Elderhostel #3024 -- Venetian Grandeur: Padua and Venice

Day 1: Flight from SeaTac (Seattle) to Marco Polo (Venice)

Our airporter picked us up at Karen's sister Chris's, in Seattle, at 5 am. We flew out of Seattle on Delta's Song Airlines, 757-200, economy, row 5, AB, flight 2031, at 7:40. Security check was long and very tedious but went smoothly. The flight was crammed, but it had pretty good food for purchase: fruit and cheese/crackers platter $5.00 (wheat crackers, camembert and cheddar cheeses, apple slices, apricots, a strawberry and grapes). On the back of every seat there was a pretty good selection of (free) movies/music, when the system was working. Arrived JFK terminal 2 at 3:53 pm.

JFK airport was terrible. Flight 150 was a 767-300, row 31, AB, scheduled to leave at 7:15, arriving Venice at 9:50 am. There was confusion about which gate was our flight for Venice, which had us walking several times between Terminals 2 and 3. Finally we settled at gate 24 and waited three hours for our 7:30 pm flight. Next they moved us to gate 12 and we boarded around 9. We had to wait for 17 other planes to take off, meaning another hour just sitting on the ground. The delays were apparently caused by an intentional work slowdown. I barely slept on the flight, during which a woman sitting directly in front of us became ill (fortunately there was a doctor on board).

INDEX - NEXT

Our airporter picked us up at Karen's sister Chris's, in Seattle, at 5 am. We flew out of Seattle on Delta's Song Airlines, 757-200, economy, row 5, AB, flight 2031, at 7:40. Security check was long and very tedious but went smoothly. The flight was crammed, but it had pretty good food for purchase: fruit and cheese/crackers platter $5.00 (wheat crackers, camembert and cheddar cheeses, apple slices, apricots, a strawberry and grapes). On the back of every seat there was a pretty good selection of (free) movies/music, when the system was working. Arrived JFK terminal 2 at 3:53 pm.

JFK airport was terrible. Flight 150 was a 767-300, row 31, AB, scheduled to leave at 7:15, arriving Venice at 9:50 am. There was confusion about which gate was our flight for Venice, which had us walking several times between Terminals 2 and 3. Finally we settled at gate 24 and waited three hours for our 7:30 pm flight. Next they moved us to gate 12 and we boarded around 9. We had to wait for 17 other planes to take off, meaning another hour just sitting on the ground. The delays were apparently caused by an intentional work slowdown. I barely slept on the flight, during which a woman sitting directly in front of us became ill (fortunately there was a doctor on board).