On our way - Asia Day 1

This trip has been in the plans quite a while. It was more work this time to "get all the ducks in a row" but we are so excited. Last minutes preparations: a pedicure so I have purrple toe nails to remind me that it is Lent and since fasting might be very difficult to at least curb the eating of all those foods offered to us.

Packed and almost ready to go to bed. The house plants are all taken care off. The double pots all have the maximum water (even with fertilizer) and the others like my amaryllis will be attended too occasionally. They should be ok with 1 or 2 visits a week but they will be in their most beautiful state when we are gone. Sigh. See those big buds?

Saturday February 25: the alarm clock rang at 2:10 am. At 2:45 we ordered an Uber. We had given instructions in the App but he did go to the wrong gate. We could see it. We were relieved when we finally could see him drive to the right one. But then he didn't do the gate instructions correctly. We saw him stand there and stand there. Finally James went inside, got the key and drove to the gate to let him in. It could have been so easy.

But we were there in good time and the check-in counters were not open yet. There were long queues but after they opened at 4 am it went ok. We went to the gate and they were boarding. The plane took off 5:35 am on time.

Bye-bye Richmond.

Oh yes, and this was our breakfast offered in the plane and tea. Our grandsons will recognize that we got "Papa cookies". 

After about 2 hours we landed in Detroit for our lay-over. Yes, there was snow on the ground.

We decided to have "more breakfast". When we travel by car (like to Nashville) we also always leave house without breakfast, drive for 2 hours and stop for breakfast at McD for a sausage McMuffin from the dollar menu and senior coffee. Well, that is not quite like that in an airport, ha-ha. But I was quickly able to write the last blog before this trip. 

Detroit Airport looks quite new and nice. I tried to take a photo of our plane behind the inside water fountain which did all sorts of fancy spraying. We had several hours before our travels continued. Even could do FaceTime with Kate in England who has a birthday the next day.

Finally boarding again for the 15 hours flight to Incheon, South Korea. But first the plane taxied to get a de-icing treatment. Here they come.

It was a Delta flight. We had pretty good seats. Here comes lunch with real linen and cutlery. 

Hours later a snack with "wooden ware". 

I think there was also some sort of snack before or after.  If you really needed something else the stewardesses were very nice. And yes, I had a rare headache and could get something for that. 

Aproching Seoul to Land. I tried several times to catch an impression of the landscape before we landed. Can you see the mountains in the far back?

We had to go through security again and went to the gate. When they opened the gate we were told that we needed an arrival card for Singapore and had to do it on our iphones. Well, three hurrays that we had changed to T-mobile in anticipation of this trip or otherwise we would not have been able to do this. The instructions from the man at the Gate were very week but we finally got it.

The Delta flight was now operated by Korean Air and it was good too. We got dinner. Two choices. We chooce Korean. The stewardess was hard to understand but it sounded like "bibimbap". It was quite nice and the seaweed soup was hot and warming.

Immigration was easy and we had done everything right on our phones. Local time was just after midnight between Sunday and Monday. 

We took a taxi to our hotel. Card or cash but for card he would have added 10 %. US $ were ok.

The Quincy hotel looked very nice and the front desk person was efficient and very welcoming. All we wanted was a warm shower and a good sleep in the king-size bed.

Monday morning! Oh all these timezones but we got it right. James had set the alarm on his phone for 8am. We woke up just a few minutes earlier. 

To make sure we had the times right on all the gadgets I googled.

A quick photo out of our window.

That's all for now. The adventure has began!