We recently moved back to Europe and booked our first trip to hit up some of our favourite places, with a few last minute additions to the travels and a few visits to things that did not exist last time we were here. .
This trip will mostly focus in on the few things we saw, but mostly on the food we ate and the beer we drank. I am a huge fan of casked ales, and really the only place you can find good ones is in the UK.
Hope you enjoy this trip report and if you have any questions please let me know.
The flight plan for this one was pretty simple. I booked all three legs seperately as I could not find one booking that matched all of what we needed. The plan for this trip will be as follows:
Riga - Warsaw - LOT Polish Economy
Warsaw - London - LOT Polish Economy (upgraded to business)
Rental Car in London to visit Downtown London, Wrexham, Chipping Norton, Windsor and Swallowcliffe
London - Brussels - Brussels Airlines Economy
Rental Car in Brussels to visit Ypres
Brussels - Riga - Air Baltic Economy
Hope you follow along!
To start, we are massive fans of Top Gear, the Grand Tour and just about everything Jeremy, James and Richard do on television. So we know that when we returned to Europe our first stop would have to be to the UK to go and check out some of their offerings. Not to mention that the UK is one of our favourite places to visit. What I will say is that while it has been a few years since we visited (we left the UK on March 9th 2020 from a trip!!!) the prices sure do seem high for just about everything. But that is the cost of doing business I guess.
We decided to use a Bolt to get us over to Riga Airport and at only 9 Euros I think it was a great deal. The car picked us up right outside of our apartment and sped us off to the Airport in no time. Its nice that Riga Airport is so close to downtown. It makes getting there super easy.
Check in with LOT Polish airlines was a breeze through the Star Gold line and our two bags were checked in all the way to London.
Security was a breeze and we were through to the gates. We made a quick stop at the lounge before making our way to the gate. A few pics we took along the way.
Air Baltic A220 recently arrived from Munich
Lufthansa A320 from Frankfurt
A fleet of A220s. Some of them were missing engines and I assume this has something to do with the recent engine issues for the type.
Our LOT Polish E175 recently arrived from Warwaw
Another gorgeous A220 of Air Baltic
Caught this aircraft with its engines still running that just arrived from Helsinki. This will also be on our list to try.
Boarding was called and we were in Group 1. Our aircraft was parked at a non gate position so it was a quick walk out to the aircraft. However this gave me a great opprotunity to take some pics.
Nice and close
The plane was completely full today so it took quite a bit of time to load up. Despite this the door was closed on time and we were ready to head off to Warsaw.
Airline: LOT Polish Airways
Class: Economy
Route: Riga, Latvia to Warsaw, Poland
Aircraft: Embraer E175
We got seats up near the front on this aircraft which was nice. This is not my first time flying LOT (I flew it just last week on a work trip) and I find the crew to be very kind and cheerful. This crew was no different.
The legroom on this aircraft was perfectly fine for a one hour flight. The seats are a little firm, but no where near as bad as Lufthansa.
Another nice view of Air Baltic with the added bonus of being able to see them load my bag on the aircraft. Always a good feeling.
Nice, albeit a smaller cabin.
The only take off video I took on the trip, but I thought I would add it.
Service onboard was pretty quick and simple. Water was offered along with a small fruit filled bun. This was more than sufficient for the quick one hour flight.
On my flight last week it was a blueberry bun, so nice to see they change it up a bit.
A nice view out the window.
We landed on time, however ended up parking at a remote stand. This meant we were a few minutes late actually getting into the terminal. The line to clear out of EU Customs was relatively quick and before long we were waiting at our gate for the next flight over to London.
Up next, Business class on LOT Polish airways to London and our first few hours on the ground. Hope you enjoy.