I had considered renting a car, and in the end that would have been the easiest. It’s just not that difficult a drive from Barcelona to Roses. Instead, though, we took the Catalunya Express train to Figueres. Cost was ~ 10 euros apiece each way. A car wouldn’t have been more expensive overall, though, because of the cost of cabs – a good 40 euros each way to and from the train station into Roses. (I’d still take a cab to and from the restaurant, though, for reasons I’ll explain). At the train station you stick your ticket in the machine to enter the area of the station with the tracks, but presumably any train ticket would work, no tickets were ever checked onboard in either direction, so why not buy the cheapest ticket and…
Trip Reports
Category Archives for Trip Reports.
Barcelona Trip Report Continued – Le Meridien and Rambling Along Las Ramblas
Le Meridien Barcelona Just under 30 euro cab ride from the airport, and I walk into the hotel and up to the checkin desk. Relatively quick and painless, but not suite available. In fact, no upgrade available. “It is a very nice room, it is an upgrade, trust me you will like it.” It’s the smallest room I’ve ever seen in Europe, and it faces a side street. Back down to the desk to renegotiate, they give me a somewhat larger standard room – this time facing Las Ramblas with a little standup balcony to walk out on. The only downside is that it’s two beds joined together rather than a true King. Ah, Europe. This is an improvement, at least. Service isn’t great here, no one helped me with my bags. And my first…
A Second Trip Through Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal in Frankfurt
Friday, March 28, 2008 The First Class Terminal is eminently walkable from the Sheraton, although it did involve being outside on a rather crisp morning. Back across the passenger bridge to Terminal 1, downstairs to the arrivals level, to the very end of Hall A and out by the hotel shuttle pickup we just continued walking against the direction of vehicle traffic and there was the First Class Terminal, lower level. We buzzed the entrance and someone came down to meet us and let us in. Back up the elevator and through ever-so-polite security, and now I’m ensconced in here a bit before 8am with a bloody mary in hand. Here’s a view outside the terminal, where staff were washing the cars: We arrived a full 5.5 hours before flight time, but figured it was…
Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers
We cruised through immigration with not a single person in line ahead of us and walked over to the departure level and up again to the escalator to the pedestrian bridge, and across the way to the Sheraton. I had reserved the hotel on a cash and points award, US$60 + 4000 points a night. Walked up to the check-in desk, though I suppose we could have headed up to the Towers lounge on the 9th floor for checkin. We were given a room on the club floor. I asked if suite was available as a platinum upgrade (not that I cared, actually, on a one-night stay at the airport). The woman checking me in said “We don’t normally do that.” I asked, “Are you sure, I thought that if a standard suite was available,…
Beijing’s New Teminal 3
Thursday, March 27, 2008 After breakfast in the lounge we checked out (removing the 8RMB opt-out charitable donation, as I’ve noted elsewhere I take my charity seriously and make gifts on my own, and don’t participate in these sorts of arrangements; separately my understanding of the empirical research is that the corporate giving level remains the same independent of guest participation, so the contribution really amounts to a contribution to the company rather than providing incremental dollars to a charity) and left for the airport around 8:30am. Traffic was bad getting out of the city, but clear afterwards, and we pulled up at Beijing’s new Terminal 3 at about 9:30am. Cab was 103RMB. Beijing’s new terminal is certainly impressive. It’s an architectural marvel, if a little bit sterile, and it’s opening was certainly smoother than…
One Day to Tour Beijing
Beijing Tour in One Day: Ok, I grant you most will find it crazy to fly up to Beijing to spend just one full day. But we packed a good bit in, had a nice time, so why not? At the suggestion of Flyertalk.com member AZ Travels the World we booked a lovely and knowledgable tour guide named Alice. He had warned me that she wasn’t especially responsive to e-mail, but actually if I waited a couple of days she’d get back to me. I really do prefer to work by email rather than phone. She called us at the hotel the night we arrived, and confirmed the time we’d be meeting in the hotel lobby. She did ask something we hadn’t discussed earlier – whether I’d have a car. I rather assumed she would! No problem,…
Westin Beijing Financial Street
About 1h15m in traffic, the cab deposited us at the Westin for 118RMB. I had had a map to the hotel with the address in Chinese (which I had emailed the hotel for), but the dispatcher simply asked us our destination and communicated it to the driver and all was fine. Upstairs to the club lounge to checkin (since Platinums have access to the lounge, they can necessarily check in there). I had reserved the hotel on a cash and points award, US$60 + 4000 points a night. 500 point Plat amenity has already posted, along with points from two room service coffee orders, but no points for the cash portion of the rate – will have to followup. We were informed the hotel was full (and it certainly was, with a huge American tour…
Thai Airways First Class, Bangkok to Beijing
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Beijing, China (PEK) 11:05 am Thai Airways 0614, Boeing 747, First Class, Seats 2J, 2K Scheduled flight time: 4h 25m We left the Novotel around 7:45am and took the shuttle over to the airport. Another couple was on the shuttle with us, heading to a domestic destination, so we were both dropped off at the same point – Royal First/Royal Silk checkin comes first, right before domestic. We got out of the shuttle, had only our carryons, so none of the porters stirred. We approached the Royal First check-in room and as soon as we entered we were greeted and brought inside to sit down. We turned over our passports, paid our departure tax (they dispatched a staff member to pay it and brought us our receipts),…
Bangkok Overnight at the Airport Novotel
Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport With the time change it was about 9pm local time when we got out of the BKK airport. We were heading back to the airport for a morning flight, wanted to get there early enough for the first class spa, and so decided not to head into the city and instead spend the night at the Novotel on the airport grounds. While the in-room materials describe the walkway from the terminal, that isn’t built yet. Instead there’s a shuttle that runs every 15 minutes. After clearing immigration and customs, there’s a Novotel representative standing by door 4 ready to assist you into the hotel’s van. A quick loop around the airport access roads and you’re at the hotel. Contra several reports, check-in was a breeze although there were curiously many forms to…
Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay Balinese Cooking Class
Four Seasons Bali Cooking School Experience: One of my pet peeves with travel is the last day in a resort destination. If your flight leaves too early, it’s a hectic morning rushing to get things together and get off to the airport… defeating the very relaxation you’ve been trying to accomplish. But a flight departing in the afternoon inevitably means waiting around and pining, “we have only X hours left” rather than relaxing. So I’ve found it’s helpful when taking a late afternoon flight to book activities during the day. We decided to book a cooking class over at the Four Seasons Jimbaran Bay roughly next door to the Intercontinental. Monday morning is the Balinese cooking class (other days feature different cuisines, but when in Bali…) The day started off at 8am in the lobby…
