Trip Report 6, Part 2 TXL-MUC-BHX

Monday was a lovely day for flying, it would have been an even lovelier day for relaxing in the Tiergarten or by the banks of the Wannsee, but it was a lovely day for flying.

After a smidgen on breakfast in the lounge, I went back up to the room, packed and then finally headed off after a slightly extended checkout as I commented on the refurb (favourably), I decided to taxi it and got to Tegel in about 25 minutes. Bag Drop was swift and efficient and I waved bye-bye to shiny case for a few hours. I headed for the Lufthansa Business Lounge, which is one of the better ones in the system and I did so by walking outside taking advantage of Tegel's somewhat unusual layout.

The lounge was fairly empty, but all I wanted was some water and a place to sit (something in short supply at Tegel). As my flight was coming up for boarding, I wandered back down and headed for the gate and did the security thang (which is at the gate), I then sat in a hot and overcrowded gate area for a few minutes before boarding the Airbus A320 to München.

The problem was that this was one of the NEK planes and had the new seats, whilst fairly comfy, they are quite close together. It proved fairly difficult to use my MacBook whilst seated which was annoying. There have been a lot of complaints about NEK, but this is my first one.

Entertainingly, we had an Ipad wanker in row 1. He didn't want to shut it down, he was reading and it was in flight mode. There was a short argument, he still didn't shut it down until we actually started taxiing.

It's just under an hour from Berlin to München and there were seven rows of business class to serve, again it's a bento box and drinks with the bento box again having a Spargel theme. Possibly a bit too much on the Spargel, as it was Spargel Kräuterquark with pesto, two prawns on a bed of Spargel and strawberries and cream. The American lady next to me, just had the bread roll and the strawberries and cream.

I drank water and drank in the scenery as we flew south, as I said it was a perfect flying day and the route takes in some great scenery, if anything it was over too quickly.

München is one of the best airports in Europe, it's very easy to transfer in, it has a simple layout and it has pretty good shops and some decent places to eat. It's also the only airport I can think of with it's own brewery. I did a bit of shopping, some chocolates for people at work and some fags for personal usage. I then proceeded to the Schengen Business Lounge as the non-Schengen lounge is closed for refurbishment. I did wonder if it would be rammed to the rafters, but whilst busy, it wasn't that busy.

The advantage of the München lounges is that they have decent beer on tap and as it was mid-afternoon there was cake, in fact there was rather good poppyseed cheesecake to go with the Löwenbrau Helles.

I left a little earlier that I prefer to, but I had to go through exit immigration and to the somewhat distant bus gate. We boarded the bus which was chokka, which wasn't pleasant in the heat and was made even more unpleasant by a 10 minute delay out on the tarmac before we were allowed to board.

The flight back to Birmingham was on an Embraer 195, so new that it still had the "new plane" smell, but luckily not fitted with the NEK seats. They have a 2-2 layout and in Business Class that translates to 1-1.

The crew were great on this flight, you don't normally have pre-departure drinks on shorthaul, but water was offered to Business Class - much needed on a hot day. We took off a few minutes late, and proceeded up through Germany to Belgium and across the North Sea, sadly as we got nearer Blighty, the weather worsened.

As a longer flight, you get a cold tray rather than a bento box, which of course features Spargel. It was supposed to have a salad with it, but that had been replaced by melon balls with mozarella, which was probably the wisest thing. Then there was ham with Spargel and chopped egg and a rather large strawberry tiramisu with caramel sauce. I had water and black coffee with it.

Arrival at a grim and rainy BHX was ten minutes early, but immigration was the usual shambles (three flights - five officers, one not working, one only doing the handful of non-EU) and baggage wasn't much better - taking 35 minutes to come off.

Next, it's Bremen, in economy.

Berlin and Hilton Berlin

It's normally best to say What happens in Berlin, stays in Berlin. However, for once, I can claim to be all sweetness and light. After arriving at the hotel, I unpacked, took a shower, had a bit of a rest and then wandered off in the general direction of the U-Bahn to find out how bad the U2 disruptions were. It wasn't too bad, but any late night forays to Motzstraße would really mean a taxi back. So perhaps I might check out P'Berg instead ;-)

With my foot playing up a bit, I didn't want to walk too far, so I U-Bahn'ed to Alexanderplatz, had a coffee stop and got the tram a few stops to look around some shops and buildings, I then had another coffee and headed off to find something to eat. I wasn't spectacularly hungry and nothing really appealed so I S-Bahn'ed and U-Bahn'ed back to the hotel and sorted out my email inbox and ordered a Club Sandwich about 9pm. That's when I found out about the great Cucumber problem.

After a good nights sleep, I went for an early breakfast in the restaurant (as opposed to the lounge) and then headed off to meet my friend at the ZOB. That was quite complex journey on the U-Bahn and I resolved to get a taxi back, the bus was a bit late in from Dresden, so I took a walk around and admired the radio building and tower which is just up the street.

We then spent the day being tourists, the Wall, the TV tower, Alexanderplatz, Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and even a short foray into Kreuzberg. We ended up watching the football back in the hotel with some bottle of beer after a short dip into the hotel lounge for snacks. It was a nice day but a bit windy and the weather could have been a bit better.

Sunday dawned early and we had breakfast in the lounge and then a whistle top tour of Charlottenburg and the Tiergarten before my friend caught his bus back. I then crashed out for a couple of hours, before going to have dinner with friends in Schöneberg, Sunday evening was particularly nice weather - a precursor of the next day.

As for the hotel, the Berlin Hilton has long been a favourite of mine, whilst MItte can be a bit soulless, its position by the Gendarmenmarkt and Stadtmitte U-Bahn station is hard to beat. I've always had good service there as well. They have refreshed the rooms recently and it's a good refresh, a better bathroom and improvements to the desk and bed as well. The storage is better organised and ample. Housekeeping are efficient, but if you don't use the Do Not Disturb sign, they will start knocking at 8am. As a Gold status member, I got a welcome gift of some dried banana slices covered in chocolate (yum) and a litre of mineral water every day.

The new lounge was a vast improvement, whilst missing the great views from the old lounge, it's about three times the size. This resolves the problems with seating that could occur at breakfast and at cocktail time. There's also a nice array of seating, from tables to bench tables to comfy chairs by the window, a small area with three computers that work and some side rooms which can be used for meetings.

The food and drink are similar to what used to be there. There's a slightly larger range of food, both hot and cold of a good quality. I every much enjoyed the mini-kebabs and BBQ chicken cones on the Sunday night. My friend had high praise for the fish goujons and prawn kebabs the night before.

I hope to return in August and at New Year/Silvester. I would always think of here first when staying in Berlin, although if the room rate continues to climb.....

Trip Report 6, Part 1 - BHX-FRA-TXL

Ah, the pleasures of a bank holiday weekend and the first time on an aircraft for 2 months. So, where to go - Germany, of course and I fancied a weekend in Berlin. So, the usual place was booked and in line with this years Senator run, a European Z-fare was booked as well (ouch).

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.

Hotel Review - Courthouse Doubletree by Hilton London Regent Street

I was going to post this one up some time ago, but I have been a bit busy.


I'm in two minds about this hotel. It has fantastic location for there shopping and theatre trip I had planned for my birthday.


I booked a large smoking room about three days before at a fairly horrific price - but this is the dead centre of Londump. The day before the hotel contacted me three times, once by email and twice by telephone to get me to confirm. I found this annoying, to say the least but confirmed that yes, I wanted a large smoking room.


The hotel is very easy to find and a very short distance from Oxford Street tube, no problems with luggage. The young woman at the desk greeted me, acknowledged my status and then started on the lies.


i) You've been upgraded to the larger room. No, love, that's what I booked
ii) You've been granted a free continental breakfast for one of you. No, love, I booked and paid for full breakfast for both of us as I don't think Spouse stays free really applies to second dates.
iii) Your room is non-smoking - we haven't got any larger smoking rooms - this may be a problem with the website. Many hotels do this, hence my snarky comments about the cancer downgrade. The Shangri-La Sydney does cancer upgrades :-)


FFS, two porkies and despite annoying confirmation calls and emails, I still can't get the room I booked. The manager was summoned, there were apologies, a standard smoking room was found, I insisted on the lower room rate for it. This shouldn't bloody happen, too many times the Hilton website allows the booking of a room category that doesn't exist in the hotel for smokers. I have now started putting in my comments - don't upgrade me if you don't have a smoking room in that category.


Anyway, by the standards of inner London "standard" hotel rooms, this one wasn't that small, I thought it was a bit tiny, but my companion thought it was fine. I liked the opening window, even if the view was a bit naff. The bed was great, the bathroom was good (but with naff toiletries), the lighting was pretty decent as well. All a bit bland and modern, but it is a Double tree.


Breakfast was good, OK, it wasn't the full Hilton spread, but we are one category down on that. Continental looked weak, but we were here for the fry-up and that was fine, coffee was a bit better than normal for a UK hotel, service was pleasant and swift and they had the weekend edition of the FT.


Unusually, I used the concierge, my companion decided he wanted to go to the theatre and I used the concierge to get us decent tickets for a show. He got very good ones, albiet at a bit of a price and the show was great.


We ate out with a quick pre-theatre meal at a Malaysian/Singaporean place on the edge of Soho. It was OK, it felt expensive to the queen of the hawker stands. The roti prata was good, the curry sauce less so, the Nasi Lemak was OK, the Hokkien Mee was good. Would probably go there again if I had a hankering.


Checkout was painless and yes the bill had been reduced.


All in all, I'll probably use the hotel again for similar trips, it's got great location and the breakfast room is nice and the concierge is helpful, but it is expensive (£250 per night) and I'll continue to lurk out at Kensington (now Islington is non-smoking) for business trips.


I've decided, despite the impending house purchase, that I will go to Berlin this upcoming bank holiday, so you can expect some more Lufthansa action and a review of a Hotel I've visited many times, the Berlin Hilton and I've been invited to a wedding in Hong Kong at the start of October, so there will be two lots of longhaul action this year - including if my upgrades clear - some LH First.

Trip Report 5 - BHX-FRA-PRG-FRA-BHX + Hilton Prague Old Town

Ah, back in the air again after a longer than usual break, with two nights in Prague on the menu. As usual, I booked the Hilton Old Town for the location and waited and waited for the authorisation for the ticket. Needless to say, by the time it came, we were up to painful fares on the needed flights. Swiss were cheapest, but the thought of double Fokkers and double bus gates at Zürich gave me the heebie-jeebies. So I made a little deal with me paying for a short haul Z fare and claiming for the M fare to give me access to the flight I needed to be on; otherwise it would be double Fokker.

This, of course, meant FRA, the early FRA and the breaking of a personal rule by having a short connect. So it was hand luggage only, using the small rolling case and the laptop bag for the simple reasons of being able to carry two pairs of shoes and have space for fags on the way back.

The Friday was a nearly perfect day for flying, so I switched from my usual aisle to a window for FRA-PRG. Having a nearly record run in a taxi meant I had plenty of time at BHX, so I quickly went through the painless security, bought some bits from Boots and WH Smug and then confident of being fed on the plane, I decided not to go to Pret for Brekkie but to go to the new revamped Servisair lounge for which I was triple qualified (Priority Pass, LH status, Business Class), it still took the 'tard on the desk about 3 minutes to decided if he could let me in or not. Whilst the revamped lounge is quite bright and airy, it still has the same miserable collection of shelf-stable cakes and packets of Quavers masquerading as food.

There was one of those Circusair "moments" over departure, the flight went from "5 mins to boarding", straight to "Departed" causing a small stampede over to the gate, where the staff looked confused and clueless. As usual, there were about 5 staff there, of which only one did the work. Anyway, with a light load, we were soon all boarded and up and away. Business Class was looked after by a charming (and rather woofy) purser, who quickly handed out the drinks and meals to the four of us in J.

Lufthansa has a new modular service concept of which Birmingham flights will be Band 2. The above was served for Breakfast, which looks about right for a Band 2 flight. The fruit salad was mainly apple with some kiwi and grapes, the "cold cuts" was a solitary slice of salami with a nice bit of Shropshire Blue and the croissant was naff. Seconds were offered on hot rolls and on coffees. They even generously gave me a sample of  the Economy offering, which didn't seem very Band 2.

However, i had it as a snack in the afternoon and it was quite tasty and has to be better than the dreaded cheese sandwich, not sure about it as a breakfast concept, I can see the Pret hot baguette still being eaten.

Needless to say, it was a bus gate arrival, I had been hoping for a stand, but it meant a mad chase was on. After the usual faffing around, we went on the usual magical mystery tour of Frankfurt airport before ending up at the B bus gates. From then the sprint was on, I had about 35 minutes to get through security and onto the next flight. Would there be chance for a fag? would there be a chance for a diet coke in the A26 slum lounge?

Luckily, there were no queues at immigration and it was straight to transfer security where I used the Business Class queue, however, it was proceeding at a truly glacial pace, with the little Beamtin operating it, stopping the belt constantly to adjust contents so that Alles in Ordnung and then huffing, fussing and rewinding, so that the whole process took over 10 minutes from joining a queue of 3 people to starting to stomp down the Tunnel of Hate. The Economy queues were moving faster, but had I gone through there I'd have never made the flight.

I ended up, hot, sweaty and slightly dishevelled at the A23 Raucherhütte with about 7 minutes to go before boarding ended, I had half a cancer stick then made it onto the A321 with, I think, the new seating as not quite the last passenger. I eased myself past a Septic into the window seat and relaxed.

FRA-PRG is a short flight of about 40 minutes, most of which I cheerfully gazed out of the window at the view of Hesse, Franconia, the Sudetenland and the approach to Prague. We were severed the Band 1 snack box which bemused the Septics on board who have been brainwashed over the years by their lame excuses for airlines that the elderly cabin crew can't do any service on a flight of less than an hour.

There was a ham roulade with julienne vegetables, a small salad with pine nuts, a mini roll and some brie with currant chutney. The first was fine, but there was something odd lurking beneath it, the salad was lovely, the brie wasn't bad. All in all, pretty good for a 40 minute flight.

Getting off at Prague, it was straight out, straight onto a 100 bus, quick fag break and the B-line metro all the way to the hotel. Less than 45 minutes, 26Kr cost as opposed whatever the average Prague taxi driver feels like. 

My room was ready at the Hilton and I was upgraded to an Executive Plus room, lovely big room with somewhat bathroom but a nice view (a bit noisy at night, but nothing too bad). I decided I just about had time for a real meal, so I nipped around the corner and had a plate of goulash (and a half litre)

The Goulash was very nice, especially with the added chilli and onion and the latkes were superb. I love Prague food, especially when eaten outside on a lovely afternoon.

Anyway, after a busy afternoon, it was just time for a wash and brush up before going out to eat for the evening. A lot of places were crowded and I ended up on somewhere on Hybernská having a decent if unusual pork schnitzel and some very good potato salad and a bottle of very strong dark beer. Afterwards, I went for posh drinkies in Buddha Bar, which was nice for the free prawn crackers, but a bit dark and pricey - nice range of spirits though. With such an early start, the tiredness was showing and it was back to the hotel for some kip.

The next day, sadly, wasn't so nice and sunny, in fact it was a bit grey and cloudy. After having a decent continental brekkie in the lounge (good coffee, good breads, poor sossidge), I met a friend and we went for lunch in the Potrefená Husa again on Hybernská, this is part of a Staropramen chain which looks to produce an upscale modern beerhall experience and succeeds very well. Good menu, nice decor and very good service standards. I was lured into the veal special, with mushroom sauce and gnocchi by the description from the server, washed down, of course, with Staropramen, my friend had an enormous plate of goulash.

Doesn't look a lot, but those gnocchi are very filling. A highly enjoyable meal after which, we went for a wander around the shops and then on a riverboat trip. After all this, I retired back to the hotel and went to the lounge for a cup of coffee and some snacks, as with last time, a nice little selection with the highlight being the rather good cheeseboard.

Having a project to work on, I stayed in that evening and ended up with a room service burger to fill the gap. The Hilton Burger is a variable feast, but the one at the Prague Old Town is truly excellent with good cheese, bacon, ripe tomato and very good chips. 

Anyway, after a nice day and a half in Prague, it was time to get up early and make my way by bus and metro, I did try and check in online, but the Lufthansa website was throwing a wobbler, which isn't unusual. Arriving a little later than I had planned, I swiftly saw all the self-service check-ins out of order and the queue snaking for ages - so I went into the business class queue where boarding passes were swiftly issued on Austrian stock (which is sort of fitting for Prague). Using the fast track security was a joy and then it was off to duty free to obtain fags for me and goodies for the office. I then wandered up to the Crystal Lounge which is operated by Czech Airlines (and used by Lufthansa), it was a bit ummm, sparse.

The seating was as uncomfortable as it was colourful. However, a quick soft drink, a riffle through a French newspaper (Air Chance use the lounge as well) and a rest stop were all welcome as I carefully repacked the bags to full expansion mode. There was a selection of drinks - sadly no beer tap (just canned Gambrinus) and some food in a fridge as well as a selection of nuts, crisps and FarmFoods broken biscuits.

Boarding the Airbus 321 was perfectly on time, although Business Class and Star Golds had to fight their way through people hanging around the gate. Boarding was very efficient for a flight with about 2 spare seats in Economy and 1 empty seat in Business. The crew on this flight were very efficient and had the lunch boxes out very quickly, they even managed to offer drinks 3 times on this short flight.

The introduction card for this - mentioned the dread words molecular gastronomy and the large number of Septics on the flight looked at it all very dubiously. I thought it was all rather splendid, there was a "sambal" prawn mounted on a herb jelly with couscous, a small piece of parma ham, some shaved and delicious cheese, a smidge of the dreaded Kräuterquark and a cherry tomato. There was also a mini chocolate muffin in creme anglaise. For 50 minutes, I thought this was excellent, although from the amount left by most pax, it wasn't a success in general.

On arriving in Frankfurt, it was swiftly through the Tunnel of Hate and immigration and into the Raucherhütte to top up levels. I then decided to head to the B4x Business Lounge rather than the B2x one, there's no real difference, but plenty of space to charge the iPhone and get some more work done. The food selection was, of course, abysmal - it's Mexican month, celebrated by Pickled Pepper salad and yes, a Mexican version of Kräuterquark. I had a piece of apple cake and a Coke Light or two.

I noticed that after a few months of the pleasure of a real gate with an airbridge for the BHX, it was back to the buses and the remote stand half way to Groß-Gerau, where I was surprised to see a BMI Airbus 319 on stand, then I remembered that some BHX's this summer will be Lufthansa flights operated by BMI (who are now owned by Lufthansa). 

We were welcomed on board by the BMI crew who did the usual rounds of newspapers and asked for drinks and food orders. It seems that these flights are not using the LH catering at least at the start and we had a choice of hot meals.

I choose the pasta, which was cheese tortellini in a spicy tomato sauce. There was a small salad with cottage cheese and a lemon panacotta, I had a white wine with it, but it was fairly hideous. The BMI crew were great and I look forward to a few more flights with them over the next few months as they operate the LH.

We landed a bit early and seeing the Emirates 77W land behind us, I made a determined effort to get through immigration and out to the taxi as fast as possible and I made it.

The early FRA

It's a loathsome thing, God wot. 07:10, which means even with hand-luggage having to be there for 6:00am, which means a taxi at some obscene hour.

Good Thing: I'm flying
Bad Thing: I could really do with out it this weekend

Good Thing: It's Prague
Bad Thing: Change at Frankfurt (sorry but FRA is preferable to props via MUC)

Good Thing: Saturday to myself
Bad Thing: 4 hour meeting on arrival

Good Thing: New revamped Shorthaul Business Class
Bad Thing: Short connections at Frankfurt (you'd think I'd learn)

Good Thing: The Hilton Q1 Promotion is still going on
Bad Thing: The room rate

Good Thing: Czech beer
Bad Thing: Can't drink much on my meds without falling asleep

Full report on return.

Two short UK trips

I had a bit of training to do on Saturday in Cardiff and rather than get up at O-dark hundred to get here and leave at O-dark hundred to get back, I decided to treat myself to a couple of nights in the capital of Wales, after a bit of a struggle to find a smoking room, I ended up deciding to go non-smoking in the Hilton for the quarter 1 promotion points. Amusingly enough, smoking rooms had opened up again. 


Luckily, there is a direct service from my workplace to Cardiff, once an hour, so I booked a ticket and reserved a seat via the dire "Trainline". I got to the station on time, but as it was just after work, everything was running late and very, very full. I swiftly turfed a chav out of my reserved seat and found to my joy that it was broken.  Feck all room in Standard on a Cross-Country Turbostar which was full to the gunnels and no trolley service either. It was warm and unpleasant on board and I swiftly necked a bottle of water on arriving at Caerdydd Canolog.


I received a warm reception, access to the Executive Lounge and a nice castle view. The room was otherwise ordinary, but I suspect they haven't got any smoking premium rooms (this is increasingly common, I will have to give up one day). The room was very comfy, if a little over heated and had a great bathroom with a walk in shower, the bed was pretty decent as well.


I then heading out for dinner with an old friend who moved to Cardiff a few years ago, we went to Casanova on Quay Street which was described to me as "a family Italian", it was very nice and I greatly enjoyed my tagiatelle with cheese, potato and sage. My companion very much enjoyed his risotto, my only comment would be that I found the wholegrain tagiatelle a little too al dente. We had a pleasant but undistinguished bottle of wine to go with it, as a couple of groups of loud lady diners had moved in, we skipped dessert and went back to the hotel for coffee in the lounge. Sadly, the Cardiff Hilton removes the booze at 8pm at weekends. Nice and quiet in there with a lovely view of fireworks at about 10pm.


The next morning I was up early, had a light continental breakfast in the lounge (some hot options, good coffee, very nice staff). The training went well, including a pizza lunch, so when finished, I dived off to look around the new developments in the centre, raided TK-Maxx for a Ralph Lauren jacket and ended up with room service sandwiches in my room - which were very good and very large. I do miss the old Cardiff I used to know *mumble* years ago when I was a student. I horribly overslept not rising until 9am and ended up scooting out sans brekky to make my train back to Birmingham. A nasty sarnie and coffee at the station had to make do, but at least the Turbostar back was nice and empty and I had room for my Sunday Times.


The next weekend saw another quick tripette, to go to the Parteitag in Sheffield. Sadly, there is no direct service, so on leaving work it was a quick trip on the Cross-City to Barad-Dur Hbf New Street and then transfering onto a Class 221 "Super" Voyager to Sheffield. Voyagers are nasty, so I had taken the precaution of booking in First Class - where they are marginally less nasty, unfortunately, the previous HST had been cancelled and it was so full that there were people from Standard Class standing in the aisle of First Class all the way to Sheffield. As usual, there was that slight nasty smell from the toilet systems which defines this class of train for me. Due to overcrowding, there was no at seat catering, however this time, I was prepared and had water with me. 


I swiftly wheeled my bag from Sheffield station to the Sheffield Hilton, it was a slightly longer journey that I remembered, but still only 10 minutes or so. This Hilton is a former Stakis and therefore on facilities struggles to make four star, however I remembered that like its cousin the Hilton Islington, it had very good staff and it was not too far away from where I wanted to be, but far enough away as to not have to mingle too much with my fellow delegates. My room was basic and sadly a twin, but was clean and had a new bathroom. I was given free internet access and some bar vouchers which I didn't use, I also got complementary water and newspapers. After having a wash and unpacking, I went out in search of proper Yorkshire Fish and Chips (and I don't mean bloody Harry Ramsden's), it took a little while to locate somewhere that looked right and I was soon sat down by the quays on a bench enjoying a very nice bit of Haddock, some decent chips and sadly the mushy peas were nasty. 


Anyway, I was up early the next morning in order to get inside the Ring of Steel before the Trots turned up, so I went downstairs for breakfast. The breakfast staff are very friendly, very pleasant and very good at their jobs. As usual, the Hilton provides a buffet, which has both hot and continental items, as we were in Yorkshire, the continental side looked a bit weak :-) Anyway, one full Yorkshire later and with a sensible sized pot of tea on the table, it was off to do my democratic duty for a few hours, I even cheated and took the Supertram three stops - because I like trams.


After that was done and having had wander around the City Centre - which has some very nice smart areas, some well done up older areas and some manky grotholes, I returned to get washed up and then went out to dinner with a friend. We said he'd booked somewhere out in the country and we ended up at  The Chequers at Froggatt which was a very nice country pub/restaurant with a nice locally biased menu (but not totally localvore). I had good sardines with a sort of pico di gallo salsa, followed by a selection of sausages (one pork and herb, one beef and one venison) with some very rich mash and finally, the dessert - which was Bakewell Pudding with Custard. A lovely meal with good company in nice surroundings.


After another decent nights sleep and a full Yorkshire, I headed back to Birmingham via another Voyager, as is usual on Sunday mornings, it was fairly quiet and I did get a free cup off coffee - no food was available but after a full Yorkshire, I didn't have room for any food. The journey back was via Lichfield City which is an usual routing, but I was head down in the Sunday Times.