Getting to Casablanca From San Jose

The old saying "You can't get there from here" almost, but not quite, applies to our interesting trip from San Jose to Casablanca, Morocco. My wife Margaret spends hours upon hours getting us to our various destinations and eventually back. Since we use credit card miles to fly business class on European, Asian, and African trips, she is on the phone constantly trying to figure out which United partner will let us use our miles. Not easy. Rather than keep a written diary of our travels, I tend to do a photographic diary of many of the mundane details which only I care about. It also helps to pass the time while waiting for a flight. This trip began with a flight to Chicago where we had to spend the night at the airport Hilton because of an early-morning hop to Toronto. After an extremely expensive dinner at a sports bar (whoulda thunk?) we tried to go to sleep despite our body clocks telling us it was too early. The business class part of the trip began on that flight Top photograph is in O'Hare, Chicago waiting to board our Air Canada flight. Next, the skyline of Toronto, Canada, on approach. Below that, an interesting bar in the Toronto airport. I love walking around airports! From Toronto, we were flying Egyptair to Cairo. How bad could it be? Business, full lie flat beds, lunch and dinner. Well, Egyptair does not serve alcohol. Not a drop. And it's ten hours to Cairo. Service, amenities etc. below par compared to any other non-US carrier I've been on. I shouldn't be complaining, I know. The next two photos are the business class section of the plane and our lunch. Then it's just before sunrise from 40,000 feet, starting our descent into Cairo, and the city itself before landing at 5:30 am. It turns out that Cairo is far east of Casablanca...six hours east! That meant a 6 hour flight back the way we came in a 737. We were en route for more than 24 hours, but who's counting? It was an opportunity to try out my new Sony RX 100 III.