Zürich Airport
The ride up to JFK from Philadelphia was not too pleasant. I hardly ever get carsick, but being jolted around on the shuttle from Philly to New York, with multiple stops in New Jersey to pick up random people at hotels, made me quite queasy. I think I might explore a way to take Amtrak back, maybe even the Chinatown bus or NJ Transit. At least that way I’d have a headrest.
I did make it in plenty of time to check in for my flight to Switzerland, though I have to admit envying the people seemingly randomly picked out by the Swiss Air staff who got to move out of the economy check-in line and over to the business / first-class counter for a speedy check-in. They don’t take your luggage right away anymore at check-in, you’ve got to bring it over to this scanning area yourself. Of course, I got in the wrong line (all the other luggage was going to South Africa) and had to go back.
One of the reasons our flight was late leaving was that the previous flight (Continental) had been held up. While there may have been other reasons for their delay, the one I saw was that a woman had forgotten / lost her rosary (presumably at security). They held the entire plane and a gate agent came running up with this giant metallic necklace-thingy —well, a rosary— so they could finally leave. Somewhat mind-boggling, but I suppose you need all the good fortune and divine favor you can get when flying these days.
Our Swiss Air flight staff was charmingly discombobulated and in amusing disarray the entire flight, frantically counting passengers before take-off and making desperate announcements like “Please sit down so we can finish serving breakfast. We have to be done in fifteen minutes!”
A few pictures:
View from the airplane – my German seatmate with the window seat kindly leaned out of the way for me to take this.
Amusing signs on the smoking lounges in the airport. Just exchange Camel or another cigarette brand for Winston, but all of them have that delightful phrase below:
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