Düsseldorf (phone +49 [0] 211/1720 20, www.duesseldorf-tourismus.de), which means “Village on the Düssel River,” is no longer a fishing village on the right bank of the Rhine River where the Düssel joins it. It is one of Germany’s Magic Cities (www.magic.cities.de), a great commercial and administrative center and the capital of North Rhine-Westphalia.
During a trip my husband, Joe, and I took to Argentina (Sept. ’06, pg. 84. & Oct. ’06, pg. 76), we visited Iguazú Falls. We are so glad we went. It was absolutely spectacular!
When traveling out of Las Vegas on Southwest Airlines, my husband, Steve, always goes to our favorite airport sandwich shop, Capriotti’s, and buys us each a sandwich for the flight. On Christmas eve 2004 he ordered an extra Italian sub for the crew on the plane and told the guy behind the counter what it was for. At that, the sandwich shop guy threw in a turkey sandwich with all the trimmings. Together, they could feed four.
ITN was mailed a copy of the following letter, sent by a reader to Virgin Atlantic Airways.
I have been using wheelchair help in airports for three years. Dragging a bag and standing in line has become too much for me.
Hotelink, Ltd. (Southways Park, Lowfield Heath, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9TQ, U.K.; phone [01293] 552251, fax 531131, e-mail tmale@hotelink.co.uk or visit www.hotelink.co.uk), serves all London hotels. In May ’06 we paid £23 (about $45) per person for the transfer service, arranging it through our hotel. They told us to be ready at 10:30 a.m.
At 10:45 a 12-passenger Mercedes van pulled up to the hotel door. The driver took our bags and put them in the rear of the van. He then picked up passengers at two hotels nearby.
—by Steve Emmett, Solano Beach, CA
In July ’06 I had the opportunity to try out a relatively new airline called MAXjet (888/435-9629, www.maxjet.com), which started up in November ’05 and currently operates from New York’s JFK Airport and Washington’s Dulles Airport to London’s Stansted Airport, though new destinations are planned.
On Feb. 21, 2006, a companion and I flew on EgyptAir from New York (JFK) to Cairo, Egypt, with Grand Circle Travel. We were on GCT’s “Ancient Egypt and the Nile” tour with a 5-day pretrip extension to Jordan. We upgraded to business class (which we do on long flights).
Upon check-in at JFK we were sent to the Swiss International Air Lines business-class lounge, which was the finest lounge I had experienced. It had a full buffet dinner after 4 p.m. as well as free Internet service, excellent drinks and a beautiful sitting area.
British Airways had an ad in the Oct. 24, 2005, copy of the New York Times heralding its “business class like no other.” Prior to that, on July 22, 2005, I flew business class from Rome to London (Heathrow). My plane was a 767 that was entirely coach configured. The business class was simply partitioned off, but none of the coach seats were changed. The seats, the width, the pitch and the legroom all were coach.