Madison to Istanbul

Saturday, September 2
Last minute packing and organization. Bird baths and feeders filled, plants in front watered. Drove to REI to replace small water bottle that I can't seem to find in my house. Sylvia & Mark picking me up at 1:15 for the drive to the airport. Temperature in Madison predicted to be 90 plus for the next four days. Istanbul predicted to be a cooler mid-80s!

Arrived at the airport two hours early, no one in the United line so checking in was easy. Flight to Chicago is 3:48 to 4:54 - 34 minutes in the air; new plane. Now waiting for a 6:20 pm flight to Frankfurt. O’Hare is crowded as expected. Scheduled to arrive in Frankfurt at 9:45 AM. However they just announced a delay as the plane just arrived and they need to clean, load food. At least the United app shows that my suitcase has been loaded.

Absolutely packed plane to Frankfurt — 7.4 hours and 4343 miles Huge plane, over half of the seats had been allocated to the budget plus $$ extra seats.

United must be short-staffed - the service was so slow that they were still serving breakfast coffee in our back-of-the-plane seats.as the plane was about to land.

Sunday, September 3
Delicious fruit salad and latte at an airport cafe during our three hour layover before the Lufthansa flight to Istanbul. Another full plane but great chocolates for a treat. I had a window seat so could watch the efficient mechanical unloading of luggage jettainers.

Took a while for immigration and luggage pickup but the OAT representative was just outside with a welcome packet of tourist suggestions and helpful hints. Bill and Sandy from our group also came early to Istanbul so the four of us were led to a comfortable van for the hour plus drive into the city to the Kaylon Hotel. Freeways, then very crowded city traffic for miles. Our hotel borders the Marmara Sea though it was too dark to see tonight. Rooms are fine, Hotel restaurant only serves large meals so we decided to eat snacks brought from home and early to bed.