was amazing, and it’s shame I forgot to charge my DLSR battery.







We did talk about possibly visiting the palace, but we were too tired to hoof it over there.





So… we took a tuk tuk down.



We worked up quite an appetite with all of the hiking and climbing, so we asked the tuk tuk driver to take us to a restaurant straight away. I was sort of apprehensive that he would take us to some cheesy and terrible tourist trap, but I was very wrong. The restaurant was fantastic.

We started off with some grilled chorizo.



Prawns sautéed with garlic.



A light yet flavorful fish stew.



Steak in coffee sauce, which was very good.



Grilled black pork



And finally a venison dish.



All of it was delicious and went down easily with a couple bottles of a Portuguese cabernet. The owner came by to chat and offer complimentary port to round off the meal. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that we ordered the entire menu.

With daylight fading, we headed back into the main part of town to walk off the meal and do a little souvenir shopping.







Afterwards, we hopped an Uber back to Lisbon. Our first stop was the Time Out Market, so I could try the octopus hot dog my friends were raving about. I was stuffed, but it was a worthy bite.





We then went to a… very interesting bar for drinks.





And then walked back to the square near my hotel for the Christmas market.



But first we stopped at the nearby A Ginjinha, which is the very same place Bourdain enjoyed ginja some years ago.





The Christmas market was pretty darn cool. The decorations, vendors, and carolling school choir reminded me a lot of Christmas festivals when I was kid, but with far better food and booze. Despite being stuffed, we couldn’t help but partake in warm mull wine which was perfect in the chilly weather.





We wandered over to the Santa Justa Elevator where a pretty cool band was playing. Eventually a pretty good crowd gathered.





My friend’s girlfriend enjoyed the band so much she decided on an alternative tipping method. One of guys appreciated the joint so much, it netted her a free CD. Gotta be honest, I’ve pretty much forgotten CDs exist.

We called it night around 11, in anticipation of heading over to Porto the first thing the next morning.

dat4life

Ha best of luck with that! I'm trying to get back into some semblance of race shape, but it's been incredibly slow going.

Indeed! He definitely scoped out some tasty spots, and I really enjoy he intertwines history, culture, and food. I'm with you on savory desserts, though I'm sucker for a good savory/sweet combo.

wakesetter93

Come run 3M with me in Austin next year, it's all downhill!

dat4life

Our train to Porto didn’t leave until 10am, so I had plenty of time to pack and eat a bit of breakfast before heading out. As Porto is a good haul away from Lisbon, the train left from the Lisboa Orient Station which is just a quick Uber ride away.







Our business class tickets cost €74 a piece, which wasn’t too shabby for the three plus hour ride. We got a set of four seats together.





The ride through the Portuguese country side was beautiful.





About 50 miles outside of Porto, we hugged the picturesque coastline before crossing the Duoro River into the city.



After detraining, we hopped an Uber to our AirBnB in central Porto. As a points and miles, addict I prefer hotels. But AirBnBs are fantastic with a group, and this particular property might just convert me over to short term vacation rentals.







The AirBnB has three bedrooms and three baths, with one of bedrooms and baths in a loft upstairs. We drew straws for the single and I won it.







The large balcony had beautiful views of the city.



Having not eaten since much earlier that morning, we proceeded to a eatery just a couple of blocks over which just happened to be the next stop on our Bourdain tour: Gazela Cachorrinhos da Batalha.



It’s a tiny little eatery with just 10ish stools, and we were lucky to timed our visit right after the lunch rush. Of course, we had their signature cashorrinhos on our minds. At first glance, cashorrinhos looks like an ordinary hot dog. And it is most certainly not an ordinary hot dog. The perfectly charred Portuguese spicy sausage is served on crisp mini baguettes, cheese, and a delightful spicy sauce. It paired perfectly with crispy fries and lots of beer. I’m not ashamed to admit I wolfed down several of these delicious treats.







The owner eagerly showed off his operation and happily regaled us with tales of the Parts Unknown filming. He was also happy to take pictures of us and with us.









After chowing down, we burned off some calories shopping at the nearby Christmas market and shops. Even I got into the action picking a couple of pairs of very comfortable Portuguese shoes.





We then headed back for an afternoon snooze at the AirBnB and woke up to an absolutely stunning sunset.



With some time to kill before dinner, we headed to the nearby Livraria Lello, which is a bookstore that has some sort of connection to Harry Potter. Not quite my couple of tea, but it was an absolutely beautiful place.












They also had a pretty interesting collection of first edition books.





We did a couple of laps around the area and checked out the Santo Ildefonso Church before hopping an Uber to dinner.







We had a reservation at another Bourdain haunt: Esplanada Marisquiera Antiga.





Our expectations were high given its Michelin star. But our experience was a pretty big let down.

We started off with fish soup, which was pretty flavorless.



That was followed by the seafood tower. The presentation was gorgeous, but as far as the quality of the seafood wasn’t quite on par with Cervejaira Ramiro.









Perhaps the most disappointed part of the experience was the service, which was mediocre at best. It was dang near impossible to find a waiter to order another bottle of wine, so we pretty much gave up from there. The dessert cart did venture into our area, so I ordered a passion fruit mousse just to try it. It was pretty good.



Afterwards, we hopped another Uber back to our AirBnB where we unwound by watching the Parts Unknown Porto episode. I’m very well aware there’s a TV in the background, but I couldn’t figure out how to stream to it.

dat4life

The first order of business the next morning was to get a COVID test as I was going home the next day. I noticed a testing site a block away from our AirBnB last night, and I headed there as soon as I woke up. There was a bit of a line, but I was through in less than an hour.



I headed back to the AirBnB to meet the crew and we were off. The only thing on the schedule for the day was a port wine tour, so we had plenty of time in the morning to do our own thing.



Our first stop was the Palacio da Bolsa. The palace was built in the 19th century by the Commercial Association of Portugal, and these ordinary folks can apparently rent it out for special occasions. It is also now a UNESCO heritage site.













Each of these chandeliers apparently weighs a few tons.









We headed across the street to Church of St. Nicholas for a quick peek. The church was built in 1671, but was burned to the ground in mid 18th century and was rebuilt to its current state a few years later.





And then it was off to another far more famous church, the Church of Sao Francisco. It had a fascinating history dating back to the 1500s





Pictures weren’t allowed in the church, and there were a couple of docents strictly enforcing the rule. But I managed to sneak a quick picture of the gorgeous flooring.



We then headed toward the Duoro river.









We posted up at Chez Lapin, a restaurant on the riverfront, and enjoyed pitcher of sangria while listening to a street musicians.



He’s pretty interesting dude, and he was kind enough to sign a CD for my buddy.



Having not eaten that day, we decided to have lunch which was a great decision. We started with fresh bread with olives and a tuna spread.



Tableside flambéed chorizo.



And then we split mustard braised beef shanks, shrimp pasta, and grilled fish. It was all absolutely amazing.



We hurried over to the foot of the Luis I Bridge to meet our port wine tour group.





Luckily the group was just a mom/daughter/friend trio from Canada and ourselves. We crossed the bridge on foot and were treated to fantastic views of the Porto as we walked down river.







Our first stop was the Ramos Pinto House.







The first part of the tour was the museum, which interestingly we weren’t allowed to take pictures in. But we could take as many pictures as we wanted in the cellar. While the no pic policy was annoying, our guide was fantastic.









Of course, they could let us leave the house before sampling the goods.



The next stop on the tour was the Piano Duoro Valley tasting room. We passed another “trash art” exhibit similar to the one we saw in Lisbon the day before.

[mg]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51836792279_07f345b538_c.jpg[/img]









And we headed over a couple of blocks to a super modern tasting room, which was a lot of fun especially with the port refills and our tour guide Lucas entertaining us.





So at this point, I still hadn’t received my COVID test results from that morning. Somewhat concerned, I decided to try to get another antigen test at a pharmacy. A few bucks was a small price to pay to make sure I could get home the next day. Funny enough, I got the results of my morning test within a minute of walking out of the pharmacy. Mollified, I hopped into an Uber to meet the crew for our final meal in Portugal.

On the docket that evening was O Paparico. Unlike our experience the evening before, O Paparico was absolutely fantastic from top to bottom.





























I couldn’t tell you exactly what we ate. But it was all beautiful and delicious. The wine was wonderful, and the service was absolutely impeccable. And to top it off I couldn’t ask for better company. It was truly one of the best meals of my lifetime.

dat4life

As I packed, one of my friends hit up our little group chat asking if anyone was up for a drink. I still had a little ways to go to be ready to go, but what the heck. Let’s do it! The first place we hit up was Big Bad Bank, which is actually pretty funny considering what we do for work.







It was cool bar, but it was pretty dead. The barkeep told us of some other places that might be more lively about a 15 minute walk away. That presented an interesting conundrum. I wanted to stay out with my buddy, but I also wanted to get some sleep. It was nearing midnight at this point, so keeping the party actually seemed like a smart option or so I convinced myself. Let’s do this!

It was beautiful walk through the deserted streets to the area the barkeep recommended.



True to the barkeep’s word, it was definitely far livelier. We hit a couple of the clubs, which were fun. Drinks were reasonably priced, and the atmosphere was fun.



We ended up bouncing and heading to a more chill bar where some guys were having fun covering Eric Clapton and Journey.

At some point, the full weight of the day hit me. And the next thing I really remember was making it back to the AirBnB by 3:30, leaving me just enough time to pack and hit the shower.

I was a little apprehensive relying on Uber at that early hour, but I was able to get a car pretty quickly. The ride to the airport took about 15 minutes. I really feeling it when I stepped out of the car, and big gulps of the crisp morning air really didn’t do much to help.



All I wanted to do is get on the plane and sleep. I had a few hurdles to clear before I could do that. First up was check in. Say what you want about the mask mandate, there’s no way I would have been allowed to board without it as I still reeked from my activities from the few hours before. Heck, I would have denied myself boarding. Fortunately, the Lufthansa agent disagreed and efficiently checked my bag and printed my boarding passes.





Immigration and security went without a hitch, and all that stood between me and sleep was an hour. And it was one of the longest hours I’ve ever experienced. I chugged a liter of water and found a semi quiet corner at a nearby empty gate for a nap. Getting up when my phone went off took every ounce of will power I had, and I eventually trudged my way to the gate.



Lufthansa 1181
Porto (OPO) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Depart: 6:05AM
Arrive: 9:55AM
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200 NEO
Seat: 3A (Business Class)

Somehow I had presence of mind to snap a few cabin pictures which I found on my phone later.









The next thing I know the plane was already cruising and the flight attendants were clearing breakfast trays. Lufthansa’s wafer thin slim line seats be damned, I got a decent amount of restful sleep. One of the flight attendants noticed I was back among the living, and she immediately offered me a drink and breakfast which I gratefully accepted.

Breakfast was an impressive spread of charcuterie plate, ham and cheese omelet with a side of sauteed spinach, grapes , and a croissant and a sweet roll. Not quite my usual greasy hangover cure, but it was all delicious and did the trick along with a bottomless mug of coffee.



I fell back asleep after breakfast and woke up to our final approach into Frankfurt.



As we had to taxi a few laps around the airport, it was a perfect opportunity to do a lot of Lufthansa centric plane spotting.



I was thrilled to see a Lufthansa A340-300 being readied for a flight at a remote stand, which is a sight I never thought I’d see again.



We ended up parking at the A gates right next to a drop dead gorgeous 747-8i wearing Lufthansa latest livery.



After thanking lovely cabin crew on the way out, the first order of business was a good hot shower. The arrival gate was just a stone’s throw from Lufthansa’s A gate lounge. The A gate lounge was formerly a First Class Lounge still equipped with the fancy showers. So I headed there.



There was a waitlist for a shower room, so I settled down in one of the last empty seats in the lounge with a Fanta to wait for one to open up. My pager went off about 15 minutes later.



[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52269291854_461bae147e_c.jpg[/img

Thoroughly refreshed, I decided to escape the crowded A gate lounge and head for the Z gates lounge where my Newark flight was departing from. It was quite the trek, and required going through EU exit immigration. I ended up with a rather chatty immigration officer. The immigration officer took the opportunity to throw shade at his Greek counterpart who left a less than stellar in my passport, but also left an equally crappy exit stamp.

Eventually, I made it to Z gate lounge which was a much larger and less crowded facility.












The food and drink selection was pretty extensive.





Coup de gras was the ice cream bar, of course.



Famished from the long trek, I grabbed a little plate of venison stew, a pretzel, and dumpling soup. It was all quite delicious. Thought, the peak of lunch had to be ice cream.





I headed toward the gate well before departure to give me a little wiggle room in case the COVID test checks ran long. Which was a good thing as the lines were long with several U.S. bound flights leaving within an hour of each other. It took 30 minutes for me to get through. From there it was a short walk to the gate where a drop-dead gorgeous Boeing 747-8i was being readied to take me to Newark.



I got caught up in the excitement of my first date with the Queen in years, and I decided to be gate lice. But departure time came and went nary an announcement from the small army of gate agents manning the gate. So much for German punctuality. After inquiries from half the passengers, the gate agents finally made the delay announcement. The gate area grew more chaotic by the second. The cops were called for some reason, though they eventually left and boarding finally began over an hour late.




Lufthansa 702
Frankfurt (FRA) – Newark (EWR)
Depart: 1:30PM
Arrive: 4:15PM
Aircraft: Boeing 747-8i
Seat: 87A (Business Class)

The last time I flew on a Boeing 747 was way back in 2015 when one of United’s venerable -400 variant took me from San Francisco to Hong Kong. Lufthansa retired all of their 747-400s during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but kept the much more modern 747-8i around. So yes, I was beyond stoked for the flight.


I picked a seat on the plane’s famous upper deck. Given Lufthansa’s Business Class setup, the upper deck’s 2-2 configuration was far superior to the 2-2-2 on the lower deck.



The Captain was stationed at the top of the stairwell greeting passengers. I couldn’t help but chuckle as her 5’2” ish stature was big contrast to the behemoth she’d be piloting in just a few moments.

I quickly found my seat, 87A.





I won’t rehash how Lufthansa’s latest and greatest Business Class products lags behind four and three star airlines. But I thought the seat was very comfortable, and I appreciated the extra storage space on the upper deck. That said, I think my opinion was skewed a smidge as the aisle seat, 87C, stayed empty.





The seat controls were intuitive enough.





Lufthansa’s Business Class headsets were just ok.



The IFE interface was a bit clunky, and the hardware was a bit outdated already.







As soon as most of the cabin arrived, the flight attendants got hard to work. Serving began with PDBs of water, orange juice, and champagne.





Menus were presented next. I was impressed that the flight attendants introduced themselves to each passenger when presenting menus. And more impressively, I was addressed by name from that point forth.

Shortly before pushback, the captain came on the horn to apologize for the delay and explained the late inbound flight resulted in catering arriving very late as well. Flying time to Newark was just under eight hours, and she assured us that we would be at the gate in Newark just 30 minutes late despite the late start. I was getting a smidge nervous as my flight to New Orleans was on a separate ticket with under two hours to connect, but more on that later.

Eventually the doors were shut and the tug pushed us away from the gate a bit over an hour late.



Taxi to runway was short, and our Queen was roaring airborne in no time. The day got a lot brighter and beautiful once the graceful behemoth punched through the thick overcast shrouding the ground below.



With lunch imminent, let’s have a look at that menu, shall we?













Tablecloths covering the entire tray table were laid.



Lunch started off with a drink run. I asked for glass of the South African sauvignon blanc and a water, which were served with almonds.



The appetizer consisted of smoked salmon, which was tasty. I switched to the Rieseling for the appetizer, and it paired rather nicely.



I was eying the Christmas goose main course, but the flight attendants ran out by the time they got to me. So I ended getting the smoked salmon wrapped cod. It was fine, but not that memorable.

At this point, my cell phone battery was completely drained. I looked in my bag for a charger only to come up empty handed. I eventually concluded I must have left it at the Porto AirBnB. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be such a big deal. But having current information and a mobile boarding pass were key to making my illegal connection especially with the delay departing Frankfurt. I was SOL for the time being, and dessert helped passed the time as I strewed. The strawberry cheesecake ice cream was tasty, and the last of the dishes were cleared about 2 hours after takeoff.

As he cleared dishes, I took a shot in the dark and asked the flight attendant if they happen to have any spare iPhone chargers on board. The answer was no as I expected, but he offered to lend me his personal charger which was incredibly generous of him. I took him up on it, and he reappeared a few minutes later with said charger.

I dozed off for about an hour and woke up to chocolates being served and a fully charged iPhone. That was a glorious sight.



I got up to return the charger to the flight attendant, and we ended having a nice chat about Lufthansa and the industry overall.

I ended up falling back asleep and woke up right as we were going feet dry over the far eastern expanses of Canada.





The second service began exactly 90 minutes out. I went with the hot dish option which was Palek Paneer, which was actually quite tasty.



I finished off the meal with another glass of Lufthansa’s delicious orange juice.



The First Officer made the 35 minutes to landing announcement and added we would be landing on Runway 22L at Newark and the left side of the aircraft would have great views of Manhattan.





We parked next to a TAP Portugal A321 NEO.



As we filed down the stairs from the upper deck, a passenger from the rear of the aircraft was getting into it with the purser. The disagreement seemed to stem from the flight attendants enforcing the mask policy. Now, I chatted with purser during the middle of the flight and he seemed like a perfectly nice guy. That passenger seemed to disagree with my assessment, fists flying seemed pretty imminent if not for the intervention of another passenger. Unsurprisingly, a couple of police officers entered the plane as soon as the door opened and escorted the unruly passenger off the plane. He was pleading his case with officers as I walked past them in the terminal.



I was in baggage claim in no time thanks to Global Entry. Now I really didn’t need to check my bag in Porto, but I didn’t want to lug it around Frankfurt during my connection. That decision really backfired, as I had roughly 45 minutes until my New Orleans flight departed. Bags finally hit the belt with a little bit over 30 minutes to go, and luckily my bag was one of the first out.

I raced out through customs and headed to the Air Train. Fortunately, there was a train on the platform and I was able to sneak in just before the door closed. It was a bit of a haul from the Air Train station to security, and I felt pretty good as the Clear line looked pretty short. Unfortunately, there was a family with a couple of young kids in front of me that moved at a glacial pace. I got the boarding beginning alert while in line, and by the time I finally made it through security it was T-20.

My flight was departing from gate 101, so it was a bit of a haul from security. I huffed and weaved my way through the packed terminal and rolled up to the gate right as my name was being paged.



United Airlines 1792
Newark (EWR) – New Orleans (MSY)
Depart: 6:05PM
Arrive: 8:30PM
Aircraft: Boeing 737-8 MAX
Seat: 2A (First Class)

I was pretty excited for this flight as it was operated by one of United brand spanking new snazzy Boeing 737-8 MAX. As such, I splurged for a reasonably priced First Class ticket. That turned out to be a great decision, as the flight was completely packed to the gills. No cabin pics, as I was the last to board and the door was shut behind me. But the new IFE system was absolutely top notch with great content and a responsive interface.





Snack was the same old choice of a tomato basil sandwich and chicken sandwich. I was still stuffed from my Lufthansa flight, but I took a sandwich for the sake of photographic evidence.



I conked out for the rest of the flight and woke up to a firm touchdown on Runway 20 and New Orleans mugginess.



My friends picked me up, and headed out for a quick bite before dropping me off at the Eliza Jane, which is a Hyatt Unbound Collection property and the best Hyatt property in the city in my humble opinion.





I burned an expiring Category 1 to 4 certificate for my quick one night stay, which was far more palatable than the $400 rack rate. The hotel was at capacity, so no upgrades were available. But my standard queen room was more than adequate for my one night stay.







I fell asleep as soon as my head the pillow. Thoroughly refreshed the next morning, I went on a quick run before having breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was served at the hotel’s restaurant and consisted of continental and hot options. Globalists had access to the full buffet. Everything was quite good.

dat4life

As I mentioned earlier, this little side jaunt was for helping a friend move to Chicago. I caught an Uber over his place to help him load up, and we got underway mid-afternoon. Neither of us was in hurry, so we opted for a more scenic route. We headed east on I-10, running into heavy traffic in New Orleans East. That cleared up fairly quickly, only for us to run into rain after crossing the Missisippi state line.



We pressed on for a couple of hours before stopping for food at Wintzell’s Oyster House in Mobile, AL. It was tasty enough.





It was a few more hours driving north on I-65 through the pouring rain before reaching our planned stop for the night at at Hyatt Regency Birmingham. My expectations for the hotel were pretty low, but it was actually a pretty nice property.



We woke up to an overcast but dry day. Before hitting the road, we decided to check Birmmingham beginning with the Sloss Furnance, which was a 19th century iron producing blast furnace that’s now a historical landmark. The now quiet and oxidizing behemoth was a sight to behold.









We did a couple of laps around Birmingham and hit a Publix for some road snacks before hitting the road.





A couple of hours later, we passed through Huntsville, Alabama.



We made it Nashville just as daylight was beginning to fade. The temperatures were definitely substantially chillier in Nashville. We did a quick looksee around the Pantheon.









And drove down Broadway aka the Bachelorette Party capital of the world.



Our last Nashville stop was at the Edessa Restaurant, which served up some delicious Kurdish and Turkish food.





After dinner, we pushed through the next 4.5 hours into Indianapolis for the night. Been to one Hyatt Place, might as well been to them all. But the Hyatt Place at Indianapolis/Keystone was pretty dang rough around the edges. Thankfully, it was just a place to sleep for the night.



The next day was our final push into Chicago with a quick stop at Purdue University for a looksee.









After leaving Purdue, we made what was supposed to be the three hours into Chicago. But traffic had other plans for us, and it took nearly double that because of accidents and what not. At that rate, I wasn’t going to be able to make my flight. So my friend dropped me off directly at O’Hare with a just an hour to spare.



I had just enough time for quick drink and restroom stop at the H/K Admirals Club before it was time to board. I was pleased to see my EXP upgrade clear while I was in the club.


American Airlines 414
Chicago (ORD) – Houston (IAH)
Depart: 3:20PM
Arrive: 6:09PM
Aircraft: Airbus A320-200
Seat: 3A (First Class)

Hauling myself and full house down to Houston was N102UW, a thinly disguised legacy US Airways A320. I got allocated seat 3A, which was probably what I would have picked for myself.



After an on time pushback and quick taxi, we were soaring into the clear skies. I fired up my iPad to watch the Parts Unknown episodes I downloaded before my trip, which helped pass the flight.



The offered snack was a cold tomato basil sandwich, which was fine. Though, it would probably taste much better hot.





It had been a long but fun week and a half away, but I sure was glad to be getting out of that plane a few minutes ahead of schedule. After that, it was quick Uber back home to the dogs and just in time for one of the more satisfying Sunday Night Football games of the season.

Thanks for reading along and putting up with my extended writing schedules!

kevincrumbs

My head hurts just reading about your hungover flight from OPO to FRA! Thanks for coming back and finishing this TR. I enjoyed reading it and living vicariously through you. I'm too old to drink like that these days!