Having fun with Havila

[jase05]

For our last night we decided to go on a river cruise as this is always how we like to finish our stay in Prague. Organised it through the hotel a quite well priced. Included pick up and drop off and the buffet meal onboard which was pretty nice. Some beautiful scenery as usual

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]

Next morning we grabbed an Uber back to the airport and had a pleasant Ukrainian girl that didn’t speak a lot of English but enough that as best as I could make out she had moved at the start of the war and that her home town was now under Russian occupation. She said the Czechs were very accomodating and it was noticeable around Prague that there were many Ukrainian flags on buildings. I think she must have drove race cars as she took us on a time trial back to the airport though
Airport check in and security a breeze as always at PRG and we were in the lounge in no time. BA use the Mastercard lounge which is fairly basic but comfortable. Who doesn’t enjoy Czech beers for breakfast

Our bird back to LHR

 

[happywanderer51]

Arrival in Kirkenes port and a few last photos from the deck before disembarking and heading to our buses
View attachment 396224View attachment 396225View attachment 396226View attachment 396227View attachment 396228

We spent a month in Scandinavia in February 2024. Really enjoyed our Havila Bergen to Kirkenes, (brought back so many memories looking at your photos) but the highlight for us was a week in Lapland at a Wilderness Camp.

 

[VPS]

Those night photos from Prague are just beautiful

 

[jase05]

PRG-LHR BA855 A319 1100-1215
Seat 4C

Another very good BA Eurobiz flight. We departed PRG about 10 minutes early as there was bad weather around London. Meal was the same as I’d had recently which was the cold Roast Beef and was good again. Service was amazing to the point that the beers went down rather quickly and before long we were approaching LHR. Slight delay of a few minutes due to bad weather but was a smooth landing and got our luggage and exited T3 in record time to be picked up by my Aunt.

 

[jase05]

Only in London for 2 nights for another family function before having another 5 nights in Europe to catch our award flight from CDG. We had decided to head to Switzerland for a few nights.
Dropped off at LHR T5 and straight through security and to the BA F lounge.
Was a bit of a zoo and whilst it’s not a bad lounge I feel they don’t make the best use of the views available. Really nice food selection consisting of several curries and hot dishes with a decent buffet. Had couple of wines and then time to head to the gates

LHR-ZRH BA718 A320 1530-1820
Seat 4C

Shambolic setup at the gate and flight delayed by 35 minutes. Boarding was a complete fail but the service onboard was fantastic. Afternoon tea consisted of scones with jam and cream and they were absolutely divine. I grew up on scones as my Nan baked them fresh daily when she stayed with us and she won a few awards at the Royal Adelaide show for them. Staff came back and offered extras which was duly accepted. The cheesecake was nice too. Once again staff very proactive with drinks and would bring out 2 at once so in a flight of under 2hrs we more than drank our quota so lucky we didn’t have to go far once in Zurich.
Smooth flight but couldn’t make up the lost time so arrived about 35 minutes late. Plenty of construction going on at ZRH but I do love the airport shuttle train and it makes you feel immediately like you are in the alps with the special effects played and the tunnel having virtual TV screens that made it look like you are travelling through the alps. Bags came out immediately and a quick walk to our airport hotel

 

[jase05]

Stayed at the Radisson Blu Zurich airport which is a very short walk undercover from arrivals and is also connected to the Metro directly which was handy as we had an early morning start to link up to the Bernina Express. Booked standard room and received an upgrade to a Premium airport view room. Room was comfortable and more than adequate for our needs and location was perfect. Didn’t have breakfast as we had to leave first thing in the morning

 

[PERLHR]

Excellent review and photos.

 

[jase05]

We have done the Bernina Express several times and at different seasons but we had never done a same day turnaround and thought it might be fun. The plan was to depart from Zurich Airport station and take the short 1hr ride to Chur and pick up the Bernina through to Tirano, have some lunch and then head straight back to Chur. We had a Swiss First class pass and booked seats for the Bernina as soon as bookings opened. Our cabin wasn’t packed so was comfortable trip down to Tirano even if the weather was pretty poor for much of the way down. One word of note is that the Bernina doesn’t have power points and this caught many out as they burned through camera/phone power before half way. We knew of this so had packed power packs to alleviate the issue.

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]

Tirano
We arrived at the station and had to leave our luggage at the station for a fee but it was worth it so we could go for a wander and grab lunch.
Stopped at a nice little restaurant that did fantastic pizzas and had a decent wine list. Had a bit of time after lunch to look around more and gran our luggage before heading back to the platform.

 

[jase05]

Weather for the return trip was far better

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]

 

[jase05]