Voila! We're in Brussels

And, just like that, we're there! We left Columbus on time for our 4+ hour layover in New York, and arrived without incident.  Our ticket class allowed us to use the Delta lounge at JFK and what a treat that was. . .  as much food and alcohol as any man could want, so we availed ourselves of at least the food part.  Cheryl said they had everything BUT ice cream which would've made it perfect.  (She later made up for it - picture below - by having ice cream for dessert on our plane to Brussels.)

I'd been to Delta lounges while traveling on business before, but they were nothing like the one at JFK.  Who knew what went on behind the scenes at these major airports?We splurged on our air tickets from JFK to Brussels and went first class, after all who knows what tomorrow holds so we took that approach.  And, it was another "treat" for the world travelers, sitting up front with a seat that folds all the way down so one can sleep, and accoutrements galore (slippers, sleeping masks, blanket, pillow, and the like)

The food was exceptional, both dinner and breakfast before landing.  Unfortunately, the screen for my seat was (too) well-worn so it didn't work right for selecting a movie or anything.  That was fine, though, as I planned on sleeping (and did).  Also, the complimentary internet for business class didn't work, either, but again I was able to subdue my phone fixation for the 7 1/2 hour flight.

The best part so far was that, on landing, we went from the plane through Customs and it took a whopping 5 minutes!  We remembered going through Customs in Russia on a prior trip and it took at least two hours.  We didn't even see a human being there for the first hour in Russia.  At least we didn't get arrested for no reason.  Brussels was quite the opposite with a welcoming Customs agent and a quick process.

On to get our luggage and the meeting with the Viking representative who whisked us onto a bus with other guests and to the ship we went.  They had told us we couldn't get into our cabin until 3 p.m. (and it was noon), but that was a classic example of Viking's underpromise-then-overdeliver approach - we were there right after lunch and taking a much needed snooze before dinner.

Tomorrow is the Brussels marathon (we're scheduled to tour Antwerp and it abuts Brussels, separated by the Scheldt River) so it has altered our touring somewhat, but who cares?  We're on vacation!  More tomorrow.