Anyways, I am not gonna lie, the almost 13 hours of total travel time was really tough. I think that's the longest I have ever been required to remain in my seat. Tough, tough, tough. So hard, in fact, I began to question if it was really worth it. (Of course, it was worth it.)
The first leg of our trip was from Charlotte to Atlanta, since we flew Delta. An aside, I don't think I will ever fly US Airways again (other then to Florida because of the direct flights). We had such an awesome experience with Delta....wow....such a great airline. So, this was the view out my window going from Charlotte to Atlanta. You're right, at least I had a window seat. It was the airplane version of a vibrating chair.
In Atlanta we had a 3 hour layover, which Steven did on purpose so the airline wouln't lose our luggage (he was right, they didn't). We also got to meet a lot of soldiers you were heading back to the Middle East. Amazing! They do 8 to 18 month tours, come home for like 2 weeks, and then head back out! And they all seemed to have super attitudes about it, despite how the media and Hollywood portrays them as unhappy victims. It was such an honor to be able to talk to them and thank them in person.
I was unaware that to go overseas you fly in an arc to catch the jet stream and conserve fuel. It seemed counterintuitive to me, but I can see how that makes sense. My point being, there was an in-flight time-calculator map thing that showed us what part of the world we were over, our airspeed, miles flown, time flown, etc. That's how I am able to tell you the parts of the world I took pictures of.
Here is the sun setting over Nova Scotia.
Not a very good view of the sunset, I know, but I was facing more north then west at this point. And how blessed was I to have a window seat again! Too cool!
I was unable to get a wink of sleep on the plane, try as I might, so I got to see some neat stuff below in the middle of the night. We flew over Ireland and the southern part of Great Britain (again according to our in-flight map). I got to see what small towns look like from really high. They look like a lot of lights. ;) I let my mind be boggled by the fact that I think my life and problems are so big and meaningful, but in the grand scheme of things---I am so small. It was a good feeling for me, and it reminded me that my problems and worries are only as big as I make them. And there's my deep thought for the day.
The sunrise came not a moment too soon. I was on the verge of some serious cabin fever.
In the pic below, you can see some white stuff below the sunrise line. I thought it was ocean at first, but after consulting our in-flight map, I realized this was SNOW. We were over the Alps, and what I took a picture of was a big glacier in between huge mountains. Again, too cool!
My first European sunrise over northern Italy. No picture can portray how gorgeous and awe-inspiring it is to watch the sun rise at 38,000 feet.
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