France has issued a luxury tax on business class seat

A surprise at the DFW airport.... France has issued a luxury tax on business class travelers.... Guess what, I had to pay an additional 50 US to get my boarding pass.... Something that Expedia did not have a clu about....

Flight to Zurich in economy (this is torture)

I have had the luxury of flying in business class for the most part, but today I "enjoyed" the pleasure of a crammed economy seat. Before our departure, a guy in front of me took down his seat and I felt my knees go to pieces. American Airlines (the company I love) used to be known of the space in the economy class... Now they have reversed their decision and gone to the other extreme. There is no way that one can work with a laptop, so I am sitting here for 10 hours with my knees in my mouth. Wake up American Airlines.... This is not the way to treat a 2 million miles plus customer of yours....

Paris, France; here we come

My travel takes me now to Paris, France via Zurich with American Airlines. This time I have with me my wife so it is going to be very nice mini vacation with some work. I will be opening the French IAMCP chapter with Microsoft France. The Zurich temperature is 44 Fahrenheit, hopefully Paris is different.

Tip for Silicon Valley travellers

If you ever have to travel along Silicon Valley, try the double decker train Caltrain.... It is cheap, you get to see scenery that you would not see otherwise and it runs smoothly. I took the train today from Palo Alto to Santa Clara to test it out.

Palo Alto - Stanford University and my favorite town

I am noty sure why, but each time I visit Palo Alto, I get to whitness a tremendous weather and the main University Avenue with bookstores etc is like heaven to me. I will visit this place often, that is for sure!

Santa Clara spring is beautiful

The Silicon Valley weather is very nice this week. Temperate weather, sun is shining and when compared with my hometown Dallas, this weather will stay moderate while Texas will get hot much quicker.

Silicon Valley, here I come again

My trip today takes me to the heart of Silicon Valley, San Jose California. The flight according to American Airlines is 3 hours 50 minutes, so even from European perspective.... you get far in that time.

Beautiful Coronado Island

Today, we had a chance to visit the beautiful Coronado island judt before we left for the airport. The housing on the island is beautiful, with lot's of small shops to spend time on. The only distraction is the landing and takeoffs from the militarybase that is also located on the island. The sound of jets every 5 minutes is mindboggeling.

Manchester Hyatt hotel - close to the San Diego Convention center

I stayed in the beautiful Manchester Hyatt that is very close to the San Diego Convention center. The other very nice hotel close by is Bristol where I stayed in the past. I highly recommend this hotel as it serves business travelers well.

Our Journey down to La Jolla, California

I can not believe how beautiful La Jolla is as a place. We stayed in downtown La Jolla in a beautiful hotel and this place was in a very centralized location. Our trip from Long Beach down to La Jolla showed us many very beautiful places such as Fountain Valley, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Monarch Beach, Dana Point, San Clemente, Carlsbad Del Mar and finally La Jolla. We had the chance to spend the evening in La Jolla and do some window shopping the following morning. The following destination would be downtown San Diego.

Marina del Ray Holiday Inn Express - our first night

Our first night was in Marina del Ray Holiday Inn hotel that is very close to the hotels where we typically stay. The hotel is recently renovated and had wireless connection, which is very important for me as I had to work with emails. The idea was to drive down to San Diego the following morning, which we did. Last year we had lunch in Long Beach local PF Changs and our kids requested the same thing this year.

Southern California - here I come

Two nights in my own bed... Vau... My allergies are killing me.... We are into spring in Dallas, Texas and some of the trees are just blooming..... Beautiful...

I am headed towards San Diego, Ca and then I towards LA this evening. With a car, that should be less than 3 hours.

Flight back to Sao Paulo - regional airport in the middle of the city.

We took GOL airplane back to Sao Paulo and it looked like it flew along the coast and then to west when it reached the level of Sao Paulo. The city is extremely large in area and according to my Mexican friend, he felt it was even larger than Mexico City (I will see if this is the case in April). There are thousands of skyscrapers on the route that the flight takes. GOL uses a regional airport when flying back and forth between Rio and Sao Paulo and it feels like landing in the middle of the city when comingv from Rio.

We stayed in Hilton Morumbi and according to locals, the US president is going to visit the hotel next week. This Hilton is byy far the best I have been in measured by any standard.

Brazil.... I will be back soon!

Second stop - lunch in a native place with ocean view

We drove for tens of miles along the coast towards south and ended up to have lunch in a native restaurant with no turists. The food was authentic, drinks unreal and the fish and seafood was very fresh. This is the way to eat in a foreign country!

First stop in Rio - Sugarloaf

We took the two stage cable car to the top of the Sugarloaf mountain and this gives the opportunity to take pictures of the Rio de Janeiro beaches, Copacabana and other famous places.

Landing to Rio de Janeiro local airport

The flight from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro was short, less than an hour and the landing to Rio de Janeiro was unreal. We circled to get down to the very short runaway and this gave us the opportunity to see downtown Rio de Janeiro from air and with sun already in full force, it was very nice to get the first feel of Rio. The regional airport is Aeroporto Santos Dumont and it is really nicely located in the downtown area.

Lessons learned - keep the right credit card and passport on your travel

We departed this morning very early to Rio de Janeiro. We had two issues on the airport. One in our group did not have his passport with him... and this should not have been an issue... but it was.... He took a cab to the hotel to pick it up.... he made it....

Secondly, keep your American Express with you as GOL airline did not accept international Visa or Mastercard, only American Express.... Typically it is the other way around. My friend had one with him so we got the tickets. These two suggestions are good to remember when you travel especially in Latin America.

Rio de Janeiro waiting on us

Tomorrow morning, I will be flying from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Rio de Janeiro for a quick one day tour. We will leave our beautiful hotel in the morning and fly with a local jet to Rio to withness all of the famous places I have seen in movies and TV. We will return in the evening and then fly back to Dallas as the flight is leaving late in the evening. Local flights to Rio de Janeiro are leaving from a municipal airport. This will be a cool trip with four good friends. One of them is from Mexico, one from Canada, one from Sweden. Talk about an international team

Sao Paulo, Brazil is beautiful - I have to get back here soon

Two days in Sao Paulo, Brazil has made me a fan of the city. Tonight, I had the change to whitness a 360 degree view of the city from a skyline bar late in the evening. I have now had the change to have dinner twice in the city and the qualilty and the taste is awesome. I will be back to this city for sure and I have fallen in love with the place and the people. What is also interesting is the fact that it gets light 6.00 AM and dark at 6.00 PM and this is kind of hard to adjust specifically as the mornings are more dark in Dallas as of now.