steveman518

Welcome to my second TR on FT, the first of which can be found below (shameless plug):
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...adventure.html

This trip is currently in progress, though I will return home in 2 days, so the trip is coming to a close after two weeks abroad. I will do my best (while finishing up my vacation) to get a few parts written soon

Introduction

This trip is part of a parent-funded (and parent-planned) family vacation (so maybe on the other end of eightblack's report) before the school year begins anew in the US, where I will be continuing my graduate studies. Since this trip is with my family I will not be introducing any pictures featuring my family members, which will come at the expense of some pictures, especially since my parents would probably think I'm insane taking pictures on planes, buses, and other "mundane" things. I'm a poor grad student and not a very frequent flier by FT standards (lowly UA Silver), so you may not see the many lounge/F/J pictures, but I will do my best to keep you entertained with a mostly Y TR.

This trip features several firsts for me, including flying LH and AC long-haul for the first time, my first time in Norway, and a most confusing cruise experience. While all of you know of LH/SK/AC/UA, Pullmantur cruise lines is a relative unknown on FT, with a search in the cruise forum turning up unanswered questions (which I will elaborate upon later).

Intinerary (TR will also include some destination highlights):
-LH Y SEA-FRA-OSL
-SK Y OSL-BOO
-Train Bodø-Trondheim
-Cruise Trondheim-Malmo
-AC Y CPH-YYZ
-UA Domestic F YYZ-ORD-SEA

Some of the pictures were taken with my Canon T2i, though images that do not contain watermarks were taken from my phone (aka not being quite as obvious as using a big camera)

Thanks for reading and all comments are welcome!

steveman518

I begin the journey to the airport from my office at around 10am after getting in about 4 hours of work and meeting with my professor. Seattle has a relatively efficient public transit system (by US standards) and I make the quick hop on the express route from UW to the tunnel stations downtown. At the tunnel station I take the light rail to the airport. This process takes about twice as long as it does to drive, but since I have a transit pass I don't have to pay out of pocket and I can't really park my car at the airport for 2 weeks (remember this poor grad student part).

The light rail train:


Inside the train:


Now I present: Flying LH (aka UA step up your game)

LH491
SEA-FRA
Economy Class
14/8/2014
Booked: A340-300 No F/Old J
Flown: A330-300 New F/New J

As a UA flier, this was my first experience at the south satellite terminal, which I found to be ridiculously overcrowded (more crowded than the IAD A1-6 express area), though I had been at work long enough to only spend a few minutes waiting around. As soon as I got there, the famed UA gate lice had formed in front of the LH gate.

Stopped long enough to take this shot:


Plane! (D-AIKG):


Gate lice:


Is that the entire plane?


To my surprise, after priority and *G boarding was completed, they called for *S boarding, which was a first. Let me tell you it felt so good walking past the crowd standing there. (Note to UA stop letting those CC holders board group 2-LH doesn't do it and it's a lot less chaotic...). While on the jetbridge newspapers were presented on a table for all passengers, including the NYT and WSJ international editions in addition to German newspapers

The LH A333 has a small economy cabin (4 rows) behind J and in front of the larger economy cabin in the back, and it was a much quieter and less chaotic experience, though it does mean that you're very close to the Y lavs. Also the seats aren't too well-cushioned, though at least they weren't slimline...I settled into my aisle seat and my seatmate by the window already had the window shade down

Obligatory legroom shot (note that I'm almost 5'8"/172cm-also the broken cup-holder):


IFE:


I rather liked the IFE screen-it was much larger and clear than UA's and offered a much more international selection (instead of a small international selection based on the route-UA step up your game). The screen was responsive and I didn't have to jam my finger into the seatback in front of me.

As I had stayed up the previous night since I came back from work way past midnight and went back to work at 6AM, I immediately passed out for the first hour of the flight...only to be woken by a screaming baby in the first row behind the lavs. I swear that I attract screaming babies-I can't seem to be on a flight to/from/domestic US without a screaming baby within 3-4 yards of me.

This proved to be perfect timing, as this coincided with the meal service beginning. I threw on a Wallace and Gromit short (best shorts ever?) while the drink service rolled around. I played around with the recline on the seat and it kind of freaked me out as this was the first time I was in a seat that reclined backwards a little bit while the seat cushion slides forwards.

Gin & Tonic + snacks? (UA free booze in Y? C'mon man)


Hot disposable towel to rival the BA F rags (UA step up your game):


The lunch service consisted of the usual "chicken of pasta?" question that has existed since the dawn of flying. I went with the chicken:


The meal was more than edible, and I might go as far to say as pretty decent. You might notice the headphone cable in the above image (and the USB charger in the towel image). It often did get in the way while my seatmate at the window wanted to go to the bathroom.

After the dinner service was concluded, the cabin lights were dimmed for some shut-eye (this was a flight departing in the afternoon and arriving the next morning). Naturally I went around the Y cabin and snapped a few pictures

Mini-Y cabin:


Y lav-I'm backed up against the door...at least the sinks are automatic?


Behind the main Y cabin:


Rear galley:


I seem to have trouble falling asleep on planes, as my PR for un-interrupted sleep has been 2 hours, so I spent the rest of my flight entertained by LH's entertainment system. As I tend not to go to movie theaters and watch newer releases on planes, I watched the 2nd installment of The Hobbit (which was kind of meh), followed by Beijing Love Story (《北京爱情故事》), which is a confusingly-constructed movie following the love story of 5 couples.

Every half-hour or so, a flight attendant would pass through the aisle with water and OJ, which is standard enough. Interestingly, every once in a while a flight attendant from J would appear through the curtain with a tray of remaining cups of water and OJ, walk through the mini cabin, and return to J. ^ UA you got a long ways to go...

About an hour or so before arriving in FRA the breakfast service began with a coffee and something that looks at least comparable to the UA "domestic F" red-eye "snack" or the Jeff McMuffin (UA folks remember this is LH Y):


Soon after breakfast was cleared we began our descent into FRA with an animated tail-cam (not sure how I feel about this one...):


After this I'm not sure how I can go back to UA long-haul Y in December... D:

steveman518

I had arrived to a good amount of rain in FRA early the next morning. After what appeared to be a half-hour taxi, we arrived in the nether-regions of T1, which was a 15-minute walk to the transfer desk. Unfortunately I had arrived in the one non-EU line heading towards the A-terminal behind several families, resulting in about a 15-minute wait...for about 2 families. I soon found out why, with the officer asking for many details, including which countries I was visiting, if I had cash, what credit cards I was carrying, etc etc. I quickly hurried over to the train to the A terminal to my gate.

Seen from the train:


LH860
FRA-OSL
15/8/2014
Booked: A320
Flown: A320 D-AIZZ

As soon as I reached the gates I was intrigued to see the self-boarding gates.


As it was just about the scheduled boarding time, the gate lice quickly formed around the gate.


Also interesting to see airport staff riding bikes in the terminal


For the self-boarding gates you scan your ticket and pass to the left of the stand. At the gate there is still a larger passageway where the GA can scan tickets and help those that needed the assistance. Interestingly after the GA called boarding for those who needed assistance, there was no priority boarding and everything was a free-for-all. Among those in the free-for-all were the standby passengers...standing in front of the self-boarding gates. After a little shoving the stairs in front sadly indicated a remote stand.

Bus (before it was packed) before heading to the plane:


After we got off the bus it felt like everyone on my left was going right to board on the back of the plane and everyone on my right was going left to board on the front of the plane. Eventually I settled into my (sadly) slimline window seat somewhere in the depths of the Y cabin. At this point I'm running on about 1-2 hours of sleep in the previous 40 hours and it was only 10am. I didn't even bother reclining the seat, though I'm not entire sure why...

Obligatory legroom shot:


I thought I may have been hallucinating, as a small container of müsli soon appeared on my tray table. Food? On a flight less than 2 hours? Am I in a foreign country? Then I remembered I was on LH and not UA.

It tasted a lot better than it looked. Trust me


I washed it down with some more coffee and in no time the plane was descending into Oslo and I was about to begin my vacation.

OSL!

Orcair

Awesome photos - I really enjoyed seeing the new international LH Y seats as they seem to have improved since I last was on them. Enjoy your trip and I eagerly look forward to seeing the next instalments!

smilinganddialing

Great start! I too am impressed by the new LH Y seats!

Ghentleman

Nice report.
LH doesn't do priority boarding when a bus is involved. There's little interest in being on the bus first (and on the plane last).

steveman518

Oslo! (Not really in chronological order-just highlights, mostly because I'm bad at sorting out pictures)

After arriving, I headed to baggage claim to claim my carry-on that LH checked since it exceeded weight restrictions. After the priority bags were unloaded, there was a ~10-minute wait before another group of bags was unloaded. There was then another 10-minute wait before the final bags were unloaded before I got my bag.

Oslo has an express train that runs from the airport to central station every 10 minutes. The journey itself lasts 19 minutes and prepares you for what this country is: one giant NatGeo spread. This country is the most beautiful country I have ever been to, and it isn't even close.

But of course, we have to get there first. When going to the airport train station, there is a separate area for the express route to central station (right next to the regular trains-the NSB). The ticket machines only take cards with chip and pin (watch out Americans!) and in theory if you go up to the one desk that is manned, you're supposedly charged an extra 30 krone. Luckily I wasn't charged above the student rate of 85NOK and scurried along to catch the train.

Outside the train (at central station)


A look inside:


Obligatory legroom shot:


I more or less zonked out the entire ride into Oslo, and awoke to find the train pulling into central station. I headed over to the Radisson Blu nearby to find the remainder of my family (we arrived in Oslo from three different places). Unfortunately no pictures, but I'll give a short review.

I had a decently-sized room with two twin beds that I shared with my brother, similar to most decent/good hotel rooms you find in the US/Europe, though I wasn't a fan of the bathroom having one of those rotating glass barriers instead of a curtain-water seems to get everywhere
Breakfast, on the other hand was worlds better than any hotel breakfast I've ever had in the US (though this seems true in a lot of Scandinavian hotels). In addition to hot foods (usual eggs, bacon, etc + MEATBALLS!) and continental-style foods, there were also nice cheese, cold cuts, and smoked salmon spreads.

Onwards to Oslo!
The first thing I found out was how ridiculously expensive everything was. Beer ran around $15 per glass and dinner would routinely run $40+ per person. I'll do my best to try to remember some of the costs to boggle your mind

We used the Oslo pass, which includes entry to some places and public transit use. If you intend to get a pass at the student pricing (children are priced even lower), you'll have to go to the main office and show some proof of your current student status (they'll have wifi so you can show them proof), which is a first (and last). I suppose this is to prevent people from just showing old university ID cards to exploit the cheaper pricing.

Oslo Opera House:


Designed so that you can walk on the roof:


For those of you who enjoy (classical) music and looking inside really awesome buildings in general, they offer daily tours of the Opera house in English and Norwegian. The Opera house takes you through the auditorium and some of the behind-the-scenes work that takes place.

The auditorium from the back of the top balcony:


Interesting architecture outside the bathroom:


Holmenkollen (the ski jump on the mountain) was recently expanded in 2011 to its current size, and you can zipline from the top of the jump to the far side of the landing area for somewhere in the neighborhood of 600NOK (a little less than $100) (!!!)






Of course the top of the jump provided a nice view overlooking the surrounding area


Since my parents tend to be more of the on-the-beaten-path type of travelers (there's nothing wrong with that), a lot of the things we saw were museums/monuments/parts/etc, so just a few more highlights to close out Oslo

Statues at Vigelandsparken, a statue park of Gustav Vigeland's work


Tram station


Visitors' versions of Munch's "The Scream" at the Munchmuseet


Funny painting at the National Museum


In Oslo we ate a fair amount of Norwegian food, including shrimp, reindeer, and potatoes. However, the most interesting thing I ate in Oslo was minke whale, which was served at a restaurant by the Grand Hotel (Grand Cafe I believe). This is the only meal I photographed, since I'm not a tweeter/instagramer/whatever who documents my entire life to share with no one who's actually interested. The whale tasted most similar to beef, but more tender, a richer flavor, and a lot more connective tissue. Granted I don't know what part of the whale the meat came from, so I can't necessarily do a direct comparison.

steveman518

Thanks everyone! I was incredibly impressed by the new LH long-haul Y, and needlessly to say I've been trying to divert my long-haul flying to other *A carriers.
I also should have figured out what Ghentleman said, though last time I was out on a remote stand it was a 3:30am flight out of a gate that was boarding three separate flights in a language I didn't understand using three unmarked buses parked right next to each other

steveman518

After a quick trip back to OSL along the airport express, it was time to go to Bodø. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Bodø is situated north of the Arctic Circle and is one of the largest urban areas in Northern Norway.

SK4122
18/8/2014
SAS Go/Economy
Boeing 737-700 LN-RNN

This was my first experience with the automated baggage tagging, and it was...pretty uneventful. I'd have to say that the most interesting part was finding a kiosk to check in, because there really weren't any staff around and all I saw at first were kiosks that let you check in for every other airline...except SAS. After you check in and affix the tag to your bag, you scan the tag, place your bag on a belt, and the bag gets whisked away. I'm surprised that there wasn't at least one staff member overseeing the area. (Sorry no pictures-couldn't really get away from my family).

After a TSA-esque incompetent and long experience at security we finally headed down to our respective flights (for some reason we decided to travel in two groups, with the others flying DY. Our SAS flight was located in the far wing of gate 19 (seriously the only area that's separated from the rest of the domestic terminal...).

Bunches of SAS 737s-mine was the second from the front


Across the way were some DY planes with the tails painted with famous Norwegians. Unfortunately I couldn't get a profile shot and here's the best I came up with. I do remember seeing one with Henrik Ibsen, who notably wrote the Peer Gynt plays.


This was my first time experiencing a "silent boarding", as no announcements were made whatsoever about the flight and the gate agent more or less just opened the gate to the jetbridge to signal the beginning of the boarding process. Newspapers were available before boarding, though none of them were in English.

The plane was configured in an all-economy configuration, with SAS Plus and SAS Go, with the main difference on board that the SAS Plus passengers got complimentary access to the BOB menu and sat in the front of the plane. I'm not really a fan of SAS Go, mostly because it's similar to UA/LCCs in that just about everything is charged other than water/coffee/tea

The plane felt and looked really old. The seats were the more padded non-slimline seats, but it was fairly obvious the seats had seen much better days-the armrests still contained the small ashtrays and a good number of small parts were missing.




Obligatory Legroom shot


The load was pretty heavy, with the first 20ish rows jam packed and about one person per row in the last 5. Since I was in the back, the middle seat was empty and it was much quieter than it was in the front, though I could hear some loud woman going on about something about 10-15 rows up from me The FAs performed a very fast (and indifferent) beverage service since most of the Go passengers didn't seem interested in buying anything (or even the free water/coffee/tea) and about an hour after taking off we were on the ground again. Thank goodness too, as that experience rivaled the bare bones that I experience on UA and definitely a far cry from LH

Pangro

Pls post more, as I love reading TR's from my home country

Unlike you, I love the "non-slimline"-seats at SAS. They are so comfortable and wide

farbster

Very nice trip report. Glad too see another one in Y.

steveman518

Bodø!

Now we're north of the Arctic circle, and the first thing we do is explore the nearby Lofoten islands...by ferry. This isn't your ordinary tourist ferry-this is a commuter ferry with cars and trucks on the lower deck (whoops, no pictures). We boarded the ferry near the train station and the lady selling the tickets was a little confused as to why we were taking a round-trip from Bodø to the Lofoten islands and back (apparently the tourists that go out there camp there for a while before returning)

Seats


Seats in the "VIP" section-anyone could just sit there


We headed out around 4pm, and the entire journey would take around 8 hours while stopping at several destinations. There was a cafeteria on board, and I had an early dinner consisting of cod and some sides


Røst, our first destination


Værøy, our second destination


Word had reached our ship's captain that there were some (probably crazy) people on board making the entire round-trip from Bodø back to Bodø on a commuter ferry, so we were invited to the control area (or whatever a cockpit is on a boat) and spent some time there on the way back to Bodø before arriving after midnight.


Kjerringøy is a former trading outpost near Bodø. Back in the day Kjerringøy was a stopping point for fishermen before they went to the Lofoten islands to catch fish and was a flourishing town. These days it's a museum and not really a bustling town

Getting there requires a ferry that crosses a gap in the highway along the coast. This time I did take a picture of the car area


The house of Anna Elisabeth, the richest person around in the 19th century


This room features hand-painted wallpaper, which was really expensive and used to flaunt one's wealth


One of the fish that was (and kind of is now maybe?) is stockfish, and when it is dried and pressed, makes an interesting snack. If it's not pressed enough to break all the fibers, further action is needed


Resulting snack:

It didn't have too much flavor, though if you eat enough of it it starts to get really fishy...

Since fishing is important here, seeing this shouldn't be too big of a surprise:


Did I mention how beautiful this country is?


There are even places on the highway where you can stop and just walk around:


Near Bodø at Saltstraumen you can also check out the notable maelstrom, and you can see some nice whirlpools form when the tide is changing

steveman518

Thanks! Norway is an amazing (albeit expensive) country to visit. I liked the non-slimline part, though the seats are definitely showing their age

Thanks for reading!

steveman518

I'm not exactly sure why, but we elected to take the train from Bodø to Trondheim. The train ride would take 10 hours, whereas a plane flight would probably take about an hour.

Before we left Bodø, we stopped by the harbor and bought fresh shrimp from one of the fishermen to eat on the train (and it was really delicious-there's nothing like freshly-caught shrimp).

Norwegian trains are a little different than trains in the US: the seats are pretty large and comfortable (with excellent pitch) and the rides are always scenic


The trains made frequent stops to pick up many passengers who were heading to Trondheim (sorry no interior pics-all the ones I took involved a family member eating said shrimp...). Occasionally the train would stop at a destination for 10 minutes and a good number of people would step off for a smoke. At least the train had wifi so that wasn't completely bored looking out the window for 10 hours (the wifi thing everywhere is kind of standard-more to come on that).


Trondheim's most notable destination is probably the Nidaros Cathedral, built over St Olaf's burial site. The Cathedral is a local pilgrimage site and the site of Norwegian royal coronations. Unfortunately no photos are allowed inside the cathedral and some of the surrounding museums (though of course it didn't stop some people from snapping away)


Another walking street-they seem to be everywhere in Scandinavia


Also, since I live in the US, this excited me to no end:

I mostly bought it for the novelty to actually see what it was all about

I swear this entire country is just one NatGeo spread


More on this wifi: It seems like Norway has wifi everywhere. In the US we see this as every coffee shop having wifi and stepping in if we need access. In Norway, buses, trains, commuter trains, etc all have free wifi so that you're always connected. The transportation vehicles are also pretty nice

Unfortunately a lot of the public transit in the US seems to be crowded, uncomfortable, and dirty, especially in comparison.

Some more sights of Trondheim

TV tower-you can go up there and eat while the floor rotates around so you can see the city, similar to eating at the Space Needle (not that I've actually done it here in Seattle)


Near Skistua overlooking the nearby area:


After returning from Skistua, we ran into some type of market in downtown Trondheim. Instead of selling produce, a lot of the products being sold were meat, and lots of it. Of course there were still some people selling produce, but that wasn't too relevant. Especially since there was street food:



In Trondheim I noticed no shortage of Beliebers (ugh why???), but another nearby market seems to have taken the cake for a massive Norwegian identity crisis



There was also some kind of music going on too after some random catwalk where people of all ages were strutting their stuff

Anyone know these guys? They were pretty entertaining

Pangro

LOL that is excellent, you caught a gig with D.D.E... They are well known for their "late night, beer pub"-music with hits such as "E6" (the main road connecting southern and northern Norway) and "rompa mi" (which is directly translated to "my bottom". He actually sings "my bottom, I'm so fond of my bottom" and it's not even profane, it's just a feel good song ). And who can forget "å å å d går likar no" (oh oh oh things flow better now) and "rai rai" which by no means have no other meaning than singing the words rai rai.... Some kind of local dialect!

They're from Trondheim so it's their hometurf ^

Wonderful pics from the Bodø-area!!