This is the entertainment screen that each passenger gets to utilize, including us traveling in coach. Situated in the back of the seats in front of us (and the wall in front of the front seats) they play music, movies, games and other interesting information including this map that shows the progress of the plane. As can be seen here, we were in the Atlantic-arctic ocean between Greenland and the United Kingdom and Ireland.
This is the main screen. The games include Bejeweled, Cave Crunch (a prehistoric Pac-Man), Solitaire, Chess, and Reversi, the last of which can also e played against other passengers. Another game that is made only to be played against others is Trivia Challenge, a multi-choice game of twenty questions. I am probably overly proud that I won all four games I played, with a range of challengers from three to eight that always included Unicorn (she was pissed that I kept winning).
I also watched two movies. The first was Spiderwick Chronicles, a family film which is actually very good, despite a lukewarm beginning. Categorized as a Lord of the Rings type fantasy for children, it followed the adventrues of a young man who learns to see a hidden world of creatures.
The second was an independent German film called the Counterfeiters, which tells the story of a German Jewish counterfeiter in 1936 who gets caught and thrown into a concentration camp. After being in the camp for a number of years, he is put in charge of a special group of people whose job it is to counterfeit British ounds in order to flood the market and therefore damage the value of the currency and British economy, among other reasons (they also counterfeit the Dollar). I did not get to finish it, but it was very good also; a good serious film--I almost cried when I saw one of the Jews try to commit suicide because documents came in suggesting his wife and child died in Auschwitz. he opened his veins, but seemed to have been saved by a doctor who was also a prisoner.
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As far as other interesting happenings, I met Professor David Galaty of Lewis and Clark University and had a spirited conversation about politics, and then a brief one about science and religion. He believes that both are essential, a refreshing perspective from an academic.
After landing in Amsterdam, we had a six hour layover before departing for Hannover. The most notably interesting thing about the duty free shop was the cigarettes, of which the packaging was almost half taken up by overly clear warnings that cigarettes kill in far bigger letters than those in Oregon. The first person I recognized was a gigantic advertisement featuring Kiera Knightley (hot as ever--sie ist heiß!), although there were others including Nick Lachey. Unicorn had her first bier in the form of a Heineken, which I snapped a picture of on her camera.
Probably the most noteworthy happening was my purchase of a bottle of Evian for €1.55, which I payed 20$ for and received €10 for.
Come to think of it, I was probably ripped off a little there. Oh well, she had a nice smile.
After reading a little more of the book New Spring by Robert Jordan to each other, Unicorn and I boarded our flight to Hannover.
Upon arrival, I was startled to learn my host, Robin, was a guy--Unicorn and then I assumed it was a woman.
This gave Unicorn some comfort.
The ride from Hannover was beautiful, and after arriving here around 18:00 German time (nine a.m. American time; I had been up over 24 hours by then) I had a delicious meal, took a shower and slept for five hours, oder (or) schlafen funf uhr.
More later!
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