Coasting California: LCY-FRA-LAX-xSFO-LHR (WDL, LH F, AA F and a Toyota Corolla)
Jun 15, 2013, 4:56 am
#16
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
Lufthansa First Class - LH456 FRA LAX
Lufthansa First Class – LH456 FRA LAX
With the arrival of the new 747-8i, Lufthansa has followed the lead of every other airline operating a First Class cabin on a 747 aircraft and moved the cabin into the nose. It did not, however, follow the lead of some airlines by trying to cram 14 seats in. It opted instead for a very spacious configuration of just 8 seats, each spanning 4 window lengths and hinting at elegance instead of flaunting it (or, dare I say, just pretending it). The credenza in front of the centre pair of seats is used as a serving space by the attendants during pre take off drinks and meal services, but it’s all pretty low key.
Exercising my right to geek, I tossed a few interesting nuggets of information Girlfriend's way, such as being able to see the tug when the aircraft turned due to our being forward of the nose wheel, being able to look almost straight ahead due to the curvature of the nose and the fact that we would be first on the plane to leave the ground and last to touch down again, as we were the most forward of everyone on the plane. Strangely enough it was this that impressed her the most. And the multitude of windows. One great thing about situating the F cabin in the nose is the light that floods in through both sides, aided by the tapering of the nose and the lack of the seats in the middle.
The purser welcomed us aboard and told us the most important thing about Lufthansa First Class was that we could eat whenever we wanted. A nice change from the time we checked into a Japanese ryokan and were told by email "we will decide when you eat". By this time, she knew to address us in English, her welcome aboard in German to Girlfriend having been met with a blank stare. Because that's what Girlfriend does when people talk to her early in the morning. Even when people talk to her in English. But since the purser's assumption about our language skills was actually right, we didn't need to correct her. The purser also made a quip about us escaping "the big game" to which I smiled and said yes. Because that's what I do when I have no idea what the other person is talking about.
The other three passengers in the cabin opted to eat straight away so we were mostly left alone (save for drinks refills) until 3 hours into the flight, which was our nominated lunchtime.
Sven Elverfeld, Restaurant aqua, Wolfsburg, Deutschland
Caviar from Service Cart
Caviar with the traditional Garnishes
Choice of Appetizers
North Sea Crabs with Mustard Dill Sour Cream, Pumpernickel Cream and Cucumber
Relish
Prime boiled Veal with Frankfurt Green Sauce, Egg Salad
Mozzarella with Giant Oxheart Tomatoes and Pine Nut Dressing
Salad of Meadow Herbs with Oyster Mushrooms accompanied by your Choice of
Yogurt Dill or Tomato Tarragon Dressing
Sorbet
Melon Sorbet with Cucumber Tapioca and Basil Oil
Choice of Main Courses
Asparagus Spears with Sauce Hollandaise, Black Forest Ham, boiled Ham and
Parsley Potatoes
American Rump Steak on White Bean Mash with Feta Cheese
Filet of Char and its Caviar with Grape Seed Oil and mashed Green Peas
Oriental flavored Saddle of Lamb with Citrus Yogurt, Pomegranate and Couscous
Selection of Cheese and Dessert
Brillat Savarin, Gruyère, Reblochon, Goat Cheese and Gorgonzola with Orange
Chutney, Grapes and Celery
Toasted white Chocolate, pickled Pineapple and Curry Crumble
Cream Cheese Mousse and Ice Cream on Rhubarb Ragout with Strawberries
As Thai is famous for its massages, Emirates famous for its showers and BA famous for trying to pass off Cathay’s new Business Class seat off as its first class, as is Lufthansa famous for its rose and caviar dining service. Props again to Lufthansa’s attention to detail – at the flight attendant’s suggestion, we moved back to 3DG for the meal service and she put a rose there as well even though the seats were technically unoccupied.
Girlfriend said she liked the caviar. I told her not to get used to it.
The classic tower had just been redone as what I term a "straight plate" but the crew member assured me it was even better this way, presumably because you could nip from plate to plate instead of awkwardly trying to manouevre your fork in between the tower levels.
Because you all really wanted to see my salad, right?
For my main, and I don't know what I was thinking, I ordered the asparagus. In my defence, so did the other 3 passengers in the cabin, Girlfriend being the only person to opt for something different. We both stared at it when it arrived.
Her face looked like she wanted to say a lot of things but didn't quite know where to start. Never one to shy away from a food challenge, I cut right in.
"It's a bit stringy," I offered, after chewing a tip.
I won't say what her response was to that, other than to mention that she declined all offers by me to try a bit and told me to wipe the hollandaise off my mouth because I looked like I'd just been involved in a nuclear waste spill.
Let's just say it wasn't the best main course I've ever ordered.
The bright side of that little mistake was that I had more room for cheese and dessert. The cream cheese ice cream did not taste as weird as it sounded and was actually really nice.
Much has been said about LH's inflight entertainment system. Last time I was on Lufthansa, I ended up watching a rerun episode of Macgyver because the rest of it was just so random. This time, I stumbled across a nice little 2 hour documentary about the Chief Pilot's final flight in an A380 from FRA to SFO and back. Even though the voiceover was in German, I still managed to follow most of the exciting bits (watching him take his meal, his rest break and going sailing in the Golden Gate, for example).
(continued next post)
With the arrival of the new 747-8i, Lufthansa has followed the lead of every other airline operating a First Class cabin on a 747 aircraft and moved the cabin into the nose. It did not, however, follow the lead of some airlines by trying to cram 14 seats in. It opted instead for a very spacious configuration of just 8 seats, each spanning 4 window lengths and hinting at elegance instead of flaunting it (or, dare I say, just pretending it). The credenza in front of the centre pair of seats is used as a serving space by the attendants during pre take off drinks and meal services, but it’s all pretty low key.
Exercising my right to geek, I tossed a few interesting nuggets of information Girlfriend's way, such as being able to see the tug when the aircraft turned due to our being forward of the nose wheel, being able to look almost straight ahead due to the curvature of the nose and the fact that we would be first on the plane to leave the ground and last to touch down again, as we were the most forward of everyone on the plane. Strangely enough it was this that impressed her the most. And the multitude of windows. One great thing about situating the F cabin in the nose is the light that floods in through both sides, aided by the tapering of the nose and the lack of the seats in the middle.
The purser welcomed us aboard and told us the most important thing about Lufthansa First Class was that we could eat whenever we wanted. A nice change from the time we checked into a Japanese ryokan and were told by email "we will decide when you eat". By this time, she knew to address us in English, her welcome aboard in German to Girlfriend having been met with a blank stare. Because that's what Girlfriend does when people talk to her early in the morning. Even when people talk to her in English. But since the purser's assumption about our language skills was actually right, we didn't need to correct her. The purser also made a quip about us escaping "the big game" to which I smiled and said yes. Because that's what I do when I have no idea what the other person is talking about.
The other three passengers in the cabin opted to eat straight away so we were mostly left alone (save for drinks refills) until 3 hours into the flight, which was our nominated lunchtime.
Sven Elverfeld, Restaurant aqua, Wolfsburg, Deutschland
Caviar from Service Cart
Caviar with the traditional Garnishes
Choice of Appetizers
North Sea Crabs with Mustard Dill Sour Cream, Pumpernickel Cream and Cucumber
Relish
Prime boiled Veal with Frankfurt Green Sauce, Egg Salad
Mozzarella with Giant Oxheart Tomatoes and Pine Nut Dressing
Salad of Meadow Herbs with Oyster Mushrooms accompanied by your Choice of
Yogurt Dill or Tomato Tarragon Dressing
Sorbet
Melon Sorbet with Cucumber Tapioca and Basil Oil
Choice of Main Courses
Asparagus Spears with Sauce Hollandaise, Black Forest Ham, boiled Ham and
Parsley Potatoes
American Rump Steak on White Bean Mash with Feta Cheese
Filet of Char and its Caviar with Grape Seed Oil and mashed Green Peas
Oriental flavored Saddle of Lamb with Citrus Yogurt, Pomegranate and Couscous
Selection of Cheese and Dessert
Brillat Savarin, Gruyère, Reblochon, Goat Cheese and Gorgonzola with Orange
Chutney, Grapes and Celery
Toasted white Chocolate, pickled Pineapple and Curry Crumble
Cream Cheese Mousse and Ice Cream on Rhubarb Ragout with Strawberries
As Thai is famous for its massages, Emirates famous for its showers and BA famous for trying to pass off Cathay’s new Business Class seat off as its first class, as is Lufthansa famous for its rose and caviar dining service. Props again to Lufthansa’s attention to detail – at the flight attendant’s suggestion, we moved back to 3DG for the meal service and she put a rose there as well even though the seats were technically unoccupied.
Girlfriend said she liked the caviar. I told her not to get used to it.
The classic tower had just been redone as what I term a "straight plate" but the crew member assured me it was even better this way, presumably because you could nip from plate to plate instead of awkwardly trying to manouevre your fork in between the tower levels.
Because you all really wanted to see my salad, right?
For my main, and I don't know what I was thinking, I ordered the asparagus. In my defence, so did the other 3 passengers in the cabin, Girlfriend being the only person to opt for something different. We both stared at it when it arrived.
Her face looked like she wanted to say a lot of things but didn't quite know where to start. Never one to shy away from a food challenge, I cut right in.
"It's a bit stringy," I offered, after chewing a tip.
I won't say what her response was to that, other than to mention that she declined all offers by me to try a bit and told me to wipe the hollandaise off my mouth because I looked like I'd just been involved in a nuclear waste spill.
Let's just say it wasn't the best main course I've ever ordered.
The bright side of that little mistake was that I had more room for cheese and dessert. The cream cheese ice cream did not taste as weird as it sounded and was actually really nice.
Much has been said about LH's inflight entertainment system. Last time I was on Lufthansa, I ended up watching a rerun episode of Macgyver because the rest of it was just so random. This time, I stumbled across a nice little 2 hour documentary about the Chief Pilot's final flight in an A380 from FRA to SFO and back. Even though the voiceover was in German, I still managed to follow most of the exciting bits (watching him take his meal, his rest break and going sailing in the Golden Gate, for example).
(continued next post)
Last edited by Top of climb; Jun 15, 2013 at 5:02 am
Jun 15, 2013, 5:01 am
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
The rest of the flight was uneventful, which makes this report rather boring since I have nothing to poke fun at. So here are some pictures instead:
I would rate the seat, with the bedding used by Lufthansa, at the top of the list of F products out there for sleeping in, on par with the QF 380 product. It's full width all the way down, unlike CX's which tapers at the leg end, but is wide enough to roll around in and generally feel amazingly decadent in stretching out in a product which if IATA is to be believed cost more than the car which drove us out to the plane in Frankfurt.
About 90 minutes out of Los Angeles we were served the pre-landing meal. Lufthansa likes to theme their pre-landing meals and this time it was "Mexico". Wraps, roasted bell peppers and a little bit of spice.
Even Lufthansa is not immune to serving party snacks in First
Mr 2A was talked into a slice of the tart as well and told the flight attendants that they were bad, bad people.
I was expecting USCBP to be a nightmare, especially given (a) it was LAX, and (b) sequestration, but it was fairly tame. We had just landed behind flights from Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong and the USCBP officers had a great time moving people around so they were in the same queue as their fellow passengers. I didn't know quite why they had to pull out half the people in queue 9 (Tokyo) and send them halfway down the customs hall to swap them with half the people in queue 14 (Bangkok) and although curious, I didn't want to ask, especially as all the officers had guns. When we finally got to the front of the queue, finally used hyperbolically as it only took 15 minutes, the agent promptly sent Girlfriend back.
Agent: Are you family?
Me: No, she's my girlfriend.
Agent: She'll have to be processed separately. We're old school here.
The fallacy of this approach was evident when Girlfriend joined me at baggage claim, having been processed by another agent.
Girlfriend: He said I was down in the system as leaving on two flights.
Me: What did you say?
Girlfriend: I just shrugged, pointed over here and said my boyfriend takes care of all the flights. He let me in.
When we got off the plane, there was an agent standing with a sign that said "Lufthansa First Class HON Circle - Reclaim 5". I believe this is part of their new arrivals services for First Class passengers, though I'm not sure they've implemented it with the same thought they've clearly given their departures process, given the same information is available on the screens after USCBP (and which, I venture to say, would be more likely to stick in a passenger's head as 'useful information' rather than when being spouted out of the plane) and is the same information also not valuable to non First Class and non HON Circles? What would have been more useful is if they'd told us that baggage with First Class HON Circle Priority tags would be pulled from the belt and put on to trolleys for us to collect, so we didn't spend 10 minutes watching bags go round in a circle on the carousel and wondering if someone had stolen our luggage.
Still, if the only complaint you can make about a flight is that the airline failed to save you from your own observational stupidity, by anyone’s book (except perhaps the constant observationally stupid) that is a pretty good flight. And that more or less sums up the LH F experience: they are well accustomed to doing it and they do it very, very well.
Next up: Ants, canaries and shellfish (otherwise Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and a Toyota Corolla).
I would rate the seat, with the bedding used by Lufthansa, at the top of the list of F products out there for sleeping in, on par with the QF 380 product. It's full width all the way down, unlike CX's which tapers at the leg end, but is wide enough to roll around in and generally feel amazingly decadent in stretching out in a product which if IATA is to be believed cost more than the car which drove us out to the plane in Frankfurt.
About 90 minutes out of Los Angeles we were served the pre-landing meal. Lufthansa likes to theme their pre-landing meals and this time it was "Mexico". Wraps, roasted bell peppers and a little bit of spice.
Even Lufthansa is not immune to serving party snacks in First
Mr 2A was talked into a slice of the tart as well and told the flight attendants that they were bad, bad people.
I was expecting USCBP to be a nightmare, especially given (a) it was LAX, and (b) sequestration, but it was fairly tame. We had just landed behind flights from Bangkok, Tokyo and Hong Kong and the USCBP officers had a great time moving people around so they were in the same queue as their fellow passengers. I didn't know quite why they had to pull out half the people in queue 9 (Tokyo) and send them halfway down the customs hall to swap them with half the people in queue 14 (Bangkok) and although curious, I didn't want to ask, especially as all the officers had guns. When we finally got to the front of the queue, finally used hyperbolically as it only took 15 minutes, the agent promptly sent Girlfriend back.
Agent: Are you family?
Me: No, she's my girlfriend.
Agent: She'll have to be processed separately. We're old school here.
The fallacy of this approach was evident when Girlfriend joined me at baggage claim, having been processed by another agent.
Girlfriend: He said I was down in the system as leaving on two flights.
Me: What did you say?
Girlfriend: I just shrugged, pointed over here and said my boyfriend takes care of all the flights. He let me in.
When we got off the plane, there was an agent standing with a sign that said "Lufthansa First Class HON Circle - Reclaim 5". I believe this is part of their new arrivals services for First Class passengers, though I'm not sure they've implemented it with the same thought they've clearly given their departures process, given the same information is available on the screens after USCBP (and which, I venture to say, would be more likely to stick in a passenger's head as 'useful information' rather than when being spouted out of the plane) and is the same information also not valuable to non First Class and non HON Circles? What would have been more useful is if they'd told us that baggage with First Class HON Circle Priority tags would be pulled from the belt and put on to trolleys for us to collect, so we didn't spend 10 minutes watching bags go round in a circle on the carousel and wondering if someone had stolen our luggage.
Still, if the only complaint you can make about a flight is that the airline failed to save you from your own observational stupidity, by anyone’s book (except perhaps the constant observationally stupid) that is a pretty good flight. And that more or less sums up the LH F experience: they are well accustomed to doing it and they do it very, very well.
Next up: Ants, canaries and shellfish (otherwise Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and a Toyota Corolla).
Jun 15, 2013, 5:03 am
#18
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
Excellent start, I had something similar on my last visit to the FCT, we had an apron position and got driven, but as we pulled up the bus with all the other PAX pulled up, they were not allowed to board the plane until we settled in. Most boarded from the front and some had some comments as they walked by...loved it 
Jun 16, 2013, 5:05 am
#20
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: London, UK
Programs: AA 2MM - PLT, BA GGL, SPG Plat, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 6,221
It has happened to me on LX as well.
Nice report Top of Climb. Tis a shame your meal wasn't what you expected. I remember the first time I had white asparagus was just outside of Frankfurt. It was served with a hollandaise sauce and was very nice.
On my, albeit few, LH F flights the food has been a stand out.
Nice report Top of Climb. Tis a shame your meal wasn't what you expected. I remember the first time I had white asparagus was just outside of Frankfurt. It was served with a hollandaise sauce and was very nice.
On my, albeit few, LH F flights the food has been a stand out.
Last edited by Moomba; Jun 16, 2013 at 5:24 am
Jul 4, 2013, 4:31 am
#24
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Iver
Programs: BA GOLD/OWE BA Amex Prem Plus Tesco Airmiles Qantas Bronze IHG SPG Eithad
Posts: 2,902
Loving your trip so far, sorry that your girlfriend had an awful cold out of LCY, hope she is feeling better now, and am sure with the surprise of the start of the LH experience, she soon perked up, any female would, it all sounds amazing and it was great you could keep the surprise from her for so long, I would have been smiling all the time and then waiting to see the expression on my husbands face when faced with all the personal service, car etc. Looking forward to carrying on reading your trip across to LAX, keep it coming^
Jul 4, 2013, 6:12 am
#25
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
Coasting California: LCY-FRA-LAX-xSFO-LHR (WDL, LH F, AA F and a Toyota Corolla)
I'm sorry for the tardiness in updating this - I've been travelling and then moving house so I haven't had as much time as I'd like to finish this off! Hopefully something will go up this weekend. Thanks to all for your comments so far; it helps to know that people are reading what you write so it spurs you to keep writing!
Jul 4, 2013, 8:25 am
#26
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: OSL
Programs: BA Gold | SK Gold | A3 Gold
Posts: 4,553
Ah wonderful, another Top of Climb trip report. I'm only surprised you didn't comment negatively about tomatoes (ox-heart or what were they?) that were involved in any part of your travels.
Jul 5, 2013, 4:53 am
#27
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
Jul 5, 2013, 4:54 am
#28
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 1,498
Los Angeles and the Pacific Coast Highway
I had booked a shuttle to take us to our hotel, because I was cheap. Somewhere on our third circuit in the shuttle along the arrivals level of LAX, I was wondering if this was one of those occasions where my cheapness had come back to elbow me in the face. Or perhaps that was the New Yorker on my other side who looked like she was trying to squirm out from under her seat belt to take control of the vehicle herself since the answer to her question of when we could expect to leave the airport property was not met with the correct answer (“now”) by the driver.
Continuing on the theme of cheapness, I had a complimentary night at Kimpton Hotels’ newest hotel, The Wilshire and seeing as I would never otherwise be in LA before the night expired, I used it. First impressions were odd. The hotel is a narrow skinny building in the middle of what looked like nowhere on Wilshire Boulevard. Having said that, my only knowledge of Wilshire Boulevard was from the 1997 disaster (being both the genre and the plausibility of the plot) movie Volcano, so perhaps the lack of lava flooding down the street was what made me think it looked quiet. We were checked in very quickly, told that as part of the complimentary night we had a $50 dining credit and were given our keycard to an upgraded suite.
So: free room, free upgrade and on top of that, they are paying me to eat their food? I need to find more hotels like this.
We thought that the room was very nice, until we picked up our stuff from where we had put it on top of the sofa and found ants on it. We looked more closely at the sofa and found more ants. At which point I can only thank whoever wrote the Wikipedia article on bedbugs for including a photo, because at least we managed to use our limited biological analysis skills to determine that they were in fact ants and not bedbugs.
Nice room. Pity about the ants.
View from the rooftop restaurant where we spent our $50 credit on brunch.
Breakfast lasagne - the waiter promised it was everything you could ever want for breakfast all in one and he was right.
Day 1 – Los Angeles to Santa Barbara
I was slightly dubious about picking up our car. Avis offered up a number of what seemed to be like random locations in the middle of nowhere. My concerns were not allayed when we pulled up in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere at a deserted commercial building on a sunny Sunday morning. In fact, the only thing that made me think that it was perhaps a legitimate place of business open to do business was the fact that they shared their office premises with the national airline of El Salvador.
Aren’t we Flyertalkers funny?
So was the Sri Lankan chap who was behind the counter. He got very excited when he saw my New Zealand driver’s license and regaled us with the story of the time he rented a car to All Blacks Dan Carter on honeymoon, or more specifically how he managed to insult Dan Carter on honeymoon by calling him little in front of his new wife. Maybe he didn’t like New Zealanders after that, because he rented us a Toyota Corolla. It wouldn’t have been my first choice to drive the Pacific Coast Highway but I think I was so worried about what else he would give me if I said something that I just took the keys and bolted into the underground car park as instructed.
The GPS which we had brought with us was sulking. The map display worked perfectly fine, but the rather irritating female voice on it which insists on telling you what to do, had fallen silent. Those of you who also drive cars with irritating female voices giving you directions will know what I mean when I say it was a nice change for a while, especially as the last time we had taken her on a journey she insisted on driving us in the middle of the night from the Italian border to Ljubljana via the Julian Alps instead of the main lit highway.
The downside of the GPS not working meant that if we got lost, it would be my fault for not following the road signs properly (as opposed to my fault for listening to the GPS’s directions when it was clearly wrong). However, being on the road for a bit must have cheered her up, because she decided to start working again three quarters of the way to Santa Barbara, piping up and telling me to keep right as we were hurtling down 101 at 65 mph. Apologies to the car I nearly broadsided when I instinctively obeyed and jerked the car to the right, but the one advantage of renting a car with Nevada plates is that all my bad driving would be blamed on Nevadans.
We probably could have pushed on further than Santa Barbara but when I was planning this trip, I didn’t want to be doing too much driving on what was for me the wrong side of the road on the first day, plus I had a free night’s stay at Kimpton’s Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara. I’m cheap, remember? Kimpton had extended their usual good treatment of Inner Circle members and upgraded me to a one bed suite despite it being a complimentary night award (this time sans ants, thankfully).
Kimpton welcome amenities
Dinner was at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company. The wait was long but it was mostly good humoured (apart from the two guys who skipped the queue by adopting someone else’s name higher up on the list which had been crossed out by the real person who hadn’t wanted to wait anymore – you’ll get yours, "Sam"). It was also very funny watching the psycho tourists. Like "Heather", who signed up on the list for herself and 17 of her friends (guy running the waiting list: "dude, look at us, we don’t even have 17 stools in here") and the girl who wandered round taking photos of everything with her Princess Diana camera (including photographing her friends taking photos) and generally getting in everyone’s way.
ed: Apologies again for the trickling of posts... am hopeful that we will get back to a more speedier clip over the next week!
Continuing on the theme of cheapness, I had a complimentary night at Kimpton Hotels’ newest hotel, The Wilshire and seeing as I would never otherwise be in LA before the night expired, I used it. First impressions were odd. The hotel is a narrow skinny building in the middle of what looked like nowhere on Wilshire Boulevard. Having said that, my only knowledge of Wilshire Boulevard was from the 1997 disaster (being both the genre and the plausibility of the plot) movie Volcano, so perhaps the lack of lava flooding down the street was what made me think it looked quiet. We were checked in very quickly, told that as part of the complimentary night we had a $50 dining credit and were given our keycard to an upgraded suite.
So: free room, free upgrade and on top of that, they are paying me to eat their food? I need to find more hotels like this.
We thought that the room was very nice, until we picked up our stuff from where we had put it on top of the sofa and found ants on it. We looked more closely at the sofa and found more ants. At which point I can only thank whoever wrote the Wikipedia article on bedbugs for including a photo, because at least we managed to use our limited biological analysis skills to determine that they were in fact ants and not bedbugs.
Nice room. Pity about the ants.
View from the rooftop restaurant where we spent our $50 credit on brunch.
Breakfast lasagne - the waiter promised it was everything you could ever want for breakfast all in one and he was right.
Day 1 – Los Angeles to Santa Barbara
I was slightly dubious about picking up our car. Avis offered up a number of what seemed to be like random locations in the middle of nowhere. My concerns were not allayed when we pulled up in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere at a deserted commercial building on a sunny Sunday morning. In fact, the only thing that made me think that it was perhaps a legitimate place of business open to do business was the fact that they shared their office premises with the national airline of El Salvador.
Aren’t we Flyertalkers funny?
So was the Sri Lankan chap who was behind the counter. He got very excited when he saw my New Zealand driver’s license and regaled us with the story of the time he rented a car to All Blacks Dan Carter on honeymoon, or more specifically how he managed to insult Dan Carter on honeymoon by calling him little in front of his new wife. Maybe he didn’t like New Zealanders after that, because he rented us a Toyota Corolla. It wouldn’t have been my first choice to drive the Pacific Coast Highway but I think I was so worried about what else he would give me if I said something that I just took the keys and bolted into the underground car park as instructed.
The GPS which we had brought with us was sulking. The map display worked perfectly fine, but the rather irritating female voice on it which insists on telling you what to do, had fallen silent. Those of you who also drive cars with irritating female voices giving you directions will know what I mean when I say it was a nice change for a while, especially as the last time we had taken her on a journey she insisted on driving us in the middle of the night from the Italian border to Ljubljana via the Julian Alps instead of the main lit highway.
The downside of the GPS not working meant that if we got lost, it would be my fault for not following the road signs properly (as opposed to my fault for listening to the GPS’s directions when it was clearly wrong). However, being on the road for a bit must have cheered her up, because she decided to start working again three quarters of the way to Santa Barbara, piping up and telling me to keep right as we were hurtling down 101 at 65 mph. Apologies to the car I nearly broadsided when I instinctively obeyed and jerked the car to the right, but the one advantage of renting a car with Nevada plates is that all my bad driving would be blamed on Nevadans.
We probably could have pushed on further than Santa Barbara but when I was planning this trip, I didn’t want to be doing too much driving on what was for me the wrong side of the road on the first day, plus I had a free night’s stay at Kimpton’s Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara. I’m cheap, remember? Kimpton had extended their usual good treatment of Inner Circle members and upgraded me to a one bed suite despite it being a complimentary night award (this time sans ants, thankfully).
Kimpton welcome amenities
Dinner was at the Santa Barbara Shellfish Company. The wait was long but it was mostly good humoured (apart from the two guys who skipped the queue by adopting someone else’s name higher up on the list which had been crossed out by the real person who hadn’t wanted to wait anymore – you’ll get yours, "Sam"). It was also very funny watching the psycho tourists. Like "Heather", who signed up on the list for herself and 17 of her friends (guy running the waiting list: "dude, look at us, we don’t even have 17 stools in here") and the girl who wandered round taking photos of everything with her Princess Diana camera (including photographing her friends taking photos) and generally getting in everyone’s way.
ed: Apologies again for the trickling of posts... am hopeful that we will get back to a more speedier clip over the next week!
