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Old 5 Aug 19, 07:37 AM  
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BONZO
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Transylvania to Pennsylvania and beyond! Day 2 - Bucharest to Philadelphia

Wednesday 10th July 2019

Cast list (the usual):

Me: Shaun, Intrepid Traveller

Her: Alison, Slightly less intrepid traveler, but planner supreme and finds the good deals!

Trip Report Index HERE

Well, I had hoped for a sound sleep but it didn’t happen as I had quite a restless night. Quite usual for a first night in a hotel but the air-con was quite noisy and ineffective.

Anyway, we woke up really very early which was just as well as we had a super early start. We had a shower, re-packed the few bits and pieces we’d used and headed down to reception at 5.15 to pick up an uber that we’d booked the night before. We slunk past the sleeping security guards after being handed our breakfast bags as promised. They consisted of 2 rounds of sandwiches, one ham and salad and one something nasty that Alison tried (I let her be the guinea pig!), a bottle of water and an apple.





This time in the morning we had an ultra-quick ride to airport compared to last night thank goodness. We dropped our bags off and received our paper boarding passes and lounge tickets. Security was a bit of a faff but no big issue as we’d built in plenty of time, and made our way to the lounge for a couple of snacks and coffees.

The lounge wasn’t great (which we’d been warned about) and after a while it was time to board. First world problem coming up….they boarded groups 1,2 and 3 all at the same time! I mean, that’s practically everyone! To add insult to injury it was a bussed gate so even more faffing about time, but gave us a nice view of parked up aircraft across to the terminal building



Interestingly, or at least for us, Alison got chatting to a guy from a facebook group we’re a member of who was doing a similar trip (he’d recognised her from a post she’d made the previous day asking about security at Bucharest airport)– always nice to meet up with like-minded people who “get it “ in terms of what we are doing. Unusual I know but we never expect anyone else to fully understand our rationale.

Once on board we sat down in our favourite seats in row 1. Alison had an omelette, fruit, yogurt and pastry and I just had a coffee as I wasn’t feeling that hungry to be honest and then settled down for a snooze whilst we travelled across Europe. We flew over central London on the way in (always a lovely view).







We landed on time at 9.30 back at Heathrow and headed back landside (clearing immigration) then back in again through security. This is our preference if we aren’t tight for time on connections. Then off to lounge where we both topped up on breakfast. We sat down and relaxed a bit and I read the latest newspapers whilst Alison went off for a shower.




Alison came back to find me tucking in to the next part of breakfast – a lovely Gin and Tonic!

Eventually it was time for us to head off again but this time down to B gates via the lower level passageways (we call them utilidors!). We love this oasis of calm and chance to stretch our legs before or after a long hall flight.




We got to the B gates and saw this lovely view




We boarded pretty much on time and headed upstairs on the 747 to seats 62A and K (slightly separated but lovely seats with no one climbing over us and no one for us to climb over.

Take off was about 30 minutes late at about 13:20 and we were on our way to Philadelphia – woo hoo! I I know it’s a bit of an indulgence but I really love being on the top deck of the Jumbo – really not sure how long they are going to last so we keep trying to make the most of the experience.

The Cabin Service Director (CSD) came over to welcome me and said “Is that your wife across the aisle?” I said “Yes, just the way we like it, we’ll be spending 24 / 7 in each other’s company later and I need a break!”

We checked the menu









over a glass of champagne



I had some more Speedbird 100 and some nuts to kick things off



followed by soup starter with wine, beef and mash with more wine, cheese and biscuits with port to finish off.









Strangely enough I felt the need to have a little nap – can’t think why!

Alison had a couple of Bacardi and bitter lemons with some nuts, followed by salad and curry, and the dessert (all washed down with more Bacardi and bitter lemon!)










Apparently she watched a couple of films (whilst I slept!) and enjoyed the view





I woke up before touchdown and had the tapas option – it was ok, nothing special but something different I suppose, Alison had the afternoon tea (some small sandwiches and a scone/jam/cream.






We got ready for touchdown, packing up all our bits and bobs and making sure we hadn’t left anything in any of the cupboards.

This was the view of Philadelphia as we were coming in to land



Once off the plane at about 3.20 we headed to the Global Entry booths and flew through in a couple of minutes, simply worth every penny in my experience of getting through US immigration. After collecting our luggage we headed through customs (also using the shorter Global Entry queue) and into the arrivals area




walked across the road and onto the SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) train station and with no ticket booths around we just bought tickets on the train which arrived a few minutes later.



The service was quite busy and nowhere obvious to park up large pieces of luggage so we just hogged a whole bench and hoped it wouldn’t get too much busier. We left the system at Jefferson Station and result – the Loews hotel was right outside, couldn’t have been better.

The hotel lobby was really busy with people attending some sort of convention, lots of chatter and business talk going on. We approached the check in but were told that “computer says no” and they couldn’t check us in due to an IT problem. No matter, they just said park yourselves up at the bar, order anything you like and the hotel will pick up the tab.

I did think about going silly but we just thumbed through the extensive beer list and chose something hoppy and local and most importantly, very cold.



As my inner core temperature returned back to something close to normal the front desk appeared and checked us in.



We had a room on the 30th Floor and wow what a view! The room itself was very similar layout to the Loews hotels at Universal with many of the fittings and fixtures very similar although where possible they had a very Art Deco look and feel in keeping with the fabric of the building.







We showered, changed and went straight out for a wander, and our initial feeling was there a nice vibe about the city although the weather was quite muggy. We checked our map and found the Liberty Bell and just managed to get in before closing at 7pm. These places by National Parks are always so well done. We tried to linger but time was almost 7pm and people wanted to lock up and go home, can’t blame them really.









We walked out down to Penn’s landing nearby, just to take a look at the Delaware River and Benjamin Franklin Bridge. Apparently Penn’s Landing is the waterfront site where William Penn docked although there’s not much to celebrate the event here.



To be honest, there was not a huge amount to see and do here on the dockside and after deciding not to do the Roller Rink we walked back along Walnut (road) towards our hotel whilst keeping an eye out for a place to eat.

As we ambled along I noticed some people coming out of a building and so I went across the road to investigate. It turned out to be a casual dining place called Jones, American comfort food and they weren't wrong!

I had a Turkey Club sandwich with crisps and Alison had a Beef Brisket roll with horseradish, blue cheese sauce and fries, (we shared both) – very tasty and just the right amount.








We took the short walk back in the heat to the hotel, showered and were in bed by 10:15.
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Old 5 Aug 19, 08:10 AM  
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Melbatb
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I have never got my head around how your routings work cost wise - do you earn more points which means you can get more upgraded flights?

Your food all looks lovely! And a great view from the hotel!
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Index of my trip reports
2016 Quebec - Kuala Lumpar - New York City 2017 Dubai - Eurocamps France - Ontario and Quebec - So-Cal 2018 Montreal - Bangkok - New England 2019 Argentina - Quebec City - Hong Kong - 2020 Switzerland 2022 Arizona - Costa Med Cruise - Oslo 2023 Hong Kong - Gothenburg
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Old 5 Aug 19, 08:28 AM  
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AlisonB
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Well it’s a mixture really. Yes it’s cheaper than going direct from London (because if you leave from The UK there’s a higher departure tax to pay) and also we take advantage of a targeted sale. In this case it was a sale targeted at the Romanian market (there’s nothing to stop a traveller from elsewhere booking it)

But you do need to take into account the cost of positioning flights (in our case London to Bucharest at the start and the reverse at the end, and hotel and spending money)

The benefit to us is tier points (on BA this gets you Bronze/Silver/Gold status giving a variety of benefits) and also Avios which we use to ‘pay’ for flights - usually our positioning flights on future trips!
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Old 5 Aug 19, 08:30 AM  
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AlisonB
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Here’s a link explains it a bit further turningleftforless/b...rgin-atlantic/
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