So it is now 9:42 a.m. Munich time and we are over the Atlantic Ocean. Sleeping appears to have been done so thought I’d make a start. I have connected to what appears to be the inflight wireless but who knows if that will occur.

So where to start a tale of sitting in a chair for many hours on end?

As would be expected the Air New Zealand experience was great. One could perhaps ask for a little more padding in the seats but didn’t seem to matter as I was sound asleep by the time mins were served. Sound sleep despite quite considerable turbulence which caused a delay in service  at one stage. 

In due course landed at LAX. Had just over three hours before our flight left for Munich. One of the first things you see when heading to immigration is a large photo of the president. Obama is a warm welcoming presence. The thought of being welcomed by a large picture of Donald Trump makes the stomach clench somewhat. Anyway into the immigration hall and as ETSA holders we were directed to the machines. Cheerfully used (photographs, fingerprints, passport details) these thinking that this would mean avoiding the very long queues. Like the e passports at home?. How wrong could we have been! 45 booths with fewer than half of them operating. No difference whether you had a machine receipt or not. After 2 hours we finally got to a booth and the immigration officer decided that he needed to redo my photo and fingerprints. Not amused! Then it is was off to collect our bags which had been going round and round on the caousel all this time. 

After this interlude it was off to check in and more queues at security. In the end we got to our gate 15 minutes before boarding. 

I then took a break and when back to sleep

Smooth flight across to Munich for an interlude before heading to Manchester. The Manchester flight was remarkable only for the frequency my falling sleep and then waking myself up with a loud shorty snorey noise.

At Manchester we discovered the upside of having to go in the queue for Non-EU and Non-UK passport holders – there was only one person ahead of us! Then out to get the bags, into a taxi and we were in our hotel room within an hour of landing. So while a bit scruffy Manchester goes to the top of our airport operations review list. Munich second. LAX third. LAX only ranks that high because we haven’t been to other airports so far. I am confident that it will drop down the standings once we’ve been to other places. Now time to clean up and test the pub across the road.