Roughing it in Africa…

Well, we made it. It was a long trip, but honestly it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it was going to be.

We left home at 4pm on Thursday and got to our hotel in Johannesburg at about 10:30pm the next day. Woof.

We booked our flight through KLM airlines, and the first leg to Amsterdam was operated through delta. It was a big plane, three seats on the left, four in the middle aisle and three more on the right. I had chosen our seats when I bought the tickets which was why I was surprised when we were squished in the very middle. Rude.

It was a seven hour flight that left at 730pm. I slept pretty much the whole way so it was fine. Dan was much less comfortable and didn’t sleep much at all. We got to Amsterdam without any problem and had just enough time to stretch our legs, use the bathroom and board our next flight.

We had upgraded to roomier seats, a minor upgrade – not even close to the $10,000 seats in “business” class. (Whatever business pays for that needs a new business model. Outrageous) So, we were some of the last people to board the plane since we were closer to the front. They scanned Dan’s boarding pass and off he went. I walked up, buzz buzz, the ticket agent tried scanning my boarding pass again…buzz buzz. She sent me over to the senior gate agent behind the desk. “Passport please” and she was typing away. The two of them were talking back and forth a mile a minute and all I could gather was that there was an issue with my passport. Oh jeeze. After another minute, “all set. Sorry for the wait.” Really? No explanation? Am I on the do not fly list or something? One of life’s mysteries I suppose.

We had scheduled an airport transfer through the hotel so a nice man was waiting for us at the airport. He drove us to the hotel and gave us a quick run down on the city. We are staying in a nice hotel, with lots of restaurants and shops nearby that we can walk to. According to him.

And he was right! Went straight to bed so we could get up the next morning to explore.

We walked over to a perfect little bakery for breakfast this morning. Bread Basket Anyone who knows me knows I’m a sucker for fresh baked bread. The pastries, cookies and muffins looked amazing. I got a blueberry muffin and cappuccino. Dan had a Chelsea roll, (fruity cinnamon bun with raisins and fruity glaze) and a cappuccino. Then they brought out little cheese rolls, hot out of the oven. It gave me instant flash backs to the cheese bread at the UMASS Bakeshop so obviously I got one and promptly ate it.

Now we are relaxing by the pool at the hotel. The hotel is awesome, and weird. Very weird. It has a “Hollywood luxury” type theme with lots of black and white decor, photos of American starlets, and a gourmet milkshake bar. It screams Africa… ??? But it’s clean, and comfortable, and cheap. And has free wifi.

Did I mention that it’s part of Marriott’s new Protea collection? Which is obviously one of the reasons we wanted to try it. I give it two thumbs up.

Protea fire and ice hotel

Time for a dip. And maybe a milkshake ?