A lot of One and not much of Star

[sr81]

RDU – MIA
AA 673
25.11.08
12:40 – 14:45
The drive out to the airport was way to short and in no time I was checked in for another epic travel leg. This was the big punt of the trip, getting my bags across three airlines and two terminal changes…….. at MIA and LHR. Yes, maybe I am a little mad and yes, this was pretty silly but hey what’s life with out a few challenges!

The new Admirals Club at RDU is clean and new but still an Admirals Club. Free pretzels can only excite someone so much. The welcome from agent was terrible, no smile and didn’t even look up from her computer. Quick stop to check emails then onto the gate. Amazingly almost ever flight has left on time this trip. In North America I consider this a great achievement that I will certainly never get again. In fact it made for less fun. What is a DONE4 with no stress?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32193334@N03/3073930628/

737-800 for this leg with the chicken sandwich being quite edible. coughpy American sitcoms on the IFE but I enjoyed it anyway. AA bleep out anything to do with sex so you have quite large portions of dialog with no words and given they show Two and a Half Men this is about 50% of the show.

Arrived into MIA on time with plenty to spare when wonder round to the F gates. BA use the Club America Lounge here and it is very sub-par. Internet is very shaky and the choice of booze is lacking, very lacking. I had a Perrier instead….. In my defence it had bubbles! Boarding took place on time and I really hoped my bags had made it. Last year my bags didn’t make this connection though luckily there is an alternate service that departs MIA about 4 hours later.

 

[sr81]

MIA-LHR
BA 206
25.11.08
17:05 – 06:20 +1

I really like BA 747’s especially on the upper deck. I know that there food is usually pretty average but I love their hard product. With 64K you get heaps of room with the side bins and no one to climb over. I settled in and made myself comfortable. They guy across from me seemed nice enough but then it started.

SNORT!

Gosh, though I, that a hell of a sniffle. Well no doubt the person will use a tissue and clear the obstruction very soon.

SNORT!

Geez, did you just suck your brain through your oesophagus?

SNORT!

Ok, jokes over, that must be pissing you off too.

SNORT!

I turn around expecting some massive, fat, balding male, but what do I see? A slight 20 something female in a white sweater. SNORT! Well no mistaking that identity.

Can’t wait till after take off then on go the headphones and I am off to oblivion. I sleep pretty well on this leg following a quite acceptable meal with a rather good French red and cheese.

After the obligatory circling of LHR we land and I make my way to the new T5 arrivals lounge. The passport process was pretty quick but I got rejected from fast track as I don’t have some sticker. Given I was on an AA issued boarding pass I expected this so wasn’t troubled. The T5 arrivals lounge is very new and quite edgy; I would like to see how it fares in a few years. I think I may date quickly.

The biggest pain was the water pressure as I was looking forward to a nice hot shower with more than a dribble. When it was on cold not a problem but forget it if you added any heat. Dribble time. I assume it was only my shower so don’t use R17 if you are passing through.

Breakfast was all English so I coated my insides with grease most happily. Being in England I helped my self to cup of tea and enjoyed that greatly as well. I then jumped on the next Heathrow Express to terminal one and went to pick up my boarding pass from zone R. Interesting even though my bags had been checked through to HEL I was not checked in. The agent printed one out and I was on my way.

This terminal has calmed down substantially since BA moved some flights out. The place is almost pleasant. The only option is the Terrace Lounge and they do have a crack as reasonable food here. The little pastries are fun and the selection of magazines is great.

My Finnair flight was called and off trundled for my last flight of the day. By this stage I was pretty shattered so was not looking forward to 2:30 in what they call business class in Europe.

LHR - HEL
AY 832
26.11.08
10:20 – 15:15
Boarding was on time and after that I can tell you nothing about the flight. I was out like a light and didn’t even eat. I did note that they had Joseph Perrier as the champers so that will be a good thing on the way home.

Arrival into HEL and oh…..my…… The Snow Was Dumping.



Arrival into Helsinki - note the snow. on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


The plane pulled up to a remote stand so I had a thrill getting down the steps into the bus. A great ride round the terminal followed with plenty of sight seeing. I have never seen de-icing before so was amazed at the speed with which they cover the plane.

Here is the best bit and most amazing bit of the whole DONE.

My bags arrived.

RDU-MIA-LHR-HEL. AA to BA to AY. Terminal D to F then Terminal 5 to 1. I was stonked, my bags arrived on the belt just as I walked up and I was also the first bag off. Obviously those AA premium tags work well.

Helsinki is a nice city but not in winter. The snow made everything very difficult and my body is not set up for weather like this. Even with 5 layers I still feel the cold but I do enjoy slipping and sliding over the sidewalk. We journeyed out to the Fortress Island and looked at the city museum. Helsinki has been traded between countries like a James Hird football card for the last 500 years with the Russians, Swedes, Turks and even their own citizens having a go for domination. They have also managed to burn the city down about six times so it is quite grand with large squares and a few boulevards.

Helsinki to St. Petersburg
P 35 (train)
07:23 – 14:15
28.11.08

[FONT=&quot]Right now I am sitting at the Russian border about to cross over and enjoy the hospitality that Russian border guards are famous for. [/FONT]

 

[Keith009]

Thanks for the great updates, especially the amusing anecdotes. I'm sorry to read that you did not feel the love at the W Chicago-Lakeshore as much as I did, then again the last time I stayed there was 2006 so the service levels must have dipped. In that case I might check out the W City Centre if I do return to Chi-town. Did you at least enjoy either the hip and happening Living Room or lived it up with the fetchin' crowd at Whiskey Sky though? BTW get the lingo right, it's Whatever/Whenever.

Thanks for the RDU recommendation. Sounds like a really fierce place. Now to try to fit it in on the next DONE alongside LA, NYC and MSP.

Good luck with the Russian guards...

 

[sr81]

Crossing into Russia was actually much easier than expected. We handed in our passports to the border police then they did their famous disappearing act into a tin shed. After about 20 minutes the conductor remerged with the passports handing them back with a smile and “Hah! Kangaroo Country!”. This was the first and last Russian, so far, to have a sense of humour.

I spelt pretty soundly after this as the sun started to go down (it was midday) and a nap was in order. Arrival into St. Petersburg brought us into Finlandia Station and round behind the local prison. Getting off the train was pretty standard with my head moving quickly to deal with Cyrillic and Russia in general. Luckily here my sister stepped up. She has been backpacking around Eastern Europe for the last six months so was thinking and living the foreign country with no Latin characters, in fact in only four days she could read and interpret most signs.

An initial walk around Nevski Prospect and dinner in a rather good Chinese restaurant brought the day to a close. St. Petersburg is a big bustling city with lots of grime and traffic. The metro is very easy to understand and if you value your life then stay out of a cab. You should also watch out for the Mercedes drivers – traffic lights, pedestrians, police……. Doesn’t matter – they do not stop.

The Rossiya hotel is your usual two star place but as with anywhere the simple things can break you. Here the sheets were starched clean, the hot water had pressure and was plentiful and the breakfast wasn’t too bad. No concierge, no porter service, no champagne lounge on the 45th floor, no points agreement with BMI or QF, no….., no…… For the price in Russia, this was only AUD100 for a single, it was pretty good value. I did have a very quick look at Hilton etc. but would need to sell a kidney to afford to stay there.

St. Petersburg was founded by Peter the Great in the middle of the 18th Century and the based a lot of his design on his travels to Vienna, Amsterdam and Paris. Some very neo-classical design elements can be seen and the condition of the buildings has really only been updated to accommodate the mobile phone antennae. Whilst this is a minor detraction the Russian’s really have done a great job in trying to preserve this city. One feeling you get quite strongly is that the Bolsheviks are not the most popular people. Many St. Peterburgens seem to feel quite outraged that the Tsar was killed and the capital moved back to Moscow, they also feel some grievance that their great and beautiful churches were used as potato stores. Within Church of the Spilled Blood, The Hermitage and other state houses some artefacts were sold off or simply disappeared.

Another interesting fact is the lack of reference to the war and especially the siege. Last 900 days the Germans gave the place a pretty good pounding yet the locals only mention it in passing. The St. Petersburg Museum mentions it only briefly and only one column outside the city centre commemorates this titanic struggle.

Now The Hermitage. Wow. Seriously Wow. If you have been to the Louvre then you have done pretty well but the accessibility of The Hermitage is what sets it apart. Rodin, Van Gough, Da Vinci, Cezanne, Picasso, Monet, Manet, Reuben’s, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Rembrandt............ all under one roof. All the culture I will need for about 5 years.



Even in St. Petersburg on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


The best was how close you could get to those paintings. Then of course you had the mosaics, tapestries, vases, busts.... simply amazing. All this for about $25 is mind blowing. We covered about 40% in our four hours, but I could happily spend another day here just getting lost.

Three more stops in St. Petersburg are worth mentioning.

• Tepemonk – Local fast food place that serves soups and bliny (pancakes). I have the horse cheese and bacon bliny and it was fabulous. The pancakes are cooked on a hot plate right in front of you and the soups are full of goodness. Just the thing to warm the bones after a morning of sight seeing.
• Peter and Paul Fortress. A large fortress sitting in the middle of the Neva River that Peter built to protect his new city. Great audio tour and printing workshop. Plenty to see and explore. Note that most of it is outside so I would suggest visiting in a warmer month.

[FONT=&quot]3. The Kunstkamera. Peter’s museum of oddities. This was deformed foetus in jars with explanations, whilst this may seem quite gruesome it is very informative. It is also quite interesting in the way it presents information about Asian cultures from a (superior) Russian view point.

[/FONT]

 

[sr81]

St. Petersburg to Pskov
2.12.08
18:00 – 23:58

If you have ever read a spy novel then this is the train ride for you. The old 1950’s carriages have coal fired hot water heaters that fill the platform area with slow moving smoke and that smell. That smell is of Soviet Russia, of late night meetings in dark corners, of leaving messages under rocks and of meeting stunning blondes with subtle French accents on late night trains. This tip didn’t involve any messages or stunning blondes but my sister got in a humdinger of a fight with a Russian Train Official. It was about luggage and the Russian ‘lady’ decided to just shout at my sister who in turn, after being incredibly polite, told her to get lost using vernacular that Australians are particularly talented at applying.



Train to Pskov on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

We arrived on time and were met by representatives of the tour company. After a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant, that also included a DJ in a wheel chair and a more olives than Greece in a salad. The Hotel Gostinicha is, again, very two star but happily, is clean. It is also the first hotel I have stayed in for a long time that has no wireless connection or wired internet. This is only a small hassle but should really have been expected off the beaten path in rural Russia.

Day two in Pskov started with a late breakfast followed by a tour of the city and Kremlin (walled city). It is quite a small town (190,000) by Russian standards and was once closed to all tourists. As if to demonstrate this a large Russian military cargo jet flies over and as it goes dumps about a dozen flares out its port side. Quite spectacular and as I understand it these flares are designed to put off incoming heat seeking missiles.


Pskov Fortress on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Flares from an Antonov on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Lunch was taken late a Russian bath house with lots of potatoes and vodka. After lunch we took a Russian sauna that involved the birch twigs and slapping. The heat was intense and quite a bit of fun. We went to go for a jump in the frozen lake but the ice wasn’t quite thick enough and all I managed to do was cut my feet up on the thin ice. Thankfully my father has a travelling first aid kit that includes iodine.

NOTE: If you are taking a northern European steam bath and wish to jump in the lake after you are done then make sure the ice has been cleared!


Frozen Lake = cut feet on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Tonight we are off to dinner in a local restaurant that serves traditional Russian cuisine. I am expecting more potatoes and vodka!

Well, dinner was a riot of new Russia. From the strobe lights to the two karaoke crooners singing Russian pop songs this dinner really was ‘new’ Russia. The party eating next to us had been hitting the vodka pretty hard and was dancing pretty loosely. It turned out that this party was in aid of seven young Russian women getting their drivers licence and were celebrating with their instructors. Apparently in Russia this achievement is worth a drink fest of rare apportion. We stayed long enough for our desert of vanilla ice cream, no really that was it.

Next day saw more fortresses and churches. Russian Orthodox churches are quite ornate though everyone appologies for their current state and blame the naz_’s for their not quite authentic appearance. Before the ‘naz_’s’ is a common comment and given this is still recent history for the older generation it does give you some idea of how painful this memory is.

Dinner this evening was a much more pleasant affair with good soup and company. After this we made our way onto the train for Moscow.

Pskov – Moscow
4..12.08
1800 – 0628 +1

This trip we have signed on with a tour company as I didn’t have the time to frig around trying to get my head around the minefield of travel in Russia. They booked us on third class…… Here is my only problem. I would have paid more to be in a sleeper but we have no choice, why could this not have been an option? A twelve hour train ride with the lights on is, I guess, a cultural experience.

Arrival into Moscow should be quite interesting but as the sun is really only in the sky for a few hours a day then we will see very little of the suburbs.

 

[sr81]

Moscow was much like I expected. A crazier version of St. Petersburg but, strangely, with less to see. After we had covered Lenin tomb, Red Square and The Kremlin not much is really left within easy walking distance of the centre. The statue to Peter the Great really is a must see. This monstrous statue dominates the landscape and can be seen for miles around and it is only once you get near to it does the size really grab you. In all it is about 70m of bronze and copper that really has to been seen to be believed.



Russia on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Lenin's Tomb on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The Hotel Vega is a great hotel located on the site of the Olympic village for the 1980 Olympics. Whilst some item are distinctly 1980 it is a pretty well run hotel that certainly caters for vast numbers of people. The breakfast here is a highlight with cook to order eggs and blini, unfortunately no caviar is available but plenty of jams and fresh fruit keep it pretty tempting.

Our last afternoon was spent subway hoping and inspecting some of the famed stops that were decorated by the Soviets in about 1950 or so. They really are quite special with plenty of interesting mosaics that let you into a little of the Soviet times. In fact all through Russia you come across little hints of the Soviet times. Red stars on The Kremlin, Lenin in a subway station and a mosaic of a strong youthful man with a sickle.

Revolinsaya Station in Moscow on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

AY 154
SVO – HEL
7.12.08
12:50 – 13:40

This was a fun flight but SVO really is a gutter of an airport. After an exorbitant ride to airport, I was not prepared to challenge Moscow subway with bags and peak hour to try the airport train, we arrived and found that check in had no open so we decided to get a coffee. That plan was swiftly changed given the price. I was prepared for an expensive city but it was still more than I expected. The quality is so low but the prices are so high!

I arrived at check in exactly as it opened and swiftly joined the business class line. A Russian lady then proceed to march down the line and eject, literally, all people that weren’t supposed to be there. Hence I advanced to the front of the line! I received an invited to the D-First lounge which I used after bidding my sister and father farewell on their flight to Berlin.

It was really great to travel with them and I was wrapped that I got the family picture in front of St. Basil’s.

I like Finnair. Their service is very good even if there intra Europe seats suck, but so does BA’s. The cabin staff made frequent passes through the cabin and nothing was too much trouble. The champers was Joseph Perrier which is quite acceptable for a flight such as this. The chicken was the usual airplane food but was hungry so ate it.

Arrival into Helsinki was very quick and my bags arrived first off the belt again so points to Finnair.

Hilton Helsinki Airport.
A very new hotel that is overflowing with Nordic design themes. I quite like the beech wood and uncluttered thing so I enjoyed this hotel. Especially nice was the chocolate bar ready and waiting in your room slightly chilled. Finnish chocolate is very nice and the Finns are quite proud of this. The rest of their food is a touch dull which is I understand given the climate but any country that does good chocolate is a friend of mine.

Revolinsaya Station in Moscow on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

HEL – LHR
AY 839
8.12.08
14:05 – 15:10

I slept pretty hardy, skipped breakfast and went straight to the Golden Wing Lounge. I had forgotten that a second lounge was available but this made do whilst my brain kicked in. The Sliver Lounge is vastly newer and better. Modern design and great view of the tarmac.

HEL Finnair Lounge on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Tip: Skip the Golden Wing Lounge. Not even worth a visit.

This flight was nice and on time which I liked and Finnair again provided great service and edible food.

Deicing at Helsinki on Flickr - Photo Sharing!




LHR was the usual bunfight with my bags arriving dead last.

Sheraton Heathrow
FOUR POUNDS for the hotel bus transfer! What a rip. The point of airport hotel is ease of access to the hotel. The Americans get this spot on but this hotel is very wide of the mark. This was my first stay as an SPG Gold member and I got nothing special but a semi clean SPG room. Whilst an upgrade is always a bonus I really had hopped for at least club access.

This hotel is showing its age and could use a revamp. It is very close to airport and the Hotel Hoppa is a very good service but at four pounds a little bit of a rip off for a 3 minute journey to T5.

 

[sr81]

LHR – DXB
9.12.08
12:35 – 23:25
BA 107

I love the First Galleries. Looks great, plenty of space and Pol Roger 1999 Vintage Brut in the Champagne Bar is top work. Like a few of you out there I have given up on lounge food only concentrating on the important things. Things like cramming as much top flight booze in as possible before they start off loading your bags. Any takers for that little statement?


Horse Statue. BA First Lounge at T5 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

T5 is massive and I left it pretty tight to get to the satellite terminal. You really need a good 15-20 minutes to be comfortable given it involves a train and significant walk if you are at the end of the terminal. One day I will get a gate that is next door to the lounge, never happened as yet but I maintain the hope.

BA’s new new Club World is a great hard product that is let down just a little buy the food and wash bag. Very cheap and not all that useful.

In BA’s credit the fish pie was excellent, the same cannot be said for the French white. Hmmmmmm, maybe I have not tried sufficient good French wines but I can’t shake the feeling that they are only good at the very top of the market or at the very bottom. I have had some great French reds served from a carafe in a provincial town but never at that higher price bracket. I guess, in the interests of fair judgement, I will need to just keep trying.

The cabin for this flight was oppressively hot and I was stinking hot in my QF pj’s that I carry so I don’t have to sleep in my jeans. I would also love BA to offer ice-cream, it is just a nice treat.

 

[Lord Mud]

Great TR mate, its got some good tips on there for my next few trips
Shame about the Sheraton, but there is a new Hilton going up @ T5 next year which looks pretty impressive for a British clone building.
I was in Chicago in May and did the John Hancock building, no Divid Schwimmer on my audio tour! But i did 5 games in a week @ Wrigley field. The weird thing about that place is that the tix get snapped up by scalpers super quick.. but it just so happens that most of the scalpers are employed by the ticket agency. So basically the they buy their own tix and then rip everyone else off.. must be a good tax break. But seriously it can be easier to get a ticket off a scalper at the ground than pre-buying.

 

[Keith009]

It turned out that this party was in aid of seven young Russian women getting their drivers licence and were celebrating with their instructors. Apparently in Russia this achievement is worth a drink fest of rare apportion.

They need a reason to party? :shock: