Copenhagen

I have been to Copenhagen twice before.  Both times were visits by cruise ships.  We arrived for an evening and leave by lunch the next day.  I have done excursions in and around Copenhagen, but never really walked around and explored on my own.  This trip gave me a chance to do that, even though the whole trip centered on my restaurant reservation at noma.

Because it was cheaper, I took the night flight out on the day before I would normally leave for a holiday weekend trip overseas.  As such, the equipment was the older 777.  However, since I bought a discounted business class ticket, I could put in for an upgrade with miles and money.  Even though the cabin had only three seats taken, my upgrade had not cleared when I arrived at the airport.  I spoke with the counter agent and said I was surprised that it had not cleared yet, given the emptiness  I also whined a little about wanting to sit out the wait in the First Class Lounge.  She called up the seats, checked around a bit and then cleared my upgrade.  Well, not only did I want to sit in the FC Lounge, but I also wanted a real flat-bed seat.  I CAN sleep in the old business class seats, but since this was a night flight, I really wanted to get some quality sleep time (which I did).  I was surprised that the entire First cabin was filled by the time we departed from the gate.

I chose to stay at the Copenhagen Airport Hilton because that's the only one there and there was 24-hour Metro service.  Also, my return flight was going to leave at 5:45 am, so it would allow me a little less stress about getting to the airport at the appropriate time (so much easier when you can just walk there).

The Copenhagen Airport is nice looking, with wood floors and smart-looking shops.  The baggage signs were informative as it told us how long we would have to wait for the luggage delivery (about 10 minutes).  this gave me time to look for the nearest ATMs.

There were signs to the hotel right outside baggage claim, and it was an easy walk, totally protected form the weather.  I also passed the Metro station, so I knew where to go when I started my treks to the center of town (about 14 minutes).

The rooms at this very modern Hilton are nice, as is the Executive Lounge.  I think they gave me a slightly larger room because I'm a Diamond (it looks bigger on the fire escape floor plan).  Nice view of the Malmo bridge connecting Denmark and Sweden.

The Metro offers a 24-hour and 72-hour Zone 1-4 pass (airport is in Zone 4).  As I was going to have three full days in Copenhagen, the 72-hour [ass was perfect.  It took me a little while to figure out that there were only ticket machines (no attendant booths), and that they would only accept coins or cards for payment.

The Metro is totally automated (no drivers) and looks like a slightly larger air-train system.  The trains are about three cars long and are open all the way through on the inside.  They run about every six minutes to and from the airport most of the time.

My lunch at noma was not until Saturday, so I had most of Friday to sightsee.  I went to the top of this church spire where the last part is a spiral staircase outside of the structure.  I looked back at my old Copenhagen pictures, and I had taken a picture of it before as the tour bus was driving by.

I also went to the Rosenborg Castle (a small one), where they also house the Danish Treasury.

Just before leaving the U.S., I heard about a small restaurant started by an alumnus of noma.  The menu looked interesting and they had online reservations, so I managed to book a spot for Friday night.  It's called Relae.  There are two menus, one of which is a vegetable menu, so that makes it easy.  I could have had the regular menu, except I did not want to eat the raw beef and oysters starter.

Saturday was pretty much all about noma.  Lunch was scheduled for 12:30, I got there at about 12:20, and I left at 4:10, after experiencing the "long" menu.  The regular seven-course menu would have been fine, but the long menu offers more of a sampling of noma favorites that present traditional Nordic ingredients.  It was an amazing experience (which I have written up elsewhere).  There was a flurry of amuse bouches even before we started talking about the menu.  They are also very accommodating to sensitivity to ingredients.  I could have even given them my dislikes, but I decided that I wanted to see exactly what they wanted to offer.  I have no food allergies, but they did present some things that I normally would not eat (raw beef, a live shrimp, lots of mushrooms).  They also were the first place that I've been to that offers a juice menu in addition to wine pairings.

I was extremely full at the end.  I managed to stroll back to the Metro and ride back to my hotel, where I just laid down for a couple of hours.  After that, I felt good enough to move, although I would not have to eat for the rest of the day.  I went back on the subway and checked out the Copenhagen Casino for a few hours.  Even though there was an entrance fee and the minimum slot machine was 1 kroner (about 20 cents), it was still interesting and fun.

noma experience.  I went to the Christianborg area and Amalienborg area (both palace areas with museums).

Leaving the Copenhagen Airport was interesting. SAS handles all the Star Alliance ground staffing.  The entire check-in is automated -- you have to use a kiosk to get your boarding pass.  You then can go to a counter to check your bag (they open at 4:35am).  The process did work.  I was issued a single boarding pass for both my Lufthansa flight and United flight and could tell it that I wanted to check my bag all the way to SFO. 

Security was fast at that time of the morning.  Most of the stores were still closed, but Duty Free is always open.  There are no Star Alliance Lounges in Copenhagen, but through my American Express Priority Pass, I was able to access a lounge for a quick bite before boarding.

Small aside:  I never got a 3G signal in Copenhagen.  I did get 2G most of the time, but that also could be spotty.

Singapore, again!

I planned this trip to Singapore to fly the route one more time before United changes the equipment in October.  I liked the routing to Singapore via Hong Kong because the trans-Pacific flight segments are long enough to eat, watch a movie and sleep for awhile.  And then the ongoing segment is on nice equipment as well (updated 747).  Unfortunately, very soon, the segment from Hong Kong to Singapore will be covered by a two-class Continental metal 737-800.  So this was one last time on the big plane.

If I want to stay on bigger planes, I can fly the route via Tokyo, which covers the NRT-SIN segment with a 777.  But not many of those planes are updated yet, and the segment to Tokyo and return is only around 10 hours.

There were a couple of things I wanted to do in Singapore specifically.  Normally, I just hang out, shop and spend a little time in the Marina Bay Sands casino.  This time, the new ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands is open.  It was that lotus-flower looking building under contruction.  The scaffolding is all gone and you can see the structure clearly.  I even went inside and the exhibition I was most interested in seeing was in the upper sections (most of the exhibition space is below ground).



The Dali Exhibit seemed very appropriate for the space.



I also wanted to eat at a restaurant that I managed to find that serves molecular gastronomy/avant garde cuisine.  It's called 53 and it has been doing this for a few years.  Normally, I dont' eat out too much in Singapore because the Exective Lounge food at the Conrad is usually pretty good.  But I made an exception in this case.  Fifty-three is a small, simply decorated space with just a few tables (eight, I believe).  I took a lot of photos of the food (as I normally do) and of the room, but I did not use a flash because I don't like to disturb others.  However, it was pretty darkly lit and so most of the pictures aren't very good.  But these are probably the best lit three shots, one of the room and a couple of food shots.

It was a short trip, but a nice one for some warm weather.  I will have to decide later if I am willing to try out the new equipment next year.

Tokyo, again!

I had booked this trip several months in advance (before the earthquake and tsunami).  I was planning to visit a new dessert restaurant in Tokyo that was supposed to open a few months earlier.  My dessert bar friends from New York are behind this venture.  However, the earthquake caused them to postpone their plans, so they postponed the opening until later in the year.  Unfortunately for me, United ceased offering travel waivers for Japan flights that would extend to my flight plans.  So, I was committed to go regardless.  I was going to make the best of it, even though I had just been to Tokyo.  I planned a return visit to the Molecular Tapas Bar.  I also booked a personal architecture tour thorough Bespoke Tokyo.  I also decided to stay at a different hotel than the one I had been using for every other Tokyo visit, which would put me in a different part of town.

My outbound flight was a little bit of a mess.  There turned out to be a delay of almost two hours (not a huge deal sine I didn't have any specific plans for my arrival day).  However, since I was traveling on a Z fare (acquired through an up-sell online when I bought the original ticket), I asked if I could get upgraded to First for a fee plus miles.  After a great deal of gyration and consultation, they eventually gave me the upgrade.  Unbeknown to me at the time, United had called my office number earlier in the morning to tell me about the delay and to say that they were holding a First Class seat for me on the flight.  I did eventually get my fee and miles back, but I think this just added to the booking confusion about my reservation (so much so, that I was not allowed to check in online on my return flight).  But it all worked out, and I decided I didn't want to try gong through the same hassle and upgrade on the return.

Having learned the Skyliner routine, I decided to use that plus local trains to get to my hotel.  When trying to catch the scheduled Skyliner, I found the platform directions a little confusing -- I assumed I could get to the right platform via escalator.  If I had paid attention to the signs, I would have seen that elevators were what I needed to take to get quickly to the correct platform.  I just made my train (tickets are for a specific seat on a specific train).

It was a little more evident on this trip how much impact the aftereffects of the earthquake and tsunami had on Tokyo.  Many escalators were turned off (I had to haul my luggage up stairs), it was warm (thermostats were turned up), and some doors to buildings were disabled (only on set of automatic doors would work).  It was also dark walking outside on the sidewalks -- many streetlights were turned off.  It's a good thing Tokyo is not a big street-crime haven.  It still felt a little eerie.

Since the Hilton Tokyo is near Shinjuku Station, that is the area my tour centered around, although we did take the subway a few times for a quick dash to some specific points, like Mid-Town.  Here are some of the interesting buildings, which are just interspersed among a variety of average or nondescript-looking structures:

 



My meal at the Tapas Molecular Bar was even better than my first visit.  Some food highlights:



I also had time to travel to a Japanese Onsen (bathing house) located in central Tokyo.  It has water heated by hot springs below, with pools of varying temperature located inside and outside.  Even though not much English was spoken, they did have English instructions available to help guide you through the various procedures and areas.  It was very relaxing.  I don't have any pictures as it would not have been easy (nor probably allowed) to carry a camera into the baths area.

Even though I didn't get to try out the new dessert bar place, I looked for similar experiences.  I ended up having afternoon tea and a snack at a Mariage Freres location on the other side of Shinjuku Station from my hotel.

Fortunately, my flight home was much less of a hassle than my outbound flight.  Business Class was certainly good enough.  My ticket was a little messed up since I appeared to be double-booked, but the agent was very good and eventually managed to figure it all out.  I'll just have to book a return flight some time in the near future to check out the dessert bar.

Toronto

I have been to Toronto before, but only in the winter.  So I was looking forward to visiting and being able to walk around comfortably without being all bundled up.  The origin f the trip was that I had seen a reference to a restaurant called Colborne Lane on of the the travel boards I scan.  Turns out the restaurant is on OpenTable.com, so it made it very easy to check reservation availability.  Once I had secured a time slot, I wrapped the rest of the trip around it for a long weekend stay.

I had booked a flight that left for Chicago around 7am with a connecting flight to Toronto leaving about 45 minutes after my arrival.  As the trip approached, I decided that the connection was too tight and I wanted to take the stress out of the connection, particularly when I saw that on some days, my inbound flight to Chicago landed at a different terminal than the outbound flight to Toronto.  There was an earlier flight out of SF about an hour earlier, so I wanted to try for a confirmed seat change on day of departure.  One can do this on United online 3 hours before the departure of the target flight.  So i woke up at 3am and checked online.  Unfortunately, the flight showed all full in both cabins (I forgot to mention that I was giving up a confirmed upgrade seat in first class on my booked flight).  I called Untied just to be sure and they said I could not do a confirmed change.  On to Plan B. . . .

I did something that I usually don't do and that's pack for carry-on only.  This is challenging for me due to the restrictions on liquids and gels and all the stuff I have packed in my toiletry case.  Since it was only a two-night trip, I managed to pare everything down and even collapse my rollaboard to its smaller size.

I arrived at the airport early and checked in for my booked flight.  I then went to the gate of the earlier flight and asked to be put on the waitlist.  I ended up as number 4, and initially that looked good.  But as people checked in, the number of available seats kept decreasing.  Then boarding began and it got all the way to Zone 4 before I was called up.  They had a seat for me in Economy Plus in the middle.  I said I would take it and then she said that I would have to check my bag.  I was clearly unhappy about that, so she said I could try, but they would have a tag ready, just in case.  I was fortunate to find an overhead spot that worked on the 767 plane.  So, the stress was relieved and I was set for the trip.  It is interesting how short the 4-hour trip can feel when you have spent the past week on 4 10-hour flights.  And I was glad I switched (despite sitting in a middle seat) as my flight and the original booked flight were going to land at Terminal C and the Toronto flight was going to depart from Terminal B.  As it was, we arrived a little late, but I had more than enough cushion to make it over to Terminal B and catch my flight to Toronto.

As I wanted to get to my hotel as soon as feasible, I decided to spring for a cab.  Normally I don't take taxis because I just don't like taking them -- I often feel that I am being taken for a ride (in a bad way).  The cab was not cheap because the airport is a little ways from downtown.  But it's a flat fee, so at least it didn't matter what route we took or how much traffic there was.

I had stayed at the Hilton Toronto before.  It's fairly centrally located and has a nice Executive Lounge.  One difference this time was that there was no welcome gift this time (last visit it was jars of chocolate-covered cherries).

This trip was planned around food, but I also wanted to take advantage of the warm weather and explore new sections of Toronto.  Photos below are of the Old City Hall, The Distillery area, and an interesting building.

 

And some shots from the tasting menu at Colborne Lane.

Nitrogen ice cream, of course!



For my return flight, I chose the non-stop, which leaves early in the morning.  It would have been possible to take the first airport express bus, which picks up near the hotel.  But, I wasn't sure how long it was going to take and I didn't want to cut it close, given I didn't know how long immigration and security would take.  So, I opted to take a taxi to the airport.  I probably would have been okay on  the bus, as while the check-in counters were open, the immigration and customs area was not, so there was a bit of a line.

Getting there early did give me enough time to check out the lounges.  The Maple Leaf Lounge for Air Canada was big, but not quite as nice with the food as I recalled their other lounges were.  With my American Express-supplied Priority Pass, I checked into the pay-to-use lounge (free for me) and, although it was smaller, they had hot breakfast food available.  I knew I was going to get food on the plane, but it was still nice to have a little something beforehand.  I was also the only one using the lounge at the time.

Departure and arrival were on time, so it was a very prompt end to a quick weekend away.

A Trip About Flights (Germany and Tokyo, Too)

This trip was different in many different aspects.  First, It was planned around taking (or trying to take) specific flights.  It was planned to be a trip within a trip. It was planned with a fair amount of uncertainty that would be a part of the trip up until the final flight. Finally, it was a trip where, if fully realized, I would fly over 20,000 miles in a week but only just over 5000 miles would be credited towards my United goal of lifetime 3 million miles.  Oh, I also wanted to visit interesting and new places and needed to stay at some Hilton Hotels to work towards maintaining status.

The core of the trip was to fly on ANA's flights featuring their new 777 configuration with the First Square service on their Inspiration of Japan flights.  This was going to be a free flight, using miles from American Express transferred to my newly-created ANA Mileage Club account.  In planning this, I did not realize in the beginning that ANA is pretty conservative in allocating first class seats for awards, even if the cabin is fairly empty.  So, I had already moved the miles irreversibly over to my ANA account and then was promptly waitlisted for a round-trip first class award ticket between Frankfurt and Tokyo (this was also before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan).  Why from Frankfurt?  ANA only flies these newly-configured aircraft on two routes:  Frankfurt/Tokyo and New York/Tokyo.  I figured the Frankfurt route would be easier for getting an award at the time, especially as I looked at the seat availability.  ANA lets you waitlist for an award ticket for up to two weeks before the travel date -- after that, the request is cancelled.  So, there was an big uncertainty here which I normally do not have when planning a trip.  It was entirely possible I would not be going to Tokyo at all, yet I had to try and plan the rest of the trip around this core.

This led me to the other part of this flying-centric vacation.  Lufthansa was scheduled to start flying the Airbus A-380 between San Francisco and Frankfurt, and I wanted to try and experience their First Class service.  I decided that this would make a nice bracket around the ANA flights.  I would plan to fly to Germany, spend a couple of nights, fly to Tokyo, spend a couple of nights, fly back to Frankfurt, spend a couple of nights, and then return to San Francisco.  In addition, I wanted a chance to use the Lufthansa First Class Terminal at Frankfurt and all the amenities I had heard about.  The best way I thought I could do this was fly business class to and from Germany and try to upgrade with miles as a Star Alliance upgrade.  To keep the costs down I asked United to book me in business on a Z fare to Frankfurt (since it was less important to fly Lufthansa over to Germany) and book an upgradeable business D fare on Lufthansa for the return.  To upgrade with miles, it would have to clear at least 24 hours before the flight.  Up until then, I would have to check frequently for the upgrade (no waitlist), knowing that Lufthansa was being very stingy about opening up First Class on the A-380 to non-Lufthansa high elite fliers.  If it didn't clear, my last resort would be to try a day-of upgrade using a United Systemwide upgrade.

So, part of the trip would be set (and non-changeable) and part would be undetermined until possibly the last minute.  So how do you plan the rest of the time?  Especially as the weeks passed with no word from ANA, I had to decide how the rest of my trip could go.  I chose to make reservations for my first two night in Germany in Mainz.  I had passed through there before, but had never explored.  I had just read a review of one Hilton there that was recently refurbished.  Mainz is not far from Frankfurt Airport and I knew I would probably stay in Frankfurt at the tail end of the trip.  On that part, I would do a day trip from Frankfurt somewhere (I ultimately decided just before leaving the U.S. to go to Aachen).  In between, after some research, I decided that if I did not make it on the ANA flights, I would spend a few days in Hamburg.

In late May, it was looking pretty bleak.  No Star Alliance upgrade yet on my return flight from Germany.  And, no award ticket from ANA.  The expiration date for the award reservation had eventually passed, about 10 days before I was to leave for Germany.  So, I was starting to think I would eventually be visiting Hamburg and started researching that aspect of the trip (hotels, transportation, etc.).  A little less than a week before my flight to Frankfurt, I had good news, kind of.  My daily check on the ANA website revealed that a first class seat from Frankfurt to Tokyo on the flight I wanted on the exact day that I wanted was available.  However, there was no return.  I decided I would wait a little before taking action as I hadn't considered what options I had for the return flight and hoped maybe the return seat would become available.  After 18 hours, I could note let the seat possible get away as it was exactly what I wanted, so I grabbed the award seat.  For the return, my best and most interesting Star Alliance option would be to fly Lufthansa's A-380 from Tokyo to Frankfurt in business class.  I lost out a little on the miles value as it cost me more miles than the all-ANA flights in First would.  But I had just enough miles travelled to cover the award.

Mainz.  There are two Hiltons in Mainz, and the one I selected called me to say they were overbooked and if it would be okay if they moved my stay to the other Hilton (move form the Mainz City location to the one by the river).  I really did not have a choice, so I agreed.  I then had to figure out the best way to get to that hotel as I had planned out the route to the other hotel (different train stop and different distances).

Finally. . . . the trip.

To Mainz

I was familiar with the S-Bahn stop closest to the Hilton Mainz.  So, 3.90 euro half-hour ride later, I was there.  It was a 15-minute walk along a major street to the hotel.  They were nice and gave me a top-floor river view room.

Mainz has a large Romanesque cathedral and a nice old-city section with some pedestrian-only streets.  Lots of outdoor places to eat.  Very picturesque. The St Stephen's Church with the Chagall windows was among the highlights. They also have a Gutenberg museum with three Gutenberg Bibles on display.  Mainz is also a major river cruise stop (right by the Hilton).  With a Mainz Card, I received free entrance to a few museums (some were closed), free use of transportation within the region, and free transport between Mainz and the Frankfurt Airport.  It was good for 48 hours, which was about as long as my planned stay.

I also had time to take the train to nearby Wiesbaden and explore that city as well.  No time to take advantage of the spa, but another nice town to explore.

Tokyo

I was eagerly looking forward to my ANA First Class flight to Tokyo since it was so difficult to get.  When I boarded, I learned that I was the only one in the First Class cabin.  I found this interesting as after I had secured my award, I went back and checked for award availability and there was none.  So, they had only posted one seat up for awards -- strange.

Needless to say, it was a great experience.  They gave me the full menu to choose from, meaning I could mix and match any combination of food from the different menu sections (Japanese and Western).  Also, instead of waiting for me to ask to set up my seat to be a bed, they just prepared the seat across from me to use as a bed whenever I was ready to do so.  It was a close to being on a private flight as I'll probably ever come.

With my short stay in Tokyo, the focal point was my very nice experience at the Tapas Molecular Bar at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.  Just a sampling of the tasting menu appears below.

Aachen

Since I was on an award ticket back to Frankfurt, there was no way I could try to upgrade from Business Class.  Still it was going to be a new experience since it was my first ride on the A-380.  Lufthansa allocated a half-hour for boarding in Tokyo.  When we began, both the elite cabins and the economy cabin started boarding at the same time, though at different sides of the gate.  We all went through the same door, but then those in the elite cabin went up to the second-level walkway.  On Lufthansa, the entire top deck is First/Business (8 + 98 seats).  The seats in Business are the same as currently used on other planes -- flat, but angled.  Normally, I don't like Airbus planes, but the experience was very nice.  The plane even has three cameras you can switch to -- nose, belly down, and tail angled down.  The plane seemed quieter than most other planes.  I was seated in the back section of the top deck.

This was the first time I had to try and sleep with the angled flat seats.  I had experienced them on other Lufthansa flights, but the durations were much shorter and generally didn't require trying to sleep.  I discovered that it's not quite as comfortable as a true 180-degree lie-flat seat.  But I survived.

For my one full-day back in Germany, my plan was to visit Aachen, about a 2-hour train ride from Frankfurt via Cologne.  Aachen was the seat of government for Charlemagne and for several Holy Roman Emperors.  It is also known as Aix-la-Chapelle.  Consequently, it's a very historic town and one I enjoyed visiting as well.

On my return to Frankfurt, I was able to make the trip in under two hours by using a Thalys (French) train and then connecting to a German ICE train in Cologne.  I was a little disappointed in the Thalys ride, While it was nice and even had free wifi, I was sitting in First Class and didn't even receive a drink or any other kind of service.  Most of the time on German trains, you at least get a little candy, particularly towards the end of the train's run.

Return

My last shot at the First Class upgrade for my A-380 ride back to SFO was a standby Systemwide upgrade.  I arrived at the airport early, but I was still unable to secure an upgrade.  They said that the cabin was booked full and that there was already a waiting list (which probably meant people who outranked me were waiting).  So, this was the only real disappointment on the trip.  The ride was basically the same as the flight from Tokyo to Frankfurt.  The boarding was a little different though.  There are lounges on two levels at Frankfurt, so at boarding time, you can board directly from the lounge onto the top deck (if that is where your seat is).  Also, they had a really nice dessert presentation, which I had not seen before.

Upon arrival in San Francisco, I learned that they sometimes split the luggage delivery between two carousels.

I will have to try again to get into First Class on one of these A-380 Lufthansa flights.