Reunion and more - Germany & Czech Republic

[OZDUCK]

We are leaving at 01:10 tomorrow (10/8) on SQ for the start of a 33 day trip. This trip was originally booked to for August 2020 - everyone knows why that didn't occur. One of our objectives is to be in Berlin on 26 - 28 August for the reunion of my wife's German family roots. Her German ancestor came out to work for the Dutch East India Company in Malacca in 1788. He went native and my wife was born into an Eurasian family in Singapore. The 2020 reunion was cancelled and another attempt was made in 2021 but that was also cancelled so hopefully all will go well this time. We are flying in J and have a little over 4 hours stopover in Singapore before we arrive in Frankfurt on Thursday evening. The total travel time will, hopefully, be about 23 hours. But as I can rarely sleep on a plane - even in QR's Q Suites - I will be fairly tired by the time we check in to our hotel. This is an open-jaw ticket so we depart from Munich. SQ was far and away the cheapest 'major' airline for this trip.

Our itinerary is for 5 nights in Frankfurt, 4 nights in Dusseldorf, 3 nights in Muenster, 8 nights in Berlin, 5 nights in Prague, 2 nights in Regensburg and finally 5 nights in Munich. This is the first time, after 4 previous visits, that we have been in Germany without a car so there will be lots of train travel. The idea is to base ourselves in the various cities and make trips to the surrounding areas and towns. We have been to Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich (1976) before. I will try to keep a running commentary going but have found previously that I would fall quite a few days behind so we will see how I go.

So for the first time since 2019 I have prepared the "Travel Binder" with copies of all flights, hotels, train tickets etc and now away we go.

 

[Cossie]

Imo Cesky Krumlov is a must from Prauge if you haven’t been already.
Potsdam, Dresden, Leipzig and maybe Goerlitz all possible day trips.

I’m envious, I already miss German brotchen and eating in a Kartoffelhaus, not too mention the beer. Too late for spargel though.

 

[OZDUCK]

Imo Cesky Krumlov is a must from Prauge if you haven’t been already.
Potsdam, Dresden, Leipzig and maybe Goerlitz all possible day trips.

I’m envious, I already miss German brotchen and eating in a Kartoffelhaus, not too mention the beer. Too late for spargel though.

We had been thinking of doing a day trip to Kutná Hora but are still working out which town to visit. Yes plenty of brotchen and potatoes will be eaten. I am also determined to try the Frankfurt Green Sauce this time. We have never been in Germany at the right time to try the white asparagus.

 

[Cossie]

We had been thinking of doing a day trip to Kutná Hora but are still working out which town to visit. Yes plenty of brotchen and potatoes will be eaten. I am also determined to try the Frankfurt Green Sauce this time. We have never been in Germany at the right time to try the white asparagus.

How have I missed that? Another one for next time. We have driven very close by and stayed in several towns close to there. Another interesting town, though much further west is Karlovy Vary a spa town with stunning architecture.
Sigh, I already want to go back!

Frankfurt green sauce, was ist das? Even swmbo doesn’t know of that one. I did make the mistake of putting what I thought was sauerkraut on my bratwust in Austria, not realising until too late that it was horseradish.

 

[craven morehead]

Dialling in early

 

[tgh]

It had been a dreadful day, one end of Germany to t'other and halfway back (don't ask) .. finally found acc and directed to a local restaurant.
Place was chockers..and not a word of Anglais.. the wait staff were friendly but mute and we were stuffed.
A blessed local with impeccable English rescued us, explained that the whole menu was..(drum roll) asparagus.. because..it was asparagus season.
We had a lovely meal among lovely people..and the journey continued…..

 

[RooFlyer]

Following along if no other reason than looking forward to train travel in Germany next year. But lots of other reasons to follow along too!

 

[jeza]

From memory the trip between Berlin and Prague via train is quite a scenic journey.

Have a great trip @OZDUCK

 

[OZDUCK]

From memory the trip between Berlin and Prague via train is quite a scenic journey.

Have a great trip @OZDUCK

Yes, it goes down the Elbe River valley. We will be keeping an eye out for the Bastei lookout as we were on top of it in 2013 and we then drove the other side of the river back to Dresden.

Bastei - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[OZDUCK]

We are now sitting in the small but perfectly formed SQ lounge at Perth Airport. Hot food selection is Rendang, Hokkien Noodles, Tim Sum and Laksa. The very helpful lounge staff are making fresh sandwiches for those who ask. It is about 1/4 the size of the now closed QF lounge on this side of the airport.

We got dropped off about 20 minutes before check in opened as our lift had to pick up someone else from the Qantas Terminal on the other side of the airport. Once the check in opened we only had to wait about 5 minutes before being served. It then took less than 20 minutes to go through passport control, lodge a TRS claim, pass through security (electronics could stay in the bag) and walk to the lounge.

 

[woodyren]

Following along as well. I hear what you say about trying to keep up with compiling a TR.

Interested in your rail travels as we will soon embark on our first ever Euro rail journey.

 

[Cossie]

Veil glück und gute reise. Tschüss.

Following with envy.

 

[drron]

We spent a spargel season in Germany once. So we spargelled and Fahrted around Germany.
With a few Umleitungs.

 

[RB]

Well you are getting a fortnight start on us-we are covering different parts of Germany & Italy. I hope your trip goes smoothly. We have always found things easy enough without a car. Enjoy!

 

[OZDUCK]

We have made it into our hotel room in Frankfurt after basically being awake for close to 40 hours. It is around 20:15 and we are now going for a quick walk down to the Main River and then off to bed. It is still nice and bright outside - 32C when we arrived at 17:45.

 

[OZDUCK]

I have come up with a new way to help me delay writing up more of my TR. We had to replace our old laptop just before we left Perth. I have now discovered that it will not recognise my camera so I can't download any of those photos. My wife has some photos on her phone and I will work on these tonight.

 

[craven morehead]

I have come up with a new way to help me delay writing up more of my TR. We had to replace our old laptop just before we left Perth. I have now discovered that it will not recognise my camera so I can't download any of those photos. My wife has some photos on her phone and I will work on these tonight.

Maybe a USB card reader, assuming you have a USB port.

 

[OZDUCK]

Maybe a USB card reader, assuming you have a USB port.

Great minds obviously think alike. In about 10 minutes we are off downtown to an electronics store -Saturn - to buy a Card Reader.

 

[OZDUCK]

Great minds obviously think alike. In about 10 minutes we are off downtown to an electronics store -Saturn - to buy a Card Reader.

Well that didn't go well. We tried a different number tram this morning. It was a more circuitous route but would eventually get us near to the electronics store. However at the furthest point away from our destination the tram died. The driver gave an explanation of why we had to get off but the only word I recognised was "Tot" - dead. We walked for a little while but it was obvious that we were to far out in the suburbs to get into town on time as we had to catch a certain timed S Bahn train to meet with friends in Kronberg. So we gave up on our purchase plans.

However I remembered that I had thrown in a very old and basic digital camera as an emergency backup. It was not supposed to be able to cope with the capacity of my SD card from the newer camera but I was able to swop cards over and at least download my photos. When I get back home I will test the cable on another laptop.

And just to prove that it worked. From today Kronberg Castle - Kronberg im Taunus. Milefest was put up in this town after airline failures a couple of months ago. This was taken from a cemetery across the valley from the town. We were with locals.

 

[OZDUCK]

Ok I will now and try to achieve a bit of a catch-up. Due to my camera problems I may probably do some backtracking later on.

Perth SQ J Lounge. It is pretty small with only enough room for one flight at a time but of course that is all that is necessary.



There were a few choices of hot food - mostly Asian - Laksa, Tim Sum etc. The staff were very pro-active in topping up glasses and offering freshly made sandwiches and beef sliders.



The spirits selection



On board the plane in the worst Lie Flat J seats I have used - SQ Regional J Class. We have sampled QR,QF, CX, Finnair and the QR leasedd LATAM planes 6 across J seats. All had more room and were more comfortable. This includes the J seats on a QR A320. I now understand why those of you who live in the Eastern States have complained about these seats. After 5 hours I was beginning to get sore and cramped andthe extra time to other cities must be a real pain.

I found the seats narrow and hard. The legroom was very poor and I found it extremely difficult to get my feet into the upper nook. The old style Lazy Boy recliners on Royal Brunei were much more comfortable.

You can see how cramped I am. As someone on here said these seats were designed for very slim Asian bodies.



Because the flight departed Perth at 01:10 we only ordered a breakfast just before arrival in Singapore. Both of us ordered Book the Cook

Prawn and scallop with mustard pickle chilli sauce - my wife said it was very tasty



I ordered the Cheese omelette with boston beans and chicken sausage. It was exactly what the label said - a normal hot breakfast.