opus17
Jul 7, 01, 2:15 pm
The time had come to take our second international trip for the Delta double base miles promotion. Our evil master plan was simple – 2 trips, Gold for next year, no need to see if business travel picked up during the second half of 2001.
Wendolene (a.k.a. “wife”) was open to going anywhere in the world, as long as it was Northern Europe. She doesn’t like hot weather, but does like people genetically identical to herself. Wendolene’s family claims they were descended from the Vikings. In the U.S., I know quite a few people who say they are 1/16 Cherokee -- as if this claim makes them more exotic, interesting or cool. But generally, while Europeans obsess about their past and their genealogy, I find that Americans are more than happy to run away from their past, whether just from forgetfulness, or a sealed indictment, or the Witness Protection program. Even our own alleged president has no history before age 40, as all records have been destroyed and all witnesses paid off with huge grants of Republican soft money. His only link to the past was his father’s name (branding), which made having no history of his own irrelevant. But I digress, there is a trip report lurking somewhere here.
In order for Wendolene to connect with her Viking roots, we decided on Stockholm. It also helped that Delta had upgrade seats on all flights. Departure date was July 4. As I tribute to Independence Day, I will write the rest of this trip report with an arrogant American attitude, foregoing further insults to Our President, who was elected only due to Massive Fraud.
Traffic to the airport was very light, considering it was 6AM of a national holiday (we take nothing for granted in the Bay Area). We parked at an off-airport lot, where I am sure I left my lights on. A shuttle quickly dumped us at the Delta counter, where we were quickly processed in the First Class line, empty as usual.
The Business Elite flight to New York was delayed 30 minutes, because the pilot was late in arriving. B.E. was about 60% full – it never seems to fill up on the SFO-JFK route. We dreaded another awful Delta breakfast (actually 2, since one would be served coming into Europe), but my waffle wasn’t bad. Wendolene’s scrambled eggs met expectations, however.
The lead F.A, who made the announcements, had an outrageous French accent, somewhere in the Inspector Clouseau range. I suspect even on Air France, they would have asked her to tone it down a bit. After she made her announcements, we patiently waited for the English translation. It turns out Delta had about 6 languages represented among the flight crew, including Romanian. I can’t imagine how a Romanian-only speaker would have fared in SFO before boarding the plane to New York, but I am sure they would be glad to have a Romanian speaker onboard.
Despite dire warnings about the weather, the flight was smooth and on time (making up all the time lost from the late pilot). We flew north of the nasty weather.
We went to the smaller BE lounge in JFK. The only Delta computer was occupied by some bozo playing Solitaire. Must not have gotten enough of it during his Windows 3.1 days. I was too lazy to whip out my own computer.
We had the “second” BE bulkhead on the 767 going to Stockholm (row 10) .These are not good seats, as there isn’t much legroom compared to the other business seats. But we were too lazy to ask to change. The lead F.A. had an outrageous Swedish accent. This was kind of amusing, since almost everyone in Sweden speaks like they learned their English from watching McGyver.
The two of us ordered the Halibut dish, which was shockingly good. The appetizer was quasi-edible (this is outstanding for Delta), and the salad was decent – although I still think iceberg lettuce salad is a better choice on an airplane. As usual, I just had water, no wine, coffee, tea, or anything else.
I had the Breyer’s sundae with caramel sauce, which froze immediately upon contact with the rock hard dairy lump.
I tried to sleep, but failed. Maybe I was too entranced by my book, “UML and C++ -- A Practical Guide to Object-Oriented Development”. A brisk tailwind blew us in a half-hour early. I skipped the second breakfast, not wanting to press my luck (on a shorter transatlantic flight like this, the two meals seem almost to overlap). The guy behind us slept through breakfast, but the F.A.’s brought him one during final decent, when he woke up. He wolfed it down and they collected the tray seconds before landing.
Passport control in Sweden took an abnormally long time. My passport was even stamped, a rarity these days in Europe.
We took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm. What we didn’t know was there is a “2 for 1” special during the summer. Didn’t help the train, which was eerily empty.
Last time we were in Stockholm, we stayed in a little hotel in Gamla Stan (old town). But since this trip was about being points whores, we picked the Sheraton (5 days, 2 Free Fridays!). Also, it purported to have air conditioning.
We checked into the Sheraton, and were given a minor upgrade (view of the Old Town vs. view of the courtyard). The room did have an air conditioner, but it wasn’t quite up to American standards (see: meat locker). We collapsed from lack of sleep.
Last time we were in Stockholm, we didn’t eat any Swedish food. I can’t really explain why, but we ate a lot of Italian food. So, the plan this time was to eat some Swedish food.
The first night, we ate at the German restaurant in the hotel.
Next day, we took a cruise to Birka, an old Viking settlement (the first city in Sweden). The weather was quite hot, and my very Nordic wife was miserable. You had a choice of the top of the boat (in the direct sun, no clouds or shade) or downstairs (no airflow).
Back in Stockholm, we finally ate a Swedish meal. My wife had a herring sampler, featuring every know method of herring preparation. For her main course, she had a pizza. (We were told it was a Swedish pizza). My starter was smoked salmon on a Blini. My main course was duck (We were told it was a Swedish duck).
The next day was devoted to shopping and napping, resting from our trip the day before. I guess some people think the Swedes are rude, because every time you walk in a store, they yell “Hey!”.
That night we ate Greek food.
More to come…
[This message has been edited by opus17 (edited 07-07-2001).]
Wendolene (a.k.a. “wife”) was open to going anywhere in the world, as long as it was Northern Europe. She doesn’t like hot weather, but does like people genetically identical to herself. Wendolene’s family claims they were descended from the Vikings. In the U.S., I know quite a few people who say they are 1/16 Cherokee -- as if this claim makes them more exotic, interesting or cool. But generally, while Europeans obsess about their past and their genealogy, I find that Americans are more than happy to run away from their past, whether just from forgetfulness, or a sealed indictment, or the Witness Protection program. Even our own alleged president has no history before age 40, as all records have been destroyed and all witnesses paid off with huge grants of Republican soft money. His only link to the past was his father’s name (branding), which made having no history of his own irrelevant. But I digress, there is a trip report lurking somewhere here.
In order for Wendolene to connect with her Viking roots, we decided on Stockholm. It also helped that Delta had upgrade seats on all flights. Departure date was July 4. As I tribute to Independence Day, I will write the rest of this trip report with an arrogant American attitude, foregoing further insults to Our President, who was elected only due to Massive Fraud.
Traffic to the airport was very light, considering it was 6AM of a national holiday (we take nothing for granted in the Bay Area). We parked at an off-airport lot, where I am sure I left my lights on. A shuttle quickly dumped us at the Delta counter, where we were quickly processed in the First Class line, empty as usual.
The Business Elite flight to New York was delayed 30 minutes, because the pilot was late in arriving. B.E. was about 60% full – it never seems to fill up on the SFO-JFK route. We dreaded another awful Delta breakfast (actually 2, since one would be served coming into Europe), but my waffle wasn’t bad. Wendolene’s scrambled eggs met expectations, however.
The lead F.A, who made the announcements, had an outrageous French accent, somewhere in the Inspector Clouseau range. I suspect even on Air France, they would have asked her to tone it down a bit. After she made her announcements, we patiently waited for the English translation. It turns out Delta had about 6 languages represented among the flight crew, including Romanian. I can’t imagine how a Romanian-only speaker would have fared in SFO before boarding the plane to New York, but I am sure they would be glad to have a Romanian speaker onboard.
Despite dire warnings about the weather, the flight was smooth and on time (making up all the time lost from the late pilot). We flew north of the nasty weather.
We went to the smaller BE lounge in JFK. The only Delta computer was occupied by some bozo playing Solitaire. Must not have gotten enough of it during his Windows 3.1 days. I was too lazy to whip out my own computer.
We had the “second” BE bulkhead on the 767 going to Stockholm (row 10) .These are not good seats, as there isn’t much legroom compared to the other business seats. But we were too lazy to ask to change. The lead F.A. had an outrageous Swedish accent. This was kind of amusing, since almost everyone in Sweden speaks like they learned their English from watching McGyver.
The two of us ordered the Halibut dish, which was shockingly good. The appetizer was quasi-edible (this is outstanding for Delta), and the salad was decent – although I still think iceberg lettuce salad is a better choice on an airplane. As usual, I just had water, no wine, coffee, tea, or anything else.
I had the Breyer’s sundae with caramel sauce, which froze immediately upon contact with the rock hard dairy lump.
I tried to sleep, but failed. Maybe I was too entranced by my book, “UML and C++ -- A Practical Guide to Object-Oriented Development”. A brisk tailwind blew us in a half-hour early. I skipped the second breakfast, not wanting to press my luck (on a shorter transatlantic flight like this, the two meals seem almost to overlap). The guy behind us slept through breakfast, but the F.A.’s brought him one during final decent, when he woke up. He wolfed it down and they collected the tray seconds before landing.
Passport control in Sweden took an abnormally long time. My passport was even stamped, a rarity these days in Europe.
We took the Arlanda Express to Stockholm. What we didn’t know was there is a “2 for 1” special during the summer. Didn’t help the train, which was eerily empty.
Last time we were in Stockholm, we stayed in a little hotel in Gamla Stan (old town). But since this trip was about being points whores, we picked the Sheraton (5 days, 2 Free Fridays!). Also, it purported to have air conditioning.
We checked into the Sheraton, and were given a minor upgrade (view of the Old Town vs. view of the courtyard). The room did have an air conditioner, but it wasn’t quite up to American standards (see: meat locker). We collapsed from lack of sleep.
Last time we were in Stockholm, we didn’t eat any Swedish food. I can’t really explain why, but we ate a lot of Italian food. So, the plan this time was to eat some Swedish food.
The first night, we ate at the German restaurant in the hotel.
Next day, we took a cruise to Birka, an old Viking settlement (the first city in Sweden). The weather was quite hot, and my very Nordic wife was miserable. You had a choice of the top of the boat (in the direct sun, no clouds or shade) or downstairs (no airflow).
Back in Stockholm, we finally ate a Swedish meal. My wife had a herring sampler, featuring every know method of herring preparation. For her main course, she had a pizza. (We were told it was a Swedish pizza). My starter was smoked salmon on a Blini. My main course was duck (We were told it was a Swedish duck).
The next day was devoted to shopping and napping, resting from our trip the day before. I guess some people think the Swedes are rude, because every time you walk in a store, they yell “Hey!”.
That night we ate Greek food.
More to come…
[This message has been edited by opus17 (edited 07-07-2001).]