A month in Europe: 12 airlines, 10 countries

[Mattg]

Rossio Square:



On the second day I did a tour of Belém, the historic part of town featuring a gigantic monastery and the famous Belém tower.



Jerónimos Monastery:





Belém Tower:

 

[Mattg]

Anyone that has visited Porto will probably have seen the bridge there that resembles the Eiffel Tower. Here's a photo I took last year:



Not to be outdone, Lisbon has a bridge that's even less original. It's exactly the same design as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Originally called the "Salazar Bridge" after Portugal's former dictator, it was later renamed the "25th of April Bridge" after the date the military dictatorship was overthrown in 1974. In the photo you can also see a large monument celebrating Portugal's age of discovery & colonisation.

 

[Mattg]

I really enjoyed the food & wine in Lisbon. The quality was good and both were inexpensive. Wine was particularly good value with most restaurants charging around €1 per glass.

There was just one thing you needed to watch out for. At most restaurants, they will place accompaniments such as bread and cheese on your table. These aren't actually included; if you take something, it will be added to the bill.

This was my table at a restaurant I had just arrived at. There was only one thing on the table that I had actually ordered...

 

[Mattg]

To get to Madrid, I had a few options. The cheapest option, believe it or not, was actually to fly Ryanair... with an 11 hour stopover in Marseille. If I had've had more time, I may have actually considered it. But I instead decided to take an overnight train.

The Renfe "Trenhotel" service left Lisbon at 9.25pm and arrived in Madrid at 8.40am the next day.

I don't mind doing overnight trains, but a proper bed is a must. Recliner seats were available for around €30, but I doubt you would get a quality sleep. I was able to get a bed in a 4 bed sleeper cabin for around €50 and thought it was worth it. I managed about 6 hours of decent sleep, and in fact would have slept longer if we weren't woken up by the conductor an hour out of Madrid.

The train was pretty comfortable. There were a range of different sleeper car options, plenty of toilets and an onboard bar/restaurant. For an overnight trip where sleep is the main priority, it was more than acceptable.

One thing I observed is that there were very few locals on the train. At least in the sleeper cars, the vast majority of passengers were actually Asian tourists.

Some pics of the train:

 

[Mattg]

Madrid

Some sightseeing around the Spanish capital!

 

[Mattg]

This building is apparently the world's oldest restaurant:



Again, I enjoyed my time in Madrid but to be honest I did prefer Barcelona. I felt there was more going on there from a tourist perspective.

If I had've had an extra day I would have liked to do a day trip out to Toledo, which a lot of people said was nice.

 

[Mattg]

The next stop was Hamburg, Germany.

When searching for flights on AirberlinI discovered that it was about the same price to fly via Palma de Mallorca. Why fly direct when you can connect (and pick up some extra points & SCs)?

IB3918 Madrid - Palma de Mallorca
Airbus A320
Departure time: 07:25
Arrival time: 08:50

I had a bit of a hard time checking in at Madrid Airport as the Iberia staff didn't seem to speak English! When I got to the counter, the man was going on and on in high-speed Spanish. I couldn't understand a word he said! I stopped him to tell him that I don't speak Spanish but he didn't seem to get the message. To be honest I'm surprised they would employ staff at a major international airport that don't have a grasp on the English language, but I digress...

Thankfully when I got to the Iberia lounge things got better. The lady in the lounge spoke perfect English, and even offered to move me to a seat closer to the front of the plane.

The lounge was quite lounge and featured plenty of comfortable lounges, a sleeping room and toilets/showers. The food selection was somewhat limited but there was plenty to drink including tea, coffee, soft drinks and a fully-stocked bar (in case you feel like a beer or wine at 6.30am).

The lounge:



And the sleeping room:

 

[Mattg]

There was a large group of Iberia employees, both in and not in uniform, hanging around the gate during boarding. After the "boarding completed" announcement, they all streamed onto the plane filling up an otherwise empty business class and the remaining seats in the first several rows of economy. I'm assuming they were all there on staff travel.

The flight was operated by Iberia Express, a subsidiary of Iberia operating short haul flights. I'm not sure if that makes any difference to the service level.

The first thing I noticed when I took my seat was how noticeably poor the legroom is. They couldn't have possibly made the seats any closer together! In fact, when the guy in front of me decided to recline, there was so little legroom that my legs were practically jammed into the back of the seat in front. I checked on Seatguru after the flight, and according to them the legroom is actually worse than both Jetstar and Tiger!



Snacks and drinks were available for purchase only and there was no in-flight entertainment. This was very much a low-cost airline experience, just without the low cost!

We were flying towards the sunrise as we headed east towards Palma Mallorca and were met with these views on approach to the airport:



The crew did a good job and the flight arrived slightly early. But I can't say I really enjoyed the flight. It was adequate and got me from A to B, but I expected more from a oneworld airline.

 

[Mattg]

For the ~2 hour stopover I headed to the Formentor lounge. This wasn't quite up to the same standard as the one in Madrid. It was a reasonable size and had the basic facilities you would expect. But the food on offer was nothing but sugary pastries like donuts and sweet chocolate filled croissants. I really wasn't a fan of the food; something healthy would not have gone astray. Otherwise, it was a comfortable place to sit for a couple of hours and the lounge was very empty.

AB7757 Palma de Mallorca - Hamburg
Airbus A320
Departure time: 11:10
Arrival time: 13:50

This flight was much more enjoyable. It was only around 25% and I had the whole row to myself, which was nice.

We had some nice views on departure:



As well as later in the flight as we overflew the Swiss Alps:



All passengers were offered the usual "sweet or salty" snack and unlimited alcoholic & non-alcoholic drinks.

There were also a range of hot meals available for sale. I tried the currywurst which was available for €6. Both the serving size and quality were good.



The service was exactly as I've come to expect from airberlin: efficient and friendly.

For in-flight entertainment there was a range of movies, TV shows and music available for streaming onto your own device. The range of movies available would certainly be no match for Emirates' ICE, but there was more than enough to keep me occupied for a couple of hours. In-flight wifi was also available for a fee.

We arrived in Hamburg 10 minutes early and I had my suitcase shortly afterwards. Overall, it was a nice flight!

 

[snabbu]

Interesting write up Mattg, really enjoying riding along.

Those UL J seats look quite similar to the CX varieties. Will certainly think about UL in the future.

 

[casanovawa]

I found Madrid a pretty city to walk around and photograph... But yes Barcelona is a bit different, I want to get back and visit there sometime soon...

And one time whilst in Madrid I took a day trip out to Segovia and its pretty castle, cathedral and 1st century Roman Aqueduct crossing right through the town... Its worth doing if visiting there...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I paid extra to sit in 1A and found the legroom adequate. I can't comment on the other rows but would imagine it would be the same as on any other low-cost airline.

Many years ago I took a flight on Wizz Air - when they were just starting out and had about three planes. I paid 1 pound to fly from London to Budapest... I can assure you the 'main' seating was an industry leader at the time - something like 28 inches. And for someone well over 6 foot that's quite a squeeze.

Wizz used to have a terrible reputation - always running hours late, stopping at unscheduled places to pick up passengers from previously cancelled flights (the BUD flight the day before ours made an unscheduled stop in Poland to pick up passengers). I'm guessing with the advent of Eu261 that's probably improved!

great trip report, thanks for the tips on Air Asia (paying for quiet zone to get some more space).

 

[Mattg]

Hamburg

I like Hamburg and have been many times before. There's a fair bit to see and do, and on a previous trip I even got to tour the Airbus factory there (which was fantastic).

This time it was just a quick stop to catch up with a few friends before I headed down the road to my favourite city in Europe!

Unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable.



The next morning I hopped on an ICE train for the less than 2 hour trip to Berlin. The train was going around 180 km/h for most of the trip. The conductor actually apologised over the PA that we were travelling a bit slower than normal (due to trackwork or something) and would actually arrive 10 minutes late! That didn't go down too well with the German passengers...

 

[marki]

You bet.

My boarding pass scanned .....felt like I was really there thanks mattg

 

[GarrettM]

Hamburg

I like Hamburg and have been many times before. There's a fair bit to see and do, and on a previous trip I even got to tour the Airbus factory there (which was fantastic).

This time it was just a quick stop to catch up with a few friends before I headed down the road to my favourite city in Europe!


View attachment 65134

My favourite city also. My dilemma is the wife prefers to go to places she hasn't yet been, so my chances of going back any time soon aren't great.

 

[OATEK]

This time it was just a quick stop to catch up with a few friends before I headed down the road to my favourite city in Europe!

The next morning I hopped on an ICE train for the less than 2 hour trip to Berlin.

Ah Berlin, not only a favourite city, it has my favourite hotel (next to my avatar).

Going back to Ostbanhof?

 

[Mattg]

Ah Berlin, not only a favourite city, it has my favourite hotel (next to my avatar).

Going back to Ostbanhof?

I think I have a fair idea of the hotel you're referring to

Yep, I did make it back to Ostbahnhof... still have a few friends at a certain fast food establishment there.

 

[Mattg]

My favourite city also. My dilemma is the wife prefers to go to places she hasn't yet been, so my chances of going back any time soon aren't great.

I generally prefer to visit new places too, but there are some exceptions! There are some places that just never get old, and Berlin is one of those. I know that I'll always have a good time there, so I don't see any reason to avoid the place just because I've already been there.

 

[Mattg]

Berlin

As some of you may be aware, I used to live here. I absolutely love it here and always enjoy visiting!

On this trip I spent a week in Berlin. I spent the time mostly re-visiting some of my old favourite spots, seeing friends and even discovering a few new spots. There's so much to see and do - one week never seems like long enough!

One thing I noticed is how much the city has changed over the past year. Slowly but surely the city is becoming more gentrified. The city is getting "cleaned up", more buildings are being built, and the buildings are getting taller. Having said that, the new BER airport still shows no signs of opening soon!

I'll post a few photos from around Berlin. Starting with a few of the main attractions...

The Bundestag (parliament) building:



The Brandenburg Gate at night - this may vaguely resemble a certain AFF member's handle:



Alexanderplatz:



The Spree:



Soviet memorial at Treptower Park:

 

[Mattg]

Tempelhof airport on a busy Saturday afternoon:





The Boxhagener Platz flea market:



The East Side Gallery - one of three remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, which ironically now features a fence in front of it in order to protect the wall against graffiti:



Finally, a sign I spotted outside one of the many bars in Friedrichshain: