September 29 - 30
We both were a bit restless last night knowing we had to be up and about, ready to roll out the door by 8am. Our flights from Miami to Newark and on to Geneva were originally scheduled to depart from MIA at 11am so I arranged our car service to pick us up at 8am. But the flights got bumped up to 10:16am after I'd made those arrangements. I considered changing the pick-up time but calculated that on a Sunday morning we should be to the airport in less than 40 minutes and if the driver was even a few minutes early we'd have plenty of time. Sure enough, our driver arrived about 7:40 and we were ready to roll. Arrived at MIA about 8:30 and were checked in and thru security by 9am with boarding scheduled for 9:40. I was irritated - as is typical - on the domestic flight as we boarded as Group 3 of 6) in Row 8 but when we got on all the bins around our seats were full. Particularly irritating was that several people - after it had been announced there was limited space - had put their soft, under-the-seat bags up above, stealing "our space." Had to do the "excuse me....excuse me...." thing against the flow of passengers to put our bags in the first class section. But what ever. Flight was smooth, quickly got the shuttle to the international terminal in Newark and grabbed a quick bite to eat before awaiting our boarding time about 4:45. The flight was listed as eight hours....then seven....then we were told it was about 6 1/2 from wheels up to wheels down. My headphones didn't work so they had to re-set the entire computer system for our seats but that did the trick. Watched most of a movie then was out for four hours. Woke up just in time for a quick breakfast and we were on the ground.
The AMA rep was waiting for us and there were only four of us being transported to the Hotel Bristol. It was about a twenty minute drive. Upon arrival, even though it was only about 9:30am our room was ready. A very nice balcony view of the courtyard and a spacious room! We set our bags down and went for a short walk to find Lake Geneva....literally fifty yards away. Strolled the waterfront and returned to the hotel to find our AMA host and get the "need to know" info. We got two suggestions for a light lunch and headed out. The first one had closed the kitchen so we reversed course and went to, surprisingly, a department store (Manor) where we took the escalators to the top and found the food court and enjoyed lunch with a view of the Swiss Alps.
Tomorrow we have an all day dual excursion day. In the morning we tour Geneva - both the modern city and the Old Town. Then after a break for lunch we visit a "stunning lake side" castle. Can't wait!
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