Portugal, Paris, Sicily and Florence

[ellen10]

Well after reading so many wonderful trip reports, I am a little hesitant to start my own.
But as @VPS said just post lots of photos and make us envious.

We were fortunate to get some great mostly business class fares, curtesy of @madrooster . I really appreciate his Assistance and jmput.(these flights were booked late last year and I built my trip around it.

My passion is all things travel and I am ardent researcher and reader of travel forums.
I am writing this on a plane to Portugal, with wifi ( it’s a bit iffy), so I will see how it goes.

Brief summary:
A few days in Porto and the a 7 day river cruise on the Douro.
For nights in Lisbon
Five nights in Paris ( my favourite city my 9th visit)
Two weeks in Sicily
Six nights in Florence
Two nights in Bologna

And then home curtesy of Turkish airlines business class.

Hmm doesn’t like me uploading photos, so I will wait until I get to Porto. Apogees for ant typos, a bit of turbulence and fat fingers on my phone.

To be continued hopefully

 

[Flyfrequently]

Well after reading so many wonderful trip reports, I am a little hesitant to start my own.
But as @VPS said just post lots of photos and make us envious.

We were fortunate to get some great mostly business class fares, curtesy of @madrooster . I really appreciate his Assistance and jmput.(these flights were booked late last year and I built my trip around it.

My passion is all things travel and I am ardent researcher and reader of travel forums.
I am writing this on a plane to Portugal, with wifi ( it’s a bit iffy), so I will see how it goes.

Brief summary:
A few days in Porto and the a 7 day river cruise on the Douro.
For nights in Lisbon
Five nights in Paris ( my favourite city my 9th visit)
Two weeks in Sicily
Six nights in Florence
Two nights in Bologna

And then home curtesy of Turkish airlines business class.

Hmm doesn’t like me uploading photos, so I will wait until I get to Porto. Apogees for ant typos, a bit of turbulence and fat fingers on my phone.

To be continued hopefully

You go @ellen10 !
Am onboard with you. +
Working backwards, loved Bologna, Florence, Paris, Lisbon, Porto.
Keen to hear about your Duoro cruise and Sicily - enjoy !

 

[VPS]

Good on you. Don’t let it be a burden though. Enjoy

 

[ellen10]

Thanks @Flyfrequently and @VPS your trip reports have greatly helped my research and recent trip reports from @Scash and @RooFlyer, from these places we will be visiting.

Took a leave out of @Flyfrequently’s book and stayed the night before our flight in an airport hotel for our morning flight. Stayed at the Ridges Sydney international airport favourite of @drron

Our first flight was on Thai Airways ( never flown them before) a 9.5 hour flight in economy ugh!
I was dreading this but very pleasantly surprised, it was a very flight the flight was light loaded so we had a row of three to ourselves and the service was excellent, could not fault them.

Thus followed a 6 hour layover in Bangkok. So a lounge crawl it was. First stop Turkish airlines lounge, where both got a free 20 minute massage, followed by a lovely shower and a gin and tonic.

Next stop the Thai lounge, for some food and drinks.
Followed by some duty free shopping and then the final stop the Singapore airlines lounge, nice food and wine.

Next flight was on Turkish airlines business class. All I can say it was our best long haul flight in business for a long time. Spacious, comfortable and such an attentive crew. Not to mention the amazing food ( so much food)! and wine.
The only frawback was the flight departed at 1.30 am Australian time. We were going to give it a miss, but the chef personally comes out to greet you and talk about the food and as the cabin is fully lit up we went for it but I faulted in the end too tired and fell asleep near the end, after all it was 3.30 Aussie time by then. Mr Ellen10 soldiered on and said they turned the lights off as he was finishing his 3rd glass of wine. Unbeknown to me he took a sleeping pill and slept for 6 hours, I did not take a sleeping tablet and only managed 2 hours. That was tough.

I will now post a few photos. But unfortunately the amateur on trip reports that I am, combined with sleep deprivation, I did not remember to take enough photos of food and menus, I promise to improve.

The sunrise is Sydney airport. The Turkish salt and peppers, too cute. Us at Sydney airport departures. We are posting photos of Dopey the figurine for our 4 year old great daughter to follow our travels.

 

[ellen10]

Oh goodness me it is 3am here and I just reread my last post. So many typos with my fat fingers on my phone. I apologise jet lagged and auto correct!
I forgot to mention that after my 2 hours sleep, I wandered down the silent cabin aisle past all the sleeping bodies, now I am generally a very nice person but I wanted to accidentally bump or kick every one of them with envy. I couldn’t believe not one of them was awake like me. I startled the flight attendant as I pushed through the curtain as she was probably enjoying the sleeping flight.

 

[VPS]

Oh goodness me it is 3am here and I just reread my last post. So many typos with my fat fingers on my phone. I apologise jet lagged and auto correct!
I forgot to mention that after my 2 hours sleep, I wandered down the silent cabin aisle past all the sleeping bodies, now I am generally a very nice person but I wanted to accidentally bump or kick every one of them with envy. I couldn’t believe not one of them was awake like me. I startled the flight attendant as I pushed through the curtain as she was probably enjoying the sleeping flight.

don't worry about the typos we understand what you meant

 

[ellen10]

Our 1 hour early arrival in Istanbul meant that we might have time ti visit the fabled Turkish airlines business class lounge. Visions of a shower played in my head as we navigated the endless corridors of Istanbul airport. At one stage we saw a sign for east track for parents and over 65 seniors ( which we qualify for). No I said we don’t need that, let’s keep walking.
Well that was a poor decision on my part! As we walked endlessly along and along. Finally arrived at transit security and the queues were endless, half of Europe was there in sure. We shuffled along, whilst mr ellen10 periodically reminded me of my faux par of not going over 65’s fast track, my visions of a shower in the lounge were draining away.
Our next bad decision ( like when you pick that Woolworths manned checkout queue and it’s the wrong one,) Well we chose the wrong security queue where people failed to remove their, coats, bags, laptops, boots etc and our queue was that one. And the guy with lots of gold chains, who set off the alarm at every attempt to go through. After the 5th agonising attempt, they took him aside. Finally we were through and joined the masses of people in Istanbul airport, they just kept swarming through.

We finally located the sign for the lounge, which had a lift up to the lounge. The young gatekeeper said yes we could enter the lounge but not here , you have ti go further along, this elevator is only for the less ambulant, she took one look at my face and said ok you can go through and pressed the button to enter. As we waited for the lift, we noted the lady behind was refused and sent the long way around.

The lounge was pumping and my shower dream was squashed, as the toilet queue for the ladies was out the door.

This was the scene looking down from the lounge at the masses of people moving through

Oh forgot to mention this is 5am in the morning

 

[ellen10]

Our next flight Istanbul to Porto was delayed and it was a remote bus trip to the aircraft. Business class passengers boarded the bus first, followed by the other masses who squashed onto the bus first. And there is always that one big guy who just has to push his way on to an already overloaded bus, with a huge carry on and a backpack that squashed into my face the whole trip out to the furthest outskirts of the airport.

We finally enjoyed another nice flight, with a lovely crew and way to much good food. Forget the take the food pictures , but did remember the menu at the last minute. Improving!
This was breakfast

 

[ellen10]

And Dopey enjoyed his flight. The 4 year old was happy