BA5E

Very interesting report so far, and so glad you both enjoyed your LH F experience, the food looked good, and you certainly made the most of the champagne as you were not able to take the bottle off that the FA had offered you. Looking forward to the next episode^

Oil-man

I don't know how much the tickets are as they've never reached me. Hertz just keep billing me $20 admin fee for every one received, and tell me the ticket is heading my way (none have reached me yet). I thought in RSA the fines were immediatley charged to your CC via the rental agency, but maybe because we had two drivers they couldn't do it, or maybe I was just misinformed.

I was chatting to the proprietor of one of the guest houses we stayed at, and he said he'd recieved enough fines to paper the front of his guest house and never paid any of them. I like the quotation from a RSA friend who said "Your British, you follow rules." They don't in RSA. I'm not heading back any time soon so have no intention of paying.

Anyway it's a scam. Little grey speeding boxes with no markings on the road, no flash and no way of knowing they exist.

Anyway enjoy the GR. One more tip is Robberg Nature Reserve. Fiver stars on tripadvisor and I fully agree. The most stunning peninsula I've ever seen - steep cliff drop offs with seals swimming below, amazing sand dunes and capped off by the ocean breaking on two different sides of the same Witsand beach.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attract...tern_Cape.html

bentrmpt

Hope you get a chance to finish the report! Really looking forward to hearing about Kwandwe.

CFFrost

I'm looking to get caught up shortly now. With some terrible internet abroad (both in London and even more so in SA) uploading pictures was a nightmare!

You won't be disappointed - SA was a magical place for our first time there! More to come soon!

Thanks!


Thanks - It was an awesome experience, and a great way to kick off the trip! Wish I could have taken the bottle with us, but can't complain with what we had!

The Garden Route was excellent - a great break on an otherwise whirlwind trip! I did see plenty of the speeding boxes. Been back about a month now and haven't been charged any admin fees by Thrifty (crossing my fingers).

I owe the followers of this thread a sincere apology! As I said, what was intended to be "semi-live" became impossible as the internet crawled to a halt. We've been back about a month now - so time to get caught up! Next segment coming shortly . . .

CFFrost

We had about a four hour layover in Munich. If memory serves me correctly, I could have scheduled a slightly shorter connection, but wanted to "pad" or schedule a bit in the event of any delays. Also, arriving in London much earlier would likely have been pointless as room availability would have been questionable. The extra time turned out to be unnecessary, as the flights were all on schedule. This gave us plenty of time to take advantage of the lounge.



Shower Room Vanity

First things first, we headed for a shower. I was actually surprised at how spacious the shower room was. I was also surprised that we were given the option to share a room or take separate rooms. Note that despite the unavailability of a room with a bath (construction?) the attendant proactively offered a rubber duck.



Shower



After a shower - we spent an hour or two just lounging. Our schedule was quite "off" with the time change and given how much we had eaten and drank on the plane. There were snacks, like the donuts above, scattered around the lounge. Attendants also came around with several other options such as a smoothie at regular intervals, and were very attentive in refilling anything you were drinking. At this point, we just wanted some water and some rest.



Espresso

After we had a bit of time to unwind, we headed over to the restaurant area. The restaurant consists of a large buffet as well as a full menu. You can do any combination of the two and order anything you would like. I started with an espresso, and also requested a glass of champagne, which felt unnecessary at this point but obligatory.



Neither of us were particularly hungry, and my wife was literally falling asleep at the table at this point - but I felt like I really wanted to try some of the local options on the menu. It was also between breakfast and lunch at this point. I asked the server what she preferred, and told her I was not very hungry. She suggested that she would have the chef put together a plate with a taste of a few local things. I thought that was perfect, and emphasized that I was not very hungry. The massive serving platter she came back with (above) was that "taste." I wasn't sure if there was a miscommunication somewhere, if she was trying to give us "American" portions, of if she was just being nice. I felt guilty letting so much of the food go to waste, but it all tasted good - and I was happy to have a "local" meal for the 4 hours I was in Germany.

Bottom Line Regarding the Munich First Class Lounge
Honestly, the lounge was really nice - but I think these high end lounges get over-hyped substantially. I think it is really easy to look at trip reports and see pictures of glamorous Mercedes tarmac transfers, amazing food and drinks, etc - and get very high expectations. At the end of the day, it's still a lounge. This lounge was certainly less crowded than the other lounges we visited on this trip. The food (with a full menu) was also much better. But at the end of the day, there was food, drinks, a shower, and wi-fi Nothing more, and nothing less - and we really did not need more food or more drinks at that point! Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice, clean, comfortable lounge with good food and fine drinks, attentive service - etc.

Our next flight, however, was anything but comfortable . . .

CFFrost

After a few hours in the Lounge we proceeded to the gate. I always tend to be a bit anxious to get to the gate early so we got there with some time to wait. Sure enough the gate agent were having problems with the electronic "gate" that scans the boarding passes. After a bit of a delay getting the boarding process started, we were finally aboard our flight to London.



Intra-europe business class isn't much to write home about, obviously. Essentially just an economy row with the middle seat blocked and a "tray" in it's place.



We were fortunate that we had the bulkhead seats, so benefited from plenty of leg room.



Food was also nothing particularly special, though certainly far better than anything in US domestic First. I had eaten more than enough in the past ~12 hours, so I took a bite or two and left the rest.

There was one noteworthy aspect to this flight - and that was a baby seated near the rear of the business class cabin. I swear I have never heard a baby cry so much, so loudly in my life, and I have never seen two parents so indifferent to a baby crying. From wheels up to touch down, the baby was screaming at the top of her lungs. As I write this, over a month later, it is the most memorable (and not in a good way) part of the flight. Flight attendants were rolling their eyes, other passengers were glaring and commenting loud enough for the parents to hear, and even a six year old across the aisle from us kept loudly repeating "that baby will not stop crying!"

If it weren't for the baby, the short flight would have been fine. The service was fine, the seats - though tight and nothing special - were fine for a short flight, and the food was more than I needed.

farbster

Sounds like a nice trip! Did you make so many connections to London on purpose? Or was that to get a saver fare? Were you able to book the Toronto-Munich flight when they opened up their First Class?

Looking forward to reading more. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

CFFrost

The connections were because of the YYZ-MUC availability. The rest of the way (to SA and back to the states) was much more direct. We kept saying we were taking the "scenic route" - but LH F was worth the extra effort / time as an excellent way to kick off a honeymoon!

Thanks for reading!

bentrmpt

Would love to see some Kwandwe pics! Great report so far.