8:40 AM
After a night with nearly no sleep for me, we get out of the house and the taxi struggles through the morning rush hour but delivers us to the airport in time (9:10AM)
We check in, confusing people with our mix of business and economy class tickets, dance through security and get to the gate on time.
10:30 AM
Boarding is a bit late and we start to wonder if we will have enough time in Frankfurt to get from one plane to the next. Julius buckles up like a pro and restrains himself from playing with the tray table. He does not at first realize that mama is not sitting with us, but then when some stranger takes the seat next to me he looks a bit worried.
10:50 AM
Finally we move towards the runway, then we stop again, then we notice that the lights and the air conditioning turns on and off and flight attendants move around, checking things here and there … suddenly we hear some weird engine whining sound, which gets worse when we apparently move back to the gate.
11:10 AM
We are being told that there is a technical problem and that we have to get off the plane … no one is telling us that we are supposed to get our luggage and then get out of the secure area and walk back up to check-in … chaos left and right, and by the time we have all our stuff we are pretty much the last of all people on that plane who line up again at the check-in counters to re-arrange flights.

noon
Everyone is getting hungry, the lines move like molasses and people look frustrated … We hear from time to time that people are getting re-routed through Munich, with overnight stay, the lady before is does not even get to leave Turin today, so .. we fear for the worst.
After 100 minutes in that line, we are offered to fly Air France (instead of nicer Lufthansa) via Paris (hate that airport) and we would still arrive at JFK (instead of further away EWR, yeah!) same day, albeit 6 hours later as initially planned.
1:40 PM
The Air France counter is still closed so we are ‘enjoying’ the ’sorry, you missed lunch on the plane’ voucher for the not so great self-serve restaurant. Of course we have to keep dragging our luggage around, which makes things really tricky, you are not supposed to leave it anywhere, you have to balance a tray with foot and drinks around while keeping a patience loosing 3 year old under control … not an easy feat. The food is bland, the pasta soggy, at least the fish is nice, but we had to fight for that one (we were told with that voucher we can only have the dry looking chicken)

2:20 PM
We check-in with Air France, basically we start all over again, at least we are getting rid of our heavy bags. Once more through security and then the waiting at the gate begins.

| 3:50 PM
Our flight to Paris leaves on time and Julius falls asleep before the plane gets to the runway (and he keeps sleeping until 5 minutes before landing, but he got to see the Eiffel tower in the distance) |
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5 PM
Somehow CDG is much quieter than last time when we went to and came from Jordan. We reached our gate for the JFK flight with time to spare. Security checks and boarding are no problem and Ritsu is so generous to give me the business class seat for this long flight.
First times I tried to check on them, there were always food carts in the way, but when I finally got through I found Ritsu sound asleep and Julius enjoying the TV. Good that economy was not totally full, there were seats free here and there, so also next to Ritsu.

I am not overly impressed with Air France business class, but at least the seat is very comfortable and I really love those sound cancelling headphones. I get to watch “The Bucket List” and “Asterix at the Olympic Games” .. both quite entertaining … food is ok, but the menu mentioned an additional light meal, which the FA’s did not feel like bothering with.
8:50 PM local time (2:50 AM in Turin)
We arrive safe and sound and Julius is out, I have to carry him all the way to immigration and keep holding him while we line up … once again we are pretty much at the and of the queue .. but we get a very nice immigration officer who tells us about the interesting people he has seen coming through. Chatty guy, very nice, no hassle … they need more of his class.
10 PM local (4 AM in Turin)
We get out of the airport building and immediately some limo drivers offer their services. 55$ sounds too much and as it turns out, the yellow cab gets us to our hotel for 40$ incl. tip. (Though the driver has NO idea where our hotel is and is not very helpful at getting the luggage in)
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10:45 PM
We arrive at our hotel, very nice one, though the location itself is a bit funky and even the front desk lady discourages me from strolling around at this time, looking for food.
Instead we study delivery menus, but find out that most places have already closed, the only open ones (pizza and a diner) do not tickle our fancy … hungry we go to bed. |