Last flight of the year

I've been on reserve this whole month of December but I was lucky to spend Christmas at home. After Christmas I was called for a flight to Miami.

Low temperatures unusual for Miami and lots of rain made me remember when I was caught off guard, in January 2018, by that time because of the cold wave/polar vortex shift in North America. This time I was prepared with proper clothing.

This was my room view and I took the picture before started to rain.

Aviation geeks will guess just what I thought when I was given this room number. A proper vintage Boeing of course...

As a curiosity, from my room I could see that almost nothing was left from the iconic Miami Beach hotel 'Deauville Beach Resort', which was closed and abandoned since 2017 due to a fire and damage caused by hurricane Irma. Deauville Beach Resort hosted several celebrities, including the band 'Beatles'.

This was a very short layover and the next day after our arrival, we left to our home base, Lisboa.

Airbus A330-941, tail number CS-TUN, named "D. Fuas Roupinho" was the aircraft on the return flight.

Christmas lights in Lisboa 2022

Yesterday I went to see the Christmas lights in my hometown. I arrived at the downtown yet before sunset. And... even if it's winter, don't we still have a wonderful sunset?

Praça do Comércio

And after the sunset, everthing was beautifully lighted up.

Avenida da Liberdade

Largo do Camões

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Christmas in Rome, 2013

This was one of my saddest Chrismas Eves ever, in 2013. Our flight to Rome with less than 30 pax onboard was seriously delayed due to a strike of the handling services and when we arrived way past midnight, one waiter was waiting alone to serve us dinner at the hotel. He was probably having an even sadder Christmas than us... And that made me sad too.

Next day, the 25th of December, in the afternoon, it was time to go back to my home base, Lisboa. I spotted this Alitalia A330 parked next to us in Fiumicino Airport, by the days when I was longing to have a promotion to the WB fleet.

 Today I'm longing to go back to the NB fleet and to the european flights...

Christmas decorations in New York, 2018

One thing that I miss a lot is seeing New York during the Christmas Season. This was my last time, in 2018. I was starting to have a cold but I ventured to the Rockefeller Center.

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Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller ice rink

San Francisco, November 2022: Day 2

The next morning I still had a few hours left in San Francisco. Despite we are still in November, many Christmas decorations were already in place. I loved the Christmas decoration of my hotel.

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Christmas Season

And I went back to the Union Square to take a picture of the tree during the day.

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Transamerica Pyramid

This has to be my favorite building in San Francisco. A wonderful 48-story skyscraper.

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SF-Oakland Bridge

I also visited again The Embarcadero...

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Salesforce Park

... and also this wonderful park.

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Powell Street

My last  stop before going back to the hotel was to enoy the view from the Powell St / California St intersection.

I hope you enjoyed it too!

San Francisco, November 2022: Day 1

It seems crazy that it was 15 years ago that I started this blog under its original name "Nautical Miles", intended to be a journal of my Hajj experience in 2007 and forgotten after that. But after all it has been such a long journey.

These last years I have not been too active but I refuse to end the story of this blog. So let me share my last layover in one of my favorite cities: San Francisco. Flying the A330neo, of course.

This was not my first time in SF, nor the longest layover available. Despite that, I had the opportunity of having one complete day without worries to explore the city (I mean, without having an early wake-up call the next day).

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Alamo Square

My first stop was the Alamo Square with its famous "Painted Ladies", the Victorian style houses. I was on my way to the Amoeba Music store in the Haight Ashbury district. I would return later to this square to catch the last rays of sun while seated on the grass of the park.

Going back for a quick stop at the hotel, I saw this...

... it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... everywhere you go!

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Salesforce Park

This is another park in San Francisco placed on the rooftop of the Salesforce Transit Center that I enjoy a lot. It's quite surprising to have such a feature there.

The whole point of going there was to check the works (I was curious about that) on the sinking and leaning Millenium Tower.

Millenium Tower to the right

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The Embarcadero

Next stop was the Embarcadero waterfront. Always, a lovely place.

Ferry Building to the left

On the Pier 14 you get nice views of the illuminated SF-Oakland Bay Bridge.

As a curiosity, this bridge was built by the American Bridge Company, the same guys who built the "25 de Abril Bridge" in my hometown, Lisboa.

Also from the Pier 14, what an amazing view of the Financial District skyline!

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Union Square

Before returning back to the hotel and have a good sleep, I didn't want to miss the Christmas lights and tree in the Union Square.

San Francisco... always such a good vibe!

And I was back in Punta Cana

It has been 14 years since I had my last layover in Punta Cana when I was still flying for my first airline. 14 years... can't believe it!

I still keep the envelope with the briefing telling about the inclusive features of the resort where we stayed by that time.

This time we were in a different resort within the same area. Punta Cana is a recent destination for my company and I was lucky enough to get one long layover without having bid for it. A few weeks later, those flights were handed over to Hi Fly, during the month of August, due to lack of capacity. I've got another Punta Cana on my september roster and it should be one of the last flights to be operated to this destination. I don't now if it is for good or if the route is just supposed to be seasonal.

Anyway, I ruined my layover on the first day by getting relentlessly sunburnt. I did use sunscreen but clearly I'm giving up using the lowest SPF available. My skin is not used to the sun as it used to be in the past... I'm getting older and I've not been a proper beach enthusiast for some years now. The same happened to my colleague that spent most of the time with me during the layover. We agreed we would not inflict more pain in our skins just because we were in Punta Cana... So from that day on we just went to expose ourselves to the sun after 4pm until sunset. And the water temperature did remain beautifully warm during that period.

I did not take many photographs... These days I'm just trying to enjoy my moments without the concern of saving them into a virtual camera roll. But I took these:

Well... it made me remember how I miss my glorious charter days! Flying the good old L-1011.