Sunday, April 19, 2015

We woke up before the 7:30 AM alarm and were happy to see that our flight was on time and that the fog should clear from the Bay Area in time for Paul to fly us to San Carlos (much better than last year when our flight was three hours late and a storm was threatening the Bay Area).  Paul and his son, Charlie, were at the Columbia Airport at 11:30 AM and all ready to fly us to San Carlos where our Elite Taxi was waiting for us as we got out of the airplane.  We were not able to print our boarding passes at home, but did not have to wait long to check in and make it through the SkyPriority security lane.  We enjoyed a pesto chicken Panini sandwich with wine and beer at our favorite café then made our way to the Air France Lounge which we had access to since we were flying Business Class for the first time.

While we enjoyed fresh made chocolate chip cookies and a Coke we got to watch our big Airbus A380 airplane being prepared for our flight.  We grabbed three bottles of water from the Lounge before heading to the SkyPriority boarding gate to check out our Business Class seats.  There was more space around our seats compared to Premium Economy but the seats themselves were not very comfortable due to the fact that they were made to recline almost flat.  We took off pretty much right on time and were happy to see the drink cart coming down the aisle -- which to us means our vacation had officially started!  Dinner in Business Class was quite an affair, with white table cloths, real dishes, wine glasses and silverware!  Dinner started with an l'amuse-bouche of salmon and granny smith apple on a spoon, then a bresaola with grilled Portobello mushroom, scallop and shrimp appetizer served on a bed of ratatouille, followed by a seasonal salad with pecans.  We had a choice of main courses and I chose salmon with caper sauce, basmati rice and asparagus with herbs and Mike picked pan-seared tournedos of beef with Madeira wine sauce, Bordeaux-style cepe mushrooms with mashed potatoes with basil -- served with a choice between four real wines served from big bottles . . . not the little plastic airplane bottles!  For desert we had a trio of opera cake, Grand Marnier almond cake and a macaron and a glass of 10 year old Tawny port!

After dinner, almost everyone in our section took their little prescription sleeping pill, put on their eye shades and reclined their seats and went to sleep.  Shortly thereafter the loud snoring started coming from all the seats, making it impossible to concentrate on our books so we put on our headsets and watched the movie "Wild"!

Monday, April 20, 2015

The snoring finally quieted down during the night so we were able to read and relax, but were still not able to sleep despite the extra room and reclining seats.

We were treated with a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic before the lights were turned on and the breakfast service started -- again with white tablecloths, real plates, silverware and glasses.  For breakfast we had orange juice, coffee, tea, fresh fruit, yogurt and breakfast pastries along with a choice of entrée.  I chose the blueberry crepes with vanilla sauce and Mike got the scallion omelette, hash-brown potatoes and bacon.

We landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport at 11:35 AM and had to wait until 3:45 PM to catch our flight to Genoa so we worked our way through the airport, security and immigration to the bus to Terminal G to wait.  We found the Air France Lounge in Terminal G which was much nicer and quieter than the main terminal and sat in their nice leather chairs reading and drinking their Coke, water and cappuccino while waiting for our flight.  We boarded our HOP commuter flight on time for the nice 1 hour flight to Genoa and our pilot gave us a beautiful scenic view of the coast on landing.

We grabbed a taxi for the short trip into Genoa and checked into our large room at the Hotel Continental.  It was only 5:30 PM and very early to eat dinner by Italian standards, but we were starting to get pretty tired so we found a pizza restaurant down the street that was open and had a pizza before going back to our room for a much needed shower after being awake for over 24 hours!