Prague... Beautiful Prague

Prague, November 2016

This was a totally unexpected but very welcome layover in Prague. It was my first one, so let's czech it out!

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Prague Castle

Early in the morning we decided to start our tour with the castle. Although the direction signs are in Czech, the text is always accompanied by illustrative pictures that make it easy for the tourists to find their way to the landmarks.

Mánes Bridge (Mánesův most)

We can get a stunning view of Prague up in the hill just before entering the castle:

It is free to get inside but you have to pass through a security control. Inside the castle everything is so beautiful that made me remember that this type of beauty and architecture can only be found in the Old Continent.

St. Vitus Cathedral

Queen Maria Theresa Entrance

Old Royal Palace

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St. Vitus Cathedral

So let's have a closer look to the impressive Gothic Cathedral inside the castle complex!

This glass mosaic depicting the Last Judgment has an area of about 80 m2! Wow, more than the area of my humble apartment!

Last Judgement Mosaic

Golden Gate

It is possible to climb to the top of the main tower but you have to buy a ticket.

Main Tower

External staircase

West façade

We can go inside the cathedral and stay there in a delimited area. Beyond that area, you have to pass through a ticket gate.

We can see some awesome stained glass!

And now back to the outside... Some very strange gargoyles! Well.. they're strange by definition.

And finally leaving this beautiful castle.

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Charles Bridge

The next landmark we wanted to visit was the famous Charles Bridge (in Czech, Karlův most) and go back to the Old Town to have lunch.

Some views of the Vltava River:

Impressive tower!

Old Town bridge tower gateway

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Old Town

Back to the Old Town we chose Hotel Lippert Restaurant for our lunch. I went for the typical goulash soup and roasted duck with red and white cabbage!

Old Town Square

The medieval astronomical clock is one of the main attractions in Prague. Unfortunately the daylight was already fading which prevented me from taking better photos of it.

Prague orloj

In very few minutes, it was completely dark. It was really cold and we noticed some very, very light snowfall.

Cruella's car? :)

Prague's Municipal House

And soon  it was time to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately I didn't have the opportunity to visit the New Town and the famous Dancing House. But I hope to be back in Prague somewhere in the future.

The next early morning we experienced a more decent snowfall on our way to the airport.

OK, I find snow beautiful because it's not usual where I live (I've seen snowing in Lisbon only once) but it has a little inconvenience for those who are going to fly: de-ice will be needed! Some photos I took aboard our Airbus named "Malangatana":

Our velvet wings...

A short video of a little walk through the cabin:

We managed the situation and finally took off to witness a wonderful sunrise already over the Alps!

Sunrise

The Alps seen from above

New York, New York

New York, October 2016

There are places in this world where even if I return alone, I will always be accompanied by wonderful memories with friends and good colleagues. New York is definitely one of that places. It's a love relationship since I was there for the first time in 2006 - I mean love at first sight!

This flight to New York/JFK was the perfect way to end a wonderful month (October) flying to: Miami, Boston, Luanda and Caracas. It was also an opportunity for two first times: first time landing at JFK Airport and first time flying on the tail number CS-TOT (Yay! I have now all 63 aircraft of our fleet in my logbook).

However, when we landed, we faced awful weather with lots of rain. Things didn't look very promising for this layover...

As I walked out of the airport terminal, I was surprised with the view of the old TWA terminal, decomissioned for a long time. Suddenly my mind was transported back to the golden old days of the Jet Age. I only experienced a little bit of it in the early 80s when that aura was already fading.

JFK Airport - TWA Terminal

The building is officially a New York's landmark and you can read about its history here. It looks like it will be transformed into a hotel although things inside still looked untouched.

And so we went to our hotel located in the center of Manhattan - Times Square! Is it possible to ask for a better location? I don't think so... Crews flying to Newark Libery Airport stay in Newark and the facility of having a PATH station right in front of the hotel was already appreciated but you just can't beat this! A view from my room:

Times Square

The next day I woke up early and had breakfast with some fellow colleagues at Junior's Restaurant. Although we were not looking for a brunch, the amount of food served made it look like one. Considering the kilometers we did later, I think it ended up to be the right amount of fuel for that day!

And guess what... despite the temperature was not ideal for us, it was a wonderful day with clear blue sky! Although the weather was inviting, I was really surprised that the colleagues that were with me didn't mind to walk all the way down to the World Trade Center site. I love to walk (it's my favorite way to know places) but people usually find more than 2 km, a loooooong and unacceptable distance. I believe the distance we were about to cover was the triple of that! I was also surprised with the fact that my colleagues were a little bit disoriented in New York and completely relied on me as a guide to them. I'm no New York expert but for sure I tried to absorb the maximum I could from the city the few times I visited it before.

And so we were walking down most of the Brodway until it met the 5th Avenue that led us to the Washington Square Park where we contemplated its marble arch.

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Lower Manhattan

As we approached Lower Manhattan through West Broadway the impressive sight of 56 Leonard skyscraper caught our attention.

56 Leonard

And then we visited the new Transportation Hub of the World Trade Center, designed by Santiago Calatrava, dubbed the Oculus. There is also a new Apple Store inside this hub - yep, I'm an Apple fan...

Very, very beautiful inside!

Another panorama

The elevated Liberty Park was also recently opened. Although I don't find it particularly interesting it is one more step done in the reconstruction of the WTC site.

World Financial Center

View from the Liberty Park

Because the sunny day was really inviting, we kept walking just until we reach the Battery Park where we enjoyed the sun and saw the Liberty Statue from there.

View of the Liberty Statue

And of course, with such a nice weather, I suggested going to the Brooklyn Bridge. It was my second time doing that!

Brooklyn Bridge

Lower Manhattan

After that, we were really hungry and desperate to have lunch. We proceeded to the East Village (after passing through China Town and Little Italy) where we found the famous indian Milon restaurant, where you can enjoy your meal inside a place with a very curious decoration and atmosphere.

Milon Restaurant

We found Portugal!

Completely exhausted after our long but productive walk, we took a cab on our way back to the hotel. I took a nap and soon it was time to return to our home base, flying again on CS-TOT A330:

Premium Economy

Economy Class

It was a pitty we had to leave that night because everybody was celebrating the Halloween... It would have been fun to fully enjoy it!

I think I'm in love with Boston

Boston, October 2016

I always feel fascinated by big cities. I still remember the first time I visited one when I was a little kid - Toronto. Their size, their people, their very own dynamic make me wonder what my life would be if I lived in one of those cities. I always heard people saying the best things of Boston. Most of them told me they preferred it to New York. So my expectations were very high!

My airline started flying again to Boston this summer and it seems that the load factors are proving this was a wise move this time.

For this flight it was assigned one the two most recent additions to our fleet: one A330-243 which started its career with Emirates. For me, it was nice to work again on an aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce engines! The cabin of this particular aircraft was recently retrofitted to a standard very similar to that one to be applied to our entire long haul fleet - excluding the A340s and the Pratt & Whitney powered A330s which are supposed to be phased out. It features full lie flat seats in Business Class, each one with direct access to the corresponding aisle. The Economy Class has also new seats and two different standards, featuring an Economy Plus with more pitch between the seats. The IFE system is very similar (if not equal) to that one installed on our A340s. This aircraft has also the mood lighting feature.

Already seated during the final approach and through my observation window, I was curious about what this new destination looked like from the sky. The sunny afternoon made me find it even more beautiful. And soon I was landing for the first time at Logan International Airport. During our way between the airport and the hotel, the sun kept shining and I was amazed with the beautiful city Boston is. Fortunately, our hotel is very well located, near the Common park. As a first impression of Boston, I can say it is a big city but much less frantic than New York and the buildings are not so high.

I agreed with some colleagues to have dinner at Lolita Cocina & Tequilla Bar which also runs as a restaurant. And I must say it proved to be a very nice place. I chose to eat a tuna tartare that was absolutely awesome! Since we didn't have a reservation, we had to have dinner in the bar side or we would have to wait for at least two hours. For a working day, even the bar was crowded. It seems to be a very popular venue.

The next day we took breakfast also at a very nice place: the Thinking Cup - located in the Newbury Street. The colleagues that accompanied me during this layover were so nice that I spent lots of time talking with them. If I were to be alone during this layover I would have explored much more of Boston than I actually did. But I don't regret it since they were really nice people with lots of personal experiences to share. And I hope to come back more times since this is a daily flight.

After our loooooooong breakfast we finally went for a walk to discover a little more of Boston. Our goal was to reach the famous Quincy Market. On our way we crossed the Boston Common public park.

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Boston Common

Somehow it happened that I only took photos at the Common park... It is a great park with lots of squirrels - I love to see them!

And... more squirrels - I just can't refrain from taking photos of them! I wish they could make good pets but let's keep them wild :)

We kept walking and finally we reached the Quincy Market where we had lunch in an open air place, watching the Bostonians and wondering how they feel about their city, what they do, what their dreams are... We also walked further to see the Long Wharf, a historic pier in Boston.

As this was a short stay, we had to return to the hotel and take a little nap before our red eye flight which ended to be a really short one with only 5h35 of flight time compared to what we are used to: 8-10 hours on different long-haul flights! I already did longer flights in medium haul, narrow body aircraft, especially those to Moscow. We were so lucky because we left Boston when the rainy weather showed up.

For the return flight we had the very same aircraft of the outbound leg. I took a few pictures of it just before boarding started.

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Airbus A330-243

Business Class...

... and the premium Economy with the mood lighting - in shades of blue - activated.

I'm really looking foward to my next time in Boston and to explore much more of this awesome city!