Crossing The Atlantic For A Quick Birthday Visit (SQ R, LH F)

[TimT]

Huh? Not sure what you're referring to by last time.

I'm asking Benjie

[benjie1305]

Good thing you didn't spend more time in the lounge. Which passport are you going to use to leave the EU?

Ended up using my US one. Not anticipating the same issues with FCT+GE.

Nice Report. Thanks! A mentor told me to to try never to dine alone, and a premium cabin on an intl flight is the perfect place to network, if you think about it. Also, gorging on the multi-course meals on fine china, just seems odd and hedonistic while watching the IFE rather than being across from someone and having a conversation. On my recent F flight on LH, we didn't dine together, but the first four rows (including myself) all introduced ourselves in the F lounge in JFK and had a good time over drinks on board talking about travel and our respective destinations (and whether we would have time to hit up the FCT).

Yep. I have that same attitude towards travel in premium cabins which is why I even struck up a conversation in my "biz" class seat from Vienna to Frankfurt this morning.

Interesting. I would find it really hard to dine with a stranger since I'm more of an introvert, although that my be your point exactly.

DingDingDing!

+1. Did you feel guilty being the last on the plane ? When it was me I felt guilty. (I was sitting in coach & it was after takeoff time.)

Lol. Maybe I could/should have but I was just so happy and out of breath that I made it that there was no time for feeling guilty. Plus, I wasn't the last one by a mile; more like by a quarter of a mile. 

[benjie1305]

Vienna!

The captain announced that we would touch down shortly and so we all got "ready" for landing just to be told minutes later that we'd be making an extra loop. We supposedly cut too close to a Jumbo that was approaching the airport as well. [Wonder what Jumbo that was. Certainly was no A380 as VIE is taking the heat for not being able to currently facilitate its arrival, not like rival Prague] 8 minutes later our loop was complete and we could all feel the ground underneath our feet.

No luggage to wait for it was off the plane, a left, down the escalator and through the gates out of the airport to find my brother waiting for me. Good to be back I tell you!
It was right around 1:30 pm and we had just under 3 hours until Shabbes.

[Just to give a sense of timing and direction, Vienna - while it has a population of around 1.8MM and has lots to do - is also fairly easy and fast to get around. Airport to midtown is a 10-15 minute drive and from there to my home (which is in an entire different neighborhood) is also only another 10-12 minute drive.)]

So we drove into the city to pick up some stuff from the kosher supermarket and for my brother to show me some new kosher restaurants in town. [I should really create and run the Vienna Wiki. When I left 6 years ago we had 2 supermarkets and 6 restaurants. We are now at like 3-4 supermarkets and 10+ restaurants and food establishments. Jewish life in Vienna has always been - and certainly is now - growing and full of life. My cousin was just telling me over dinner how there are 6 Jewish kindergartens in Vienna and that - in relation - Vienna has the highest percentage of Jewish children getting their education in Jewish schools with a whooping 90%+ Wow. ]
We were then off to the liquor store (of course) to buy some stuff for a kiddish at Shul that we were sponsoring in honor of my father's birthday - the whole point of me coming into town - and then home.

Shabbes was nice and enjoyable with great weather. Nothing like waking up Shabbes morning with my favorite Eier-kicherl and some great store bought - but home made (I know the lady that makes it) - herring that I grew up on. Shabbes ended around 5:20ish pm and my brother decided that we should take a "family trip" to the Casino. Lol. Hey, I'm only hear for 2 days so why not. Off to Kaertner Strasse and into the Casino Austria which - in midtown - is small. Some blackjack, some slots and some roulette - that's it. Enough to make for a fun hour especially when my brother and mother respectively hit their exact numbers at the roulette table and my blackjack dealer was in the mood to make us rich. Short and profitable, just the way I like it.

Shabbes Herring
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Kaertner Strasse (Couple kissing  )
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Kaertner Strasse
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Casino Austria
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Sunday was relaxing. I happened to have gone to sleep very late Saturday night due to the Pats-Chiefs game (Yes, they did show it here. And yes, German commentary is funny compared to watching it on CBS or NBC. They basically have their own commentators but get the picture from the US channel - in this case CBS. At one point there was an injury update on the side lines from a CBS reporter and the German reporter simply said "Ah, this guy isn't saying much, this isn't worth translating but he does look like the guy the washing machine commercial." I couldn't stop laughing!) but was still able to get a 7 hour night, waking up at 9am.

We relaxed, had brunch together, took a drive up to Cobenzl (basically on a hill from which you can see the entire city. very nice view) got some Maroni - best stuff ever - and then headed back home. We rented a "car2go" which is pretty cool. I won't explain it all but we had the BMW i3 which is electric AND can detect parking spots AND then parks itself. Yeah, that was cool.

BMW i3


Parking itself
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Cobenzl
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Maroni


That evening we went to Bahur Tov for dinner. We first got an appetizer that consisted of falafel, salads, hummus/tehina with some pitas which was excellent. I then had the lamb and chicken kebabs with couscous which were both good with me preferring the chicken one. The food overall was good and I left more then full.

Back at home I basically packed up, spend some more time with the family to then "hit the sack" at around 11:15pm with my alarm set to 4:15am.


Beep. Beep. Beep…4:15am..time to get ready..

[Denverite]

Thanks for all the info and that is amazing to have a country to have 90% of kids in Jewish schools!

[Yehoshua]

Wow, sounds like a fun time. Was it weird watching American sports with German comments (besides the incident you mentioned)? Not that you don't understand German, but because it's "supposed" to be in English.

[shoobi]

Nice. My family def. doesn't take family trips to the casino. At least not yet...

[Proisrael]

Whats the anti-semitism like in Vienna?

[@Yehuda]

Enjoying the report of Vienna. Can't wait to read about your return journey.

[rileywiles23]

Thanks for the write up.
Is it easy getting around in VIE, if one speaks English ?

[benjie1305]

Thanks for all the info and that is amazing to have a country to have 90% of kids in Jewish schools!

+1! I knew it was high but wasn't aware that it was that high!

Wow, sounds like a fun time. Was it weird watching American sports with German comments (besides the incident you mentioned)? Not that you don't understand German, but because it's "supposed" to be in English.

A bit but I didn't pay too much attention to it all being that I had to keep explaining to my brother and father what was happening at any given time.

Nice. My family def. doesn't take family trips to the casino. At least not yet...

Lol. This was a first for us as well..

[benjie1305]

Whats the anti-semitism like in Vienna?

Insignificant. Nothing one would call "anti-semitism". A random person can do something stupid in any given place, I wouldn't call that anti-semitism in my book. Haven't had anything bad happen to the Jews in the community in a veeerryyy long time. Thank G-d.

Thanks for the write up.
Is it easy getting around in VIE, if one speaks English ?

Yes - should not have a problem at all getting around with English.

[benjie1305]

Time to head back!

The alarm went off at 415am but I was already up making sure my bags were all set and I hadn't forgotten anything. My crazy brother and mother did not for a moment tolerate the idea of me getting a car service at that time and insisted on taking me to the airport. I wasn't gonna fight them on this and happily let them take me.

Quick cup of coffee made and a sad goodbye to my dad later and we were off to the airport at 440am. The good thing about traveling at this hour? Traffic. It is non-existent. We cruised to the airport and were there by 503am. A few more goodbyes and selfies later and it was off to Terminal 3. [They have redone the airport since I was there last and I actually like the look of it. New, clean and modern.]

Over to the OS check-in counter and - to my surprise - the Hon Circle line was way more packed then the Biz Class line.

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It took no more then 3 minutes and I had my boarding passes and was ready to head over to the Austrian Lounge. I figured I had at least 20 minuets to grab a coffee before heading to the gate. I flew through security and walked up the escalator to Level 2 where the Sky Lounge and the Austrian Lounge are positioned. The only problem is that the Austrian Lounge opens at 530am and it was now only 515am. I don't like waiting! 

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But either way I figured an extra 15 minutes is NBD. I mean it is worth the wait for a quick breakfast considering that I'll most likely be the only soul in the lounge at this hour.

Lesson learned: Monday mornings are veeerrrryyyy busy. I guess you have a lot of business travelers taking short-haul flights within Europe (especially within Austria and Germany) for the day or the work-week. We quickly had a crowd of 40+ people waiting for the doors to open.

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I quickly started questioning if it is even worth going in there as opposed to just getting myself some coffee from Starbucks. The door opened and I was able to quickly answer that question for myself.


Perfect! Own lady to check into the lounge with and my very own Hon Circle / LH F lounge area.
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I quickly made myself comfortable and got myself a cappuccino (yep - that's my go-to) and a Johannesbeersaft gespritzt. 
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I took some more pictures but the truth is that Lucky has a really good write-up of the lounge so I'll just leave it at that.

[I will note that there was this couple - 2 older men - that kept staring me down in there. Again I assume that was directly correlated to me sitting in an area that is reserved for HON/LH&LX F passengers only. I will be running into them several more times that day. Each time with a more perplexed look on their faces.]

The OS lady made sure to get me at around 5:50 and told me it is time to head to the gate as it'll take me around 7-9 minutes to get there. It all worked out and I had no debacle making my flight this time around.

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Next up: 386 miles of "Business" Class..

[Yehoshua]

Those business men don't look too happy to be waiting for a lounge to open at 5:20 in the morning either. BTW do you speak German or English when in FRA/VIE and on OS/LH?

[benjie1305]

Those business men don't look too happy to be waiting for a lounge to open at 5:20 in the morning either. BTW do you speak German or English when in FRA/VIE and on OS/LH?

FRA/VIE was mostly German but also only after I started because they - seeing my US Passport - assume English is the only thing I am capable of.

OS/LH was similar even though on LH back I got a perplexed look 5 hours into the flight when it was English the whole time and I was half asleep and suddenly answered in German when I was asked about what drink I'd like.

[eliteflyer]

Did you have lunch with someone new on the flight home?

[Yehoshua]

FRA/VIE was mostly German but also only after I started because they - seeing my US Passport - assume English is the only thing I am capable of.

OS/LH was similar even though on LH back I got a perplexed look 5 hours into the flight when it was English the whole time and I was half asleep and suddenly answered in German when I was asked about what drink I'd like.

lol. The reason I was asking about LH is because Lucky said that speaking German on LH seems to get you better service. I also thought since it's easier for people working at the  airports in VIE/FRA to speak German you'd just speak that.

[benjie1305]

Did you have lunch with someone new on the flight home?

Can't really dine together in LH F and I didn't. I did however have a nice talk with the other Biz passenger on my VIE-FRA flight that sat by the window. More on that later..

[benjie1305]

lol. The reason I was asking about LH is because Lucky said that speaking German on LH seems to get you better service. I also thought since it's easier for people working at the  airports in VIE/FRA to speak German you'd just speak that.

While that may be the case, I don't see how I got sub-par service. I will elaborate more later but there was a couple sitting in 3D/G that didn't want to be bothered much, a biz passenger in 2A that was working close to the entire time and then me and another leisure traveler in 1A/K. We got - by far - the best service around. No problem communicating in German or English.

[Yehoshua]

While that may be the case, I don't see how I got sub-par service. I will elaborate more later but there was a couple sitting in 3D/G that didn't want to be bothered much, a biz passenger in 2A that was working close to the entire time and then me and another leisure traveler in 1A/K. We got - by far - the best service around. No problem communicating in German or English.

Verstanden!

[benjie1305]

VIE-FRA!

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I boarded the plane and sat down in 3D with the middle seat being blocked and a gentleman in seat 3F. [While I do agree that calling a row with a blocked middle seat "business class" is a bit of a joke, I do - and this might be due to it being a short 1 hour flight - see value in it. I was more relaxed having an extra tray for a drink as well as more elbow space and liked being offered magazines and getting breakfast. I also liked that I didn't need to worry about storing carry-on's and was off the aircraft within seconds.]

Business class seat setup + guy that had a terrible hair job done. Spray painted black all over and waaaayyy too obvious.
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After having had such a pleasant experience meeting new people on my way to Vienna I decided I shall say "Hi" to my neighbor and at least find out what brings him to Frankfurt. To sum things up, he is currently the CEO of a European company focused on Mechanical and Industrial Engineering out of Austria. Very interesting guy. His wife is from the Lake George area and they lived in the U.S. for several years in Washington and while he got his MBA in the U.S. He also worked in China for 4 years and moved back to Austria to take this position 3 years ago. A very nice guy that was super down to earth and interesting to listen to. I asked him for his email and said that he should be in touch next time he comes to the States (which is probably in the summer). Building bridges; one CEO at a time.

We were served breakfast at one point as well and I actually enjoyed it. Fresh Lachs, tasty beet and cucumber/potato salad and fresh fruit. Quick and tasteful. The only thing that struck me as weird was that they had good coffee but no milk. Where is the milk?  Instead I had to settle for creamer (which I am not really a fan of).

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Watching the sunrise right before landing
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I got off and it was time to find my way to the FCT. I asked around and got some - at times - offsetting directions. I ended up figuring it out by myself. *The one thing I didn't like was the lack of directions/signs to it. This is the flagship city for Lufthansa and their most coveted ground service experience they have to offer and there is no sign anywhere to point to the FCT?* Whatever, I still managed to find it!

Up next: First Class Terminal
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