You'll excuse me whilst I pontificate.
Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of money on various bits of luggage - some of which have been good and faithful friends, some of which have fallen victim to baggage handlers and some of which fell apart at the first possible excuse.
Whilst I have a couple of other things tucked away in the armoury, my use of luggage these days comes down to four pieces - which serve just about every need I can think of.
The smallest piece is my laptop bag - now I'm hard on these, cramming bits and pieces into every possible pocket and I've gotten through two in eight years. The most recent acquisition is a Targus Global Executive Plus in a sale a few months ago, it's suitably anonymous (I always felt a bit wary tromping some of the streets with a Sony branded laptop bag), it holds a laptop, accessories, a book, some paperwork and two cartons of cigarettes with ease and could probably be used for a stripped down overnight if required.
The next smallest is the "cabin bag", it's used for trips of one or two nights and has been stretched to three nights before now. It's approved by Lufthansa as cabin luggage on anything but Barbie's Fun Jet or a Crash-8 and was acquired during a bored moment at the Lufthansa World Ship at Berlin Tegel. It's the old design of the Titan Lufthansa Flight Cabin Trolley and comes with LH branding (which has allowed me to whisk through the Crew lane at Sydney). It's advantage is the laptop compartment, although that can be a pain for extracting the laptop at security when full and that it is soft sided and can be crammed quite full - although this can lead to fun with overhead bins on the Fokker 100 with Swiss's best jobsworths ready to pounce and gate check it. The other disadvantage is whilst it will hold a pair of shoes in the shoe holders, the addition of a pair of shoes constricts the capacity to two days. It also gets used as the cabin/laptop bag on longer trips. At two years old and in fairly frequent use, it is wearing very well. I used to be very happy with it, but now I have a terrible urge to replace it which I really shouldn't do as it's good for a few years yet.
The newest item in the collection is what I have now called "Shiny Case". A Rimowa Classic Flight 63L Trolley, it is exceptionally light (4.6kg), very well made and rather stylish. I can see me wailing about every minor dent and scuff on in for years to come. RImowa is sufficiently unusual to get appreciative comments from Brum Taxi Drivers, but common as muck in Germany. Shiny Case is for trips up to a week, or maybe five days if I have to get dressy. A four day Ruhrgebiet with three sorts of clothes, books, various ancillary tat, a pair of boots and a pair of shoes is no problem and there's even some room left for a couple of boxes of choccies for the office. The sticker shock on purchasing one of these beasties is quite large and even more if you wish to pay in pounds Sterling. I recommend searching carefully through on-line German baggage retailers.
The oldest and largest item is my 20 year old Delsey Club. Purchased for what seemed like a small fortune back in the mists of time, the shopkeeper told me that it was a suitcase for life. It only really gets an airing once a year these days, but despite being a bit battered by baggage handlers, it's still in fairly good nick and holds enough clothes for a couple of weeks and still has some room left for gifts/books/etc. Main problems with it are that it doesn't have TSA locks, so can't really be taken to the USA and that parts are no longer available, so if the wheels go, it may have to face retirement. As an old hardshell, it's a heavy beast, so you do have to watch out for the 20kg piece limit found on many airlines if you overfill it.
I'm not off anywhere for a couple of weeks, so I might add some thoughts on aircraft next week.
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Nürnberg
I must admit, I didn't do a lot after arrival on the Friday night, I had a shower and thought about room service. I wasn't impressed by that, so by just after 8pm, I went wandering in search of something to eat. Luckily, the hotel is quite close to the Altstadt as often the area around a Hauptbahnhof can be a bit of a desert for decent eating.
I ended up with a meal of Soup and Schnitzel at a fair typical Gastätte not far from the hotel just inside the City walls with a couple of half litres of Tucher Helles. It was fairly decent but a bit food for fuelish, don't ask me the name, but it's on the left just as Königstraße starts inside the city wall.
After breakfast the next morning, I went a wandering, I started off quite early and started by bimbling along the restored city walls enjoying a lovely morning and a mixture of ancient and modern.
At this point, I found on a poster street map, a sort of official city walk up through Sankt Lorenz along the river and up through Sankt Siebald to the Schloß, so I decided to follow that, with the usual variations for "ooh, that's nice". The poster maps are quite common and it was quite easy to follow. Essentially it was a wander down Königstraße to the Sankt Lorenz church and then over the bridge over the Pegnitz to the Hauptmarkt. Of interest was the U-Bahn station which was carefully arranged to fit in with the surrounding area, the attractive church and the bridge over the river. I also noted a couple of shops for a later exploration.
On getting to the market, I had a good look around, I love food markets and it can take me hours to get around one. This one wasn't really exciting, but pleasant, my hands filled with some nice looking tomatoes, some bergkäse (after careful taste tests) and the prize of some echt Lebkuchen for the offices and friends. I also bought a couple of Apples after trying to remember which side of the Speyerer Linie I was - full speed ahead and damn the isogloss.
The walk then wanders away following the Pegnitz, via the Fleischbrücke which can be quite enchantingly pretty, crossing onto a small island and then off it again ending up at Maxplatz and then back down to the Hauptmarkt. I stopped for coffee on the way, I don't usually do a certain world wide chain which burns its beans a little, but if they are open and have tables by a nice river on a sunny morning, then I can be tempted.
On getting back to the market, it's a slow slog up a not very big hill to the former castle and residence, going past Sankt Sebald's church to the Albrecht Dürer Haus and then culminating at the Tiergartenplatz. There's lots to see here, but as it was now heading just past 11, it was starting to get a bit more tourist filled. The Tiergartenplatz is particularly attractive and has lots of places to eat and drink with suitable supplements to the prices. If I had been their a couple of hours later, I may well have indulged as it was, I had a quick cig break and then moved on.
I then wandered around for a while, mainly in the Schloßgarten area, admiring the views of the City before walking back down along the garden by the walls back to the river before deciding to go and do some Kultur. I headed off in the direction of the Kunsthalle Nürnberg stopping only to pick up a small snackette of Drei im Weggla (three sossidges in a roll) to keep me going. The main feature at the arts hall was an exhibition of the various work by the multi-talented Dutch artist Mathilde ter Heijne, it wasn't really me and by this time I needed a proper lunch. The first place I tried had very poor service, after waiting a few minutes, I decided to leave. I then found another bar near the Lorenzkirche U-Bahn stop, where a couple of dark beers and some Goulash were consumed. This was highly satisfactory and I would recommend the place if I remember what it was called.
I ended up with a meal of Soup and Schnitzel at a fair typical Gastätte not far from the hotel just inside the City walls with a couple of half litres of Tucher Helles. It was fairly decent but a bit food for fuelish, don't ask me the name, but it's on the left just as Königstraße starts inside the city wall.
After breakfast the next morning, I went a wandering, I started off quite early and started by bimbling along the restored city walls enjoying a lovely morning and a mixture of ancient and modern.
At this point, I found on a poster street map, a sort of official city walk up through Sankt Lorenz along the river and up through Sankt Siebald to the Schloß, so I decided to follow that, with the usual variations for "ooh, that's nice". The poster maps are quite common and it was quite easy to follow. Essentially it was a wander down Königstraße to the Sankt Lorenz church and then over the bridge over the Pegnitz to the Hauptmarkt. Of interest was the U-Bahn station which was carefully arranged to fit in with the surrounding area, the attractive church and the bridge over the river. I also noted a couple of shops for a later exploration.
On getting to the market, I had a good look around, I love food markets and it can take me hours to get around one. This one wasn't really exciting, but pleasant, my hands filled with some nice looking tomatoes, some bergkäse (after careful taste tests) and the prize of some echt Lebkuchen for the offices and friends. I also bought a couple of Apples after trying to remember which side of the Speyerer Linie I was - full speed ahead and damn the isogloss.
The walk then wanders away following the Pegnitz, via the Fleischbrücke which can be quite enchantingly pretty, crossing onto a small island and then off it again ending up at Maxplatz and then back down to the Hauptmarkt. I stopped for coffee on the way, I don't usually do a certain world wide chain which burns its beans a little, but if they are open and have tables by a nice river on a sunny morning, then I can be tempted.
On getting back to the market, it's a slow slog up a not very big hill to the former castle and residence, going past Sankt Sebald's church to the Albrecht Dürer Haus and then culminating at the Tiergartenplatz. There's lots to see here, but as it was now heading just past 11, it was starting to get a bit more tourist filled. The Tiergartenplatz is particularly attractive and has lots of places to eat and drink with suitable supplements to the prices. If I had been their a couple of hours later, I may well have indulged as it was, I had a quick cig break and then moved on.
I then decided to return to the hotel for a while and headed back their via a bakery to purchase some rolls to go with the cheese and tomatoes later. After a short comfort break at the hotel, I decided to head out to the Transport Museum. Normally, I would with such nice weather do an outdoor activity, but choice number 1 was football and 1. FC Nürnberg were playing away. Second choice was the Zoo, but I've had a surfeit of cute animals lately, so I decided on the Transport Museum.
On the way I was accosted by some young Americans who were in search of the local red light district. I told them that I wasn't local, was complemented on my English and they wandered off. I'm not even sure that such things exist in conservative Bayern, but as I bat for Team Gay, I tend not to notice such things unless they are bleeding obvious (i.e. by Frankfurt (Main) Hbf or the "Four Floors of ******" on Orchard Road in Singapore).
I won't bore you with the pleasures of the Railway Museum, I know that there are those who would find it intensely dull and those who would find it very exciting. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot, it it has some splendid exhibits including a DB class 05 Pacific, King Ludwig's Royal Coach which is as camp as his castles, an excellent display of the history of the passenger railway station, a very enjoyable model railway and a hands on signalling exhibition. However, to get the full enjoyment out of it, you will need to be able to read German. I managed to avoid temptation in the Museum shop, where my lust for maps nearly had me spend a couple of hundred Euros, saved by them not taking Amex. I spent a good three hours there including a nice coffee break in the attached cafe.
By this time, it was dusk and heading towards dark. I headed back to the station where I knew there would be some shops open, bought some drinks and chocolate and headed back to the hotel for a nice bath and some cheese and tomato rolls (I can be very frugal at times but in general I find two German hot meals a day a bit too filling).
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Hotel Review: Le Meridien Grand Hotel, Nürnberg
The hotel is situated on the Bahnofstraße directly opposite the main railway station and on the U-Bahn line from the airport, as well as being a hop, skip and a jump from the centre of Nürnberg, it certainly has location.
I was greeted cordially at the front desk and we switched from my ropey German[0] to the young lady's excellent English. The hotel was in the throes of a 1920's reenactment night (oddly enough, Germany rarely has 1930's reenactments) and I was informed that a smoking room was not available, but I could be given a non-smoking room and an ashtray. I was offered a map, a wake-up call and informed of breakfast arrangements.
After the usual formalities, I found my way to my room on the fifth floor, which was pleasantly decorated (a common feature of many Le Meridiens) and of a good size. There was plenty of storage space, plenty of hanging space and a good sized bathroom - done out in a faux retro mode. The bathroom had the usual range of free toiletries (Le Meridien branded) and a window of its very own.
The room proved to be well heated, had a good sized proper opening window (out of which i smoked my fags) and reasonably quiet (rooms facing the Hauptnahnof might not be so quiet). The only fault I found with it was that the desk chair really wasn't suitable for sitting in for more than 30 minutes. The bed was very comfortable and I slept well.
There was a minibar, I eschewed it. I did look at the Room Service menu, thinking of being decadent, but apart from being annoyingly printed on semi-transparent paper, it was short and extremely uninspiring. The internet connection was a typical price for Europe (20€) and stuttered a bit, but was otherwise fit for purpose.
Breakfast is taken in the Brasserie restaurant. This is an extremely pleasant and attractive room to have breakfast in with nice furnishings and very pleasant decor. Oddly, the food is split into two, bread and cakes in the main room and the standard buffet off in a side room. There was an egg station, but I don't like eggs much, so I didn't bother with it. Good cheese selection, good bread selection and a fine selection of yoghurts. Fresh fruit was a bit limited as were pastries. I had a small variant on my usual hotel breakfast each morning, a couple of Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, some cheese, some tomato, some cucumber and some wholemeal German bread. I'd normally have fruit, but it was a bit limited and contaminated with slices of Satan's Globes (oranges). Coffee was, frankly, meh, although the Sunday I asked for expresso and got Illy (which isn't bad).
Check out was swift and pleasant, although no offer of taxi or assistance with luggage was made. I would happily return to the hotel.
[0] I am told that my German as well as being somewhat ropey comes with a distinct Ruhrgebiet accent, which can be a bit tricksy south of the Weißwurstäquator. I really must try and get some practise in, which will go with giving up the fags and cutting back on Chocolate as potential ideas for 2011.
I was greeted cordially at the front desk and we switched from my ropey German[0] to the young lady's excellent English. The hotel was in the throes of a 1920's reenactment night (oddly enough, Germany rarely has 1930's reenactments) and I was informed that a smoking room was not available, but I could be given a non-smoking room and an ashtray. I was offered a map, a wake-up call and informed of breakfast arrangements.
After the usual formalities, I found my way to my room on the fifth floor, which was pleasantly decorated (a common feature of many Le Meridiens) and of a good size. There was plenty of storage space, plenty of hanging space and a good sized bathroom - done out in a faux retro mode. The bathroom had the usual range of free toiletries (Le Meridien branded) and a window of its very own.
The room proved to be well heated, had a good sized proper opening window (out of which i smoked my fags) and reasonably quiet (rooms facing the Hauptnahnof might not be so quiet). The only fault I found with it was that the desk chair really wasn't suitable for sitting in for more than 30 minutes. The bed was very comfortable and I slept well.
There was a minibar, I eschewed it. I did look at the Room Service menu, thinking of being decadent, but apart from being annoyingly printed on semi-transparent paper, it was short and extremely uninspiring. The internet connection was a typical price for Europe (20€) and stuttered a bit, but was otherwise fit for purpose.
Breakfast is taken in the Brasserie restaurant. This is an extremely pleasant and attractive room to have breakfast in with nice furnishings and very pleasant decor. Oddly, the food is split into two, bread and cakes in the main room and the standard buffet off in a side room. There was an egg station, but I don't like eggs much, so I didn't bother with it. Good cheese selection, good bread selection and a fine selection of yoghurts. Fresh fruit was a bit limited as were pastries. I had a small variant on my usual hotel breakfast each morning, a couple of Nürnberger Rostbratwurst, some cheese, some tomato, some cucumber and some wholemeal German bread. I'd normally have fruit, but it was a bit limited and contaminated with slices of Satan's Globes (oranges). Coffee was, frankly, meh, although the Sunday I asked for expresso and got Illy (which isn't bad).
Check out was swift and pleasant, although no offer of taxi or assistance with luggage was made. I would happily return to the hotel.
[0] I am told that my German as well as being somewhat ropey comes with a distinct Ruhrgebiet accent, which can be a bit tricksy south of the Weißwurstäquator. I really must try and get some practise in, which will go with giving up the fags and cutting back on Chocolate as potential ideas for 2011.
Monday, 1 November 2010
Trip Report 2 - Part 2 - Lufthansa NUE-FRA-BHX
Nurnberg and Hotel Review to follow - both are positive reports.
Not feeling at my best, I proceeded to get the U-Bahn to NUE about 10am, it's a nice easy trip about 15 minutes later, I was directly outside the Lufthansa Departures area. I wanted to go and sit down and rest, so I didn't bother with a cigarette and proceeded directly through security. With a selection of Nürnberger Lebkuchen in my bag, I was grateful that it wasn't weighed as it was well over the allowed amount for hand luggage. Security was really, really quick, easy and friendly at NUE and there didn't seem to be any ramping up due to the weekend's incidents. I know that it was cargo, but that doesn't usually stop the powers that be "keeping up the skeer".
I went very quickly to the LH Business lounge where I had about 90 minutes to wait, I sat quietly and drank plain water and hoped that the paracetamol would kick in. There were a couple of times where I thought I might ask about deboarding, but as it came up to boarding time I was feeling considerably better. The NUE lounge was very quiet, which was nice and had the usual selection of decent drinks and poor quality food.
We boarded quickly onto a 737-500 with about a 70% load, we were off-stand on time and quickly on our 30 minute flight to Frankfurt, unlike on the Friday evening, we had a quick service as a tray of Toblerones was passed around. Obviously, LH is learning from LX :-) We landed quickly into a sunny Frankfurt and proceed to taxi for about 10 minutes to the northern inferior aircraft holding pen. There was then the usual bus ride to a bus gate I haven't been to for some years (behind A1-5), the most interesting bit was going under the tail of a LH Whalejet. Moving quickly through the Tunnel of Love, I went through immigration and end up non-Schengen side in B. It must be said, the B-terminal experience is getting better and better over the years, although there's an awful lot of "you are in a maze of twisty passages all alike".
First up was doing some watch shopping, I managed to break my previous watch about 3 months ago and I've been thinking about getting a new one. I'm not a huge spender on watches as I used to have a nasty tendency to leave them in hotel rooms (where, of course, they would never be found), usually something about 50-100€ will do nicely. However, I had allocated slightly more than that for this purchase. After spending a few minutes looking, I'd come down to two I wanted to actually see. However, there was an assistant problem. There seemed to be four assistants, three of them we fawning over a pilot who was trying on a Rolex. The fourth was just standing around, so I asked her for assistance. Blank look. Hmm, try again in German. Looks away, uninterested. I leave the shop, the watch can wait.
I have noticed that certain shops at FRA have staff with a somewhat superior attitude, I remember once going through FRA and looking at sunglasses, I was suited and booted and assistance came immediately. I decided to wait and thought about purchasing on return, I was wearing jeans and a rugby shirt and got the ignore treatment. I shall get my watch in Birmingham, if I get chance, otherwise, I suspect it might be duty-free in transit at SIN.
I then decided I should eat, even though I wasn't particularly hungry. The B-Non-Schengen options are poor but improving, I actually decided on MacDonalds! I'm not a big fan, but you do get a nice apron view and it's quick. I had fries and a diet coke and 45 minutes of watching aircraft move around the bust Frankfurt Apron - including a WhaleJet take off.
I then went to the B23 Lufthansa Business Lounge, where I found a nice comfy chair, got some more water and curled up with Monica Ali's "In the Kitchen" whilst keeping an eye on the football scores. It was quite a long connection, so I hoped the paracetamol which had cut in would stay working and luckily they did. I generally ignored the food side, the Oktoberfest promotion had ended and there was the usual dismal display except for a small tray of mini chocolate eclairs. I stayed on the water. About 40 minutes before the flight, I left the lounge, had a cigarette and then got ready for the boarding zoo.
We had a proper gate again, for what has now been renumbered as LH956 and it was deceptively uncrowded (B23 is often used for widebodies), boarding was a zoo and the document checkers weren't helping at all, they wandering around taking random people at the gate and looking at their documents and then getting all confused when it came to boarding. I had to have three tries with my mobile boarding pass before it register (note to self, clean screen on iPhone), but I managed to get on board fairly quickly and get the all important binspace. I managed to snag an Independent on Sunday on boarding which makes a nice change from the Daily Hate.
We managed to leave the gate just after "time" and were quickly in the air. The flight wasn't completely full, but the load must have been above 90%. I settled down with my book and had the iPhone headlines ready in case the two sets of small children nearby were screamers. I also thought about offering my seat opponent my seat as he looked very uncomfortable at about 2m tall in a middle seat, but such altruistic thoughts quickly disappeared from my head at the thought of a middle seat.
We took off a couple of minutes late and were promised a very short flight back to Birmingham. As usual the service consisted of a sandwich (declined, I could see the Krauterquark lurking with in it) and choice of drinks, I just had water and read the paper. It was quite a quick flight for a FRA, taking about one hour 15 minutes, with no queue at immigration and no bag to collect, I was in a taxi back home about 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time! I must admit the new arrival arrangement at BHX terminal 1 are growing on me, they do imitate FRA's twisty passages a bit, but they are better than the old ones. BHX is quite a smart arrivals experience now, except for the dingy baggage hall where you have some very long waits for luggage.
This could have been a very enjoyable trip, unfortunately, only the first half of it was but that was down to my not feeling too well rather than anything else. I will have to return to Nürnberg at some point to do it justice.
Not feeling at my best, I proceeded to get the U-Bahn to NUE about 10am, it's a nice easy trip about 15 minutes later, I was directly outside the Lufthansa Departures area. I wanted to go and sit down and rest, so I didn't bother with a cigarette and proceeded directly through security. With a selection of Nürnberger Lebkuchen in my bag, I was grateful that it wasn't weighed as it was well over the allowed amount for hand luggage. Security was really, really quick, easy and friendly at NUE and there didn't seem to be any ramping up due to the weekend's incidents. I know that it was cargo, but that doesn't usually stop the powers that be "keeping up the skeer".
I went very quickly to the LH Business lounge where I had about 90 minutes to wait, I sat quietly and drank plain water and hoped that the paracetamol would kick in. There were a couple of times where I thought I might ask about deboarding, but as it came up to boarding time I was feeling considerably better. The NUE lounge was very quiet, which was nice and had the usual selection of decent drinks and poor quality food.
We boarded quickly onto a 737-500 with about a 70% load, we were off-stand on time and quickly on our 30 minute flight to Frankfurt, unlike on the Friday evening, we had a quick service as a tray of Toblerones was passed around. Obviously, LH is learning from LX :-) We landed quickly into a sunny Frankfurt and proceed to taxi for about 10 minutes to the northern inferior aircraft holding pen. There was then the usual bus ride to a bus gate I haven't been to for some years (behind A1-5), the most interesting bit was going under the tail of a LH Whalejet. Moving quickly through the Tunnel of Love, I went through immigration and end up non-Schengen side in B. It must be said, the B-terminal experience is getting better and better over the years, although there's an awful lot of "you are in a maze of twisty passages all alike".
First up was doing some watch shopping, I managed to break my previous watch about 3 months ago and I've been thinking about getting a new one. I'm not a huge spender on watches as I used to have a nasty tendency to leave them in hotel rooms (where, of course, they would never be found), usually something about 50-100€ will do nicely. However, I had allocated slightly more than that for this purchase. After spending a few minutes looking, I'd come down to two I wanted to actually see. However, there was an assistant problem. There seemed to be four assistants, three of them we fawning over a pilot who was trying on a Rolex. The fourth was just standing around, so I asked her for assistance. Blank look. Hmm, try again in German. Looks away, uninterested. I leave the shop, the watch can wait.
I have noticed that certain shops at FRA have staff with a somewhat superior attitude, I remember once going through FRA and looking at sunglasses, I was suited and booted and assistance came immediately. I decided to wait and thought about purchasing on return, I was wearing jeans and a rugby shirt and got the ignore treatment. I shall get my watch in Birmingham, if I get chance, otherwise, I suspect it might be duty-free in transit at SIN.
I then decided I should eat, even though I wasn't particularly hungry. The B-Non-Schengen options are poor but improving, I actually decided on MacDonalds! I'm not a big fan, but you do get a nice apron view and it's quick. I had fries and a diet coke and 45 minutes of watching aircraft move around the bust Frankfurt Apron - including a WhaleJet take off.
I then went to the B23 Lufthansa Business Lounge, where I found a nice comfy chair, got some more water and curled up with Monica Ali's "In the Kitchen" whilst keeping an eye on the football scores. It was quite a long connection, so I hoped the paracetamol which had cut in would stay working and luckily they did. I generally ignored the food side, the Oktoberfest promotion had ended and there was the usual dismal display except for a small tray of mini chocolate eclairs. I stayed on the water. About 40 minutes before the flight, I left the lounge, had a cigarette and then got ready for the boarding zoo.
We had a proper gate again, for what has now been renumbered as LH956 and it was deceptively uncrowded (B23 is often used for widebodies), boarding was a zoo and the document checkers weren't helping at all, they wandering around taking random people at the gate and looking at their documents and then getting all confused when it came to boarding. I had to have three tries with my mobile boarding pass before it register (note to self, clean screen on iPhone), but I managed to get on board fairly quickly and get the all important binspace. I managed to snag an Independent on Sunday on boarding which makes a nice change from the Daily Hate.
We managed to leave the gate just after "time" and were quickly in the air. The flight wasn't completely full, but the load must have been above 90%. I settled down with my book and had the iPhone headlines ready in case the two sets of small children nearby were screamers. I also thought about offering my seat opponent my seat as he looked very uncomfortable at about 2m tall in a middle seat, but such altruistic thoughts quickly disappeared from my head at the thought of a middle seat.
We took off a couple of minutes late and were promised a very short flight back to Birmingham. As usual the service consisted of a sandwich (declined, I could see the Krauterquark lurking with in it) and choice of drinks, I just had water and read the paper. It was quite a quick flight for a FRA, taking about one hour 15 minutes, with no queue at immigration and no bag to collect, I was in a taxi back home about 10 minutes before our scheduled arrival time! I must admit the new arrival arrangement at BHX terminal 1 are growing on me, they do imitate FRA's twisty passages a bit, but they are better than the old ones. BHX is quite a smart arrivals experience now, except for the dingy baggage hall where you have some very long waits for luggage.
This could have been a very enjoyable trip, unfortunately, only the first half of it was but that was down to my not feeling too well rather than anything else. I will have to return to Nürnberg at some point to do it justice.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Trip Report 2 - Part 1 - Lufthansa BHX-FRA-NUE
As you may have read, I had a Lufthansa service voucher to cash in, so I decided on a trip to Nürnberg. However, as holiday was a bit precious and this was a bit of a fill-in, I decided to only take a half day and was therefore on the Lunchtime FRA. As it only a two night trip and I have no need to be dressy, I decided just to go with a carry-on bag which meant liquids at security - sigh.
I managed to scuttle out of work into a taxi at 12:15, the taxi driver was a bit slow and proceeded to slow down to 25 for speed cameras on the 60 mph section of the Coventry Road. However, he managed to deposit me there at 12:55, which is about the same time I could have gotten there on the train if everything had run to schedule - which is somewhat unlikely for the Cross-City line.
This left me with about 25 mins before boarding was about to start. Because I checked in on-line and didn't check a bag, I didn't have priority access for security. Security at BHX terminal 1 has changed in the last 3 weeks and there is now a new shiny larger security area, but that doesn't really matter as there's still the same number of people so most of the new machines were not in service. About 15 mins later, I finally got through only to find that "I want to swab your liquids". So she opened several containers for the kabuki tests and then seemed shocked when I told her to throw them away. Sorry, luv, but I don't know where those gloves have been and they weren't fresh. Also I don't want leakage over the contents of my bag.
It's the senselessness that gets me, first they decided 100ml is safe, now they decide they have to interfere just in case. I'd be happier if they actually scanned all the cargo (which they don't). At least in Europe they are quite polite and we haven't got to the Nudie-Scope or Grope that they have now in the USA from a workforce that seems to think Eric Cartman is a role model.
Anyway, having done that, I had to pop to Boots to buy a couple of things that the kabuki artists had ruined and by the time we had done that, it was boarding time. So no time for lunch for Yanto.
To my great surprise, instead of the usual Boeing 737-500 or 300 at the gate, there was a shiny newish Airbus 320. Very nice and we had a jetbridge, so doubleplus good. Unfortunately, we had some of the worst gate staff I've seen since Rome in 2005 - three of them there, two yapping away to each other and discussing a payslip, whilst the third was trying to deal with about 130 passengers and carry on a conversation with her two mates. Lets just say that I suspect checking of documents wasn't very through today.
The flight was fairly full, which may well be why we had the higher capacity of the 320, maybe 90% in steerage. Unfortunately, my seat opponent was like myself, a little on the porky side and unfortunately, he was a armrest hogger. But, hey, it's only an hour and 20 mins. It was a fairly standard flight, for once I ate the sandwich, it was the "ham not pork" variety - which I found also contains the Krautquark filth, I choked it down with the assistance of a glass of water. I'll try not to repeat that experience again, it was just plain nasty.
We were promised an hour and 10 minutes to FRA, but it ended up being an hour and twenty minutes but to my shock we proceed to a real live gate in the B-concourse. It seems that yet another bit of the constant rebuilding of FRA has finished and we evil non-Schengens can now be properly separated - but sadly not without reclearing security *sigh*. Anyway, after a short wander through shiny new passages which have yet to have the small armada of confusing signs, it was through immigration and to transfer security.
Transfer security was thronged and as usual, there was only two machines open, working very, very slowly and looking like the usual Epilson minus sub-morons were in operation. I wandered down to the other unsigned transfer security - it had a double line in the snake. Hmm, this isn't good - so I used the emergency option. I went out through the exit into a very pleasant autumn afternoon in Frankfurt, enjoyed a few minutes fresh air (and befouled it with a Marlboro Menthol or two) and then decided to go through main security.
That wasn't too bad, although the snake more resembled a set of Dungeons and Dragons corridors than the usual orderly procession, I was through in about five minutes. I then proceeded towards the slum at A26 for my usual free Coke Light and ration of Gummibärchen. It's being refurbished (something it badly needs), so the sole facility for Business Class pax and FTL's for any LH/LX/OS flight going from the Schengen area is the grim DDR-esque looking "Sports Lounge", where the joyfully DDR-like facilities have been enhanced by having even more people crammed into a space barely big enough for 30 people. To add to the early 80's DDR ambience, rather than the miserable range of food and drink normally on offer, there's a rationing system where you can queue up at the "bar" to get one drink, one snack (Leberwurst rolls - uuuuuugghhhhhh) or one pudding/fruit. I bet the bright spark who thought that one up was ex-Interflug. They even managed to get the slow, surly DDR service right and enhanced it by having the barstaff with Keine Englisch and Kleine Deutsch. I didn't bother to find out if they went the whole Commie hog with stock running out, there were no tables and frankly it made the old A26 look desirable. Lufthansa, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
My flight was going from the small set of domestic gates at the lower end of the A-terminal, which features a small but fairly good cafe-bar, I retreated there for Apfelschorle and a decent salad with "Poultry Meatballs".
The flight to Nürnberg was called on time and we proceeded to the bus. It wouldn't be a trip to Frankfurt without a bus-ride, as usual, the aircraft was parked half way to Groß Gerau, but it was a nice afternoon and the bus wasn't too full - so not too bad. The load was about 70% in steerage and I struck it lucky - a whole row to myself. We took off bang on time and were told that the flight time would be about half an hour, not bad for 118 miles. Obviously, there was no service at all on this flight (Business Class still got a drink) as it really was an "up and down" job. I think the shortest Lufthansa flight I've gotten service on is DUS-HAM and the crew have to work like stink on that if it's full. We actually made it in about 25 minutes because 33 minutes after take off, I was buying a U-Bahn ticket at the airport having stopped to go to the loo and buy a packet of cigs after arrival!
I managed to scuttle out of work into a taxi at 12:15, the taxi driver was a bit slow and proceeded to slow down to 25 for speed cameras on the 60 mph section of the Coventry Road. However, he managed to deposit me there at 12:55, which is about the same time I could have gotten there on the train if everything had run to schedule - which is somewhat unlikely for the Cross-City line.
This left me with about 25 mins before boarding was about to start. Because I checked in on-line and didn't check a bag, I didn't have priority access for security. Security at BHX terminal 1 has changed in the last 3 weeks and there is now a new shiny larger security area, but that doesn't really matter as there's still the same number of people so most of the new machines were not in service. About 15 mins later, I finally got through only to find that "I want to swab your liquids". So she opened several containers for the kabuki tests and then seemed shocked when I told her to throw them away. Sorry, luv, but I don't know where those gloves have been and they weren't fresh. Also I don't want leakage over the contents of my bag.
It's the senselessness that gets me, first they decided 100ml is safe, now they decide they have to interfere just in case. I'd be happier if they actually scanned all the cargo (which they don't). At least in Europe they are quite polite and we haven't got to the Nudie-Scope or Grope that they have now in the USA from a workforce that seems to think Eric Cartman is a role model.
Anyway, having done that, I had to pop to Boots to buy a couple of things that the kabuki artists had ruined and by the time we had done that, it was boarding time. So no time for lunch for Yanto.
To my great surprise, instead of the usual Boeing 737-500 or 300 at the gate, there was a shiny newish Airbus 320. Very nice and we had a jetbridge, so doubleplus good. Unfortunately, we had some of the worst gate staff I've seen since Rome in 2005 - three of them there, two yapping away to each other and discussing a payslip, whilst the third was trying to deal with about 130 passengers and carry on a conversation with her two mates. Lets just say that I suspect checking of documents wasn't very through today.
The flight was fairly full, which may well be why we had the higher capacity of the 320, maybe 90% in steerage. Unfortunately, my seat opponent was like myself, a little on the porky side and unfortunately, he was a armrest hogger. But, hey, it's only an hour and 20 mins. It was a fairly standard flight, for once I ate the sandwich, it was the "ham not pork" variety - which I found also contains the Krautquark filth, I choked it down with the assistance of a glass of water. I'll try not to repeat that experience again, it was just plain nasty.
We were promised an hour and 10 minutes to FRA, but it ended up being an hour and twenty minutes but to my shock we proceed to a real live gate in the B-concourse. It seems that yet another bit of the constant rebuilding of FRA has finished and we evil non-Schengens can now be properly separated - but sadly not without reclearing security *sigh*. Anyway, after a short wander through shiny new passages which have yet to have the small armada of confusing signs, it was through immigration and to transfer security.
Transfer security was thronged and as usual, there was only two machines open, working very, very slowly and looking like the usual Epilson minus sub-morons were in operation. I wandered down to the other unsigned transfer security - it had a double line in the snake. Hmm, this isn't good - so I used the emergency option. I went out through the exit into a very pleasant autumn afternoon in Frankfurt, enjoyed a few minutes fresh air (and befouled it with a Marlboro Menthol or two) and then decided to go through main security.
That wasn't too bad, although the snake more resembled a set of Dungeons and Dragons corridors than the usual orderly procession, I was through in about five minutes. I then proceeded towards the slum at A26 for my usual free Coke Light and ration of Gummibärchen. It's being refurbished (something it badly needs), so the sole facility for Business Class pax and FTL's for any LH/LX/OS flight going from the Schengen area is the grim DDR-esque looking "Sports Lounge", where the joyfully DDR-like facilities have been enhanced by having even more people crammed into a space barely big enough for 30 people. To add to the early 80's DDR ambience, rather than the miserable range of food and drink normally on offer, there's a rationing system where you can queue up at the "bar" to get one drink, one snack (Leberwurst rolls - uuuuuugghhhhhh) or one pudding/fruit. I bet the bright spark who thought that one up was ex-Interflug. They even managed to get the slow, surly DDR service right and enhanced it by having the barstaff with Keine Englisch and Kleine Deutsch. I didn't bother to find out if they went the whole Commie hog with stock running out, there were no tables and frankly it made the old A26 look desirable. Lufthansa, you should be ashamed of yourselves.
My flight was going from the small set of domestic gates at the lower end of the A-terminal, which features a small but fairly good cafe-bar, I retreated there for Apfelschorle and a decent salad with "Poultry Meatballs".
The flight to Nürnberg was called on time and we proceeded to the bus. It wouldn't be a trip to Frankfurt without a bus-ride, as usual, the aircraft was parked half way to Groß Gerau, but it was a nice afternoon and the bus wasn't too full - so not too bad. The load was about 70% in steerage and I struck it lucky - a whole row to myself. We took off bang on time and were told that the flight time would be about half an hour, not bad for 118 miles. Obviously, there was no service at all on this flight (Business Class still got a drink) as it really was an "up and down" job. I think the shortest Lufthansa flight I've gotten service on is DUS-HAM and the crew have to work like stink on that if it's full. We actually made it in about 25 minutes because 33 minutes after take off, I was buying a U-Bahn ticket at the airport having stopped to go to the loo and buy a packet of cigs after arrival!
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Trip Report 1 - Part 2 - Lufthansa PRG-FRA-BHX
I proceeded to Prague Airport by bus, there being a direct service from just outside the hotel at a reasonable rate. More like a minivan than a bus, but ran every 30 minutes and didn't wave the Jolly Roger like most Prague taxis do.
The Schengen terminal is smart and modern and Lufthansa have quite a large check-in area. Fortunately, they have the auto check-in machines, unfortunately, they have staff to assist you how to use them. It's quite easy, I just walk up, put in shiny card and it spits out boarding passes. However, obviously, I didn't know how to use them and the staff attempted to assist, a 90 second job (now LH have fixed connection printing) turned into a five minute job. I then went to drop my bag, but there was an attempt to get me to join the rather large queue for the Business Class check-in rather than the very short one for Economy. "But you are entitled" was the plaintive cry. Whilst in the short Economy queue, I get asked if I want to join Miles and More, I smile and show her my card, "but do you want to join Miles and More", seems my card should be Blue not Silver.
Anyway, the rest of check-in was easy, a nice young man checked the Shiny Case through to BHX, I managed to get through security carefully avoiding the Kettleovs and Kettleova's in the one queue and went through into a bland but spacious and modern terminal. I swiftly bought choccies for work, fags for me and a fridge magnet for the fridge door (there might be some space on it). I then thought I'd spend my handful of change on a couple of final beers. Now a beer in Prague during the weekend had been between 19Kr and 40Kr, not at Prague Airport - it's 120Kr - a great big honking rip-off even by airport standards. I decided to save my shrapnel for another trip.
The short hop to Bankfurt was again on an Airbus 321, again, the aircraft was fairly full with a full 11 rows of business class - mainly occupied by a US basketball team and Chinese tourist group. We left a greyish PRG on time, we were proffered the "meat not pork" sandwich (I declined, partly because I've never had an explanation of what it actually is in there) anyway, a glass of water would suffice nicely for the hop. The grayish Prague weather had cleared on landing at Frankfurt and there were magnificent views of the skyscrapers of Mainhattan from the windows.
Needless to say there was an A-B transit involved, however, FRA isn't spectacularly busy in the afternoon's and I had plenty of time to spare. A quick walk and very swift transit through Immigration to go non-Schengen, saw me with about an hour to kill before the BHX. I did think about doing some watch shopping, but I decided against it and went to the B4x lounge.
Now, the B non-Schengen lounges are quite roomy compared to the A26 slum and on an Monday afternoon, they are fairly empty. It's recently been done up, with best quality Politburo seating and some nice new flat screen panel TV's. There's even a pleasant looking terrace which if they thought about it they could open to smokers (or have a smoking room as per DUS, TXL, HAM).
The buffer had just been replenished (as opposed to the crumbs usually found at A26) and had a Bavarian theme to it. I had originally thought about a slice of plum cake, but I noticed something labelled as Obzada. , I quickly grabbed a scoop of that, some red onions (what, no radish?) and a Brez'n. It wasn't bad, although it wasn't up to the quality of the Obzada I usually get at the Viktuallenmarkt in Munich. It was accompanied by some sparkling water - Beck's rarely appeals to me and if it was Bavarian week, why not get some decent Helles in.
To my delight, I found that the BHX was going from an ordinary gate with a jet-bridge and not one of Frankfurts horrid little dungeons with an additional security check and a nice bus ride to your aircraft parked somewhere near Giessen. As is getting to be more and more common on the Birmingham services - we were on an Boeing 737-300. We boarded on time with the Daily Hate and the Daily Torygraph available to take as English newspapers (what a choice, eh) - I had wickedly purloined a FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) from the lounge.
We were fairly full but not chocka and there were just two of us in the row, which makes things a little more comfy. Whilst we boarded on time, we did have to wait in a bit of queue for take off, but were quickly travelling towards Birmingham carefully avoiding Belgian air space (on strike again). Service was fairly quick with the dubious cheese roll on offer this time
I took a tomato juice (no vodka in Euro Economy on LH) and a black coffee to go with it. I have a theory that tomato juice always tastes at its best on an aircraft and I do like to use a little of the Pepper LH provide to go with it. After about an hour and 20 mins, we arrived at Birmingham and were quickly disgorged at the gate. Immigration had quite a queue, although 95% were EU citizens, so it all went quite quickly. Waiting for the bags, of course, wasn't quite so quick. BHX prides itself of being able to get all bags off a 737 in 45 minutes - they even put this on a poster. Personally, I think they should be ashamed myself, it may be fast compared to say Heathrow, but compared to say Singapore Changi (where I have yet to beat my bags to the belt) it's awful.
So there we go, a standard trip in LH Kont Y. The next one is in a couple of weeks, when I shall be doing my voucher trip to NUE, so I may well witter in a few days about luggage.
The Schengen terminal is smart and modern and Lufthansa have quite a large check-in area. Fortunately, they have the auto check-in machines, unfortunately, they have staff to assist you how to use them. It's quite easy, I just walk up, put in shiny card and it spits out boarding passes. However, obviously, I didn't know how to use them and the staff attempted to assist, a 90 second job (now LH have fixed connection printing) turned into a five minute job. I then went to drop my bag, but there was an attempt to get me to join the rather large queue for the Business Class check-in rather than the very short one for Economy. "But you are entitled" was the plaintive cry. Whilst in the short Economy queue, I get asked if I want to join Miles and More, I smile and show her my card, "but do you want to join Miles and More", seems my card should be Blue not Silver.
Anyway, the rest of check-in was easy, a nice young man checked the Shiny Case through to BHX, I managed to get through security carefully avoiding the Kettleovs and Kettleova's in the one queue and went through into a bland but spacious and modern terminal. I swiftly bought choccies for work, fags for me and a fridge magnet for the fridge door (there might be some space on it). I then thought I'd spend my handful of change on a couple of final beers. Now a beer in Prague during the weekend had been between 19Kr and 40Kr, not at Prague Airport - it's 120Kr - a great big honking rip-off even by airport standards. I decided to save my shrapnel for another trip.
The short hop to Bankfurt was again on an Airbus 321, again, the aircraft was fairly full with a full 11 rows of business class - mainly occupied by a US basketball team and Chinese tourist group. We left a greyish PRG on time, we were proffered the "meat not pork" sandwich (I declined, partly because I've never had an explanation of what it actually is in there) anyway, a glass of water would suffice nicely for the hop. The grayish Prague weather had cleared on landing at Frankfurt and there were magnificent views of the skyscrapers of Mainhattan from the windows.
Needless to say there was an A-B transit involved, however, FRA isn't spectacularly busy in the afternoon's and I had plenty of time to spare. A quick walk and very swift transit through Immigration to go non-Schengen, saw me with about an hour to kill before the BHX. I did think about doing some watch shopping, but I decided against it and went to the B4x lounge.
Now, the B non-Schengen lounges are quite roomy compared to the A26 slum and on an Monday afternoon, they are fairly empty. It's recently been done up, with best quality Politburo seating and some nice new flat screen panel TV's. There's even a pleasant looking terrace which if they thought about it they could open to smokers (or have a smoking room as per DUS, TXL, HAM).
The buffer had just been replenished (as opposed to the crumbs usually found at A26) and had a Bavarian theme to it. I had originally thought about a slice of plum cake, but I noticed something labelled as Obzada. , I quickly grabbed a scoop of that, some red onions (what, no radish?) and a Brez'n. It wasn't bad, although it wasn't up to the quality of the Obzada I usually get at the Viktuallenmarkt in Munich. It was accompanied by some sparkling water - Beck's rarely appeals to me and if it was Bavarian week, why not get some decent Helles in.
To my delight, I found that the BHX was going from an ordinary gate with a jet-bridge and not one of Frankfurts horrid little dungeons with an additional security check and a nice bus ride to your aircraft parked somewhere near Giessen. As is getting to be more and more common on the Birmingham services - we were on an Boeing 737-300. We boarded on time with the Daily Hate and the Daily Torygraph available to take as English newspapers (what a choice, eh) - I had wickedly purloined a FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) from the lounge.
We were fairly full but not chocka and there were just two of us in the row, which makes things a little more comfy. Whilst we boarded on time, we did have to wait in a bit of queue for take off, but were quickly travelling towards Birmingham carefully avoiding Belgian air space (on strike again). Service was fairly quick with the dubious cheese roll on offer this time
I took a tomato juice (no vodka in Euro Economy on LH) and a black coffee to go with it. I have a theory that tomato juice always tastes at its best on an aircraft and I do like to use a little of the Pepper LH provide to go with it. After about an hour and 20 mins, we arrived at Birmingham and were quickly disgorged at the gate. Immigration had quite a queue, although 95% were EU citizens, so it all went quite quickly. Waiting for the bags, of course, wasn't quite so quick. BHX prides itself of being able to get all bags off a 737 in 45 minutes - they even put this on a poster. Personally, I think they should be ashamed myself, it may be fast compared to say Heathrow, but compared to say Singapore Changi (where I have yet to beat my bags to the belt) it's awful.
So there we go, a standard trip in LH Kont Y. The next one is in a couple of weeks, when I shall be doing my voucher trip to NUE, so I may well witter in a few days about luggage.
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
Hotel Review: Hilton Prague Old Town
The Hilton Prague Old Town was chosen for a number of reasons. Whilst no longer fanatically devoted to the HHonors scheme, I still prefer to keep a healthy balance, so if there's a reasonably priced Hilton in town, I tend to use it.
Prague has two Hiltons, both Old Town and the "original" Hilton Prague (near Florenc Metro) were within a similar price band. I've stayed a couple of times at the Hilton Prague and it has one of the best lounges in Europe, however, it is a little more out of the city than the Old Town Hotel and I had a bit of fun with the bill last time.
As this trip was primarily to get pictures of Prague, I decided to try the Old Town.
Check-In was above average, my elite status was recognised and an upgrade was given. I was asked if I needed newspapers, wakeup calls or a reservation for dinner.
The room was on the ninth floor and of a reasonable size, I've had bigger and I've had smaller. I prefer not to rattle round. The decor was fine, corporate bland, there was a decent sized desk, a "comfy" chair and a good king-sized bed. The bathroom, whilst perfectly serviceable, looked jaded and a little outdated. Storage room was fine for hanging things, but very poor for non-hanging things. The luggage rack was good in that it was large, but strange in that it was a chunk of plastic coming out from the wall which didn't feel in keeping with the rest of the room. The heating/Ac controls were only mildly confusing to a geezer like me and the Heating/AC fans proved to be reasonably quiet.
As it turned out, the bed was extremely comfortable and I slept extremely well. It was also more comfortable than the chair for general lounging whilst reading a book. Whilst jaded, the bathroom was fine, although the loo roll had obviously been sourced from the German Hiltons due to its sandpapery tendency. Housekeeping were very good and offered turndown service on all three nights - declined on one as I was just out of the bath, a small tip was left in appreciation.
I had access to the Executive lounge, which whilst not as nice as the one at the Prague Hilton, was fine for my purposes, there was a decent breakfast each morning with staff offering hot drinks. Whilst the bread was a bit naff (too many stays in Germany), the rest of the offer was fine, I usually had apple juice, a bit of fresh fruit, ham, cheese and bread. In the afternoon, there was cakes and small sandwiches available - the small sandwiches were unmemorable, the cakes were rather nice. In the evenings, the lounge was quite busy and there was a wide selection of drinks, cold nibbles and hot nibbles. The hot nibbles were a bit *meh*, but there were some nicely done cold snacks on a stick. Except for the Saturday evening, it was not crowded.
I didn't bother with any of the other hotel facilities, the bar looked fairly empty and I dislike formal dining alone, although the restaurant did look more interesting than the usual standard from Hilton.
Check-Out was a little perfunctory but pleasant, I was offered a taxi, but declined choosing to take the bus that goes from just outside the hotel. All in all, I would happily return.
Good: Bed, Desk, Lounge
Bad: Storage Space in Room, Bathroom Decor
Prague has two Hiltons, both Old Town and the "original" Hilton Prague (near Florenc Metro) were within a similar price band. I've stayed a couple of times at the Hilton Prague and it has one of the best lounges in Europe, however, it is a little more out of the city than the Old Town Hotel and I had a bit of fun with the bill last time.
As this trip was primarily to get pictures of Prague, I decided to try the Old Town.
Check-In was above average, my elite status was recognised and an upgrade was given. I was asked if I needed newspapers, wakeup calls or a reservation for dinner.
The room was on the ninth floor and of a reasonable size, I've had bigger and I've had smaller. I prefer not to rattle round. The decor was fine, corporate bland, there was a decent sized desk, a "comfy" chair and a good king-sized bed. The bathroom, whilst perfectly serviceable, looked jaded and a little outdated. Storage room was fine for hanging things, but very poor for non-hanging things. The luggage rack was good in that it was large, but strange in that it was a chunk of plastic coming out from the wall which didn't feel in keeping with the rest of the room. The heating/Ac controls were only mildly confusing to a geezer like me and the Heating/AC fans proved to be reasonably quiet.
As it turned out, the bed was extremely comfortable and I slept extremely well. It was also more comfortable than the chair for general lounging whilst reading a book. Whilst jaded, the bathroom was fine, although the loo roll had obviously been sourced from the German Hiltons due to its sandpapery tendency. Housekeeping were very good and offered turndown service on all three nights - declined on one as I was just out of the bath, a small tip was left in appreciation.
I had access to the Executive lounge, which whilst not as nice as the one at the Prague Hilton, was fine for my purposes, there was a decent breakfast each morning with staff offering hot drinks. Whilst the bread was a bit naff (too many stays in Germany), the rest of the offer was fine, I usually had apple juice, a bit of fresh fruit, ham, cheese and bread. In the afternoon, there was cakes and small sandwiches available - the small sandwiches were unmemorable, the cakes were rather nice. In the evenings, the lounge was quite busy and there was a wide selection of drinks, cold nibbles and hot nibbles. The hot nibbles were a bit *meh*, but there were some nicely done cold snacks on a stick. Except for the Saturday evening, it was not crowded.
I didn't bother with any of the other hotel facilities, the bar looked fairly empty and I dislike formal dining alone, although the restaurant did look more interesting than the usual standard from Hilton.
Check-Out was a little perfunctory but pleasant, I was offered a taxi, but declined choosing to take the bus that goes from just outside the hotel. All in all, I would happily return.
Good: Bed, Desk, Lounge
Bad: Storage Space in Room, Bathroom Decor
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