September 28, 2024

Istanbul to Atlanta

Weather nice to post hurricane

 

We were able to sleep in today.  Missed the sunrise, alas. We had breakfast at the Hotel.  Shirley was able to recreate the breakfast she had 15 years ago in Istanbul, Yogurt, sour cherry syrup and cocoa puffs. Paul had a (boring) omelet. The coffee was really good.

 

 

After breakfast we went on a nice walk in the park next to the Hotel.  

 

 

Our transfer was arranged to leave at 10 and we did.  A minibus managed to load the luggage for 12 passengers by utilizing some empty seats as well as the luggage compartments.  We made it to the Airport in 40 minutes.  It was Saturday, so there was very minimal traffic about.

 

We scanned our luggage after we entered gate 5 (business class gate) and so there were no lines. We made our way to the ticket counter, showed our passports and received our boarding passes. This was done by talking to a real person and not a machine.  Our bags were checked by a nice attendant (again, not a machine) and we were off to the second scanning station. Shirley had to remove her nerve stimulator and pass it through the x-ray. But these people were pleasant considering the clientele they were dealing with (more on that later).

 

We finally made it to the lounge and relaxed for 90 minutes.  The airport is huge and so is the business class lounge. We had a nice lunch and did some people watching. A word about people – There were a few “entitled” people in evidence. An attendant was pushing a cart filled with whatever and was trying to get through a tight place.  Several of these entitled better than you people totally ignored him and walked through the tight place.  I saw this and when it was my turn, I motioned for the attendant to proceed.  He made eye contact as he went and it seemed to say, “Thanks for treating me like a person.”

 

 

Thirty minutes before we were to board, we made our way (a very long way) to the gate where we went through more security.  Luckily we were spared the ordeal of getting patted down and our carry-ons “inspected”.  I guess we looked like honest people.  All told we went through seven inspections and scans to be allowed on the plane.  We boarded on time and were soon ensconced in our pods – our home for the next 12 hours.

 

 

The flight was uneventful. Turkish Airlines treats their business class passengers very nice.  They had a chef (in a real chef hat) present our 5-course meal, and the “breakfast” when we got close to Atlanta.  Good food and the Boing 787 pods were conducive to some z’s.  They also has a screen where you could view the front camera, the camera that looked down and a map app.  Periodically the map would flash a screen reminding passengers when to pray and where Mecca (the Kabala) was in relation to the plane.  I thought that was worth a picture.

 

 

We landed 30 minutes early thanks to some helpful tail winds.  Thanks to Global Entry, we were able to breeze through the bureaucracy and get our luggage. Megan and Jenny were there to meet us and before you knew it, we were trucking through Atlanta in the rain. Home by 010:30 PM and asleep by 10:31 .

 

This ends our blog for this trip.  

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We do have others in the queue so see you later!