Posted by Seth on February 5, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports | 
The route network of Adria Airways is a bit limited, as is their overall fleet (13 planes, 10 of which are CRJ-200/900s), but when Ljubljana is your destination, as it was for me, they’re definitely the carrier of choice. OK, fine, the CRJ-200 is a pretty miserable experience, even with the friendly Adria flight crew, but the flight actually wasn’t bad at all.
Adria actually blocks the front few rows of the CRJ200 as "Business Class" though the offerings aren’t particularly impressive. I was flying in economy and, other than no mini bottle of water prior to departure, I think the service was pretty much the same. I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me so I was relatively comfortable for the flight.
The trip from Munich to Ljubljana is a quick one, only about 35 minutes in the air, so no service during the flight though I didn’t mind much. I was rather distracted by the beautiful views out the window. I love flying over snow-capped mountains.
The approach into Ljubljana was similarly beautiful, particularly with the mountains off to the side behind the airport. It makes for quite a first impression getting off the plane.
The flight was quick and pleasant. No service to speak of but really not an issue for 30 minutes in the air. And given their awesome connectivity in the region I can see flying Adria more often if in the area again. And, given how beautiful Ljubljana is, I hope to be back in the region sooner than not.
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Posted by Seth on February 1, 2012 under Trip Reports |
As part of my planning for a day in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I read many, many stories, guides and suggestions for what to see and what to do while in town. I’m quite certain that none of the people writing those guides were ever in Ljubljana in the winter. Suggestions like “enjoy the evening breeze of the river at one of the many outdoor café/bars” doesn’t work nearly as well, for example, when it is below freezing outside. Putting aside those flaws in the reference material I had available (as well as perhaps the flaws in my brain for believing January was a good time to visit), I managed to still have quite a good time.
Ljubljana was the second stop on my multi-day “direct” trip from Stockholm to Istanbul. My flights were timed such that I had about 22 hours on the ground, plenty of time to see what the center of town had to offer. I was also somewhat fortunate that the show started even before getting into town as the views of the mountains surrounding the airport were stunning.
I booked into a small hotel right in the heart of the old town which was incredibly convenient and very reasonably priced. I was just a block off the river, giving me easy access to the bulk of the sights.
And, despite my rant above, the cafes were mostly open, though also very sparsely populated. There were some die-hards out under the heat lamps enjoying their afternoon or evening, but nothing like what I’m sure the party scene is once the weather warms up.
The old city area contains a number of landmark architectural structures, as well as a few bridges crossing the river. It is a pedestrian zone so there are no cars to dodge as you wander the streets and alleys. The lack of cars also makes it quite pleasantly quiet. And, as the sun went down the river and the adjacent buildings lit up, creating a wonderfully beautiful scene.
Dinner was uneventful and not particularly good and, as noted above, there weren’t too many folks out enjoying the nightlife on a winter Monday. That let me turn in somewhat early and catch up on sleep. It also meant I was up pretty early the following morning. I had hoped this early rising would leave me well positioned to explore the market and the castle before heading back out to the airport. I also wanted to go for a ride on the funicular that makes the run between the market and the castle. Alas, I was too early.
Most of town doesn’t really start up until 10am it would seem. Normally I wouldn’t complain about that and just sleep in but my timing for this trip didn’t give me a lot of wiggle room. I missed the funicular ride and didn’t have time to tour the interior of the castle. That said, my timing did force me to walk the trails up the side of the hill on which the castle is perched, resulting in some beautiful views of town.
By the time I made it down the hill from the castle the market was mostly up and running. There are a few indoor shops, mostly selling breads and cheeses, while the outdoor stalls are all about vegetables (and one row on the end for “made in China” bits).
I grabbed a couple snack bits from various stalls to tide me over as breakfast and then, once again, my time was up. It was back to the airport and back on a plane. Skopje was just a short flight away, and it was time to make that move for the next 22 hours of the trip.
Ljubljana was beautiful and certainly worth a visit. I just hope that next time it is a bit warmer and there are more folks out enjoying the city. The quiet night along the river was pretty, but also rather slow.
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Posted by Seth on January 30, 2012 under Trip Reports |
I had a grand plan for transiting three different cities across Europe on consecutive days. Sure, I’d sleep a couple hours each night, but I was also going to spend most of the 20-ish hours on the ground at each stop exploring the town, eating their food and drinking their booze. It was a grand plan, alright, but the execution was a bit lacking.
My first stop of the hopping was Berlin, a city I’d heard great things about and one I was quite excited to visit. I even sortof knew what I wanted to see while I was there. Sortof. OK, other than the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust memorial, nothing at all. But I’d figure it out, right? After all, I always have.
The bus in from the airport was incredibly easy (except the ticket machines don’t make change for bills larger than 10 Euro) and 20 minutes or so later I was in front of the beautiful, towering, modern Hauptbahnhof. I knew my hotel was just a stop or two away from there so I headed inside. Sure, I spent the next 20 minutes or so wandering around lost in the enormous station, trying to find the appropriate S-Bahn train, but I didn’t mind at all. The station truly is beautiful.
And then, after dropping my bag in the hotel I was back out. I had only an hour before I was due to meet a friend for drinks and dinner and that really isn’t much time in a city as grand as Berlin. But I knew the two things I wanted to see and they were only about a 10 minute walk from the hotel; I was doing fine.
The Gate is pretty. They light it up lovely at night. And I even got a couple photos of it that I don’t particularly hate, which is somewhat impressive given that I had no tripod, the exposures were painfully slow and it was pretty darn cold outside so I was shivering a lot.
From Brandenburg Gate I headed around the corner to see the Holocaust memorial. It is beautiful. It is amazing. It is rather intimidating to walk into when it is dark outside. The photo here is a VERY long exposure, making it appear reasonably light outside. Truth is that the sky was the same darkness as the Brandenburg Gate photos above. Still, thanks to the miracles of modern technology I got the pretty cool picture below.
And then my hour as a tourist was up. I had to race to the U-Bahn to meet up with my friend. I found the station, figured out which track and caught the next train going my way. I was rather confused 2 stops later when they made the "Last Stop" announcement (though at least they repeated it in English). Apparently there were track works in progress and I was supposed to find a replacement bus to the next major station. At this point I became acutely aware of just how hard it must be for the tourists in New York City who are forced to navigate the constantly changing construction projects we have, all without the benefit of any communication in their native language. Even with the little bits of English on the signs it was a challenge. I made it, eventually, but it wasn’t easy.
I also had grand plans for the morning, to see more of town before my noon-ish flight onward to Munich and then Ljubljana. Alas, when I awoke I discovered that there had been a schedule change at some point previously and I was now faced with a 5 minute connection in Munich rather than the originally booked 30 minutes. The airport is easy, but not that easy. A panicked phone call to the folks at Continental (this was an award ticket) got me booked on the next earlier Berlin-Munich flight which meant I’d make my connection. It also meant scrapping my plans for a morning in Berlin.
And so, the entirety of my tourist time in town was an hour (plus an awesome dinner with an old friend). I definitely saw a lot in that hour and had a blast, but it also would be a disservice to Berlin to say that I saw the city. Guess I’ll just have to go back.
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Posted by Seth on January 25, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Booking a hotel on the morning of arrival can limit the options available somewhat. That said, I’ve actually been pretty lucky in general with such an approach, scanning a list of available properties and sussing out a quality hotel at a bargain price. That’s just what I discovered at the Hotel Eurostars Berlin. A beautiful, brand new property with a comfortable room adjacent to the Friedrichstrasse train station in the heart of Berlin and it was less than $100 for the night and earned points in the Welcome Rewards program from hotels.com.
I tend to avoid hotel chains a bit, but this was an exception to that. Partly because it isn’t a chain I had ever heard of and partly because the reason I avoid them – generally overpriced – didn’t apply. I’m glad I did as the hotel was near perfect for my needs.
The property is new construction which opened in April 2011. It is clean and fresh, with a relatively modern vibe. If they installed dimmer switches in the halls and upped the music levels in the lobby I could almost see it being a W hotel. It isn’t quite that trendy, which is a good thing in my book, but the décor definitely has that vibe in some ways.
The room itself was great. Plenty of space to move around (this was definitely the largest room I had through the week in Europe) and the bed was quite comfortable. The TV offered up a pretty good selection of channels and the desk had plenty of outlets, though strangely there was no chair. Not sure if that was an oversight or on purpose. I just used the chair in the corner and it was fine, but that was definitely an interesting discovery.
The bathroom was relatively huge and nicely appointed, particularly the shower.
Add in complimentary WiFi – the front desk clerk asked how many devices I had so she could give me the correct number of vouchers – and being directly adjacent to a major train station only one stop down the line from the Hbf and I was quite happy with pretty much everything about the place. It served as a great base of operations. Walking to the Brandenburg Gate area was about 10 minutes and connections to the TXL Airport Bus at the Hbf were incredibly easy. That’s not to say I didn’t get lost in the Hbf for about 30 minutes on my arrival, but the departure was much less a problem.
Overall, I’d recommend this hotel without hesitation, even for folks who aren’t quite as "aggressive" in their hotel budget efforts. It is a full service hotel in a prime location at a very reasonable price.
Posted by Seth on January 25, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
A trip from Stockholm to Istanbul shouldn’t take 4 days. That said, it can if you want it to thanks to the joys of airline scheduling and the rather impressive route network of Star Alliance within Europe, I managed to schedule just such a trip, with stops along to way to see friends and also three new (to me) cities. First on that list was Berlin and the flight down was on SAS.
The flight was relatively quick and uneventful. I actually remember very little of it thanks, in part, to a rocking hangover. But nothing really happened that was at all special. I was hungry so I bought the chicken salad snack box during the flight (all food AND beverages were BoB only!). The Swedish version of pasta salad isn’t really my thing, but it wasn’t bad. The chicken and the lettuce part of the salad were pretty good. I’d call it overpriced in general, though not really so bad once you figure in both the Scandinavia and airplane markups.
The most memorable bit of the flight for me was the final approach into Berlin’s Tegel airport. It was right a sunset and that let to some great views of the suburbs, Tegel airport and the general area as we made our way down.
Like most flights, this one wasn’t really all that special, either good or bad. That’s just the way I like them.
Tags: Berlin, Dining, EuroHopping, Flying, in flight, Photos, review, Star Alliance, Stockholm, Sweden, Trip Report
Posted by Seth on January 24, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
Like many of my stays these days my goal in Stockholm was to find a room which balances a convenient location and decent price with being clean and functional. I didn’t have too much to go on in terms of guidance, other than knowing that the western-branded chains were asking far more than I normally like to pay for a night so I went to my usual resource, hotels.com, and popped in my dates.
Serving up a room for two at about $100/night, Frey’s Hotel passed the sniff test and I booked, hoping for the best. The location was great, directly across from the train and bus station and a block from the metro entrance.
The room was small. There’s no getting around that. One of the beds was more like a couch converted to have a mattress instead of cushions, but it was basically the same as the other bed so no big deal there. And there was enough room to move around in the room and to stow our bags, though not much more than that. Not quite a shoebox, but we certainly wouldn’t be hosting parties in there.
The bathroom was a bit more cramped but, again, they made it work. The shower doors swing out of the way when not in use to allow a bit of room to move around though when actually using the shower there isn’t a ton of space.
The room rate also included a buffet breakfast which was pretty substantial. A variety of meats, cheeses and breads were available. There were also eggs and breakfast meats. I’m not a huge breakfast guy but I definitely hit the buffet hard our first morning to fortify for the long day and to hedge against the high food prices in Stockholm. The second morning I managed to sleep through breakfast (and almost through checkout) thanks to a great night out, but I’m assuming the meal service was quite similar.
Overall, the room matched our needs pretty well. I got a few points in my Welcome Rewards account and saved a chunk of cash over the other options. I also saw two rooms at the Sheraton (about 3-5 minutes down the block) and they were certainly a bit larger and a bit nicer, but they were also quite a bit more expensive (though I didn’t run through my list of corporate rates to compare completely) and I’m not so sure it was worth the extra cash. Plus, a bunch of friends were staying there so I got to crash the party in the lounge one night anyways.
Posted by Seth on January 24, 2012 under Trip Reports |
Stockholm’s city hall, situated on the waterfront more or less in the center of town, presents an image of great history and heritage. This belies its real age – only about 100 years old – but the work is impressive. The building is used to conduct the business of the city, of course, with the 101 seat legislative room shown off as part of the tour. But that is, at best, the fourth or fifth more impressive part of the building.
Vying for that top honor are a few other rooms. There is the Blue room, so named because the architect originally wanted to have the walls covered in blue plaster. This is also the largest room, built to look like an Italian piazza, with columns and arches surrounding the great space. The original plans also called for the room to be open at the top so that visitors could enjoy the space under the night sky, however that was scrapped one they realized the weather was not particularly cooperative on that front. This is also the room where the Nobel banquet is held each year.
Adjacent to the Blue room is the Gold room. This one actually lives up to its name, with the walls covered in mosaic that includes gold leaf in the tiles. The history of the city is told through the mosaics, including a massive display at one end showing Stockholm sitting at the crossing between East and West, with the US flag, Eiffel tower and a Native American headdress representing the west while elephants and Istanbul represent the East. It is a bit of a stretch, but I give them credit for trying.
My personal favorite room holds a number of tapestries in it. The cloth works are beautiful and the room is built specifically for them, with the size of the recesses where they hang perfectly sized. The room is also used each Saturday by the city to conduct civil marriage ceremonies. The ceremonies are quick – the long version is about 5 minutes – and they are something of an assembly line process, but they are also open to anyone who signs up (there is a bit of a waiting list to get a slot) and the setting is quite lovely.
As for the council room itself, it looks a lot like most other parliament rooms, though the ceiling is a bit different. The blue background is supposed to represent the open sky (similar to the blue room) and the beams across the top have a passing resemblance to an inverted ship, supposedly linking to the Viking history of the area, though there is some debate as to whether that was actually part of the design or not. Either way, it is pretty.
There is a bit of Nobel history also on display, mostly focusing on the gala dinner held each year honoring the award winners. A full place setting is on display and I must say that there is a whole lot of flatware involved for just one meal.
I was very impressed by the tapestries, and the Gold and Blue rooms were neat to see. Not the most amazing tour I’ve ever been on, but a good way to pass an hour or so while in town.
Posted by Seth on January 23, 2012 under Trip Reports |
I actually generally enjoy touring cemeteries. They offer a great view of history and also are generally quite peaceful places to visit. A short ride on the metro south of Stockholm sits the city’s most famous cemetery, Skogskyrogården. The space was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 thanks to its unique landscape and architecture and given my mild obsession with visiting such sites, this seemed like a decent way to spend a couple hours. The cemetery was built in the early 1900s so the history isn’t particularly extensive, but the serenity and beauty of the space make up for that a bit.
The landscape is quite beautiful. The entire space is not occupied with graves (though there are about 100,000 on the grounds and about 2,000 funerals held annually) so there is also open space available to wander through and vistas from which the surrounding areas can be viewed. The space is also built to take advantage of the natural space, with the forests integrated into the plan rather than cut away to make room for the site.
And, perhaps most impressive, the individual graves are quite lovely. The density is high (way more markers than there is space for bodies that they are marking) so I’m not entirely sure how that works out but many of the markers are also quite well maintained, showing the love of the current generation for previous ones.
It was a cold, gray day, with snow on the ground. Walking the paths cut through the trees and seeing the occasional candle lit marking a memorial was incredibly beautiful.
There are a number of chapels scattered around the grounds. These are only available for visiting as part of the guided tours which do not run in the dead of winter but we sill could peek in the windows of a couple of them. I particularly enjoyed the Heliga korsets kapell but the others didn’t really do much for me, at least of what I saw.
After a couple hours out in the cold the beauty of the space was outweighed by the numbness in my fingers and toes. Plus, the sun had set and it was getting dark in a hurry, with not much in the way of light available in the cemetery itself. It was time to head back into town.
I’m not entirely sure why the Skogskyrogården is considered so special as to rate a designation as a World Heritage Site but it was enjoyable to walk around for a bit. And without that designation I almost certainly wouldn’t have seen it, so I suppose that’s something.
Posted by Seth on January 23, 2012 under Trip Reports |
The Vasa set sail in 1628, laden with cargo, cannons and sailors for her maiden journey from the Stockholm harbor. She made it about a mile before succumbing to the sea, sinking before ever seeing the open ocean. The canons were apparently recovered relatively early on following the disaster, but the rest of the boat was left to sit on the bottom for over 300 years until she was raised – nearly entirely intact – and moved into a museum.
That the ship survived that long in such good condition is attributed to the low salinity of the water in the Stockholm harbor which prevents the organisms which would normally attack the wood from thriving. The net result is that the enormous ship – and it really is huge – presents a great point in time view of life at that time, particularly as it was lived on the ocean.
Huge probably doesn’t do justice to the size of the ship. The size was also likely a major contributing factor to its demise. Drawing a reasonably shallow 15 foot draft, and rising 3-4 times that height out of the water, the Vasa was almost certainly top-heavy to the point of tipping over once the winds picked up as she started to move out at sea. There were two decks holding 64 canons, with intricately decorated portholes out of which they would fire lining the sides of the ship, making it one of the more heavily armed ships of her era (though not the largest), able to discharge 300kg of shot at a time off one side.
The rigging that remains (most of the blocks are actually the original pieces!) is quite impressive. But perhaps the most amazing part about it is that the masts actually extended much higher than what is visible; the enormity that is on display actually doesn’t even fully show how big the ship really was. Outside the museum hall there are "masts" which rise up to show the full size the ship would have presented when she set sail that day. They extend up quite a bit above the roof.
The Vasa was not just an enormous ship, however. She was also quite beautiful. In addition to the cannon doors which were decorated the aft section of the ship was quite ornate. The wood carvings are quite intricate and there is evidence that the depictions were painted in bright colors originally; there are some artist renditions of what they might have looked like on display as well. It is quite impressive to see the level of detail that went into the decoration of the ship, especially compared to construction today where the details are generally completely ignored in favor of saving money. In the era of the Vasa the ornate details were generally showing homage to the king or patron of the vessel, meaning that without them the funding probably wouldn’t show up. I guess that’s reason enough to put in the extra effort.
The displays were not all about the ship itself; there were a lot of smaller details that were discovered in the salvage operation and which are also on display. Many skeletons were found, for example, and the study of their position relative to the ship, clothing and possessions makes for an interesting read of who was sailing and the history of their lives. On-board life was also somewhat well represented in the artifacts. A couple 350 year old backgammon boards were located in the wreckage, showing off part of the personal lives of those on board.
I was a bit skeptical when the Vasa museum made it on to the schedule for the day. That skepticism disappeared pretty much from the moment we walked in to the museum and caught a glimpse of the ship in all her glory. The level of detail they go to in showing the recovery process and the view of life at the time as shown from the evidence seen on the ship adds greatly to the experience as well. It was completely worth it to make the visit.
Posted by Seth on January 20, 2012 under Hotel, Review, Trip Reports |
I love the arrivals service offered as part of the BusinessFirst service from United Airlines at most of their legacy Continental routes. I’m a firm believer in the power of a shower and a beer to help reset the body clock towards something approximating normal and the arrivals facilities generally make that work out quite nicely. Our request for the service apparently made it to the agent in Stockholm – she acknowledged such in the jetway – but not all the way to the hotel. That delayed our access by about 15 minutes but it was resolved quickly enough.
After our flight in to Stockholm from Newark we were all a bit out of it (I actually managed to forget my laptop on the plane, though I was quickly reunited with it) so having a nap also played into our plans. The arrivals service is Stockholm is a day room provided at the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport so we had the opportunity to get that nap, along with the shower; the beer had to wait until lunch.
The rooms we got were configured with two beds, two very small beds. They’re singles, rather common in Scandinavia, but it was entertaining to hear some of the stories from our group about trying to make that work for multiple people in the room.
Beyond the beds (which I was actually quite comfortable sleeping on), the rooms were reasonably well appointed, if not a bit small. Sliding the chair out from the desk, for example, resulted in hitting the bed situated adjacent to it. That said, it was not the smallest room I had during the week, not by a long shot.
The bathroom was reasonably nice, too, with all the expected/usual amenities provided.
One rather strange bit about the hotel is that the rooms (on at least one side of the hall) overlooked the terminal rather than the outside world (though you could see outside through the terminal windows). That was definitely a bit different for me. I think that contributed to the hotel not using black-out curtains in the windows (the photo above is as dark as the curtains got). I was tired enough that sleep came anyways, but I can imagine that being an issue during the summer when darkness is harder to come by in the region.
In short, it was a very typical and very serviceable business hotel at the airport. It did have the advantage of being literally in the airport making it incredibly convenient, and also allowing for a premium to be charged on the pricing for rooms that I saw in a quick search. Still, faced with an early morning departure I’d either be sleeping there or in the nearby jumbo jet.
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Posted by Seth on January 20, 2012 under Dining, Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
Any trip that starts with a dozen folks hanging out in the lounge, enjoying a few drinks before the flight, has strong potential. That I had already been in the lounge 2+ hours when the others started to arrive didn’t hurt the situation either. And the fact that my upgrade into the BusinessFirst cabin on the 757-200 had cleared at the time of booking made things even better. So it was slightly lubricated that I made my way down to the duty free shop and then to the gate for a flight from Newark to Stockholm.
Boarding was a bit of a mess, even though we arrived at the gate towards the end of the process. We were awaiting the last of the duty free deliveries which took us precariously close to departure time and my mobile boarding pass failed, causing me to hunt down a printed one while the gate agent dealt with some other issues which involved the police. Still, I had sufficient time to stow my bags in the overhead and settle in to 1E with a glass of champagne prior to departure.
I also was able to find the International Concierge working the flight, despite his best efforts to remain invisible in the cabin. Somewhat critical to the success of our first day in Stockholm, I requested access to the arrivals facility that the BusinessFirst service provides. In Stockholm this is a day room at the Radisson Blu hotel in the airport. There were four of us in the forward cabin so four rooms were requested. And he actually followed through on the request; the agent meeting the flight knew that we needed the rooms and was ready for us (sortof).
I chatted with my seatmate a bit during our short taxi out to Runway 22R and the ~7.5 hour flight to Sweden began.
It turns out that there are only two bottles of Heidsieck Monopole catered in the forward cabin on a 752. Those went pretty quickly, starting with the warmed nuts service and lasting part of the way through the appetizer service. The nuts were not particularly memorable but the apps were. Both the cold seafood soup and the beef empanada were quite nice. There was a salad, too.
I took a risk when ordering dinner: I chose the miSteak. It is a complete crap-shoot taking that route. Sometimes the meat is horribly overcooked and miserable. For this flight, however, it was cooked to a reasonable medium doneness (still way overcooked for my tastes, but at least edible) and actually tasted pretty good. The accompanying sides (creamed spinach, asparagus and a potato patty of some sort) were not particularly memorable, either for being good or bad.
And then there is the hour-long foodgasm that is dessert on the BF flights. First was the cheese plate, served with a reasonable glass of Port. Not particularly great cheeses, but the flavors were where they should be for the types served. Next up was the ice cream sundaes. I only had one (caramel and chocolate, thank you very much), but there were extras making their way back to the galley which may have been waylaid by a couple of the other guys. And then there were the pastries. They’ve got nothing on Austrian, to be sure, but they were pretty tasty.
And then it was time to try for some much needed sleep. I actually managed to get 3-4 hours which is pretty good for an eastbound redeye; it helps that this is one of the longer flights being run out of Newark to Europe. Plus, I managed to sleep through the relatively poor breakfast offering which was a good plan based on the reports I got from the others.
The food was fine, as was the seat and the sleep. What truly made the flight for me, however, was the crew. It is usually easy to tell at the beginning of a flight if the crew is enjoying themselves or not, and that generally translates into a better in flight experience. This crew was having a great time from the get go and it really did play out through the rest of the flight. It really is great to fly with a crew that enjoys their job.
Overall the trip was a very good one. Most of that is attributable to the crew, combined with having a bunch of friends on board, but I’m not so sure the reasoning matters as much as the fact that it was a nice flight. Even with the very recent surprisingly nice flight on Lufthansa, I have to say that the legacy Continental product that United is offering these days tops it, both in food and seat. It is one of the better business products across the pond.
Tags: Continental, Dining, EuroHopping, Flying, in flight, Lounge, Lufthansa, Newark, Photos, review, Stockholm, Sweden, Trip Report, United, United Airlines, upgrade
