I joined up with twenty-six UofGuelph retirees and their friends and family at Pearson where we boarded a ChinaEastern airplane heading out on a fifteen hour flight to Shanghai on Thursday afternoon. I will never get used to those long-haul flights. This time at least I paid a little extra for an exit seat. It didn’t give me any more seat width but it did give me much needed leg-room and ease to get up and stretch whenever I felt. I did have a moment’s envy when I passed those beautiful business class pods as I boarded but I just couldn’t swallow the cost.
Getting through customs in Shanghai was really not too bad and we gathered our baggage to meet Tony (our guide) waving his blue Nexus flag. He boarded us onto our bus and we were off to our five-star hotel – the Crown Plaza. Jan (MacInnes) and I were assigned a lovely room on the fifth floor – frosted glass enclosed washroom with separate tub and shower room as well as a separate toilet stall. The room comes with dressing gowns and slippers. Not too shabby.
Jan and I ended up heading down the hall to Alan’s room for a late night scotch before hitting the sack.