Egypt Day 1: One freakin' awesome flight.

First, some administrivia. Mel and I will be posting daily descriptions of our trip to Egypt as time and connectivity allow, so these entries may appear sporadically. Additionally, in a blatant attempt to drag some more readers into my blog we'll be posting entries on my blog and Mel's on a rotating basis. Now, on to day 1: the big flight.

First off, I don't know why we've been taking the airport shuttle like schmucks all these years. For a small additional fee, you can get a sweet Lincoln Town Car that doesn't reqire you to get to the airport four frickin' hours before the flight. Money well spent in my book. We arrive at the airport and begin to discover the joys of the stupidly wealthy elite, with a separate short checkin line and a separate line at security (okay, that one was closed, but if it had been open we totally could've skipped past you in line). After that, we headed for the Northwest/KLM lounge, where we kicked back a few free drinks and stocked up on snacks before the big flight.

Business class on transatlantic flights is, in a word, spectacular. The cabin is roughly the size of our living room and contains roughly the same amount of seating, which makes for a much more intimate experience. The seats are straight out of 2001; enormous white pods with massive padding, more controls than a dvd player and every comfort the world-weary traveler could require, including massage and the ability to flatten out to a near-perfect 176 degrees (though, sadly, not horizontal). The seats also include personal video screens with an astonishing number of on-demand movies, tv and audio content, as well as the ability to pick and choose from among the audio tracks available to make one's own personal playlist.

We were served both dinner and breakfast, with a variety of food choices (Mel and I both had the beef tenderloin with cheesecake for dessert). Breakfast was a choice of either quiche or waffles. The portions were insanely large - Clearly they were still packing enough food for the entire plane and were dumping the excess on the poor unsuspecting business class passengers. In short, the flight goes by quickly (all the more so because of the included noise-cancelling headphones, natch) and we arrive in Amsterdam relaxed, refreshed and in possession of KLM Kitschy Delft Pottery House Full of Gin™ numbers 60 and 61.

Well, I arrived refreshed. Mel spent the entire flight knitting (or should I say re-knitting) a good portion of her seemingly perpetual sweater project. (I'm sure there's a more technical term for the rework - check her blog for the gory details, as well as the entry for Day 2: Wooden Shoes and Prostitutes.