Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Oct 6, 2014: |
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Monday Oct 6, 2014 #
Note
(rest day)
Epic travel day even by my standards (and stretched out further by the fact that it's a 12-hour time change): Perth-Doha-New York. All went smoothly and I had a spare seat next to me both legs which was good. The new Qatar airport is definitely a substantial improvement on its predecessor, and is about three times too big for the number of passengers it currently gets (I was wondering if there were frequent-flyer points for the distance between the gates).
Interesting route choice on the second leg: directly north from Doha over Iran and the Caspian, then northwest over Russia and Estonia, crossing Scandinavia a bit north of Oslo and Stockholm (passing more or less directly over the Nybraten farm at Lunderseter), then just south of Iceland and Greenland (too far to see either). This is somewhat north of the great circle route (which crosses the UK); not sure how much of this was avoiding hostile winds and how much was avoiding hostile people who might have rocket-launchers. Cloudy for much of the way but some excellent views of the Iranian and western Norwegian mountains. Also a reasonably smooth passage into the country, even if I had to point out to the immigration official that he needed to change the year on his 90-day date stamp (so various people have got stamps today entitling them to stay in the country until 3 January 2014).
Definitely knew I was in New York when the first thing I saw on emerging from the subway was a yellow cab blasting its horn. I'm overlapping narrowly with my parents (my first night here is their last at the end of a six-week trip) so they've organised an apartment in Tribeca. There are worse fates.
Interesting route choice on the second leg: directly north from Doha over Iran and the Caspian, then northwest over Russia and Estonia, crossing Scandinavia a bit north of Oslo and Stockholm (passing more or less directly over the Nybraten farm at Lunderseter), then just south of Iceland and Greenland (too far to see either). This is somewhat north of the great circle route (which crosses the UK); not sure how much of this was avoiding hostile winds and how much was avoiding hostile people who might have rocket-launchers. Cloudy for much of the way but some excellent views of the Iranian and western Norwegian mountains. Also a reasonably smooth passage into the country, even if I had to point out to the immigration official that he needed to change the year on his 90-day date stamp (so various people have got stamps today entitling them to stay in the country until 3 January 2014).
Definitely knew I was in New York when the first thing I saw on emerging from the subway was a yellow cab blasting its horn. I'm overlapping narrowly with my parents (my first night here is their last at the end of a six-week trip) so they've organised an apartment in Tribeca. There are worse fates.