Where in the world is Rachel?

So my July roster has just come out….and let’s just say it isn’t the most exciting one I’ve ever had! 

I’ll be heading to:

  • Hyderabad (t/a)
  • Newcastle (anybody fancy taking this one for me?!)
  • Amsterdam
  • New York (Yay! Killer flight I’ve heard, but I’m so ready to do some shopping!)
  • Medina (t/a)
  • Sydney 
  • Kuwait (t/a)
  • Riyadh (t/a)

As you can see I’ve been given a fair few turnarounds! Not so much fun…but at least you get to come back to your own bed at the end of the day!

A meander around Munich

The morning after I landed from Manchester, I headed straight back to the airport for my next flight – Munich, Germany. As my family live in Austria I thought it would be a great opportunity for them to come and visit, however Harry was the only one who could make it. After a quick plane ride from Vienna he arrived in Munich shortly after I got to our hotel.

Since the weather was so lovely we decided to head straight out into the city, which is only a short underground ride from the hotel. Before we even got to the underground we stumbled across a market selling lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg. Of course I couldn’t resist a few punnets of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and some fresh asparagus that is in season right now. After dropping those back off in the hotel we soon arrived in the town centre.

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The main square in Munich, the Marienplatz, has a huge cathedral and as we arrived we realised it was just coming up to the hour, so we stayed (along with hundreds of other tourists!) to watch the Glockenspiel – while the church bells ring the figurines go around and it’s almost like a little show. Impossible to take pictures of though, haha!

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We walked around quite a bit of the city centre, just enjoying the lovely sunny weather.

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After a while we decided it was time for an ice cream, so stopped and found a little cafe in the sun.

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We then headed over towards the English Gardens. This is a huge park that spans over 370 Hectares and is actually one of the world’s largest urban parks, even bigger than Central Park in New York! Of course we couldn’t explore all of it that evening, so just had a nice walk around.

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As some of the crew had arranged to meet for dinner, we headed back to the hotel for some delicious asparagus ravioli, crisp white wine, and finished off with some traditional “Kaiserschmarren”.

Having been awake since before 5am that morning, I realised I was actually quite tired, and headed up to bed leaving Harry to chat with the rest of the crew for a bit longer.

The next morning we forced ourselves to the gym, and then to cancel all of our hard work out went straight on to breakfast and tried a bit of everything! I find the breakfasts in Germany to be the best; there’s always so much choice and it’s all so fresh!

A quick trip to the supermarket to stock up on a few essentials and all too soon it was time to start getting ready for the flight home. Harry left to get a train to Austria to see the family for a couple of days, and it was back to the airport and sunny Dubai for me.

Thanks for coming all the way to Munich Harry! 🙂

Also just realised I haven’t posted my roster for this month, so here goes:

  • Manchester (check my previous post for this layover!)
  • Munich
  • Zurich
  • Casablanca
  • Hong Kong (so looking forward to this flight, I haven’t been since my very first flight on the A380; I think there’s a post about it somewhere near the beginning of my blog!)
  • Bombay (t/a)
  • London Heathrow

I’m hoping to get back into blogging a little bit more this month after taking a little break, so if there’s anything you’d like me to write about feel free to leave a comment! 🙂

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

Rainy Osaka

This morning I got back from a flight to Osaka, Japan. We arrived at our hotel early evening and arranged to go to dinner. We couldn’t decide between sushi and another Japanese speciality (which I have now forgotten the name of!) but on the first officer’s recommendation we chose the latter. Close to the hotel there is a whole area full of restaurants so we walked over, ready for some dinner.

ImageI’d forgotten that so many restaurants in Japan display all of their dishes in plastic versions in the window!

ImageImageLet’s be honest, it doesn’t look very appetising, at all. I don’t think I could tell you what’s inside either, but it’s always fun to try something new!

The next morning a big group of us had made plans to go to Kyoto, however when I got downstairs only 4 of us had made it. The others had obviously seen the pouring rain and decided to stay in bed! We walked to the train station and got on a train, hoping it would take us in the right direction! Once we arrived in Kyoto, we had all assumed we would just be able to have a nice little stroll around and see all the temples. It is actually a pretty big city and walking was definitely not an option, especially as the rain had not stopped. We got on a bus (luckily it had a TV screen in the front with the name of each stop in English!) and made our way to the Kinkaku-ji Temple, also called the Golden Temple.

ImageImageThe temple was beautiful, such a shame about the rain as I’m sure sunlight reflecting off it would look lovely!

ImageImageImageImageImageDespite the rain we had a lovely stroll around the grounds. We decided not to go and visit any other temples this time, so I’ll have to make sure I get another flight to Osaka!

I also got my roster for April while I was away, and this month I only have one new destination. I have leave at the beginning of the month (11 days, yay!) and then I’ll be going to:

  • Bangkok (going to try and go to the tiger temple if I have time)
  • Bangalore turnaround
  • Chennai turnaround
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Bombay turnaround
  • Perth (again?!)
  • Durban (my one new destination!)

I don’t count turnarounds as new destinations, as we don’t actually get off the plane. I didn’t bid for anything as I’m at the bottom in bidding seniority this month, so I’ll have to try and see if I can swap some of my flights and go somewhere new. My leave starts in 2 days and I still haven’t decided where I’m going to go yet! I’m contemplating the idea of going to Alberquerque to visit Lizzie (my sister) which would mean trying to get on a flight to America, my best bets are probably Houston or Dallas, and then get a connecting flight. If I do that then I’ll try and stop off in Austria on the way home to see my friends and family. Got to get my lovely Lahore turnaround out of the way first and then I’ll officially be off for 11 days! I’ll keep you updated as to where I go on my leave 🙂

I’d also like to apologise about the dreadful quality of the pictures; even though I charged my camera overnight, when we arrived in Kyoto it refused to turn on, so I had to use my iPhone. I’m hoping it’s just a glitch and that it’s not broken 🙁

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

March roster!

Just a short and sweet blog post today with a little update on my roster for March. I was supposed to be going on another trip to São Paulo at the end of February but unfortunately fell ill and fainted in the briefing room so that didn’t happen! Very disappointed as I’m losing out on a lot of flying hours and also missing the Brazilian carnival!

Somehow though I managed to skip my “reserve” month in March and got a nice roster with only one turnaround. So I’ll be heading to:

  • London Heathrow
  • Manila
  • Taipei
  • Perth
  • Osaka
  • Lahore (t/a)

Most people hate London flights as they are always so busy, but I like it as it means a chance to go to Primark (always needing more tights for work!) and also have a good stock up on English food at the supermarket!

I’m also very excited to have 3 new places – Manila, Taipei and Osaka magnets shall soon be added to the fridge! I originally had a Paris instead of the Osaka but when somebody sent me the swap I thought I may as well take it. Hopefully I’ll be there for the cherry blossoms although I think it may be a week or two early.

So that’s my roster for March! I’ve got some leave at the beginning of April and I’m trying to find somewhere nice (and not too far to fly) Joey and I could go for a few days – any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!

Next month I’ll be going to…

My November roster came out yesterday. Roster day is always highly anticipated, and I was pleasantly surprised for November! I didn’t bid, and there are lots of mixed opinions on bidding. Some people do it without fail each month, some people never bid and swear they always have the best rosters. I didn’t bid in October either and only got 1 turnaround, and as I’m always hoping they’ll give me new destinations anyway, I decided to see what luck gave me! 

And luck was on my side! I’ll be going to: 

  • Seattle (so excited, my first layover in the States, and its 50 hours!)
  • Frankfurt
  • Frankfurt again (have to say these 2 aren’t my favourite, but never mind!)
  • Madrid (even though I lived in Spain for 3 months, I’ve never been to Madrid! Exciting!)
  • Jakarta

I also have 5 days leave as well as lots of days off! So far I don’t have any plans to go anywhere during my leave, but you never know something might just pop up! 

So there you go, just a quick post of where I’l be heading next month!

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Also thought I’d add in a little picture of my ever expanding magnet collection! I shall be adding to it later today when I fly to Hamburg! 🙂

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!