Day 835

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Up at 6, took care of a few last-minute details, had a leisurely breakfast, then got ready and left the house with Alice around 11:30 when an Uber driver picked us up.

We dropped our bags at the Lufthansa ticket counter at SFO and relaxed for an hour or so at the United Club lounge, thanks to two vouchers from our Mileage Plus credit cards.

Relaxing before the flight

We ate snacks, read the NY Times, listened to music and felt the excitement of our two-week adventure.



We boarded our airbus around 2:15 and fly into the sky at 3.

The tight seats on all international flights is truly unbelievable.  Alice and I are pretty small people and even we felt terribly confined and restricted.  Thankfully, Lufthansa has individual monitors behind every seat, so I was in heaven with dozens of films to choose from.  I'd seen so few movies last year that I had my choice of about ten top films from 2014.  I saw four films on our flight to Frankfurt.  First up was


I never made time for this film when it came out and I'm sorry I didn't.  I loved every second of it.  I can't think of a better film to watch at the beginning of a long trip than Birdman.  It put me in a European mindset and completely set the tone for our trip.  Michael Keaton was amazing.  Everyone was amazing.  I told Alice to watch it after she finished watching Kevin Kline and Maggie Smith in My Old Lady, but she only watched 30 minutes of it before falling asleep.

The second film I watched was just as good.


It was like watching an updated version of King of Comedy in which the film totally nails the sensibilities of America's thirst for spectacle.  Jake Gyllenhaal was brilliant.

The third film I watched was


For a Walking Tall-style retribution fantasy, it was pretty good.  I was in the right frame of mind to see Denzel kick ass for two solid hours. 

Finally, before we landed, I watched


Good.  Really intense and driven.  I loved J.K. Simmons, who deservedly won Best Supporting Actor.  There is something to be said about the artistic spirit rising to new heights in the face of adversity. 

Even though the seats were tight, this was one of the fastest overseas flights of my life.

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