Valencia to Gibraltar Day 1:

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After only a couple hours of sleep, and my wife even less, we packed up the car and headed to the airport. We arrived, parked our car in the Budget garage, and headed to check in at the ticket counter. It took quite a while and cost us $100 for our checked bag. Finally, we headed upstairs to go thru the TSA check-in. Again, it took a while to get thru, but mostly because of the long lines, not because of TSA. We had no problem getting thru security nor finding our gate, but when we reached our gate, they were already boarding.

Soon after boarding, we took off and were on our way to Detroit. After an uneventful flight, we set down in Detroit, where we were to have an 11 hour layover. Detroit airport is pretty large, with lots of selections for stores and restaurants. After finding our gate, which of course didn't list our flight to Paris, but we found out from the Delta folks which gate it would be at, we wandered around for a while. We decided to eat at a Japanese Sushi place, but it was kind of disappointing. Manoli had a bowl of soup, which she said was pretty good, for only $9. I decided to have the Sushi Nigiri assorted plate. It was $20, and only contained 3 pieces of nigiri sushi. Granted, it was pretty good, but very expensive and not that much to eat. After we ate, we found out they had a sort of USO for military members, active duty and retired. It was fairly small, but had a number of inexpensive snacks and drinks, and a good number of comfortable seats, three of which were massage chairs. Manoli settled into a corner seat and sort of drifted in and out, while I had to try the massage seat. It was quite comfortable, but a little too much pressure in my middle back. Since nobody seemed to be waiting for the massage chair, I got comfortable, and nodded off for a couple of hours. Finally, the eleven hours passed, and we boarded the flight to Paris. It was due to arrive around 7:30 am, was quite comfortable, and they served two types of dinner, one of pasta and one of chicken and rice. Both were pretty good, and came with a rissoto salad and a custard desert. We both watch movies and TV series, and sort of drifted off until it was almost time to touch down. They served an okay breakfast of an egg biscuit with cheese and some sort of buttery but tasty sauce.

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Photos

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At the Air France gate in Detroit

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Taxing for takeoff in Detroit

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In flight from Detroit