eMailman
Mar 22, 01, 5:30 am
I noticed that the trip report does not require an airplane to be involved. I hope this provides some amusement. Sorry for the delay in posting.
Since I was going to be around Basel on Friday anyway, met some friends and took the 5:08 PM train from Basel heading for St. Moritz. We arrived a few minutes late (the Friday evening trains to St. Moritz always run late), and my friends were checked into a hotel down the street.
Saturday saw very heavy snowfall in St. Moritz, and we decided that the downhill skiing under conditions in which you could not see you skis, was not the thing to do. So we went with the cross country skier over to the cross country center to check it out. I had never been there before, as cross country skiing looks too much like hard work for me to enjoy such a thing. Also took the opportunity for us to have a look around St. Moritz Bad, as that is where the spa and indoor city swimming pool are located.
After lunch, took a look at the polo field, and it was still snowing heavily. The good news was that it was not as cold as last year, but the snow falling on your face made it hard to see. We decided to have a look at the game from my balcony, and that seemed to work almost as well as the stands, but much harder to follow the ball.
The Gourmet Festival was under way, and we deiced to celebrate a friend's birthday with one of the gourmet dinners. We decided on the group from the DaeWoo hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam as the choice for the evening. I assumed that this is as close as I am ever going to get to Vietnam, so an interesting dinner would be OK. One of the things takes place is that you get to meet the chef and the cooks. Since all of the them were some young guys, I was not going to get Ho Chi Minh's personal chef, which was a relief for me personally. The dinner was nice, with the food well spiced, as is popular in Asia with good food, but not so much so that the taste was totally masked by spices.
Being as we were dressed for it, we decided to continue the celebration at the Palace. The renovation work has helped, but I think it was some of the rooms and suites that we did not see that have benefited the most. Anyway, it is one of the great hotels, with medieval and renaissance antiques as background art. My friend was searching for an exotic Swiss wine, but we had to settle for one of the local specialties, as I had steered the evening into a tasting of Graubuenden wines. One of the things that makes the Palace a great hotel is that they get all of the details right, from decor to the correct way to open and serve wine. The staff is attentive without being intrusive - just looking a the wine cooler will bring someone over to refill the glasses. If the thought of a night in a hotel costing almost as much as your monthly mortgage payment appeals to you, this is where you want to be.
Sunday featured perfect weather, so off we went skiing in the morning. The two downhillers and the cross country skier met at noon so we could go over to the Polo finals. We did lunch at the 4 star tent, and beat the crowd. Most of this bunch seems to have little knowledge of the game, but are certain that horses are involved. They had the same announcers as last year, which never stop talking, and try to explain the game while play is in progress. In the 3rd place game, Pommery beat Bank Hofmann, which is good news because Bank Hofmann belongs to Credit Suisse, a UBS competitor.
Between games, we took a look at the displays and the unadvertised dog and fur show which makes up part of this event. Mercedes was showing some special build cars that cost $150,000. One of the rules by which I live, is not to pay more for a car than I did for my house, so I was not going to be on the list of 55 for that thing. My friend then took a close look at an Italian espresso maker, Lavazza, which the staff had some difficulty operating. Most of the difficulty seemed to have a relationship to the free Pommery that Mercedes was providing in the next tent, rather than a mechanical cause. Of course, I drink Moet, but as an emergency measure..... Some of the media types had set up shop to film the Mercedes display, and the fur crowd was making its way over there to add what I refer to as St. Moritz background noise. It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice. Not everyone seems to get that message. The fur crowd brought their dogs with them, and not any exotic pets were spotted by this reporter, compared to the mini pigs and such on display last year. Suffice to say that there were more horses rear ends than horses out on the lake.
The championship match was won by Cartier, which was not surprising, as they had the best players. AMG (Mercedes) was not even competitive for the first 3 chukkers. We left just before the start of the fourth, in order to make good train connections back to Basel.
Also in the local news was a protest group opposed to the World Economic Forum in Davos, cut the fiber optic lines at Klosters and at Filisur, which cut off Davos (and the Engadin) from the national telecom net. Merchants could not do credit card authorizations, but he local exchange was OK.
Well, here is the part about the plane which took place the following week.
This is my almost standard trip of BSL - FRA - DFW and return on LH. I was going to a meeting and picking up the car I had shipped from Europe. Nothing unusual about BSL as it is still under construction for expansion. Did take a look at the so called lounge, which is nothing more than a glass enclosed room with some drinks. More seats to be had outside the lounge than inside.
On the way to Dallas with the LH A340, someone had taken 4D, my favorite seat, and I had to sit in row 3. While waiting in the lounge, I took a look at the Wall Street Journal Europe, and there was an article about the Polo games in St. Moritz. The airport at Frankfurt is still a mess, and we left from gate B20. They have made a slight change in boarding procedure, and now the F and C PAX use the front door, while those destined for the back of the plane use the second door. At least they had changed the menu, and a new set of selections was to be had. I went for the beef from Argentina. As usual, none of the movies were of interest to me, so read the papers and a couple of magazines (Der Spiegel and Stern). Always fun to read about the latest on the German foreign minister, who spent the '70s protesting capitalism and the US Army.
We made good time, landing a few minutes early, and made good time getting out of the airport, assisted by the fact that the plane was only half loaded. Went through immigration without delay (having learned my lesson to mark the card as a US resident). At the baggage station, my red hot priority marked bag was in the third group brought out, which was OK, as I went right to customs without waiting in line. Nobody from customs wanted to chat with me, so out I and the Cuban cigar I was smuggling went.
I went directly to Park Place to pick up the car. As usual with Mercedes, everything possible was already done. Show the insurance card, and turn over the paper pile needed to get the title, and off to the car. A couple was getting the tour of their new S500, which was parked in front of my car. They were nice about moving it out of the way, so I could get my cheap one out of there and on the street.
The meeting was very useful. One of the guys who worked on the Perot '96 campaign was there, so caught up with each other over lunch. Spent the rest of the time trying to see as many friends as possible.
The flight to Frankfurt left from the usual gate B34. This time I got my proper seat assignment of 4D. Dallas only boards through one door, and this time the lounge staff did not call the flight too early, as they always have done in the past. If you left when they called the flight, you would end up standing around for 15 minutes. Now they have it right, like they did back in the mid '90s, so you can just walk onto the plane. It may have helped that this one was not even half full. The good news was that there was no one on either side of me, and as 4 is a bulkhead row, no one is behind me either. Therefore, I felt safe booting up the laptop and working on some spreadsheets and e-mails.
This time, I decided on the new pasta dish, which was satisfactory, but stayed with the French Bordeaux as the wine selection. Did not bother with the movies, but the music selection was OK. One of the FAs was also on the DFW - FRA trip I took in November, so we had a chat about what happened after the diversion back to DFW. They deadheaded the crew to Houston, and then to Frankfurt the day after. She said that she usually does one DFW trip a month. Most of the PAX are snoozing, but I do not sleep on planes. The FA says that since I am not going to sleep it off, would I care to ride in the cockpit and chat with the pilots? "Why not?"
The view from the cockpit is much nicer than the seats down the side. I really liked the panorama, which is not really noticeable from the A or K seats. While the altitude indicator was in feet as expected (aviation standard), I did not expect the reading on the speed indicator - it read .8 Mach. I was expecting mph or kph. The radar was also interesting with a 40 mile or 120 mile radius. I stayed there until we made it to Dublin, and then I went back, as we were going to be getting into European air traffic patterns, and the pilots should be left to do their jobs, in my opinion.
Landed a bit late in Frankfurt, and then off to the lounge to wait for the flight to Basel. This flight was delayed about 45 minutes, and less than half full. Nobody flies at this time of year, which is why the trip cost less than $450. Of course, this is a violation of the company travel policy, which requires me to fly from Zurich on AA at 4 times the price. Doing so is supposed to save $2 million a year. I can not figure it out, but obviously someone else has.
Weather was perfect in St. Moritz over the weekend. They have been clearing out some of the accumulated ice and snow from the town, which makes walking around easier. Still have large crowds for the horse races - parking on the lake is full, and overflows into the streets. Greyhound races are next weekend, and then start taking the stands and tents apart. Missed the cricket matches held on Friday.
Since I was going to be around Basel on Friday anyway, met some friends and took the 5:08 PM train from Basel heading for St. Moritz. We arrived a few minutes late (the Friday evening trains to St. Moritz always run late), and my friends were checked into a hotel down the street.
Saturday saw very heavy snowfall in St. Moritz, and we decided that the downhill skiing under conditions in which you could not see you skis, was not the thing to do. So we went with the cross country skier over to the cross country center to check it out. I had never been there before, as cross country skiing looks too much like hard work for me to enjoy such a thing. Also took the opportunity for us to have a look around St. Moritz Bad, as that is where the spa and indoor city swimming pool are located.
After lunch, took a look at the polo field, and it was still snowing heavily. The good news was that it was not as cold as last year, but the snow falling on your face made it hard to see. We decided to have a look at the game from my balcony, and that seemed to work almost as well as the stands, but much harder to follow the ball.
The Gourmet Festival was under way, and we deiced to celebrate a friend's birthday with one of the gourmet dinners. We decided on the group from the DaeWoo hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam as the choice for the evening. I assumed that this is as close as I am ever going to get to Vietnam, so an interesting dinner would be OK. One of the things takes place is that you get to meet the chef and the cooks. Since all of the them were some young guys, I was not going to get Ho Chi Minh's personal chef, which was a relief for me personally. The dinner was nice, with the food well spiced, as is popular in Asia with good food, but not so much so that the taste was totally masked by spices.
Being as we were dressed for it, we decided to continue the celebration at the Palace. The renovation work has helped, but I think it was some of the rooms and suites that we did not see that have benefited the most. Anyway, it is one of the great hotels, with medieval and renaissance antiques as background art. My friend was searching for an exotic Swiss wine, but we had to settle for one of the local specialties, as I had steered the evening into a tasting of Graubuenden wines. One of the things that makes the Palace a great hotel is that they get all of the details right, from decor to the correct way to open and serve wine. The staff is attentive without being intrusive - just looking a the wine cooler will bring someone over to refill the glasses. If the thought of a night in a hotel costing almost as much as your monthly mortgage payment appeals to you, this is where you want to be.
Sunday featured perfect weather, so off we went skiing in the morning. The two downhillers and the cross country skier met at noon so we could go over to the Polo finals. We did lunch at the 4 star tent, and beat the crowd. Most of this bunch seems to have little knowledge of the game, but are certain that horses are involved. They had the same announcers as last year, which never stop talking, and try to explain the game while play is in progress. In the 3rd place game, Pommery beat Bank Hofmann, which is good news because Bank Hofmann belongs to Credit Suisse, a UBS competitor.
Between games, we took a look at the displays and the unadvertised dog and fur show which makes up part of this event. Mercedes was showing some special build cars that cost $150,000. One of the rules by which I live, is not to pay more for a car than I did for my house, so I was not going to be on the list of 55 for that thing. My friend then took a close look at an Italian espresso maker, Lavazza, which the staff had some difficulty operating. Most of the difficulty seemed to have a relationship to the free Pommery that Mercedes was providing in the next tent, rather than a mechanical cause. Of course, I drink Moet, but as an emergency measure..... Some of the media types had set up shop to film the Mercedes display, and the fur crowd was making its way over there to add what I refer to as St. Moritz background noise. It is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice. Not everyone seems to get that message. The fur crowd brought their dogs with them, and not any exotic pets were spotted by this reporter, compared to the mini pigs and such on display last year. Suffice to say that there were more horses rear ends than horses out on the lake.
The championship match was won by Cartier, which was not surprising, as they had the best players. AMG (Mercedes) was not even competitive for the first 3 chukkers. We left just before the start of the fourth, in order to make good train connections back to Basel.
Also in the local news was a protest group opposed to the World Economic Forum in Davos, cut the fiber optic lines at Klosters and at Filisur, which cut off Davos (and the Engadin) from the national telecom net. Merchants could not do credit card authorizations, but he local exchange was OK.
Well, here is the part about the plane which took place the following week.
This is my almost standard trip of BSL - FRA - DFW and return on LH. I was going to a meeting and picking up the car I had shipped from Europe. Nothing unusual about BSL as it is still under construction for expansion. Did take a look at the so called lounge, which is nothing more than a glass enclosed room with some drinks. More seats to be had outside the lounge than inside.
On the way to Dallas with the LH A340, someone had taken 4D, my favorite seat, and I had to sit in row 3. While waiting in the lounge, I took a look at the Wall Street Journal Europe, and there was an article about the Polo games in St. Moritz. The airport at Frankfurt is still a mess, and we left from gate B20. They have made a slight change in boarding procedure, and now the F and C PAX use the front door, while those destined for the back of the plane use the second door. At least they had changed the menu, and a new set of selections was to be had. I went for the beef from Argentina. As usual, none of the movies were of interest to me, so read the papers and a couple of magazines (Der Spiegel and Stern). Always fun to read about the latest on the German foreign minister, who spent the '70s protesting capitalism and the US Army.
We made good time, landing a few minutes early, and made good time getting out of the airport, assisted by the fact that the plane was only half loaded. Went through immigration without delay (having learned my lesson to mark the card as a US resident). At the baggage station, my red hot priority marked bag was in the third group brought out, which was OK, as I went right to customs without waiting in line. Nobody from customs wanted to chat with me, so out I and the Cuban cigar I was smuggling went.
I went directly to Park Place to pick up the car. As usual with Mercedes, everything possible was already done. Show the insurance card, and turn over the paper pile needed to get the title, and off to the car. A couple was getting the tour of their new S500, which was parked in front of my car. They were nice about moving it out of the way, so I could get my cheap one out of there and on the street.
The meeting was very useful. One of the guys who worked on the Perot '96 campaign was there, so caught up with each other over lunch. Spent the rest of the time trying to see as many friends as possible.
The flight to Frankfurt left from the usual gate B34. This time I got my proper seat assignment of 4D. Dallas only boards through one door, and this time the lounge staff did not call the flight too early, as they always have done in the past. If you left when they called the flight, you would end up standing around for 15 minutes. Now they have it right, like they did back in the mid '90s, so you can just walk onto the plane. It may have helped that this one was not even half full. The good news was that there was no one on either side of me, and as 4 is a bulkhead row, no one is behind me either. Therefore, I felt safe booting up the laptop and working on some spreadsheets and e-mails.
This time, I decided on the new pasta dish, which was satisfactory, but stayed with the French Bordeaux as the wine selection. Did not bother with the movies, but the music selection was OK. One of the FAs was also on the DFW - FRA trip I took in November, so we had a chat about what happened after the diversion back to DFW. They deadheaded the crew to Houston, and then to Frankfurt the day after. She said that she usually does one DFW trip a month. Most of the PAX are snoozing, but I do not sleep on planes. The FA says that since I am not going to sleep it off, would I care to ride in the cockpit and chat with the pilots? "Why not?"
The view from the cockpit is much nicer than the seats down the side. I really liked the panorama, which is not really noticeable from the A or K seats. While the altitude indicator was in feet as expected (aviation standard), I did not expect the reading on the speed indicator - it read .8 Mach. I was expecting mph or kph. The radar was also interesting with a 40 mile or 120 mile radius. I stayed there until we made it to Dublin, and then I went back, as we were going to be getting into European air traffic patterns, and the pilots should be left to do their jobs, in my opinion.
Landed a bit late in Frankfurt, and then off to the lounge to wait for the flight to Basel. This flight was delayed about 45 minutes, and less than half full. Nobody flies at this time of year, which is why the trip cost less than $450. Of course, this is a violation of the company travel policy, which requires me to fly from Zurich on AA at 4 times the price. Doing so is supposed to save $2 million a year. I can not figure it out, but obviously someone else has.
Weather was perfect in St. Moritz over the weekend. They have been clearing out some of the accumulated ice and snow from the town, which makes walking around easier. Still have large crowds for the horse races - parking on the lake is full, and overflows into the streets. Greyhound races are next weekend, and then start taking the stands and tents apart. Missed the cricket matches held on Friday.