BUENOS AIRES HERE WE COME

Saturday was a long day waiting in our apartment as our bags were all packed. Mike, our driver, was to pick us up at 4:00pm and take us to the DFW Airport.

Mike picked up us a little early and off to the airport we went arriving there by 4:30.

There was no line to get our luggage checked so that was easy. Also there was no line at TSA pre-check. Amazingly easy and then we headed up to the Admirals Club for our 2 hour wait before boarding time.

Mary, a super nice young lady, greeted us with some champagne.

There was lots of food, both hot and cold, plus wines and a help-yourself bar. So we enjoyed some wine and I enjoyed a Makers Mark Manhattan. Rebecca called a couple friends while we waited.

We enjoyed a nice sunset and watched our plane almost below us.

Boarding was to begin at 6:35 so we were down before that and first in the business class line for boarding. Boarding was delayed 15 minutes for an apparent maintenance issue with our plane.

The D terminal is very nice.

We finally got settled into our 2D and 2H business Class seats. During boarding we had some champagne but shortly after take off we had wine and Manhattans. We finally took off at 8:00pm for our 9 hour 50 minute flight.

Dinner was next. Salad and fruit to start with followed by an chicken entree and Sundae for dessert. Of course Rebecca skipped the Sundae! Following dinner we each took half of an Ambien to help us sleep. Our seats were "lie flat" and we both had a nice sleep.

We both woke up with about 1 hour and 45 minutes left before landing. Breakfast was served. The scrambled eggs were perfectly cooked and hot.

We landed shortly before 9:00am on Sunday. They allowed business class passengers to deplane first which was nice so we could head to get in the immigration line. Many flights from the US land about the same time so lots of folks for immigration to check.

I knew the line would be long from my experience of flying down here as a Captain. It took us an hour to finally clear with immigration and headed to baggage claim. I had received a text from our Blacklane limo driver saying he was waiting for us after exiting baggage claim. I had a problem finding a cart for our bags but finally got one. Our luggage had already been removed from the carousel so loaded it on the cart and heading through customs. The lady there did not make us have our bags x-rayed so that was good. We found our driver holding a plaque with my name on it and off we went. He told us to wait outside while he got his car. That took 15 minutes.

This is Mauricio, our driver. It was a 35 minute ride from the airport into town to the Hilton hotel. A bellman took our luggage and I checked in. Good news is we received an upgraded room but the bad news is, it is not cleaned yet. So Nicolas told us to go up and wait in the Executive Lounge.

These photos are just outside the lounge. We arrived at the Hilton at 11:15 and it is now about 1:00pm. The nice lady here helped me get hooked up on their wifi so I have been working ever since on writing this post.

Took these photos from the Executive Lounge. Lounge is on the 8th floor and pool on 7th.

At 1:00pm I decided to go down and check to see if our room was available yet. It was! This is view from elevator of the lobby.

Our room is on the 9th (top) floor. Lovely room with huge shower. The bellman arrived with our luggage not long after we were getting settled in.

GREAT VIEWS!!! The water is Rio Dique and on the other side is Puerto Madero. Puerto Madero is lined with many, many restaurants. You see a pink building in the distance in last photo. It is where Eva Peron (Evita) made history as as First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. Sorry this post is so long. I need to go for a walk and hit an ATM for some "funny money". I will post again tomorrow.