mersk862

As a bit of a background to this trip report, it starts with a trip to Munich. Each year, a bar in the Atlanta area takes some of their most frequent customers to Munich as a prize. I had foregone last year's trip (I was living in MEX at the time and was already committed to going to the Great America Beer Festival in Colorado which would have overlapped with the Munich trip), so a few friends and I decided that this year would be the year to go.

Before that, I wanted to do another trip, since I had the time to do so. Initially I had planned on going to SYD for a week; however, all the business class seats for an upgrade were filling up fast, so that plan went out the window. However, going to Shanghai looked great, and there were opportunities getting back from Singapore.

I had always wanted to go to Bali, so I figured I'd use Shanghai as a jumping off point - the only issue was that getting from Shanghai to Bali didn't have that many great flights unless you wanted to depart or land at crazy hours (depart 4:00 am or arrive 1:00). I ended up finding a flight on Thai Airways via Bangkok. It was a 23 hour layover there, so I had the chance to go back into a city that I had visited back in May.

From Bali, I had to get to Singapore, but I wanted to step up my insanity a bit - as I mentioned, initially I had planned on going to Sydney, since I had never been to Australia. Well, Perth is only a 3.5 hour flight from Bali. Again, not great options for flights, but I figured I could deal with AirAsia to get me down to Perth. Two nights in Perth, then up to Singapore on a new Singapore Airlines A350-900, before two nights in Singapore before going back to Atlanta via Narita and Seattle.

After taking a week in the States, I'll be heading over to Europe. I'm on United up to LaGuardia via O'Hare with a night at the TWA Hotel. From New York, I'll be hopping over to Milan, taking my first A340 ride via Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow, then spending the day (6.5 hour layover) in London before taking British Airways to Milan.

After a few days in Milan, it's off to Munich for Oktoberfest with a bunch of friends. I'll be on EasyJet for the short hop over to MUC. From there, it's off to Edinburgh to meet up with some more friends - with a hop to Glasgow on Lufthansa and then driving to the other side of Scotland. Coming home, it's a quick overnight in Dublin with my first flight on Aer Lingus and my first ATR-72 ride, then British Airways to Heathrow and Virgin Atlantic to JFK on their brand-new A350-1000.

Most hotels on this trip are Marriott brands, however, I'm doing the TWA hotel in New York and in Munich, I'm at the Hilton Munich Park.

Well, if that doesn't sound fun - imagine doing this all on a fractured ankle! About a week before the trip, I had a bit of a tumble and ended up fracturing my ankle, so I'm doing all this with an aircast on my left foot. Hence the name of the report, since I'm hobbling around!

I'll break down the trip into the following parts (more might be added as time passes - I'm writing this as I go - I'm actually starting this off from the AirAsia flight given the lack of wifi or other IFE). Some spots are placeholders as I have a few bookings left to make.

So...get ready for a beer tourism trip around the world!

1. ATL-PVG Delta 777-200LR Delta One
2. Overnight in PVG - Le Royal Meridien Shanghai
3. PVG-BKK Thai Airways A350-900 Royal Silk Business
4. Overnight in BKK - Marriott Marquis Queen's Park Bangkok
5. BKK-DPS Thai Airways 747-400 Royal Silk Business
6. The St. Regis Bali (2 nights)
7. Le Meridien Bali (3 nights)
8. DPS-PER AirAsia A320-200 Premium Flex Economy
9. The Westin Perth (2 nights)
10. Exploring Perth
11. PER-SIN Singapore Airlines A350-900 Business
12. Marriott Tang Plaza Singapore (2 nights)
13. Exploring Singapore
14. SIN-NRT Delta 767-300ER (Y) and NRT-DTW Delta A350-900(J)
15. DTW-ATL Delta 767-300ER (Y)
16. ATL-ORD-LGA United A319-100 (F)
17. TWA Hotel, JFK Airport
18. JFK-LHR Virgin Atlantic A340-600 Upper Class
19. London for the Day
20. LHR-MXP British Airways A319-100 Club Europe
21. AC Hotel Milan (2 nights)
22. Exploring Milan
23. Moxy Malpensa Airport Terminal 2
24. MXP-MUC EasyJet A319-100 Economy
25. Hilton Munich Park (4 nights)
26. Exploring Munich
27. MUC-EDI Lufthansa A320 Economy
28. Courtyard Edinburgh Downtown (2 nights)
29. Exploring Scotland
30. EDI-DUB Aer Lingus ATR-72 Economy
31. Hotel in DUB (tbd)
32 DUB-LHR British Airways A319-100 Club Europe
33. LHR-JFK Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 Upper Class