I had no real plans for Berlin, just to mooch, hope for nice weather perhaps go a bit further abroad than usual. A few days before, a friend indicated he could pop up for the Saturday from Prague, I rang the hotel and no extra charges were applied. Nice one, Hilton.
Anyway, I had no real need to get their extra early, so I chose to get the mid-morning flight to Hell am Main, which is the only one still operated by Lufthansa, the others are British Midland wet leases. The pleasures of getting up at the usual time are quite ineffable and my taxi driver was one of my regular ones so it was a good journey to the airport. I quickly checked in the shiny case, popped outside for a last fag and then went through security in a matter of minutes before popping into the new BHX main concourse.
Now they have linked Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, they have ways of making you walk through duty-free before getting to where you want to go. Personally, I find this annoying, but it must make good business to the OK, Scum, who wants booze and fags crowd. Anyway, I quickly bought the papers and some paracetamol (and found a full pack in the laptop bag when I put them away) and not fancying shelf-stable cake or quavers for brekkie, I proceed to Pret a Manger for the "Posh" Bacon Baguette
Well, that and a black coffee sorted me out for the morning flight. Boarding was called a little before schedule, but I am wise to the ways of Servisair and ignored it for ten minutes whilst finishing the TImes. This was to be a bit of a "cut it fine" trip. Our noble steed today was a 737-500, my 84th journey on the type and my 28th on BHX-FRA according to my flight memory.
On boarding, I was slightly be perturbed to be sat in the same row as an infant in arms. It's not much fun for small children flying at times, but it's not much fun to be sat in close proximity either. Mercifully, the crew intervened so that granny could sit in that row and I could snag the front row. Also, I am happy to report, not a peep was heard out of the babe in arms either. We took off about 10 mins late and proceeded on our way to Bankfurt, I declined breakfast as I'd had the bacon baguette and proceeded drink coffee and do some work on the way to the joys of transit. We ended up landing on time, but had to taxi from one end of the airport to the other to a suitable remote stand where we could get the bus to the dreaded B-bus gates.
As usual, B Non-Schengen bus arrivals was shite, one of the escalators wasn't working and the Kettles were out in force milling around. Sadly, being first on the bus means being last off it, which means the Kettles are ahead of you. A bit of power walking and some gamesmanship at immigration (passport spotting is useful to avoid long queues) and I was through to the joys of transfer security, I had a whine about this last time, it was a bit better but still horrifically slow. Anyway, a slow jog through the Tunnel of Hate and then straight into the nearest Rauchenhutte at A22.
I decided to risk the "Business Lounge" at A26, because I needed a cold drink, it has supposedly been refurbished. I couldn't tell to be honest, there may have been more seats, but there was still a shortage except in the Ostalgie-ridden "Sports Corner". Dodging a couple of cleaners, who were intent on having a nice chinwag in front on the drinks dispenser, I retrieved a Coke Light and some rations. I also noticed, grimly, that it was Spargelwoche - which meant Asparagus soup in all the lounges.
Now I like asparagus, but I have a real preference for fresh, young Evesham Grass in late April, early May - not forced white asparagus, often served in quasi-industrial quantities. However, there were also some Wienerpaar and what was described as Munich-style potato salad.
The Wienerpaar turned out to be turkey and were tasteless and crusty. The Münchener Kartoffle-Salat, whilst probably having been no nearer to Bayern than an industrial unit near Groß-Gerau was really quite decent. There was no bread, well, no bread that I'll eat, there were some packets of *that stuff*. I even found a seat, once I'd removed some bags from
Anyway, as the Berlin was called, I proceeded to A23, via the Raucherhutte and found that there was the usual scrum at the gate. I left them to it and boarded in the last handful, with only a laptop bag, it wasn't as if I needed overhead space.
The flight was on an Airbus 321, my 32nd flight on that type and it was chokka, there was one spare seat in Business and a couple in Economy. I was happy to find that they had a copy of The Economist on board, so I didn't do any work on this flight. With a 45 minute flight time, the crew have to work very hard and as soon as the pings went, they were up and serving. The offering was the new "bento" box and I took something deeply unpleasant that masqueraded as a glass of Weißwein.
It was, of course, Spargel themed. There were a couple of pieces of ham, some Aspargus with pesto and rosemary, a mini bread roll and some strawberries and strawberry pudding. Small, but quite acceptable. For my second drink, I had water.
We arrived at Berlin-Tegel pretty much on schedule, although the clouds meant there wasn't a particularly good view of the city on arrival. Bags came off fairly swiftly and I made my way to the bus stop, bought a day ticket and headed into the city. Luckily, I had been warned that the U2 was out on one section and not fancying a U2-U1-U2 journey, I got the bus all the way to Unter den Linden and then walked down to the Hilton. As it was a cloudy, muggy day, perhaps I should have gotten a taxi.
Status Reports - LH FTL renewed, 40% of the way to Senator. Hilton Gold renewed, 65% of the way to Hilton Diamond. Aiming for Senator before my holiday in November and Hilton Diamond by September.
As ever, comments are welcome.
