Hong Kong to Istanbul via Zurich

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Today is a travel day. It will be a very long travel day.
This blog is a work in progress with the first part being composed in Departure Lounge B22-27 at Zurich International Airport. It is so quiet with just two retail outlets that those of you who are shopaholics would go quite mad, especially if you had two hours to kill. Pity we didn’t accidentally go to Transfer zone A but being good tourists we did as we were told.
Security leaving Hong Kong was very efficient. He, who shall remain nameless, caused quite a stir. A very expensive Epipen showed up on the x-ray. Documents had to be shown as to why it was needed - boarding pass shown, passport shown, letter from doctor shown, departure gate number recorded – all a bit of a worry. A $207 Epipen was not going to be confiscated. End of story – No! Going through the departure gate one who shall remain nameless was taken aside and asked if they were the carrier of said Epipen. Yes was the bold reply. End of story – No! Who should be the welcoming committee as we boarded the plane but the Purser to check out if all would be well. “As long as there are no wasps on board”, was the response. So “Have a good flight”, and we found our seats.
The flight had one memorable moment – violent turbulence somewhere near the Himalayas. It proved to be white knuckle stuff and for those who have been through an earthquake or two recently, you will know what we mean. The food was average airline food and managed to eat most of it.
Flying over the Zurich area at 5:45am was quite a sight. The residential areas were all lit up and the sky in the east was starting to get light. It was a cool welcome – 7 degrees.
This second part of the blog is being written in Room 1519 (an executive room) of the Conrad Hotel looking over part of the Bosphorus.
There isn’t really much to say about the flight from Zurich other than how amazing it was to think that in about three months we will be driving through the same countryside we were flying over. We had one surprise when an Emirates plane passed us going in the opposite direction and seemingly so close we could make out windows, etc.
Immigration and customs at Istanbul was a breeze. Not so for some people who had spent some time in a queue only to find that they needed a visa. Times like this it’s great to be a Kiwi.
We were met by the Neon Tour representative and taken to the hotel. Shorn the lamb was so overcome by the size of the bed he wanted his photo taken. We would insert his picture but he is hard to see in the enormity of the bed. Someone comes and prepares the room before bed and tops up the supplies. Oh the luxury. What a way to start the tour. It may be all downhill from now on. We return to this hotel at the end of the tour for one last night. We wonder what room we’ll get then.
The day finished with a get together with fellow tour people and the tour guide, Tibet, a local lady. For the first few days two other groups are with us but when they leave the party numbers reduce to about thirty.
Tomorrow is a local tour day of Istanbul.

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