Europe, 2022, Trip home and final thoughts

I woke up early to make sure I had everything together. A 10 minute walk from my hotel brought me to the CDGVal, the little shuttle train that gets you from terminal to terminal. I got randomly stopped at security to have them do a bag check with the electronic sniffer to see if I was carrying explosives. I was not.

Even with the random stop the Sky Priority lines at CDG airport saved me tons of time. The Air France Lounge was also a treat. Great breakfast of French Toast (when in France…?), eggs, sausage, bacon and croissants. And a lovely espresso. Perfect.

This was my first time flying on a Airbus 330-300. I was excited to check it out. It had the older Delta lie-flat seats which were a bit tighter than the Air France lie-flats, but still, pretty darn comfortable. Grateful for the comfort on an 11 hour flight.

On board, I did a Tom Cruise marathon starting with A Few Good Men followed by The Firm. I also watched James Bond, Spectre.

In between and sometimes during the movies I slept. Probably got around 2-3 hours of sleep.

The food was OK. Nothing to write home about, but enough to satisfy. The service was excellent. Very kind flight crew.

We landed on time. Yay! I don’t get to use it very often but when I do Global Entry saves me a ton to time standing in the immigration/passport line.

I had sort of a weird situation with connections I was hoping Delta would remedy for me. Due to a flight change a few months ago I was routed from Seattle to Vancouver then back to Seattle then to Sacramento, getting me home around 9:40pm. I just wanted to stay in Seattle and catch my final leg home. Delta did me one better. They got me on a 3:30pm direct flight to Sacramento getting me home at 5:30pm. Yay Delta! Things are always working out for me.

I had just enough time to grab a quick shower in the SKY Lounge (so nice to refresh after an 11 hour flight!), a coffee and snack before heading to my gate. It’s a smaller plane so I have to gate check my bag. First time I’ve checked a bag this entire trip. Not too bad.

The views from Seattle to Sacramento were delightful.

Pretty big fire to the right of the mountain.

Mike picked me up at the airport 4 hours earlier than expected. What a gift.

As I was looking back over this trip I was astounded that it began in Vancouver. That feels like a million years ago.

Vancouver and Paris were just really transition cities meant to get me to my final destinations. I’m really glad I took the time to get out and see a few things in both cities instead of just hanging out in the hotels. It was not easy to get out about about for the few hours in both Vancouver and Paris and I could easily see me convince myself that it might not be worth the hassle. It certainly was worth the hassle.

And I’m really thrilled I got enough time in the Swiss Alps. And that I decided to leave Gimmelwald a day early to visit Basel.

Some might know I’m a huge Freitag fan. (Freitag is a Swiss company that makes really cool looking bags and accessories out of recycled truck tarps.) I found a store in Interlaken and Basel and picked up a couple of things. I held off on putting this in my blog because I wanted it to be a surprise for Mikey.