In Transit

Hello family!

We are in Zurich airport now, waiting for our connection to Beijing after a pleasant first flight. We won't be updating this journal regularly on this trip so I'm enjoying real Internet access to keep you posted while I can.

Leia was denied access to the Dan lounge because the credit card company changed their policy and stopped that benefit for us without telling anyone, so neither of us went in. It was very upsetting to her even though we only had to wait about half an hour to board after getting turned away. We hung out at a charging station to charge our phones. They also had no tasting booths available at the remodeled duty-free, so I had to do this flight stone-cold sober!

Swiss demands that you pay to reserve seats, so we didn't, and we ended up with a whole row of four seats in the middle of the plane. It was comfortable enough, with a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs and bell peppers, and the 4-hour flight was very smooth with not a bit of turbulence. We watched "Whiplash" and napped.

The airport at Zurich is one of the worst for price gouging on water: they don't have any drinking water available and a bottle of water cost me $10! Leia spent about the same on Skype credit to yell at the Leumi card people for canceling her lounge, but they left her on hold and didn't answer. We have another couple of hours until takeoff, but the free WiFi here is only for an hour, and that's all I have to report anyway. We are optimistic and excited for our trip.