In Flight Still Life Over Iceland

My flight last Thursday from Paris to Salt Lake City on Delta was quite pleasant. The flight attendant crew was experienced (40s and 50s, estimated age), professional, efficient, and customer centric. We took off from Charles De Gaul and turned due north, heading along the eastern shore of the UK.  While we were crossing over the Shetland Islands, and heading towards Iceland, nuts and aperitifs were served.  A yellow pepper soup was served that was so tasty, I asked for a 2nd bowl, which was happily and promptly served.

As we approached Iceland, the salads appeared... (notice the empty bread plate).  A drizzle of balsamic EVO dressing was probably superfluous, but tasty none the less.

Having been in Bangalore where my delicate western digestive system could not wipe out water borne micro-organisms, I'd not had a salad, fresh fruit or veggies (anything that could not be peeled) for weeks.  I devoured the succulent dark greens. The main course arrived, and it was delicious.  Couscous, snow peas, cherry tomatoes, the chicken (poulet) was a little over-done and dry, but there was no shortage of juice on the plate in which to soak and dip. (kudos to Delta for serving a meal with METAL utensils!!)

As we crossed just north of Iceland, dessert was served. 

Though they were pushing ice cream and chocolate cookies, I took the fresh fruit (washed with French water) and artisan cheeses, paired with a pear flavored digestive. It tasted as good as it looked.  My 2A seat was southern facing, and the still-rising sun did a wonderful job lighting my tray.  By this time, I was 3 glasses of Champagne and one glass of Argentinian white wine on my way towards blissfully happy, and I was taking pictures of pretty much everything.  Clouds... Icelandic shores... bottles of wine (more on that later)...

The strawberries (Fraise Fraise) were succulent.  The grapes semi-sweet and incredibly juicy.  The cheeses, fantastic. 

Over Greenland and Canada, the entire cabin was asleep.  I remained awake to work through accumulated hard drive emails that were clogging up my Outlook PST file over the last 2 weeks.  I made great progress in reducing 800 emails down to 150 over a period of 8 hours - kudos again to Delta to for having powered seats, so I was not limited to a 2 hour battery life!  I checked out the window twice by lifting the shade to see if there was ANYTHING to view over Greenland.  There was NOTHING except SOLID, Blinding, white light.  It reminded me of glimpses of  refactory lined blast furnaces I've audited in previous jobs in the mid-west.

While I had expected the Delta portions of my trip to be inferior to the Air France portions, the inverse was true.  The Delta crews were remarkable, while the Air France crews (this trip) were adequate at best, indignant and slow at worst.  Europe to SLC is not a bad route.  Customs and Immigration in SLC is small, quaint, and fine for a single plane.  I'd hate to see it have to handle multiple incoming flights.  I opted for the metal detector & frisking, instead of the full body scan x-ray, and had my inseam checked, buttocks patted down, nipples caressed, and felt even slightly tickled as the nitrile gloved TSA employee felt up and down my lats. If you have the time, and you want to reduce your over-all radiation exposure, I recommend opting out.

I also recommend Delta's Business Elite class of service.  Those ladies do a very nice job.