Posted by Seth on December 25, 2009 under Trip Reports | 
Perhaps the only true advantage of the 4+ hour layover we have in Frankfurt was that I got to go lounge hopping around the various facilities that Lufthansa has here. I’m continuing to compile data and photos for my lounge guide and this trip is a prime opportunity for gathering a ton of information. I’ve hit five lounges already and can think of about five more still on the itinerary.
So after settling in to the Senator Lounge in the B gates, taking a shower and having a beer I ventured off in search of the Tower Lounge, one of the newer and nicer lounges at the airport. I was in the transit area and so is the Tower Lounge. It really shouldn’t have been a problem at all. But the pseudo-security guard working at the entrance to the SkyLine train connecting the terminals decided it should be. Apparently only flights destined to the USA are departing out of the high A gates in the morning hours. And apparently only passengers destined for such flights are permitted in that area. At least that’s what the guard kept saying. I tried reasoning with him but was thoroughly unsuccessful in such efforts. His answer did not change: Is Not Possible.
So I was left with two choices. I could give up and head back to the B lounge or I could enter Germany, walk over to those gates and try again directly. I chose option B.
The border guard didn’t seem to understand my explanation of just wanting to “walk around on my long layover” but stamped the passport anyways. There wasn’t much he could do to deny me. And then, 15 minutes later, I was explaining to the guy checking boarding passes that I just wanted to visit the lounge. Through security and through passport control again. Two stamps in under 20 minutes. Another boarding pass check and another explanation that I was headed towards the lounge and another pair of eyes rolled.
But I didn’t mind all that much, as I was past all the gatekeepers and finally able to make my way to the lounge. And it is just as nice as I remember it from the party back in November. Hard to believe that was only six weeks ago.
Other than truly free borders like Italy/Holy See I’m not sure that I’ll ever best this for a shortest trip ever. I suppose I’ll have to keep trying though.
Posted by Seth on December 24, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
It took me far too long in life to make a trip to Munich. I don’t know particularly why it was so delayed, but the planning just never worked out right. I had a layover in the train station there about 10 years ago but I never really went outside – big mistake – and so when the opportunity came up recently to add a weekend in Munich on to a scheduled trip to Germany I jumped at the opportunity.
I visited in mid-November so it was most definitely the off-peak season in town. Still, there was plenty going on, both during the day and at night. It was more than enough to keep me busy and entertained. Wandering the quiet pedestrian mall area of town was quite enjoyable, even in a light drizzle. Plus I managed to stumble into some phenomenal dining and drinking opportunities along the way.
After a rather unfortunate episode at the bar of the otherwise lovely Sofitel in the heart of the city a group of us made our way to a new bar/club in town, Eight Seasons. The night manager of the hotel was kind enough to make a call and get six of us on the list to enter which was a good thing as the place had the velvet rope and clipboard crew similar to many clubs in New York City. The scene inside was pretty much what I expected from a club with such an entrance policy but we still had a great time. I’m not entirely sure what we paid for the bottle of Bombay Sapphire that was consumed but it was delicious so I wasn’t all that worried about it. And we finished the night with a very late-night and very intoxicated amble/stumble to a street food vendor outside the train station and also to Burger King. Not the most authentic cuisine, but the strawberry shake was pretty good and the photos are pretty incriminating.
At the Bräuhaus
The following night was a dinner with the group at the Augustiner Bräuhaus, just a couple blocks from the train station. The restaurant is associated with the brewery and it isn’t completely clear which part they take more pride in, though I’m pretty sure it is the beer. Still, the food is delicious. With a group as large as ours – about 30 folks – the only reasonable option is to go with the sampler platters that they offer up. The appetizer course has various meats, cheese and spreads along with some breads and crackers. The main course was four or five different meats and some ridiculously delicious potato dumplings. Plus, the beer comes in liter-large glass mugs and it is phenomenal. After four mugs of beer I didn’t even really think it was that bad an idea to do jager shots. I know that I was wrong in that analysis and I did protest the concept a bit at the time, but ultimately the beer, exhaustion and a bit of peer pressure did me in. Jager shots for everyone. MANY of them!
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| Appetizer platter at Augustiner |
I probably shouldn’t have done the Jager shots! |
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| Large quantities of delicious beer |
We learned later that night that one of the group picked up the wrong jacket when leaving the restaurant. This was discovered when he reached into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and pulled out someone else’s passport. Whoopsie. The hotel concierge was quite helpful in resolving that situation (which is to say that I dumped it on him and assume it was eventually resolved) but it also meant that we needed to go back to the restaurant the following day to find the correct jacket. I’m very, very glad we did.
It was a Sunday afternoon and they set up a TV in the main dining room for the locals to come in and watch the local Bundesliga team play, and also to enjoy a few beers. I discovered the German version of the morning after drink – a lighter beer cut with lemonade, quite tasty and refreshing – and I got to explore the rest of the menu. Oliver was there to translate for me which helped out immensely as the English version of their menu has only a small portion of the full selection. In discussion with the waiter and after much internal debate I settled on the Braumeister Schnitzel. It is the heartiest version of schnitzel on the menu, meant for the hard working, blue-collar brew master. And it was awesome.
Piled high with bacon and potatoes, it was just the right thing to cut through the alcohol still in my system and aid the hangover recovery. We also had a dessert of some sort that was pretty much fried dough topped with powdered sugar and some fruit preserves. The fried dough thing is a dessert in pretty much every culture around the world and the German version did not disappoint. Sugary sweet doughy goodness. Yum.
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| Braumeister Schnitzel and a morning-after beer |
Fried doughy goodness |
Seafood in Munich
My trip to Germany started with about 225 other folks chartering a 757 and flying around Europe on tours, so there were a decent number of folks I knew in Germany that weekend. Still, I didn’t really expect to randomly run in to two of them as I was touring about on the streets of Munich. Boy am I glad I did. They had made reservations for dinner that night and invited me to join them at Austernkeller. Austernkeller is a seafood restaurant in the French style which isn’t really what I would think of when choosing a dinner option in Munich. Fortunately these guys were making the decisions for that night, however, and it was a wonderful meal.
As is often the case the appetizers were better than the main course dishes but it was all pretty delicious. The oysters – wild Aussies – were the highlight of the meal for me, followed by the scallops and the fish. I thought the seared tuna was overcooked, but i like my tuna raw so maybe I’m not the best judge there. Still, the place has been around for over 30 years and there’s a reason for that. The food is top notch.
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| Some of the many delicious dishes at Austernkeller |
One other thing that I love eating is kebabs from the shops near train stations. No, there is no good reason for this, but I generally find that the food is pretty good and pretty cheap. That’s not so bad. On the way out to the airport for my flight to Los Angeles I stopped in at one of the many shops available and had my donner kebab gyro. Yum!
Posted by Seth on December 21, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’m rather proud of my ability to understand a VERY limited number of words and phrases in various (mostly Western European) languages. Being able to order a beer and find the bathroom, airport and train station are useful life skills, especially when you can do it in many places around the world. Like the weekend I spent in Belgium constantly trying to speak French when everyone there spoke perfect English, but what the heck. I was having fun.
After the crazy week in Germany last month for the Star MegaDo and other meetings I found myself in the business class cabin of Lufthansa’s Munich – Los Angeles non-stop flight. Damn, that is a long flight. But with the big comfy seat and plenty of booze available I figured to be quite fine. The flight attendants came through offering up beverages and I put my limited German to use. A glass of sekt to start would be lovely. Danke. And then, after takeoff, the drink cart. The weißwein, bitte. It really is delicious. And, if you wouldn’t mind, also some wasser mit gas. After all, I have to stay hydrated and the little bubbles are nice. So I’m 90 minutes or so into the flight and I’ve managed to only speak German with the crew. Not too shabby.
And then my little dream came crashing down around me in a hurry. They came out to offer dinner and the flight attendant addressed me in a flurry of German. Perhaps if she spoke slowly I had a chance but she assumed I actually spoke the language. I very much don’t. I actually found myself sitting there laughing quite a bit. I wasn’t really sure how else to respond. I explained that I actually don’t really speak German and she admitted that she thought I did. We switched to English and the rest of the flight was quite fine, though uneventful. And not nearly as entertaining as that first 90 minutes where I appeared to be quite accomplished in my knowledge of German.
As for the rest of the details about the flight, as I said, it was uneventful. The food was OK but nothing special. There are two sunsets, at least during the early winter months, so that is fun. And Lufthansa’s version of the A340-600 have the economy lavs downstairs in the back which is pretty cool. And the business class lav on the starboard side has a window in it. That’s rather awesome.
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| Headed down to the coach lavs |
Looking out the window in the biz lav |
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| The glow of the second sunset we experienced during the flight shining on the engines |
But I wasn’t all that wowed by their business class service. It was very professional and very proper but not a ton of emotion in the service. It comes across as stiff and a bit standoffish, but lots of Germany appears that way. I’ll get over it. I enjoyed it much more than my recent United Airlines business class service but that is mostly because the seats are way better (no, I wasn’t in the new UA seats) and, more importantly, because the flight attendants didn’t yell at me because she spilled orange juice on another guy’s laptop. But I’m drifting off topic now.
Overall, the experience was probably around 3.5-4 stars out of 5. Quite proper and efficient but lacking the little personal touches that make me think “great” service.
Posted by Seth on December 10, 2009 under points |
I’m really wondering just how much fun I could have over a few days in Europe come mid-January. Why? Because Condor, a low cost carrier based in Germany, is offering up an All You Can Fly deal (web page is in German only), rather similar to the one jetBlue had earlier this year. Maybe it is because of the relationship both carriers have with Lufthansa but it isn’t hard to see the similarities in the schemes. The best part about it for folks in Europe is that the price is truly all-inclusive – no extra taxes or fees – and it is only €299. Even at today’s exchange rates that is about 25% less than the jetBlue AYCJ deal was.
There is, of course, the usual fine print. The pass must be reserved by 18 December and all bookings (except for the first and the last) must be round-trip. Also, the pass only applies to the carrier’s short and medium haul routes, so no crossing the Atlantic. Still, access to the carrier’s route network throughout most of Europe, the Canary Islands and maybe Eastern Africa seems like a pretty good deal to me. There is a 72-hour advance booking requirement, just like the jetBlue deal. And these flights are actually eligible to earn frequent flyer points in the Miles+More program. Not too shabby.
I would truly love to take advantage of this deal. It is incredibly tempting. Alas, I think it is not meant to be. But that’s not going to stop me from looking at their route map and schedules to see what king of fun I could have. Wishful thinking never hurt anyone, right?
Posted by Seth on November 12, 2009 under News, Trip Reports |
I’ve never been particularly coherent or eloquent about explaining my passion for travel. Fortunately there are some professional writers out there that I can babble at who seem to make pretty decent sense of my ramblings. During last week’s crazy adventure across Europe we were accompanied by Scott McCartney, a WSJ writer. He’s posted a video this morning showing just a few of the things that we got to experience during the week.
That left ear you see in the opening sequence is mine. I’m also the guy drinking from one of the glasses in the drink try while collecting the empties from passengers. Typically me.
Posted by Seth on April 14, 2009 under Uncategorized |
After our great visit to most of the sights of Hamburg during the day, we caught a quick nap to get ready for a night out on the town. Hamburg is a late night party city – dinner at 10pm and out to the bars around midnight seemed the norm. And drinking and partying continued on until well after sunrise the following morning. Of course, finding the party at the various points in time meant knowing a bit of where to be and when, and we had some great advice from a local to help us out on that front. We hit three main areas through the night – Schanzenviertel, Reeperbahn and the Fischmarkt – and couldn’t have been happier with the outcome.
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A cheese shop in the Schanzenviertel neighborhood
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First up was dinner in Schanzenviertel. We noticed during the day that this neighborhood was way more casual and easy-going than the Reeperbahn. There were dozens of restaurants and pubs to choose from in the couple blocks surrounding the train station. Good looking food and reasonable prices abounded. We found a nice Greek place and settled in for dinner and drinks.
After dinner we wandered about Schanzenviertel a bit more. The dessert places we were looking at were closed by midnight but pretty much all the bars were still open and hopping. We visited a couple of those and slowly made out way down the main street connecting Schanzenviertel to the Reeperbahn, where the fun continued.
The Reeperbahn is best known as the red-light district in Hamburg, and that is certainly a very visible part of the nightlife in the neighborhood. They have strip clubs, a street with the women in the windows and a secondary crew of prostitutes that work right around that street. Having just heard this afternoon of another friend in Amsterdam being confused by which women were prostitutes and which were not, I felt that it might be useful to share some observations from our time in the Reeperbahn. From what we could see the prostitutes who were not in the windows all had fanny packs. And generally they weren’t dressed particularly provocatively, but the fanny packs were a dead giveaway. Once I noticed that I couldn’t stop laughing at it every time I saw one of them walking by.
There is also a very vibrant “normal” bar scene in the Reeperbahn. That’s where we spent the next few hours of the night (really the early morning) following dinner. Most of the bars have music and dancing – a significant change from the NYC scene – and we were out partying until after 4am. Drinks weren’t horrendously expensive, but I think that comes from my familiarity with the NYC bar scene where drinks are ridiculously expensive to begin with. Still, at €2-4 for a beer or glass of wine, things weren’t too terrible.
The key to a Saturday night in Hamburg, however, is not limited to dinner in Schanzenviertel or to the nightlife in the Reeperbahn. The key is a visit to the Fischmarkt at the end of the night.
The Fischmarkt has been operating on the banks of the Elbe and the Hamburg port for over 300 years and it is a landmark in many regards. The party starts up at around 4:30am in the summer (7am in the winter) with merchants, meals and – if necessary – more alcohol available. The “official” Fischmarkt building is no longer used as a market or a warehouse; it is now used as a banquet hall. They have live music, a dance area and many tables set up inside. There are balconies around the outside of the room providing space for a couple full-service restaurants, in addition to a couple coffee-shop places on the ground floor.
Outside the market building there are more good times to be found around. Dozens of merchants set up shop on the waterfront, selling everything from food to tchotckes to drinks to a few merchants that are actually selling fish in the fish market.
In addition to the shopping and the flow of crowds from the bars to the Fischmarkt, there is also the fact that you get to watch the sunrise over the harbor at 5:30am. It is truly phenomenal.
Finally, the clock was ticking onwards and it was time to head back to the hotel, collect my bags and travel buddy (he skipped the Fischmarkt and sunrise) and head out to the airport for the flight home (and bedtime).
Sure, the commute is a bit longer than I’d normally otherwise endure for a night on the town, but the overall experience and getting to see the beauty of Hamburg, both during the day and at night, made the Trip completely worthwhile.
And all the miles I collected didn’t hurt either.
Posted by Seth on April 13, 2009 under Uncategorized |
With only 26 hours on the ground on my recent trip to Hamburg I was rather concerned that I would miss something I should have seen. If I did, I certainly made up for it as the rest of the trip was truly amazing. After a quick shower on arrival thanks to Continental and the free BusinessFirst upgrade we hopped on the S-Bahn for at 20 minute ride into town, dropped our bags at the hotel and hit the city to see as much as we could see.
First stop was the Rathaus area. The Rathaus is city hall. It is the seat of the local and the regional government and it just so happens to sit right on the water (as much of Hamburg does), near Alster lake (really a river but it is big enough to seem to be a lake where it passes through town). The lake is a beautiful place for a walk, a breakfast or even to head out on the water, taking a sailboat out from one of the rental groups on the shores. With the weather as nice as we had it the sailing option was tempting, but there was too much to see for such diversions. We dropped in to the Rathaus and admired the architecture and the sculpture in the courtyard and then made our way on to the next stop – the harbor area.
As I noted in the quick post I made on Saturday, water is truly the heart of the Hamburg life. Everything centers on the water, from the harbor that was the basis for the economy there to the nightlife that eventually tumbles out into the Fischmarkt in the wee hours of Sunday morning for the party to just keep rolling on.
We wandered among the warehouses of the Speicherstadt district. Many of the buildings are 100+ years old and they are still in operation, providing warehouse and distribution facilities for importers of everything from Persian rugs to silks to spices to computers. There is also a lot of modern development going on in the area, much of which is also modern in its design. That detracts from the classic beauty of the area, but time marches on.
Also on the waterfront we wandered along the Baumwall area and over to the Landungsbrücken area. This waterfront area is incredibly accessible and open for the public. It is the base of operations for just about all of the water tour options in town as well as public ferry services operating across the water. In the Landungsbrücken there is a 98 year old tunnel that passes under the Elbe river and the harbor, providing access for cars and pedestrians to reach an island in the center of the harbor. If you’ve got a bicycle the island is a great place for a relaxing ride; even without one walking the 426 meters of the tunnel is a great way to spend a bit of time. Among other things, it is the best place to get a view back onto the city of Hamburg. Access to the tunnel is via elevators rather than a ramp; it is the only time I’ve ever seen such a thing. And as a pedestrian you can walk the stairs, too, if you desire. Absolutely worth seeing!
Next up we grabbed a quick lunch near the Reepersbahn area – home of many bars and the Hamburg red light district. It was mid-afternoon so things were pretty slow at that point, but they’d pick up quite a bit later than night! Still, there were many folks out relaxing in the sun and enjoying a beer in the afternoon:
The Schanzenviertel district has been the Bohemian center of town for many, many years. It is slowly gentrifying, with the rich moving in so as to “hang out with the cool kids” which means that the cool kids are less able than ever to afford the rents in the area. Still, there are many shops, restaurants and markets in the area that cater to the hipster crowd and it is hopping, both during the afternoon and the evening. We had a great dinner at one of the many restaurants that line the streets, spilling out onto benches and tables on the sidewalks.
After a quick nap (6-9pm) we were back up and on the streets, first headed back to Schanzenviertel for dinner and a couple rounds of drinks (better and more affordable food and decent drink prices, particularly relative to the Reeperbahn). After filling up there we wandered down to the Reeperbahn, where the bars and clubs were packed and the music was pumping. More on the nightlife in my next post, but suffice it to say that at 6am when it was time to head back to the hotel and the airport, I was still running strong and I wasn’t the only one out still reveling in the evening.
Posted by Seth on April 11, 2009 under Uncategorized |
One thing that is impossible to miss in Hamburg is the very close relationship the city has with water. It hosts the second largest port in Europe and two major rivers flow through its streets. To say that there is water everywhere may well be an understatement. The city has done a phenomenal job working with the rivers and the port to truly integrate the waterways into the everyday ebb and flow of life. There are canals cutting through town to provide access for cargo vessels to warehouses. There are two beautiful lakes right in the middle of downtown. And, of course, there is the majestic harbor. As we wandered about town today we were never more than a couple hundred yards from the water in one direction or another.
The Rathaus (city hall) has a beautiful courtyard inside with a fountain/statue that pays homage to the water that runs throughout the city:
And couples wandering the streets and bridges paused to soak up the beautiful views and otherwise enjoy their time together:
There is water everywhere in Hamburg, and it ties the city together quite nicely.
Posted by Seth on April 10, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I’m not particularly a huge fan of the various ham options. Honey glazed, spiral cut, boneless or bone-in, none of them are really quite my thing. But a trip to HAM seemed like just the way to celebrate Easter in my strange and travel-addled mind. And so it is that I find myself sitting in the Newark Presidents Club, enjoying a glass of wine and preparing to spend 26 hours in Hamburg, Germany.
I’ve managed to book a reasonably cheap room that doesn’t involve sleeping in a plywood box, and I have also found a couple decent online resources for planning a short trip to Hamburg. The best I’ve seen so far is a two-day trip and I think that I can squeeze a lot of that into a single day and then just sleep the whole flight home.
I’m most excited about visiting the Fischmarkt, the weekly Sunday morning fish market that has been operating since 1703. The market kicks into gear between somewhere around 4-5am, and after a long night of partying that seems to be where folks head to grab a nice brunch and one last drink before collapsing in a heap of sleep. In my case that heap will be seat 16A of the flight home, so I just might manage to make it out through the night for the party.
Oh, and the other reason I’m making the trip (as if I really need one) is for the miles. Lots and lots of miles. The double EQM promotion is still running and I’m going to pass a half million lifetime miles on Continental with this trip. Just a few more years of this fun and I get status for life. Good times!
Posted by Seth on February 10, 2009 under Uncategorized |
When NetJets started seeing increasing service to Europe recently, they realized that there were just some airports that were not so accessible. Frankfurt was a big problem for them, and they have a lot of customers who want to go there. So they just bought an airport in the Frankfurt area, Eglesbach. The airport is a tiny private field, with the longest runway of only 4600 feet, so it isn’t going to be pulling in lots of big planes anytime soon, but it is only ~10 miles or so from Frankfurt-Main (FRA), so it is really rather convenient for their customers.
“When our customers want to go there, we have a success rate of perhaps 30-40 percent of getting access to Frankfurt,” forcing NetJets to fly to Frankfurt-Hahn airport about 100 kilometers to the west, Kelly said. The Egelsbach purchase will allow better connections to the city of Frankfurt, which is home to “lots of high-net-worth individuals,” he said. The transaction is a “huge opportunity to grow our German market.”
Egelsbach airport doesn’t serve scheduled airlines. Its vendors had to invest about 500,000 euros last year to keep the unprofitable operation in business.
“We don’t expect to be profitable at the airport until 2015- 2016,” Kelly said. Making the airport profitable “is not our No. 1 priority,” as the main goal is to “get more customers into NetJets.”
The economics seem pretty insane to me, but I guess they make sense to someone. And Warren Buffett is generally not a moron financially, so I guess it is a good deal for them.
Posted by Seth on February 5, 2009 under Uncategorized |
For those of you who read the WSJ, there’s an article in the Weekend Journal section of tomorrow’s print edition that talks about the changing dynamic of vacations. Specifically, it seems that vacations are becoming shorter for many, and travel companies are altering their offerings to accommodate that pattern. This means hotels are waiving minimum stay requirements and tour operators are doing more in less time, all in hopes of wooing the ever thinning ranks of leisure travelers.
A three-night China tour will kick off in July with a 5 a.m. wake-up call. Travelers will take in a solar eclipse (astronomer provided) on Mount Emei, followed by visits to a Giant Buddha statue, an embroidery workshop, an opera (performer interviews included) and meetings with families, students and baby pandas. Seventy-two hours later, it will be time to head home.
Tour operator Remote Lands, whose shortest China tours used to be five or six days, is one of many vacation companies putting its trips on fast-forward. This year, travelers can book a one-night Caribbean spring break trip, or a two-day African safari. Hotels and resorts are throwing out the minimum-stay requirements that used to widen their profit margins, and admitting guests who only want to stay a night or two
And I managed to be one of the examples cited in the article. I’m actually the very last example, but still, I’m there. Apparently my 36 hour trip to Trinidad and Tobago was just crazy enough to get me a column inch at the very end of an article in the WSJ.
Seth Miller started taking short trips a year or two ago, to save money and fit his travel within limited vacation time restraints. Last week, the 31-year-old IT consultant from New York went to Trinidad and Tobago, leaving on Saturday and returning Monday morning. "It basically left me on the ground for about 36 hours, then you figure, scratch 12 hours for sleeping," he says.
Mr. Miller spent Sunday morning on Tobago, snorkeling and wandering around the island, and then flew to Trinidad. He hoped to catch some pre-Carnival parties, but his timing didn’t coincide with any, so he ended up watching the Super Bowl at a local bar. "You roll with what happens and take it in stride," he says. Next morning, he returned to New York.
There is also discussion of a three day trip to Costa Rica or a seven day Ecuador trip, including some time in the Galapagos (we could fit them in on our five day trip two years ago). Those trips don’t really seem that short to me, but I know I’m not the norm in that sense.
Looking forward, I’ve got a few more similar trips planned already for this year, including Rome for four days, Belize for six days, Panama for three days and an overnight to Florida. There’s also a yet to be scheduled weekend in Germany in November that may include a hop-scotch tour of Scandinavian airports, too. Of course, I’ve also got a normal two week vacation planned for the summer, so all the trips aren’t this way. It is good to have balance in that sense.
I’ve now been covered by the NY Times and the WSJ. I wonder if I can get myself into the Post or Daily News somehow other than the police blotter…
The border guard didn’t seem to understand my explanation of just wanting to “walk around on my long layover” but stamped the passport anyways. There wasn’t much he could do to deny me. And then, 15 minutes later, I was explaining to the guy checking boarding passes that I just wanted to visit the lounge. Through security and through passport control again. Two stamps in under 20 minutes. Another boarding pass check and another explanation that I was headed towards the lounge and another pair of eyes rolled.
