Australia to Germany the long way

[QF WP]

Great TR so far, boomy . See you in BNE soon

 

[SuzieQ68]

Great trip report - looking forward to the return leg!

 

[outbackowner]

Fantastic Trip Report Boomy, Looking forward to seeing you in ADL for the wine weekend.

 

[Demon_fan]

Great TR - have enjoyed it thoroughly so far!

 

[snabbu]

Agreed with the others, awesome TR boomy! Of course in the correct in AFF style... why go direct?

 

[boomy]

After spending the holidays with the family it was time to start the long way back home, but first a short stopover in Bucharest to catch up with some mates I haven't seen for a while.
My original FRA-OTP flight was cancelled for some reason and because the booking was made via US I had a few stressful moments when LH asked me to fly the next day because there were no seats available in J on the next flight. I couldn't accept the offer because I already booked OTP-MUC the next day and also had pre-payed hotel reservation in Bucharest. Eventually we managed to reach a compromise: I will accept downgrade to Y on the FRA-OTP leg so I can fly the same day and in return LH will move my OTP-MUC leg forward free of charge, cutting the layover time in MUC to 60 minutes. I knew this "compromise" didn't really work in my favour and I should have asked for some sort of compensation for the downgrade but I couldn't be bothered making a big fuss over 2hr flight.
FRA-OTP LH Y (downgraded from J).
I used my *G privilege to board early, which later proved to be a wise decision because the flight was 100% full and pax were struggling to find storage for their luggage. It was a standard B737 which I know all to well from the many QF Dom flights I take every year. I fell asleep during takeoff and didn't take any photos from this uneventful flight.

 

[boomy]

OTP airport
We landed on time to a very busy airport. Other flights from MAD, ZAZ and FCO also landed at the same time. Although there was a queue for passport control, it was going very fast. I must say the Romanian passport control is the most efficient I've ever seen. The officer barely looked at me (same for other people) before stamping my passport.
Unfortunately the efficiency ended up there. I had to wait almost 45 minutes(!!!) for my *A priority tagged bag to come out. It was among the last bags to come out from this flight, together with a few more *A priority tagged bags. Seems like priority works in reverse here in OTP.
The taxi system at the airport is interesting, first need to take a note from an automatic machine located in the arrivals area and then go outside and look for the yellow taxi with the number written on that note (numbers are written very clearly on the front and doors of the taxi). Another thing that I found out is that not all taxis cost the same. For example, the cheapest option (the one I've chosen) was 1.39RON per km which gives you a pretty old Dacia (Romanian made car). When booking the taxi I noticed price per km can cost as much as 3.49RON. I don't know exactly what the more expensive fare includes as the taxis I saw outside were all Dacia models (some newer then others). Anyway, my old taxi had a young driver who clearly felt the need for speed as he did up to 120kph in areas where the speed limit was only 80kph. After 30 minutes of racing we arrived to the hotel.

 

[boomy]

Hilton Athene Palace
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: Junior Suite
The original building used to be a fancy hotel for many years, called Athene Palace.

When the Hilton group bought the hotel after the revolution, they built a new wing to add some more rooms the original 5 story building.
The lobby looks impressive.


The Junior suite.


I found the room to be quite small compare to others Hilton Junior Suites I stayed in. Nevertheless, it was more then enough for my needs.

 

[boomy]

View from the room

The executive lounge


Positives: location, price, service, breakfast.
Negatives: room size, old bath (no shower).
Conclusion: the positives overcome the the negatives, I would go back to this hotel.

 

[boomy]

Bucharest
Woke up to a cold morning.

View from the room, the streets look empty.

I started my day with a walk in Cismigiu gardens. The city had some heavy snow in recent days and the gardens look absolutely stunning now with all the leafless trees covered with snow.

 

[boomy]

Some more photos I took in the gardens.
Skating rink

Frozen lake

Even the clock froze

A glass of hot wine is perfect in this weather.

 

[boomy]

Oops, uploaded wrong photo of the skating rink in my last post.

 

[TomVexille]

Looks great boomy

 

[boomy]

We had lunch at one of the most famous restaurants in Bucharest called Caru cu Bere (the beer wagon). It is a MUST place to come for anyone who wants to experience traditional Romanian food in a classy atmosphere. That's how Romanian restaurants used to look many years ago.


Even though the place looks fancy, the food is not expensive at all and thats why this restaurant is popular among local and tourists.
The menu is designed like an old newspaper.

Traditional Romanian food is all about the meat and the fatter the better.
Sausages with cabbage.

Veal steak with local Ursus beer.

 

[boomy]

Bucharest used to be called 'Paris of the East (Europe)' for a good reason. Everywhere you look there are grandiose buildings that tell a story of a glorious past. It's such a shame the bloody communists destroyed this country when they came to power after the Second World War.
When the dictator was executed in 1989 in what was made to look like revolution (the whole thing was all organised by the Russians), conditions still didn't improve for many years later because the new "democratic" government was formed by pro-Russians ex-communists. There was a state of chaos in the early 90s when everyone in power were more busy with securing their own wealth rather then taking care of the country. The former King who was exiled by the communists and lived in Switzerland since, was eventually allowed to return and was given some of his assets back but he was not allowed to go back to power.
Romania will probably never retain it's glorious past but hopefully it's leaders will be less corrupt and fix the many problems caused by many years of neglect.

 

[boomy]

The Athenaeum concert hall

The Royal Palace

It was set on fire during the revolution and later restored.
The former post office

Palace of the National Military Circle

The former Communist Party building.

From there Ceausescu delivered his last ever speech before running away with his helicopter from the angry crowd.

 

[boomy]

The National Library

Statue of Carol I - the first king of Romania.

The city of Bucharest celebrating 555 years.

Palace of Parliament


This 340,000 sqm, 1,100 rooms palace is the largest residential building in the world and 2nd largest building in the world after the Pentagon in USA.

 

[boomy]

My shirt trip to Bucharest is now finished and it's time to start my long way back home OTP-MUC-CDG-BKK-HKG-SYD-BNE.

 

[boomy]

OTP Business lounge
OTP airport has two main business lounge, one for the home airline Tarom and another for the rest.
It's very obvious the contract lounge is sponsored by MasterCard.

I guess platinum card holders can go in so I was expected to see a busy lounge. To my surprise it was actually very quiet. Don't know why, the departures area was very busy so I'm not sure where all the Business class pax go...
The lounge was very basic, as expected from a contract lounge.

 

[boomy]

OTP-MUC LH J
There was a late aircraft change to E95 which didn't bother me too much as I'm used to the low standard J class LH have intra-Europe. The J cabin wasn't too bad actually, two rows 2-2 seating, only two pax in the cabin.

Adequate legroom in row 1.

Service was very attentive, the meal was ok.

The red wine from South Africa was pretty good but I tried to take it easy because I have another similar flight coming after this one.