long haul 2009

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The highs and lows

March 1, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

…. as written from just South of Winnipeg at 12,000 metres, it’s time for a recap of the last nine weeks.

  Best   Worst
Airline Air New Zealand from Auckland to Sydney. Upgraded, big seats, big screens and lots of free stuff.   United from San Francisco to London. Dominatrix pensioners, screaming babies and loud men. Thai Airways out of London was a close second.
Airline lounge Air New Zealand in Auckland. Gave us beans and toast for breakfast.   US Airlines in Phoenix. No food and drinks are charged. On the plus side, the barman did sing us a song.
Surprise How big America is. And some of them even know where the UK is. And Lone Pine was pretty cool.   Having the wallet stolen on New Year’s Eve.
Drinks Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Bad hangover.   Happy hour martini’s at “the bitter end” in San Diego. Wine in Marlborough, New Zealand is a close second.
Accommodation Green house on the hill for ambience. The second hotel in Melbourne for facilities.   Melbourne guest house. No en suite toilet or aircon. It’s high 30’s outside.
View Yosemite (Franz Josef Glacier a close second)   The rain from the motel in Kaikoura while doing nothing.
Place Yosemite. Or snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.   Las Vegas. Bored after three hours and we have three days there.
Food Malaysian/Chinese food on Cuba Street, Wellington.   Most of America. We OD on salt and retain too much water.
Baggage check Flagstaff. About an hour on both our bags. Seriously bored staff.   New Zealand. Opened the bags but didn’t look inside because it was so tidy.
Weather Sydney, Australia and Bay of Islands, New Zealand   San Francisco – it rained except for the first day.
Stephen’s cutting comments) N/A   “it’s ok I can read signs” to the guide at the Hoover dam asking if we needed directions.
In flight movie Burn after reading   Sisterhood of the travelling pants 2. (This is without watching it too!)
Unfriendly receptionist Wanaka. She wouldn’t stop talking to us.   Alice Springs so called “Resort”
Most surreal moment Critic-ing “Adrenalin Rush Hour” for the discovery channel in Vegas.   Vegas timeshare saleswoman thinking the UK was on the European continent …. somewhere.

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The beginning of the end …

February 28, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

It’s a quick flight from San Diego to San Francisco, made better by the discovery of the Frequent Flyer lounge by Therese. From there, we wait around 30 minutes for a shuttle bus to an airport hotel.

4604 san francisco airport

Late afternoon we arrive at the Crowne Plaza and still haven’t really eaten anything all day, apart from a banana muffin and some orange juice. Fortunately, the town of Burlingame is across the freeway and supplies us with a quality Chinese.

Back at the hotel, there’s not much to do but sleep. We have around 24 hours of travel ahead …. most of it with the dreaded United Airlines. We need as much sleep as we can get.

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San Diego in 36 hours

February 27, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

We arrived in San Diego on time. Baggage collection was a little more exciting than usual, with bags appearing on different conveyor belts. It’s less than ten minutes from the airport to the hotel. After checking in to the Sophia Hotel, we have a couple of drinks in the bar, then watch Alexandra Pelosi’s “right America:feeling wronged” on HBO, taking us to a very grown up 1AM.

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The next morning, we’re on the number 7 for a quick trip to Balboa Park.

There’s no sign of a dramatic flight of stairs to run up, but we do spend a lot of time walking around, eventually going into the Science Museum.

It’s full of gadgets to play with, including an aging machine and a head sensing camera. I can now confirm “I’m hotter than Therese".

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Late afternoon we’re walking around the historic Gaslamp area. I spot a Portuguese clothes shop.

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In the evening, we end up in “The Bitter End” on 5th Street. Unfortunately for us, it’s happy hour and they sell proper cocktails with Hendricks Gin. We drink far too many Martini’s and stand a new friend a drink after he buys us one.  After that, San Diego becomes a blur.

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By the time I get to Phoenix ….

February 26, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

… it’ll be 19:03 local time.

3000px-Downtown_PHX_Panorama

We get into the US Airways lounge, head for the free wine …. only to find they’ve been charging for it the last three years.

Phoenix is historically Republican. I’ll keep quiet.

Another two hours until our next flight.

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Flagstaff Airport

February 25, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

PulliamAirportterminal

We’re waiting to depart for San Diego, via Phoenix. Our check in takes around 10 minutes. Very friendly staff. The checked in bag search is around an hour. They are excited about the snow chains.

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Flagstaff and beyond …

February 25, 2009 in long haul 2009 by Stephen | No comments

We wake to a sunny morning at the Grand Canyon. Whereas the last day or so has been overcast, it offers us a better opportunity to see this place in a more colourful light. It’s immense.

4512 grand canyon 4520 grand canyon Mid morning, we’re on our way South to Flagstaff. Arizona contains a great mass of nothingness most of the time. However, that emptiness averages around 5000 feet in height.

When we go uphill a little, it’s very strange to see how high we go … The mountain on the left is around 12000 feet on the San Francisco range.

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Early afternoon, we arrive in Flagstaff and check in to the Days Inn.

We spend a few minutes getting our kicks on Route 66.

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The town turns out to bee fine for food. We eat at some health conscious place (we can tell because no-one is more than 80 kilos). The Irish Bar next door is expectedly insincere …

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Stuffed, we travel 35 miles East on Highway 40 and arrive at Meteor Crater.

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Glad we weren’t here 50,000 years ago. Still, it’s nothing compared to those further afield. There’s nice views of the Arizona desert too.

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Back in Flagstaff, we kill sometime wandering around Wallmart. Although big, it’s not as impressive as the Carrefour in Gandia. More impressive is the Indian restaurant next door, which rustles up a Thali for us.

Back towards the hotel, Therese reprises our visit to the Franz Josef Glacier.

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A little faith is restored in America with the Presidents speech on all the news channels. It was genuinely impressive. The Republicans response … disastrous. It has to be said, most of those we’ve spoken to are also greatly embarrassed at the previous eight years.

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