Weekend Roundup

 Welcome to The Weekend Roundup...hosted by Tom The Back Roads Traveler

1. Starts with "A"
2. A Favorite
3. APPLE - Chosen by Tom

Starts with A

ASAKUSA Japan

Asakusa (浅草) is the center of Tokyo's shitamachi (literally "low city"), one of Tokyo's districts, where an atmosphere of the Tokyo of past decades survives.

FAVOURITE

AIRPLANE ANA

APPLE

From my box collection - New York City

Anything To Do With Planes and Jets

Cee's Fun Foto Challenge

Air Show Toronto On

Mazatlan Mexico

Flying from Frankfurt Germany to Toronto

January Squares

January Squares words that end in LIGHT.


Billy Bishop airport Toronto Islands in daylight flight.

A Photo a Week

A Photo a Week Things with Wings


November 2018 - Heathrow Airport London England

On board our flight home this week.

Foto Tunes Part 1

Tom the backroads traveller hosts this weekly meme.

I was cleaning up files on my external hard drive, actually making the files more meaningful to save time looking for stuff!

So it seems in 2009 I did a 365 daily photo challenge. The month of May was song titles. They made me smile so I thought I would use them over here. That would mean 31 songs for Mondays. So I will do 6 a week.

1 - Tiptoe Through the Tulips

My garden

2 - Leaving On A Jet Plane

In May 2009 we went to China.

3 - Kodachrome

Beijing

4 - Lady In Red

Beijing Forbidden Temple

5 - Dancing Queen

Beijing Summer Palace

6 - Bicycle Built For Two

X'ian City Wall

Foto Tunes

Tom the backroads traveller hosts FotoTunes

December 2016 - Kissimmee FL

Taken in Old Town.

Snoopy vs The Red Baron - Royal Guardsmen

The Royal Guardsmen are an American rock band, best known for their 1966 hit single "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" , "The Return of The Red Baron" and the Christmas follow up "Snoopy's Christmas".

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Originally known as the Postmen, the Ocala, Florida-based sextet adopted their anglophile moniker during the British Invasion, led by The Beatles and other British artists.




And as serendipity would have it, when we were driving on Saturday and listening to 60s on 6 this song was in the Top 40 in January 1967.

The announcer also told the following story:

Since the band did not ask Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz for permission, the Canadian arm of Laurie Records refused to issue the single until the legal problems were ironed out: instead, the band recorded the thinly-disguised "Squeaky vs. the Black Knight", which was released north of the border and became a hit on at least one Canadian station. Eventually, Schulz gave his okay, and "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" was released in Canada.

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Why Walk When You Can fly

Tom the backroads traveller hosts FotoTunes

September 2016 - Toronto ON

CNE Air Show taken from our condo last Sunday - John's photos.

Canada's Snow Birds

Great video to accompany this song!

WHY WALK WHEN YOU CAN FLY - MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER

Song-ography

Song-ography is hosted by You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, a fantastic photographer and funny lady.

July 2015 - Toronto ON


Taken from our condo window (in July) looking north west towards Pearson International Airport.

So excited, we (us and friends) are leaving for Ireland on Tuesday September 2!

You can hear the song coming, can't you? Sung by a Canadian.

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go!

Leaving on a Jet Plane - CHANTAL KREVIAZUK 

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday and at Wordless

August 2008 - Kelley's Island Ohio

Los Angeles to Singapore

January 2015 - Singapore

Singapore is a multi racial country and the general language used for communication among the various races is English. So people just say hello (yeah, in English)!

Saturday January 31 2015

Click here for our Singapore itinerary.

We spent January 29 at the Hilton LAX, we had booked an extra night even though our flight is at 12:05 AM January 30, so we needed to be at the airport around 8 PM.

We checked out and got the shuttle at 7:30 PM after spending the day lounging around our hotel room.

We flew Cathay Pacific LAX to Hong Kong in their Premium Economy so we had a dedicated check in line.

Clearing security was easy, shoes off and laptops out. both of us got patted down after the full body scan.

Thought it was interesting watching this monk waiting for his Starbucks!

We have Priority cards that allow us access to most airline lounges. We went to the KAL Korean Airlines lounge. They provided finger sandwiches, fresh vegetables, fruit and noodles. Along with a selection of wine, beer and alcohol.
We sat in front of the large windows overlooking the International terminal. This terminal is really something to see, lots of shops. 

I watched in trepidation as some of the Chinese airlines boarded, lots of little babies and packed to the wings. 

Our take off time was January 30 at 00:05 so just after midnight. 

However, when we got to our gate everything was very civilized. Not crowded, and lines were set up for First, Premium and Economy by row. You didn't dare try to skip into another line.

According to Cathay Pacific:Our Premium Economy Class cabin is a spacious and cosy cabin of 26 to 34 seats. There’s more room between your seat and the seat in front of you, 8 inches of recline to make resting and sleeping more comfortable, and the headrest has 4-way movement for excellent support of your head and neck. Front-row seats have a legrest, and other seats have a 3-position footrest, which help you find a variety of positions to make your flights as enjoyable as possible.For entertainment, there are hundreds of selections on your StudioCX inflight entertainment system. Plus, you can use the multi-port connector to stream movies and music from your iPod, iPhone or iPad* to your 10.6-inch touch-screen Personal TV – and a noise-cancelling headset will enhance your enjoyment.

On our long-haul flights, we’re able to offer you even more. For your comfort, there’s an environmentally friendly amenity kit with socks, eyeshade, earplugs, and toothbrush and toothpaste. And our food and beverage service includes a welcome drink and a hot towel, a selection of enhanced entrées, complimentary bottled water and a wide variety of snacks.


They lived up to their hype, we had front row seats so lots of space. We were only three in a four row of seats. We were served our glass of sparkling wine before take off. 

We were delayed due to heavy traffic volume by about thirty minutes.

The section even had our own bathroom!

We then were given menus to select our meals. We both chose the seafood and had a glass of wine.

With a flight time of 15 hours to Hong Kong we settled in for the long haul. This flight was not fully booked and around us, in our section they were about 8 empty seats, no children! So once dinner was over everyone settled down. We read for a while, probably until around 2 AM then with our pillows, foot rests and blankets hunkered down for a sleep. John donned his eye mask and I built my little tent so that no one got to see my gaping mouth and droll marks as they passed by. 

We probably slept on and off until around 8 AM, I am still using LA times. Then we read and dozed until after 10, when they lights came up. We each selected a movie, Equalizer for John and This Is Where I Leave you for me. We selected the omelet for breakfast with mushrooms and sausages. The omelet was not very good.

More movies to while away the time. John now watched Where I Leave You and I viewed a delightful Scottish movie What We Did On Our Holiday starring Billy Connolly.

We landed at 8:10 AM in Hong Kong and our flight to Singapore was boarding at 8:20 AM and leaving at 9 AM, hence a mad scramble to find our gate and scurry over, BUT we had to do a security check, laptop out again. We got to gate 65 by 8:40 and there was still a long line of economy so we sailed through the premium line. This flight was full and lots of little ones.

More movies, while I charged my e-reader. Men Women and Children and The Hundred Foot Journey for me and John watched The Drop and November Men. 

Another breakfast, a frittata this time and the eggs were awful again. But the fried tomatoes, sausage and bacon were good.

This flight didn't leave until 9:26 and we landed in Singapore at 1:10 PM. Cleared immigration with nary a smile or word from the officer, just lots of officious stamping.

Baggage claim 20 didn't yield our luggage nor many of our companion travellers' bags. Traipse to the Cathay desk to file a claim and told our luggage was on the next flight and would be brought to our hotel.

Finally we were into the terminal around 1:45 and looking for our driver who was finally found. Driven to our hotel and settled in.

Our day continues here in Singapore.

Ruby Tuesday

                             

I'm posting at Ruby Tuesday today.  

 Thursday at the Sedona Airport

Weekly Top Shot

I'm posting at The View From Here this week.

Taken  from the car this week as we drove into Las Vegas.

Las Vegas January 2013

I had captured the plane a second earlier when he was right over head!

May 4 -Copenhagen to Budapest

 Today we woke to a cloudy day,with no rush hour traffic. It felt like a holiday (even though Tuesday May 1 when we arrived was also a holiday). Sure enough it is a day of prayer. Must be nice two days of in one week. So DH went out and picked up breakfast and we decided to leave earlier for the airport since nothing was opened.

 A quick walk to Central Station, tickets to airport purchased at an automated machine and we boarded the 10:52 train for the fifteen minute ride. Such a great way to travel, the trains are every ten minutes, there is room in the cars for bikes.

We checked in, went through security where I enjoyed was subjected to a full body search by a guy. DH had his carryon opened.
Then we had a nice lunch - omelet and smoked salmon. DH did some shopping picking up some really nice shirts unlike anything available at home.

 Our plane, each one is named after a famous Norwegian.

I started this draft as we are in the air aboard Norwegian airlines using their free wifi. How amazing is that, being able to connect in the air. So few airlines provide this.

We had barely landed and our luggage was out and we were met by our driver with his Mercedes to take us to our hotel, the Corinthia. This is a majestic hotel recently purchased and refurbished by the Wyndham chain.
We were met by our guide, Kate.
This is a large hotel spread over a city block, our room was very far away from the elevators, we joked that we would have to leave fifteen minutes early to meet our group.

We checked in, and went to meet Kate who had offered a short guided tour at 5:30 of the area surrounding the hotel.

Franz Liszt

 Academy of Music

 So many buildings were destroyed during World War II that they are still rebuilding and re-gentrifying. This one shows the difference when a building is cleaned.

The Liszt Ferenc square is a large open area with many restaurants dotting the sidewalk. We selected Karma for dinner.

After dinner we strolled around the area.