Naina fetched me from Intercontinental Hotel, City Stars Cairo at 09:30 hours. Upon arrival at the Terminal 1 Cairo International airport, Ahmed – the Meet & Assist officer who has waited since 30 minutes ago welcomed us with his typical Egyptian warmth smile. Speak good English his attitude impressed us. Finally, we arrived at the Business/First Lounge ushered by Ayman el-Behery who was there since 10:05 hours. We had a cup of anise tea and mini pizza to sustain our stomach performance. At 11:05, we were transferred by bus boarding the Egyptair-Lufthansa plane. In the aircraft, I am pleased to meet another Ahmed – the flight chief steward, who is from Alexandria and staying at Camp Caesar. The service and food was very good. I opted for smoked salmon and chicken salad as starter and scrumptious grilled Salmon with rice for the main dish. It was delicious, really! Oh yes, the four hours flight entertained with varieties of in-flight games, music on demand, news, iExplore, and 3 movies. The Slump dog Millionaire kept my eyes and brain open. It was a good movie indeed.
We landed at Munich International airport at 2:50 local time. After went through the immigration and other airport requirement clearance, we performed Dhuhur-Asr prayer at the open area of the airport, Alhamdullillah. No matter where you are, we must remember the mighty Allah swt always – He will be with you. Subsequently, we quenched our thirst with fruit juices and expresso served at the Business/Senator lounge. The airport facilities and services were excellent – modern cotemporary, user-friendly (unfortunately, not to Muslim, however, that is not an excuse for one Muslim to practice his principles) and above all, the people – the German are friendly, helpful with the customer-oriented attitude you could see from their faces.
Departed Munich at 19:15 hours, marked my first experience flying Spanair on Business class. It was Boeing 717 I think, a small aircraft with 5 seats in a row. The service and the hospitality of the Spanish crew though, were remarkably excellent! I had a small bun and a cup of black coffee throughout the two hours and fifteen minutes journey to Valencia, Spain. The rest of the served dishes were blended with pork-based recipe. Nevertheless, the presentation of the food was nice.
At around 20:50 hours we flew over Barcelona Sky at around 20:50 hours, when the sun is ready to handover its duty to the moon or rather when the earth was rotating away from the Spanish sky. I took this opportunity trying my skill with my D90 manual operation. The plane was flying above the horizon, thus, technically speaking from the proletarian photographer (like me) point of view, it was not a good angle to capture a good frame.
Alhamdullillah salamah, we finally arrived at Valencia airport at 21:40 hours local time. The baggage clearance was very smooth and fast. It took less than 15 minutes by taxi that cost us Euro 21 to the Hilton Valencia. The taxi driver was very friendly but unfortunately, he could not converse in English.At the estrada or hotel entrance, we were greeted by the fluent English speaking concierge who ushered us to the warmth and spectacular lobby reception. The check-in business was very efficient. By the way, ‘Isha was at 22:50 local time.
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