To Tampa, 22hrs door – door
I printed my plastic GPUG Summit 2016 luggage tag and was ready to travel. The flight itinerary was from Newcastle in United Kingdom where I live, to London, then to Miami and final hop over to Tampa. In all it took 22hrs from door to door.
On arrive at the gate in London, found I was riding a A380 to Miami – suddenly the journey had become exciting! My first experience was on top deck, when I returned I was on the bottom. A very pleasant aircraft to ride in, quieter and felt more open than a 747. Although it offered a TV with entertainments, I had stacked up a lot of nerd podcasts to get through on my iPhone, so I started listening to them while being fed and watered by the BA staff. Was really great to have an aisle seat with no one next to me, room to stretch and put things on the other seat.
I avoided Charlotte and Atlanta as transit airports as the timing were uncomfortably tight, so I went for the longer turn around at Miami. Due to horrendous immigration lines, lack of crowd management, under resourcing a busy set of flights landing, and to cut a long story short, I made it at the last moment to the Tampa flight. They more or less bundled me on board, closed the door and we were off!
Landing at Tampa I got a Taxi for $25 to the hotel- I was too tired and just wanted to get where I was going, so didn’t figure out any cheaper methods of transport at that late time of night.
Love at first sight Tampa
Even though I’d been awake 22hrs and was weary and realised I needed to get up in the morning – I’m an investigative sort and thus couldn’t resist going for a walk within mins of getting in my room. Tampa has a river walk that follows the river all around the part of town that the convention centre is in. I followed the walk, right down to the convention centre so I would know in the morning where I was going. I also spotted a Publix supermarket to get some supplies in the morning, I realised I’d forgotten a few things in my hap-hazard packing for my trip. The river walk and public areas hanging off was so very pretty at night. Train tracks, bridges, fountains, riverside restaurants, full of romantic atmosphere, great architectural lighting of the bridges and walk, instant love for Tampa. So many others were out enjoying the evening air too and I would do every night too if I lived there!
I walked for an hour and a half, then got back to my room and got some sleep 24hrs without sleep is a long day.
GPUG Summit 2016 Tampa USA - Part 2
GPUG Summit 2016 Tampa USA - Part 3
GPUG Summit 2016 Tampa USA - Part 4
GPUG Summit 2016 Tampa USA - Part 5