violist

0221

A rather FTish way of getting from BWI to IAD:

UA1127 BWI ORD 0655 0806 752 2D Empower Y Ch9 Y
Meal: Biscoffs

We emplaned from the unaccustomed D1, as one of the United
gates was inop - a long walk from the Club, as I'd remarked
to Flip who'd checked me in (only raising an eyebrow a tiny
bit at my itinerary).

We were given wheels-up for 0822 but managed to get cleared
for a bit earlier than that. A lovely flight - pretty
smooth, good service from a cute brunette and a statuesque
blonde southern belle. No food, though, but Biscoffs.

Landed on time 2 gates from my connection:

UA 382 ORD IAD 0844 1129 320 2D Empower N Ch9 N
Meal: Biscoffs

When I looked yesterday, my seat was the only one assigned.
When I boarded, the cabin was chockablock.

Asked about Ch9, and the genial FA said that she thought
it was inop on this plane but she'd ask. Reported back that
they would try to turn it on. Apparently they did and it
didn't. Points for trying, unless it was all a charade. The
audio for Ch1 ("Chuck" again) wasn't working, either. So I
was relegated to listening to the Warsaw Concerto for the
hundredth or so time this year.

Funny thing: there was a four-striper in 1C, and I guessed
that he would make a beeline for Ch9; looked over, and sure
thing. He did what we all do - cranked the volume to max,
listened for a while, and then shrugged and took off his
headphones. In conversation to the cute smiling (even to
me!) FA it was revealed that he was going to drive a 733
to BOS this afternoon and then back to IAD the next day:
regarding Airbus and Boeing pilots: "They don't have much
to do with each other. Just wear the same uniforms; [we or
they - I heard the former but context requires the latter]
are too high-tech. And thence the conversation went on to
compensation plans, scheduling, and other interesting
employee subjects. I put my eyeshades on and went to sleep.

We landed a few minutes early.

I headed to the World Club to take advantage of the free
wi-fi (one can't get it well if at all outside the club),
and here I am, sucking on a glass of the rather nondescript
Fetzer Valley Oaks Cabernet. Smooth, smells like jug wine,
goes okay with chocolate chip cookies. And here I am until 3,
when I go off drink chit collecting at the RCCs.

Meriem

Violist, I was about to declare my love (at least for your trip reports), but cabernet with chocolate chip cookies ? Eeeeeeeeeeew.

1P

Red wine and chocolate both go well together (beer and chocolate even more so!). All three contain antioxidant flavonoids, which are said to be good for the heart, so you get a double dose. All are fattening, too.

Try it, Meriem: you'll like it! Red wine is best with dark chocolate; beer goes well with any kind. Of course, YMMV

Meriem

Dark chocolate, agreed. But a cookie...?

violist

Cookies aren't ideal, of course, but that's what they had in
the club. Would you prefer Toblerone?

violist

The WorldClub concierge apologized for the nonself-service
nature of the bar, saying that it was a Virginia law. This
didn't particularly bother me, though it was slightly
inconvenient to have to go to the front desk to ask for a
drink every time (often the bar was unmanned, because of
breaks or something).

Certain work crises kept me there using the (intermittent)
wi-fi until 4, when I decided to make the move over to
the C17 RCC where grim-looking guardian offered me a drink
voucher, and I said "two would be great." No problem.
[But I used the old dogeared one that came in my Secret
Santa gift; am at this writing raising a fairly harsh Remy
to him/her.]

[The RCC is a zoo - totally packed, with people prowling
around for an open work cubicle. The air is heavy, and
there are lots of would-be movers and shakers doing their
moving and shaking quite loudly. I feel trapped in a
phone sales room and may escape to the even uglier but
perhaps marginally less crowded C7 RCC in a few minutes.]

Whoops. I got sidetracked by an interesting article
about Pakistan and barely had time to hustle down to C2
for boarding. The seas parted for my red carpet arrival,
and the gate agent thanked me altogether too profusely
for flying United.

UA 902 IAD MUC 1734 0735 777 9H Empower Y Ch9 N

My seatmate was very pretty Toulousaine who works for the
French equivalent of NASA, I think she said; she'd been at
a meeting of space agencies in Washington and was connecting
to a flight home. She spent the first part of the flight
taking pictures of the aircraft engines: my kind of girl, if
I were a decade or three younger.

I got one of the nasty new amenity kits; she managed to get
an old-style first class one with the black fabric shoe bag.

Our FA, a young fellow named Andrew, provided intelligent
and competent service throughout. I am going to send an
e-extra-mile note, which should counteract the no doubt
frequent feedback from his wearing a Vocal Minority band.

to begin
T Citrus-cured smoked salmon; caramelized fennel
citrus salad and organic yuzu-miso vinaigrette

Fresh seasonal greens; blue cheese or roasted garlic and
wine vinaigrette

main course
T Mustard-braised pork filet; roasted banana
fingerling potatoes and rosemary honey glazed carrots

Roasted chicken with curry sauce; herbed basmati rice and
creamed spinach

Boursin lasagne; Alfredo and marinara sauce

There was an unadvertised special, the Mediterranean salmon
with tomato olive sauce, couscous, and spinach - most of the
pax near me got it. It looked as nasty as when I had it.

dessert
International cheese selection: Jarlsberg, Reny Picot fontina

Ice cream

prior to arrival
Continental breakfast featuring a fruit appetizer, yogurt,
breakfast bread and fruit preserves.

The salmon was not up to the standard of airline smoked fish
- it was heavily flavored with coriander and white pepper
and seemed more like a fishy pastrami than anything else.
An additional insult: my portion was shredded and small,
whereas my seatmate's was nice, plump, and neat-looking: I
doubt it tasted any better, though. The miso dressing was
completely rancid.

There came from the galley a strong mustardy odor,
proclaiming the heating of the pork. What came, though,
was a smallish lump of mystery meat in abundant dark brown
sweet-sour barbecue-type sauce heavily flavored with
rosemary and with just a hint of a mustardy finish. The
carrots, cut from the vegetable that ate Chicago, tasted
pretty good, and the potatoes, oily though they were, were
redolent of garlic - I had four whole roasted garlic cloves
on my plate as well.

Pommery was poured throughout. Though not brut enough for
my taste, it was respectable.

With my meal I had the Chapoutier Cotes du Rhone 06, also
respectable, spicy and minerally enough to stand up to the
grossly seasoned main course.

I passed on dessert, having a Courvoisier followed by a
glass of Founder's Reserve, which did the trick and put me
to sleep presently. I slept through the breakfast service.

I thought about staying airside and meeting VPescado at the
gate, but the area didn't look too promising, so I exited
(immigration took a minute or two: "Did you just arrive from
Washington?" "Yes." "What is the purpose of your visit?"
"Starkbierfest." "How long are you staying?" "Only for the
weekend." Stamp, stamp) in hope of finding the Hofbrauhaus
open (the one at the airport - I didn't really have time to
hop the train downtown and get back, as V's plane was
scheduled in 40 minutes early). It wasn't, but the Erdinger
place on ground level was open. I didn't bother, though,
just wandering around the airport for a while and then
sitting down and tapping away at this report.

Anyhow, something on the plane disagreed with me, and I
didn't feel like eating or drinking anything right at the
moment. Figured I'd make up for it later.

Turns out that the flight came in only a little early, but
enough so I was glad I hung around the airport vicinity. V
came out pretty soon despite having !checked a bag!, the
Star Gold priority tags apparently counting for something.

violist

[I note that I forgot to note above that on the flight to
MUC my audio wasn't working, and Airshow was behaving badly,
showing only part of a screen with sometimes garbled data.
I also forgot to put in for a skykit, as I was asleep for
much of the flight.]

We took the S-bahn downtown and then the U-bahn to Westpark,
which we thought would be the right station for the Sheraton
Westpark ... but (surprise, surprise) there was no hotel at
that station. A telephone call revealed that the right
stop was in fact Heimeranplatz, a couple miles closer to the
city and which we had traversed on our way to Westpark. Oh,
well, the city bus fixed our error in a few minutes. VPescado's
room still wasn't ready, so we wasted half an hour in the
club lounge, which isn't so exciting except that it has free
beer (Heineken and Paulaner AF) and lunch (sandwiches,
sausages, roast peppers, olives, weird pastries - uniced
snail pastries and iced croissants -, and something that
looked sort of like cheesecake only scarier. Paulaner
alcohol free tastes almost like beer, which is good.
Sandwiches were ham or leberkase, both okay; the sausages
were moderately spicy, like pepperoni only not so hot.
This and doing our e-mail got old, so as soon as the room
was ready we went downtown for a walking tour. Started at
Karlsplatz and went on to Odeonsplatz and of course the old
Rathaus and Marienplatz.

We found ourselves a little peckish (surprise, surprise)
just as we arrived at the Nurnberger Bratwurstglockl, where
we had beers and snacks: I had a roast pork belly plate
with housemade potato-cucumber salad (excellent) along with
a couple pints of Augustiner Dunkel; V just had a Bretzel
and a side of Spaetzle (I remarked on both the rhyming and
the carbo-caloric value of this peculiar order) and a
Weissbier. After which we went back to the hotel, V for a
much-needed afternoon nap and I to check in at my hotel,
the Mercure Schwabing near Munchener Freiheit. I was given
a nicely renovated little room, comfy but unprepossessing
(and about 1/3 the size) compared to V's top-floor suite
at the Sheraton. My room, by the way, was next to the
elevator shaft, but the soundproofing was good enough that
I didn't hear it at all.

Met V and rcs85551 at Hax'nbauer for supper - I was fifteen
late but had left a message on V's phone to that effect,
which he had failed to pick up. They had already had the
first round by the time I arrived, and V was as rowdy and
drunk as 200 mL of spring water can make a fellow.

We were in the room where the Haxen and the suckling pig are
cooked, a jolly noisy rather sweaty hot place to be. rcs,
probably having had his fill of Haxen in his life, had
schnitzel, while I took a sampler plate of a medium hunk of
Kalbshaxe and a large hunk of Schweinshaxe. The former was
tender, like pot roast, without crackling, not as nice as
last time; the latter very crisp and delicious although a
bit salty on the outside. The usual gluey potato dumpling.
V went whole hog and had the Menu #1, Moosbacher toast
(which he didn't like), Schweinshaxe, and apple dumplings
for dessert. rcs had some murky-looking beverage, V a
Weissbier, and I a Dinkelacker CD followed by a Triumphator.

Oddly, I was still a little hungry and thirsty but rejected
the idea of another dinner or even another beer. Toddled
quite steadily to my room for some much-needed shuteye.

szg

I was waiting for this part !! ^

violist

V wanted to see the famous Marienplatz Glockenspiel show,
so we arranged to meet there at 11 ... the extravaganza was
all I'd remembered and less: I suppose that a zillion years
ago it must have been quite the multimedia extravaganza. The
sad thing is that I've been dragged to see it three times -
once with Bennie, once with my brother-in-law, and now.

And then souvie shopping: V has either more discriminating
friends or less discriminating tastes than mine and spent
some time; my own purchases were quite straightforward -
$80 worth of chocolate in an Augenblick or two.

I decided to deposit my treasures at my hotel, while V went
on to check out of his and in at the Four Points, something
about Starwood double stay credit, but I'd bet that he ended
up regretting it, as the hotel is said to have been quite a
comedown. We arranged to meet for our outing to the Paulaner
brewery as soon as possible, but he was severely delayed in
check-in; I sat at the cafe with the tables in the Platz and
sluiced down Hacker beer until he showed up about 2:00.

As he had indicated to me that beer was secondary to his
trip (how can that be?), we abandoned the Paulaner visit
and decided on a Hitler tour (after I nixed a visit to
Dachau) - the highlights of which were his home, or where
he murdered his niece, or something, or both, on
Prinzregentenplatz, now a police station, and his office,
where Chamberlain signed away all hope for peace and
security in the 20th century: room 105 in what is now the
music conservatory: at the time we were there, a French horn
lesson was being given, so we had merely a glimpse at the
room.

The concierge offered us a Bretzel - V accepted one; I don't
care for the crunchy Bretzeln that seem to be the norm here.

And on to Spatenhaus, which is now under the same umbrella
as Hax'nbauer, though the food is somewhat different. We
both ordered the Bayerische Schmankerlplatte, so a double
portion came in a huge saucepan: the contents were roasts
of duck, pork shank, and suckling pig; bock and bratwursts;
bread and potato dumplings; and red and regular kraut. All
were good, none exceptional. Last time, I just got a whole
pork shank and some potato dumplings - extra crisp exterior,
juicy inside, and the dumplings were divine: this time, the
pieces of shank were good but with a hard rather than crisp
outside, and the dumplings were just as gluey as the ones
at Hax'nbauer. The cabbage things were quite nice. Suckling
pig was pretty succulent, but the duck desperately needed
the meat juice that came in a little pitcher on the side. I
ate all of my share and some of V's - though he's a little
bigger than I, he had been recently assaulted by a Bretzel
and so was defeated by this quite sizable dose of food.

Interesting aside: previously, the Haxen had been dusted
with caraway; this time, no.

Triumphator for me, Weissbier for him.

The restroom offered travel vaginas for E3. Despite my
current situation I didn't buy one.

We wandered back toward Marienplatz, where another
nationalist and/or xenophobic rally was taking place, then
off to another souvenir shop where V bought a Bavarian hat,
which he threatened to wear on his LH flight to see if it
could get him an upgrade. After which we wandered around
the Viktualenmarkt without buying any food, not a surprise
as we were pretty stuffed. Then randomly through town -
showed him my favorite vegetarian restaurant, Prinz Myshkin
on Hackerstrasse - he wasn't up for another meal though, and
The mere thought of vegetarian food in Munich turned V into
a pumpkin, so he excused himself pretty early; just as well,
as I had had enough Calories and killed enough brain cells
for any one trip. I did make an effort to get the Paulaner
Doppelbock at a dingy dive called Tina's Hexenstube, but
they had none. So up to the room for FT and bed.

Met V at the Hauptbahnhof at 8 as planned, and the S8 took
a mere 35 minutes to the airport.

V's quick check-in was only partially successful, as the
kiosk refused to acknowledge his request to check a bag
(what? a FTer checking a bag? One expects either zero bags
or six), so he went off to find a human while I dealt with
the lines at the United counter. For some reason, the
people in front of me had issues with their reservations,
so the quite short C-line didn't go anywhere for a long
time. After a while the F-line person called me over, and
my check-in was completed in moments.

As a *G on LH, V jollily went off to the super-secret LH
FC security ... where he got nailed. I got through my
ordinary folks' C-class security in a couple minutes and
sat there on the landing watching with glee as he had his
bags minutely examined. Eventually they let him through.
No problem getting into the Senator lounge (as a *G in biz),
and V coat-tailed it, as that might have been easier than
getting the lounge matron to check out the LH equivalent of
S*RCC/ADMIT.

violist

I had a lovely breakfast of cold cuts (superb salami) and
Leberkaes washed down with three kinds of Alde Gott (?)
brand schnapps followed by a glass or two of the delicious
Highland Park 12.

There's a second security before the UA gates, where you are
required to toss all water bottles bought in the airport.
Also, there's no priority line - everyone funnels into a
couple stations; this all yields plenty of teed-off pax.
There was a roving agent, though, checking boarding passes
in line, and I was sent to the head along, I think, with a
couple other *Gs.

0224
UA 903 MUC IAD 1130 1501 777 9A Empower Y Ch9 Y

A pretty nice flight, all told. Service, by an attractive
50ish blonde, a quite pretty but pouty and hard-looking
40ish brunette, and a slim guy with a beard, was in general
willing though not always all there. For example, when
one of the pax asked for Merlot, the guy FA took three tries
to find the stuff; one of his tries was a bottle of white.

Menu the same as:
here
and
here

Wines the same as:
here
with the exception of

Vincent Sauvestre 06 Chablis substituting for the Mlle. de T. and
the addition of Chapoutier Belleruche CdR 06.

Two hot towel services; warm nuts (no macadamias, though,
unlike the past several flights) with seconds.

I'd been asleep when the food orders were taken, and when I
woke up the blonde FA told me that the pasta was all that
was left. I groaned and said that I'd have eaten anything
but the pasta, but no worries, if she couldn't find anything
suitable I just wouldn't eat, as I could easily afford to
skip a meal after the recent caloriefest.

She went up to F (very light load) and got me a steak. It
was about a 5-oz filet, somewhere between steamed and
boiled, quite gamy and tasty nonetheless. Sides
were roast potato wedges and very fat asparagus stems.

The Trapiche Malbec was bright and cherryful and almost
palatable.

I passed on dessert (the guy FA expressed some surprise) and
had a Courvoisier, followed by more naptime.

The second service featured a vegetable and cheese calzone
with "red pepper coulis" - the coulis being actually a cream
of red pepper sauce, quite palatable, the calzone a quite
large rather heavy pastry filled with mozzarella and a bit
of something blue and a bit of something sheepish along
with some ratatouille, which made me go ratatat afterward:
luckily, my seat reclined fully, and with mine reclined and
my seatmate's not fully reclined, I could sneak out behind
to get to the lav.

=

Though I wasn't among the top ten out of the plane or at
immigration, I managed somehow to be the first out of
Customs and ran over to D5 (Murphy's Law) and showed up
at the gate for the 3:00 just as they were closing the
doors, so I got put on the list for the 4:55. The friendly
agent gave me the unwelcome news that it was heavily
oversold, owing to bad weather for the past couple days on
the east coast (why didn't they just put people on Amtrak,
I wonder?) but said, why not. Also listed for the 6:40.

Off to the WorldClub, where Walt told me that I was eligible
to use 3 United clubs (how did he know?), but I said I was
visiting his for the free wireless.

The 4:55 went out full and without me; the 6:40 checked in
full, though I was first on the list, so back to the WC for
more FT and surfing and maybe a Heineken or two.

As this club closes at 7:45 on Sunday, I went back to the
D RCC, where the agent looked at my boarding pass and said,
you flew in from Munich, come on in. No juggling of cards,
no swiping of pass, no nothing.

UA 898 IAD BOS 2140 2314 752 4A Empower N Ch9 Y

This flight went out on time and less than full, to the
relief of some people in the row ahead of me who were hoping
to catch a 11:30 bus or something. We came in 15 early.

Meriem

Superb report, as usual.

Apart from the cookie, so there.