WEDNESDAY 11/11 & THURSDAY 12/11
We had a nice easy day this morning, completely re-packing our suitcases from scratch. Our ticket says it is only 20kg luggage each but doesn’t sound right for bus. class so we will test the theory it is wrong! We have carried about 4-5 kgs in our hand luggage on all the internal Europe flights to keep our bags at 20kgs, but its too much when you have 27 hours of flying and 3 stops on the way home, so we will see.
The hotels top floor is a dedicated lounge, so we went up there for an hour and a half once we left our room at 12pm- no smokers in there today so that was nice and we could sit around and read papers. Pity we didn’t have an earlier flight than 5.20pm but all the ones to the States are around the same time too out of Madrid, so maybe that’s the norm here?
Caught the hotel shuttle to the airport which is cheap, as it was only an hour earlier than we needed to check in and saved us getting a €35 taxi. Checked in quick as, not many there and then went through to Madrid’s version of Koru club- were looking forward to this after all the economy flights in hot smokey terminals. But haha joke was on us! Look at the photo of the mini fridge today, that was it- some small savouries and if you asked you could have a ham sandwich and a packet of chips- could not believe it, was quite comical!!! But… the couches were very comfy so all was not lost and drinks were far more plentiful.
Killed 3 hours then onto the plane and we are the only europeans in this section! Korean is up-grading its planes and should have finished I think?? However it is still the older style seats and entertainment systems on all the 4 flights bar one. Was thinking that the toss up for this airline is that economy on the legs we have been on, have been more than half empty, so odds are you would get plenty of seats to lay on (if the arms come up- think so?) but there are no personal tvs, just screens at the front so it would depend on what is important to a passenger as to if they were a better buy than other airlines?
Malaysia airlines was certainly more flash but these guys aren’t bad either. We had a 2 hour flight Madrid to Amsterdam to pick up more passengers (can see why it was so empty in Madrid)- this had been added to the 12 hour flight about six months after we bought the tickets! Then an hour and a half in the transit lounge.
Those of you who I know have done longer transits- Mum and Dad, Gary and Claire and Maree- were you sent to a small glassed in lounge that you had to stay in?? Graeme said he couldn’t have sat in here for 3 or 4 hours, as you cant lie down and its so small??
We are off again in an hour, I think it is 11 hours? To Seoul Korea where we are staying overnight, was just too long a trip to keep going. (Dad, my eyes are like boiled sweets on sticks already hahaha!!!) Nah not really a hardship but you should hear European’s reactions when they ask us how long it takes to get to NZ!
There is no time difference between Madrid and Amsterdam, but we go forward 8 hours when we land in Korea as its only a 4 hour difference with NZ.
Later- flight was fine really, landed in Seoul 40 mins early and to the Hyatt for an overnight stop. Korean own this hotel and put you up in transit, give you dinner, breakfast and lunch- with a 3pm check out- cannot complain. They also have an Olympic sized indoor pool here so we swam quite a few lengths to stretch muscles out and wake up after 2 hours sleep last night. Will crash tonight!
They have a female pool attendant who lurks in the changing room, where you have to wear special slippers and shower before a swim- all very proper except there were naked women walking around everywhere openly in there- most surprising as Asian women are so shy?!
We are back to the airport to fly overnight to NZ- home around 8.30am Saturday.
We had a nice easy day this morning, completely re-packing our suitcases from scratch. Our ticket says it is only 20kg luggage each but doesn’t sound right for bus. class so we will test the theory it is wrong! We have carried about 4-5 kgs in our hand luggage on all the internal Europe flights to keep our bags at 20kgs, but its too much when you have 27 hours of flying and 3 stops on the way home, so we will see.
The hotels top floor is a dedicated lounge, so we went up there for an hour and a half once we left our room at 12pm- no smokers in there today so that was nice and we could sit around and read papers. Pity we didn’t have an earlier flight than 5.20pm but all the ones to the States are around the same time too out of Madrid, so maybe that’s the norm here?
Caught the hotel shuttle to the airport which is cheap, as it was only an hour earlier than we needed to check in and saved us getting a €35 taxi. Checked in quick as, not many there and then went through to Madrid’s version of Koru club- were looking forward to this after all the economy flights in hot smokey terminals. But haha joke was on us! Look at the photo of the mini fridge today, that was it- some small savouries and if you asked you could have a ham sandwich and a packet of chips- could not believe it, was quite comical!!! But… the couches were very comfy so all was not lost and drinks were far more plentiful.
Killed 3 hours then onto the plane and we are the only europeans in this section! Korean is up-grading its planes and should have finished I think?? However it is still the older style seats and entertainment systems on all the 4 flights bar one. Was thinking that the toss up for this airline is that economy on the legs we have been on, have been more than half empty, so odds are you would get plenty of seats to lay on (if the arms come up- think so?) but there are no personal tvs, just screens at the front so it would depend on what is important to a passenger as to if they were a better buy than other airlines?
Malaysia airlines was certainly more flash but these guys aren’t bad either. We had a 2 hour flight Madrid to Amsterdam to pick up more passengers (can see why it was so empty in Madrid)- this had been added to the 12 hour flight about six months after we bought the tickets! Then an hour and a half in the transit lounge.
Those of you who I know have done longer transits- Mum and Dad, Gary and Claire and Maree- were you sent to a small glassed in lounge that you had to stay in?? Graeme said he couldn’t have sat in here for 3 or 4 hours, as you cant lie down and its so small??
We are off again in an hour, I think it is 11 hours? To Seoul Korea where we are staying overnight, was just too long a trip to keep going. (Dad, my eyes are like boiled sweets on sticks already hahaha!!!) Nah not really a hardship but you should hear European’s reactions when they ask us how long it takes to get to NZ!
There is no time difference between Madrid and Amsterdam, but we go forward 8 hours when we land in Korea as its only a 4 hour difference with NZ.
Later- flight was fine really, landed in Seoul 40 mins early and to the Hyatt for an overnight stop. Korean own this hotel and put you up in transit, give you dinner, breakfast and lunch- with a 3pm check out- cannot complain. They also have an Olympic sized indoor pool here so we swam quite a few lengths to stretch muscles out and wake up after 2 hours sleep last night. Will crash tonight!
They have a female pool attendant who lurks in the changing room, where you have to wear special slippers and shower before a swim- all very proper except there were naked women walking around everywhere openly in there- most surprising as Asian women are so shy?!
We are back to the airport to fly overnight to NZ- home around 8.30am Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment