Making the flight

There were worries in our families, but the designated departure day arrived and we took off on our trip.  My father took us to the shuttle bus in Lebanon, N.H., and we got to Boston Logan Airport.  It was impressive to see what major international flight operations are there.  It was good to see Air Berlin operating, but our flight was delayed because of a late inbound.

The departure time was about an hour late.  Covering the flight more briefly than normal: the Extra Legroom seats helped some: I still saw during the night that I needed to put my tote bag in the overhead bin for comfort, and that's another area where it helps not to have rows too close together.  A problem was the woman in front of us, who spent some time in other seats, but was alone in the two seats in front of us.  She spent some time in each seat, and left each one fully reclined, bad for our comfort and impossible in standard seats.  There were nice seatback screens including USB ports. The meals and drinks were served at the same time, and the trays were cleared pretty quickly.  The delay was cut to about 30 minutes on arrival.

Some of this was possible because the plane wasn't that full.  The flight operated efficiently, and It will be sad to see Air Berlin's likely shutdown (Boston service is to end Oct. 1).

We artived at Düsseldorf, and noted a terminal on the old side, with stairs.  Since the delay cut only a half hour off our six- hour layover, we opted to pay for access to the lounge there.  In the morning there was a nice layout of pastries, self-service espresso-cappuccino drinks, and other drinks.  It's while sitting there that I compose this, and we wait to connect to Rome.