Traveling to Rome

The flight from Spokane to Seattle on a Horizon DH-8.

Flight was full, but not much to say, since it is only 45 minutes long. We did meet a Father & Son(10 years old) traveling to Africa for a Mission, who were also on the same flight as us to Amsterdam.

New SEATAC Terminal:

The long flight today was Seattle to Amsterdam. Apparently, NWA recently switched from Boeing 747s to Airbus A330s on this route. The flight had 3 meals, and every seat had their own personal screen to watch movies. The only data point I had to compare this 9 hour flight with was flying 13 hours from Los Angeles to Melbourne. At least compared to the Quantus configuration of the 747, the Airbus on Northwest seemed to have more room. The plane was pretty packed, and we tried to get an Asle-Asle-Seat setup, but they couldn’t move our seats at all.

Inside the Airbus A330:

We cleared customs in Amsterdam. They seemed much more relaxed than the Customs in Australia. In Australia, they would not let you take any food with you, even the stuff you got onboard the plane. They let me keep my bag of food, with Yogurt, Nuts, and Sandwiches.

Inside the Amsterdam Airport:

The last leg for today was Amsterdam to Rome on Alitalia. The plane was only 60% full, but it was an experience just listening to everything in Italian. I can at least follow a conversation in German, even If I miss a few nouns, but I was pretty lost listening to Italian. We do have a small “Just Enough Italian” book, and hopefully, it should be just enough.

On the cab from the Rome Airport to the Hotel, I think I saw more Hatchback Style vehicles in 30 minutes than I have seen in all my life in America. I love my Golf. I wonder why more Americans don’t like Hatchbacks? Also, not one SUV in sight.

The streets are tiny, compared to most of America’s Wide Boulevards. The parking is insane. Cars are parked solid, so much that they even park on top of the middle island between lanes. There are a large number motorcycles, and they seem to have a major advantage for both traffic patterns and parking.

We arrived at our Hotel at about 1:15pm CEST. The room is nice, but small. Then again, the room is bigger than the Hotel Ibza in Sydney. My mother and sister are currently trying to take a nap, but they are renovating the room next to ours, and are constantly pounding with hammers and other tools. So, they aren’t getting much sleep yet. I slept some on the planes, and am determined to stay awake, to try to get my body switched over as quickly as possible to the local time zone.

The Hotel does have Wireless Internet, but they want €10.00 for 2 hours. No thank you. I imagine there must be either open APs or Internet Cafes around, I just need to find them. Note to self: Save a list of Internet Cafes off the Internet before leaving next time.

Tonight we are going on a walking tour at 6 pm. It starts at the Spanish Steps, which means we get to take the Metro from our Hotel. It is always a fun experience to take mass transit in foreign countries.