Heading to Sicily!

Heading to Sicily.  The map shows you were we're going, where we're visiting, as well as where we're spending the night.  We fly into Palermo and out of Catania.

We took this 14 day tour through Collette using our Marriott Vacation Club Points (18,000 points).  I've always wanted to go to Sicily.  Can't really even point to a reason why, just because.  lol

Step 1 an overnight stay in the Marriott Cincinnati Airport, where we used some Bonvoy Points for the night and got an upgrade to a suite with 2 bathrooms and living room.  That was very helpful as we could get ready easily for our departure the following day.  We flew out of Cincinnati, instead of home airport, Columbus because the ticket price was better.  This hotel was much nicer than many close to the airports we've stayed in in the past.

Here I am just about to have desert after lunch in the Polaris Lounge in Chicago (Cincinnati to Chicago was our first leg of the trip).  Oh, and some bubbly with desert.  Doesn't the desert look pretty and yummy?

Hubby took my picture just after I settled in my business class seat

And I took his picture as he was getting ready to climb into his cubby.  Every plane we've been on has a slightly different arrangement for business class seats.  Our working parts were in the middle so we were both on the isle, making conversation a bit of a challenge.  We've managed to have seats in the middle with working parts closer to the isle before, which is preferrable, but ....you never know how it's going to work out.  We flew from Chicago to Rome, and even with getting some sleep after dinner on board, we're pretty tired when we arrived 9 hours later in Rome.  Hustled a bit in Rome to make our connections from there to Palermo.

The Collette driver picked us up at the airport (nice small airport in Palermo), and drove us to our hotel about 45 ish minutes away.  The airport is not actually in the city of Palermo.

All totaled, 21 hours of travel.  It was too early to check into our room at the hotel, so they kept our luggage and we ventured out for a walk and lunch.

Lots of choices in small cafe's there in Palermo.  The cutting board is shaped like Sicily!  Lunch was excellent, but we couldn't finish it all.

Yes, hubby looks a bit tired.  My first Aperol Spritz of the trip.

Fresh Mozzarella and a basket of bread in addition to our wonderful charcuterie board.

The name of our cafe'.

Please check back in as we settle into our hotel for 3 nights.  The tour was there for 2 nights, but we arrived a day early so spent 3 nights there.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit and comments.

The UK in Fourteen Days

I am recently back from a 14 day 13 night tour of The UK with CIE Tour Company.  CIE Tour Company has it's office in Cedarknolls, NJ and has been in business for 90 years.  I've taken tours before with Insight Vacations and would rate their tours (Ireland and Scotland, and Italy) over CIE.  The accommodations and meals were substandard, IMHO.  I did a review of the tour on yelp, and wish I had seen the reviews before booking.  There are 22 reviews counting mine and the average rating is only a 2.5 out of 5.  There were 7 people who gave the company a rating of 5, and 10 people who gave it a rating of 1.  My rating was a 2.  Interestingly CIE's webpage indicates they have a 95% satisfaction rate which seems not to match the reviews on yelp.

My friend and I choose this tour, as it's one of a few that included Wales.  We choose the month of August in order to attend the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh.  We covered a lot of miles as you can see.  One of the pluses of the tour was only having a single night once, and the bulk of the time spending two consecutive nights in the same lodging.  

The tour started in Windsor, which I really enjoyed.  The tour ended in London.

We added an extra night at the front of the tour to give us time to adjust a bit to the 5 hour difference, and to give us a buffer should there be any problems with flights etc.  You really just never know.  Travel nowadays can present some difficulties.

Here I am with my Prosecco on board Delta in business class.

AND my friend, Jane.  The flight was very nice, with excellent meal service and we managed to get a few hours sleep once the meal service was over and we were able to lay our seats flat.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

Iberian Airlines, Business Class

 That's hubby on Iberia Airlines flying business class. Thank you Pam Keystone at The Art of Vacationing, our fabulous travel agent.

That's me, as we begin our adventure flying from Chicago to Madrid.  First time we've flown business class, first time we've flown Iberia and the first time to fly over night anywhere.  What an exciting trip.  Look how space age this new design is.  You have a very private pod with all kinds of room.  It was super comfortable.  Notice the half wall to my right your left in the picture.  That way slides down if two people are traveling together and can be put in place for privacy if you're not 2 traveling together.  4 seats across with 2 aisles.  The center where we were has the double seats with singles on each of the sides.

 Those are our screens.  Everyone has one with controls, earphones, and choice of language.  You can watch movies, listen to music, or follow where the plane is in the air.  Hola...yes, you've guessed it, Iberia is a Spanish Airlines.

 Looking towards the front of the plane, you see how much head room there is, notice the 2 people standing, each in the aisle on either side of the two center seats.  The space just beyond is one of the galley's  and the bathroom.  Just 3 or 4 rows behind us was a 2nd galley and 2 more bathrooms.  Space is not an issue.

 Food was fabulous.  This was the beginning of our first meal.  We had an awesome salad, soup and cheese plate for starters, though you can just barely see the soup it was a cold gazpacho that was excellent.

 Wanting to show you how the seats turns into your bed for the night.  Here's the pamphlet photo.  This seat is one from the side.  The gentlemen is fully reclined and he would be on the aisle.  Notice the area between him and the side of the plane.  Seats are staggered, so the next person would be closer to the side of the plane.  The area by his head on the other side of the pod would be where the other person's foot area would be.  You're never leaning back into someone's space.

 Forget my knobby knees, I'm trying to show the space.  Even when sitting up you can have your legs and feet up...with the area beneath my feet as added storage.  You can see my blanket and pillow all nicely sealed in plastic...clean and neat!  Off to the left, you can see my gray sweater hanging, there's a little hook for each pod.

 Wine is served in a glass wine glass, poured from bottles!

 Newspapers in multiple languages are available.  Not the best picture both hubby and I were leaning back in order to get the picture.

 Several plugs for each pod so you can kept you ipad, kindles etc fully charged.

 A wine list!  They even did a bit of a wine tasting.  Hubby tried all 3 reds, while I hit pay dirt on the first wine and liked it so much I didn't switch.

 Snacks and beverages before dinner, water glasses constantly filled.

 Pretty snack plates and cloth napkins!

 This was lunch or snack on our return flight from Madrid to JFK.  Hubby was full and didn't take a try, but nibbled a bit on mine.  See the cute little bottle of olive oil?  That was served with each of our meals.  And look....real silverware!

 Hubby's fish meal on the flight over.  He said it was very good.

 This was cheese ravioli and was wonderful!  My main dish on the flight over.  I was sadly too full after all the other goodies to be able to eat all of it.

 The menu with 3 selections for the main dish.

Even a digestif after the meal.  Service, food, and comfort can't be beat.  We used Marriott Rewards points for this business class flight as the cost is $$$$.  Hubby says probably won't do that next time, I'm not so sure.  It take alot of points, but the flight was sure an experience.  I arrived without swollen legs and feet because they were dangling down the whole time.  I was able to move around so wasn't stiff, I did manage to sleep ........I've never been able to sleep on a plane.  He can sleep anywhere anytime.  If you have points, not just Marriott Rewards and need help using them for flights, please contact Pam Keystone at The Art of Vacating.  
  She can help you with ALL phases of your travels.

If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend Iberian Airlines!

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