5th/6th August 2011

After getting my stuff together back at the hotel after an awesome day, I was going to do something I had not done before in New York when leaving. Get the Train to the airport after being told it was extremely easy and cheap. $12 was meant to be the cost (worked out at $11.25) and should have been easy. But things did not go to plan from the Start. I figured rather than walk the 5 blocks dragging a heavy suitcase I would jump in a cab. Unfortunately the porter at the hotel would not get me a cab. So I walked up to Port Authority Bus Terminal and their cab rank about a block and a bit up, and jumped in what was a long line. But the thing is there was about 30 taxi’s waiting and yet the ladies at the front were just not moving, I mean WTF! Hell once the line started moving it stopped again while an old lady just stood there, I told her to take the next taxi its waiting there or I am going to.

She didn’t move, so I did and jumped the queue by about 5 people. I was kind of in a bit of a hurry as I was running a bit behind schedule. With that I was now in a cab heading to Penn Station, but at the end of the block, we stopped, for 5 mins. And this was to be the longest/Shortest taxi ride I have had in new york. I should of just walked. I was mega frustrated and then to add insult to injury the taxi driver tried to rip me off. I handed him a $20, told him to make it $11 change and we will make it even (fare was $7). Sounded good to me at the time, cept he decided to keep some of the money and gave me $9. WTF! I told him off, made him give me the extra money, told him to fuck off and jumped out.

Into the station I went (after being dropped off at the wrong side of the station) and went in search of a vending machine to get my metrocard topped off. None of the machines would let me do anything or even sell me a ticket, so I jumped in the growing ticket queue. Which had people moving slower than a snail. The time for my train was fast approaching, and then the lady behind the window told me she couldn’t top up my card, so I said fine, sell me a new ticket (there was like $1 on the metro card so couldn’t be bothered). No she told me. WHAT THE FUCK. Why is everything getting so stupid all of a sudden. My blood was boiling by this stage and I was pissed off. So I told her to just shove it and went in search of another ticket machine, one that would sell me a ticket. Some idiot at the vending machine jumped in line ahead of me and mouthed off at me. Whatever. I got my ticket then tried to find the next train to Jamaica Station, unfortunately this is almost impossible at Penn Station it seems as no where has any information. So I asked a cop who was nice enough to tell me any train really and that the next train was Platform 20. So down I carried my case.

When I got down there, there was not a person in sight, not even a soul. This didn’t seem right. Then I saw a sign “Do not Board”. Why is it so hard!!! I dragged my case back up the steps to the waiting area as a crowd of people started flocking another platform and an announcement was made that the next train to depart would be from Platform 16. So off I went. When I got onboard it was already packed. I found an out of the way place to put my case which was convientiently right infront of a free seat (albeit with a ladies bag on the seat). After a 4-5 minute wait and the lady not moving her bag I asked her if she could move her bag so I could sit. She grumpily said “Fine” and moved it. I mean WTF! I was so over it all at this stage, just wanted to get to the airport, get to the lounge and chill.

The train ride was pretty uneventful, a lovely gentleman helped me get off at the right station, making sure that I was all good as I must of looked frustrated or stupid (probably the latter) and I was soon on the AirTrain from Jamaica to the terminal. I got an SMS from a flyertalker, due to transit through JFK and this brightened my mood. I could tick that challenge off my list and relax and chat at the same time.

With that I checked in, found somewhere to sit and relax and waited for CMK10 to arrive which he shortly thereafter did. We attempted to try and get into the lounge which turned out to be before security but they wouldn’t let both of us in, just me. So we sat at a bar and had a quick drink and a good chat. Then they started calling people to the gate through security. This was almost 2 hours prior to departure… WHAT! So I ran up to the lounge to make sure this was ok, but they said not to worry and to relax and they will let me know when. But I had other plans anyway. Grabbed a quick drink, cleared out the facebook messages backing up for my birthday and a few quick spotting photos before heading down to security to get through and get some Euro currency.

With the last of my USD changed to EUR I was strolling towards the gate and about to ask how long till boarding so I could do some spotting as the pier was right infront of the active runway, it was then that I saw “Now Boarding all rows” It was an hour prior to departure, whatever!

Swiss International Airlines
LX17
New York John F Kennedy to Zurich
1750-0755+1
Airbus – A330-300 (HB-JHI)
Business Class – Seat 11K

Boarding: 1650 (Gate B27)
Push Back 1739
Take Off Roll: 1800 (Runway 22R)
Top of Descent: 0640
Touch Down: 0711 (Runway 34)
Shut Down: 0715 (Gate: E23 )

I headed to board and was totally unprepared when I walked onboard. I was the first person into the main business cabin (there was one or two in the mini cabin forward of Door 2L. So had ample opportunity to take lots of photos, and with so long before departure I just really got myself comfortable, taking some photos, sending texts and emails, calling home to say im alive as I had not called home in the month I had been travelling.

About 1730 I heard the “Boarding Completed” announcement which shocked me as we still had 20 mins to go, then around 1735 I heard “Refueling Completed” and then a few moments later “Cross Check Doors” and with that we were pushing back early. I had expected a long delay when taxiing to the runway but we were like 4th in the queue and was distracted by all the good planes out the window including El Al, Kuwait Airways, Royal Jordanian, Aer Lingus, Jet Blue, American One World, BA One World & a Qantas One World as well. It was photo snapping central.

Pretty soon we were lined up and ready for our turn (thankfully I had remembered to put my seatbelt on with all the distraction. It was now that I started exploring the pockets in the seat and came across the previous flights menu as well… Score!

Once airborne service started fairly slowly about 20 to 30 mins after take off with the full dinner service wrapping up almost 2 hours after take off. I took my time enjoying each course. Pre dinner drinks with nuts and chips, then salad, then the main. Of course it wouldn’t be a swiss airline without a cheese course and of course, dessert & chocolates. All consumed with lots of water, diet coke, coffee and a Pretzel Roll. O how I was hoping they would have these. I had seen them on so many other trip reports, I was dieing to try one. And it was GOOD!

After dinner I settled down to do a bit of work on the laptop (finances for the trip, writing a blog post for my time in new york and working on the trip report really) and half watching a movie. During the service I had commented to one of the cabin crew that it was my birthday. A short while after finishing watching the movie and working on the trip report, she was back to offer me some champagne, but since I was not in a drinking mood (was going to keep that for paris) I declined. Shortly there after she returned with a Happy Birthday and a box of chocolates as a gift. YAY!!! I think I might try this on my next flight (cause it would technically still be my birthday when I get on that flight as I was to amped to sleep).

Lets discuss the Swiss long haul set up. The A330-300 has a double cabin business class set up. You have a 2 row mini cabin forward of Door 2L and the main cabin to the right of 2L. I was in Seat 11K in the Main Cabin. The seats are unique in that they have like a column to the side of the seat which you can use an extra table and its essentially where the person in the row behinds feet go. So in some seats like the A seats you have two columns (often reffered to as the “Throne Seats” In the other seats it Alternates between on the left and on the right. In most cases the seats are set 1-2-1 some are set 2-2-1 others have random set ups. 11K has the column on the aisle, giving you just a little more privacy with your aisle access.

The seat goes fully flat and has a half decent AVOD selection (although not touch screen unfortunately) but the one thing that confused me so much was the Tray table. It has a very unique design which drove me INSANE! But hey what can you do!

As the flight progressed, I still could not sleep so just relaxed and chilled out watching Thor and also chatting to the flight attendant, about my trip and my birthday etc. It was a good, easy flight. Business was 100% full so there was people crammed everywhere. About 90 minutes prior to arrival, the lights came on (no mood lighting unfortunately)) and it was time for a light breakfast to be served. These were done the night before really when you filled out your breakfast card and handed it back to the flight attendant. However they forgot my coffee. Service as a whole although good was spotty at times but it wasn’t anything horrible really. Breakfast was a light European style, so Fruit, yoghurts, Pastries/Bread really. I wasn’t really hungry and since I still had another breakfast flight, just stuck with a serve of fruit.

Soon enough we were given a pre descent brief by the Captain and we started to come down into the low cloud around Zurich. It was a weird approach though, we could of come in on a nice straight direct approach but maybe for Noise purposes they fly a spiral descent. It was extremely weird. Soon enough we were on the ground and taxiing towards the dreaded E gates at Zuirch, which meant the Heidi train. I wasn’t to worried, as we landed a good 45 minutes early so I had heap of time to connect it just made it a lot easier for me as I would e able to get into the Lounge for a bit more time and a shower, rather than have to skip it altogether.

The disembarkation process seemed all to quick and I barely even had my stuff on my shoulder before I was being forced towards the front of the plane by the pushy people at the back. I made my way off the plane and headed quickly for immigration with one thing on my mind. A shower. Onto the next Heidi train and off we went towards the A Gates. I headed into European immigration where I was asked one question “Are you on Holidays” to which I answered Yes and was admitted. No forms, no nothing, no worries! All to easy.

The Swiss lounges in Zurich are in one main complex which makes things all to easy really. It made my life all the better. I queried seat allocations when I arrived at the gate to see if I could get something better than the 6F I was assigned and was given 1F. Anything in Row 1 is better than Row 6 imo. With that I was handed a shower key, explained how the weird system worked and off I went. The lounge was very empty which was fine, with very basic breakfast offerings (nothing hot) but again wasn’t worried. They did have Movenpick iceceam and free wifi vouchers available with 30 min sessions at a time. Jumped on the wifi to get my phone ready and working and then it was grab a quick drink, banana, steal all the swiss chocolate in site for my friend and then off to do some more plane spotting and clear security. Unfortunately gate A85 where my flight to Paris was departing was the very last gate on the A pier. A good 10 minute walk after security. They were not wrong. Add on time to take photos and security itself and you have a good 20-25 mins from start to finish. By the time I got to the gate, boarding was just about to begin. They preboarded special cases (ie very old people) and soon enough boarding was called.

Swiss International Airlines
LX634
Zurich to Paris – Charles de Gualle
0905-1020
Airbus – A320 (HB-IJS)
Business Class – Seat 1F

Boarding: 0840 (Gate A85)
Push Back 0903
Take Off Roll: 0910 (Runway 28)
Top of Descent: 0936
Touch Down: 1000 (Runway 27R)
Shut Down:1005 (Gate: 66)

As boarding was being called I was already half way down the Air Bridge as had been boarded just seconds after the last special needs person. This meant I had a nice empty cabin to deal with. But being that the seats are the same as economy, I wasn’t to worried. What did shock me as tehe lack of entertainment, including a radio,. Not a thing was fitted at all, so it was a bit of a shock really. The trusty ipod would come in handy on this flight.

Not a full flight in either cabin this time and business was empty apart from me in `1F and another gentleman in 2A. What tehe hell. Why assign me Row 6 in business if only 2 people. Whatever. At least with plenty of space I could spread out either way. I took heaps of photos of the taxing aircraft around us as everything came in right next to me really. Lots of stuff I had never seen beofore in my life. Awesome!!

Pretty soon we were taxiing back after the flight attendant gave perfect translation to 3 different languages. With a quick taxi to a different runway and a very hasy pull up and ascent, pretty soon we were airborne and winging out way to France. Not much to talk about on this trip, a quick 50 minute flight, up, down, wham bam thank you maam.

I did end up getting a warm pastry breakfast, including several offers for extras (declined) and some of the famous swiss chocolates just prior to arrival into Paris. On the ground in CDG it was more of the same forme. Photos Photos photos. I am loving all these aircraft I have never seen before. Love it! Getting a lot of Star Alliance painted aircraft including Swiss, Austrian and United.

With the arrival into CDG, I went into a kind of scared over protective mode. I had heard of the sheer craziness of the airport itself and how confusing it is, along with the whole “people will rob you” advice of Paris. So I wasn’t sure what I was doing or where I was going. I just followed the signs and tried to make sense of the French words around. I found the baggage belt and was hoping that my bag made it here. In a good strike of smarts the people who run CDG tell you how long your expected to wait for your bags, so gave me plenty of time to sort things out. When the bags started to hit the belt, mine was first off, priority tags really do work!

Then it was working out how to find my way to the RER with the very confusing directions and after a bit of help and guidance from the information booths, I was on my way to T3 and onto the RER. I was smart enough to have some Euro Coins on me to get the RER ticket and I was onboard and heading to Gard du Nord, and my hotel… some luxury for one night. The Paris Marriott Hotel Champs-Elysees.

Sunday 7th August 2011 – Paris to Bayeux
SNCF – Intercities
Paris St Lazare to Bayeux
2nd Class

Up nice and early after a very very long 37 hours or more of no sleep and a massive day in Paris of exploring, wandering, indulging and an amazing birthday Celebration at Les Ombres, I hit the gym for a bit of a wake up and then repacked some stuff into a smaller bag for the trip down to Bayeux and the Normandy region for some Battlefield explring.

After having done a bit of half assed research the afternoon before, Yena (who has joined me for france) and I made our way after a quick caffeine hit in the lobby down a very, very empty Champs-Elysees to the Franklin D Roosevelt Metro stop for a 3 stop metro ride to Gare St Lazare. With that completed we sussed out where we needed to go and with plenty of time to spare, we hit up a local café for another caffeine hit (can you tell we both enjoy our coffee). We had pretty much planned that this would be a quiet morning with a 2 hour train ride to catch up on things all the way down.

Coffee consumed we headed back over the street to the station to suss out some take along breakfast pastries and to figure out what platform we were departing from. There was a massive crowd at one end of the station and what we didn’t realize was that was for our train. All the crowd was waiting for the platform number to be released and when it came up we got bumrushed by the crowd and it was like O M G I am about to be run over by a billion people. Then we realized it was our train, and knowing that the train is unreserved seats we split up. Yena to get pastries (she was hungry, I didn’t care really) me to get our seats (was more worried we wouldn’t get a seat). We need not have worried at all as I found a 4 seat with table all the way at the far end of the platform and soon enough was joined by Yena carrying our breakfast. With an apple and drink pilfered from the Hotel Gym, it was a tasty if not all that healthy breakfast (it was my first “French” breakfast so it counts as ok really and its really hard to find a French breakfast without some form of Chocolate, you will know what I mean if you check out a cereal aisle over here). With that we settled in and dead on time, the train rolled into the station.

Pretty much as the train sped on, Express to Caen the French countryside rolled past the window and I worked on my trip report and blogging while Yena worked on her journal and we both got out the ereaders for a light spot of reading. Pretty soon Caen approached and the train was stopped for about 10 minutes or so, then it pulled out again nice and speedily. We had roughly 15 minutes or so till our scheduled arrival into Bayeux.

Soon enough an annoucement was made in french about 30 seconds from arrival and we jumped up and grabbed our bags, making it out of the train shortly after arrival into Bayeux. The platform was pretty bare but we followed the mass crowd towards the exit and then it was off on foot to our hotel for the next 4 nights. The Hotel Chateau de Bellefontaine.