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Our 10-hour overnight flight from Seattle to Paris was in “Basic Economy” class. Knowing what a nightmare that would be, we tried to prepare. We got airplane pillows and airplane foot slings. Gail got compression socks (which she forgot to pack). We paid a small upgrade to get adjacent window and aisle seats.
It didn’t help. The armrest between our seats wouldn’t stay up. The flight attendant moved us, but our second seats had no padding and Gail’s seat recline didn’t work. Gail ended up getting almost no sleep. (Russell had spent the last week adjusting himself to European time. He did better.)
After arriving in Paris this morning, we had to go through another passport check. On top of that, a wheel on our old rolling suitcase started falling apart. (Gail fixed it with some packing tape purchased at an airport shop.) As a result, we barely made our connecting flight to Barcelona.
We finally got on board the Viking Jupiter at about 5:00 pm, some of the last to arrive. The ship is gorgeous and our cabin (in a crew area) is great.
Our protocol is to defer to paying guests at all times, including excursions and specialty dinner reservations. But tonight, no one had signed up for Manfredi’s specialty Italian restaurant, and they were going around asking for patrons. As a result, we had a superb dinner and met six very nice fellow passengers.
We also met the other three onboard lecturers and our cruise directors. Russell has several days before he will deliver his first lecture.
We were originally supposed to be in Barcelona for two days. Unfortunately, the terminal is overcrowded with cruise ships, and the Viking Jupiter is being ejected from its berth. As a result, we will depart from Barcelona tonight. So the only parts of the city we were able to see were from the shuttle bus between the airport and the pier.
But we are in good spirits. Our attitude is that we are here for work, not vacation. We want to do everything we can to get invited back by Viking.
