Transit

The flight from Birmingham to Cincinnati was mostly comfortable. About half an hour into the flight I developed a very sharp pain in my upper back. I think it was caused from carrying that heavy bag with the laptop and other assorted goodies I thought I would need during the flight. Audra told me I would be wishing for a rolling bag... she was soright!! After arriving in Cincinnati I tried to make sure I moved it from shoulder to shoulder to eliminate the strain. Looks like that worked, because it's fine now. The bigger chairs in the next plane helped a lot too.

The transatlantic flight was great too. I got lucky enough to have as a seatmate a young Dutch boy who was so quiet and I slept most of the way over the ocean. The queen who was our flight attendant had a hard time waking me for supper and I went back to sleep almost immediately after eating the tiny meal. I had ordered a diabetic meal, but he told me, apologetically, that the caterers failed to bring it aboard. I absolved him and said I will eat whatever the other passengers were eating.

When I got out of the plane in Amsterdam, the weather was so nice; 68F and the rain had just stopped. However, it stayed foggy for the duration of my seven hour stay.

The airport has been remodeled; completely it seems. Rather than the tiny, cramped smoking rooms I had used in the past, they now have huge comfortable smoking ares with nice seats, chairs and tables as well as a couple of bars and other shops nearby.

I did a bit of shopping at the duty free shop and bought a very nice bottle of Black Bush Irish whiskey along with three boxes of tobacco and some post cards and stamps. I wrote on the cards and posted them from Amsterdam. I hope I won't beat them home as I have in the past.

It's just over two hours till my Amman flight. I want to check in early to hopefully get a good seat. As I remember, Royal Jordanian has comfortable aeroplanes and a very courteous and helpful staff. More when I arrive in Amman.