Departure, Arrival and Apologies

All -- thanks for sending the kind little reminders that I was behind in keeping this up. It does make me feel good to know that folks are reading it. We have just had 12-16 hour days for this trip followed by lengthy dinners, and so sleep won out over creative writing.

Departure
Dad picked me up at home and dropped me off at the airport. I, of course, was there 2 hours prior to departure as they say you should. After check-in (line of 2) and security (line of 0) -- I made it to the gate with only 1:55 to spare. Phew.

I have only made the "medallion" status on 1 out of 4 airlines for this year -- so I am limited to 50 pounds per bag. I took more this time as laundry is so expensive, but limited myself to 1 bag to save room and in order to receive less antagonizing from my colleagues. Unfortunately, my bag was 53 pounds. The lady asked if there was anything that I could do to lessen my weight. Looking down at my potbelly, I thought "apparently not". I should also note that when I pack I really do focus on balance, weight, breakage, wrinking and space -- so the thought of opening up my suitcase and readjusting was not, as we would say here, brilliant! I also had carefully packed most of the extra electronic equipment to set up our conference room in the suitcase so that I had a very minimal amount in my carry on in order to fit better in the puddle jumper initial flight out of Lexington. Sigh. So I took my three sweaters out of the suitcase and rammed them ever so gently into my backpack. Weigh in now successful -- however, as expected, the backpack would not fit in the carryon...

We met up in Newark and Coby got us into the medallion lounge. We pigged out on cheese and crackers with little concept that we would be sick of the same in a short week's time.

Our flight left Newark on time and was relatively uneventful. I continued my stellar streak of sitting near a screaming baby. However, as I was going away for about 3 weeks, this method of birth control was a bit unnecessary. The movies were "Talledega Nights" and "Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest". I started/finished my book -- A Simple Plan.

Arrival
We arrived in Geneva the next morning and went through customs with no issue. (I had to ask for a stamp for the passport. ) We got our car and couldn't get out of the parking space as the dashboard and manual were in German -- and the parking break required a Ctrl-Alt-Delete combination to turn it off. 15 minutes and an exasperated parking attendant later, we were good to go.

The hotel is about 2 miles from the airport. We were not able to check in for a few more hours to shower -- so we went downtown for a bit. For the hotel, the rooms are very small but relatively efficient. The odd thing is that the bathroom door will actually swing inwards and lock off the toilet from the rest of the bathroom, so that there is access to the sink/shower while someone is dropping the kids off at the pool. However, if you are (a) unfamiliar with this approach and (2) very tired from not sleeping for about 36 hours -- it can be a bit confusing. Picture this... I walk into the room and set my bags down and go into the bathroom. I see only a sink and shower. Having seen bathrooms all over the world, I thought maybe this was a Swiss thing. I figured I was fine 1/2 the time, but looking between the sink and shower -- the other 1/2 of the time was going to be a bit messy.

Geneva downtown was a nice mix of modern and old. We drove/walked around -- but I really was in too much of an insomniacal stupor to remember much. We did mark the location of the McDonald's to come back for Coby.