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NICE, FRANCE

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LE NEGRESCO

Romanianflyer

Ah the Negresco! A venerable place with lots of interesting Romanian (and of course, local Niçoise) history. You have some pictures of the room and the hotel?

I agree with your observations on Monaco. Visited for the first time this early Spring but was happy to move out after half a day. I did however enjoy Menton and Villefranche-sur-Mer on the trip. Thanks for posting the TR, looking forward to more!

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Just posted a slew of hotel pics. That's right! Founded by Alexandru Negrescu of Romania! Can you tell me more about Menton? Considering a stop there next summer. Thanks!

EDIT: Negresco built in 1912, OPENED in 1913.

offerendum

I thought about dining at their restaurant but decided different. The room is not my taste, I´m glad I stayed at Cap Ferrat.

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BA 2623
NCE-LGW
Airbus A319-100
G-DBCE
Seat 10A [COACH]
Flight #60 of 2019

We have not been having the greatest of luck with transportation so far on this trip. Things did not improve with a switch back to OneWorld. As a OWE, J check-in was available. This was the highpoint of the BA experience for the day. When we got to the front of the line, I asked about a possible buy up to club. The "upgrade with cash" price online the previous day for two people had been over 700euros, which was laughable for a sub-2hr flight, especially since the Club Europe seats have tighter pitch and are less comfortable than the Exit Row coach seats. 350euro each for a bad meal and a beverage...rather offensive. The agent told me only one seat was left in Club, so the point was moot. The check-in board also showed a delay. I asked how long and the agent laughed, said she had no idea and only knew the inbound plane hadn't even left the London yet. Lovely.

As we would later find out, BA was having a worldwide IT system outrage, much like the one LH had a few days earlier when my GF had to fly with them. Some luck!

We went towards passport control and figured we'd wait it out in the lounge. At the border, I pulled my BP out and some $ that had been tucked into my passport came with it. The amusing border agent said in a joking but not clearly joking manner "give me that also" I laughed and put the $ back in my pocket. The only lounge near the B-gates in NCE T1 past immigration was a Priority Pass Lounge. I think it was called the Canopy Lounge? It has ample seating and some meager food and beverage options, but at least it was comfortable and there was wifi, beats sitting by the gate.

From the lounge, I called BA trying to 1. get an idea of how long the delay would be, 2. find out of the flight was actually going to happen and 3. get protected on a later flight in case ours was cancelled. The agent couldn't answer 1 or 2 and was unwilling to do 3. She said "well if your flight is cancelled, you'll be put on the later one." I explained that not EVERYONE from the cancelled flight would be able to make it onto the later flight to which she begrudgingly replied "well...yeah." Still, she said it was impossible to make a protective reservation that would only stick IF the original flight was cancelled. I don't know the ins and outs of BA's system, but I know AA can do that for FF. Who knows. The IT outage didn't help.

About an hour after our scheduled departure time, we were on the bus to the plane. The delay wasn't terrible and we had nothing pressing to do in London anyway, but I was SHOCKED by how terrible BA is. I can't remember the last time I flew BA in "Euro Traveller" but I assumed that OWE would be humanely treated. Apparently that all went out the window about 2 years ago when BA rolled out BoB, which now means you can't even get a free glass of potable water in coach, even as a top tier OneWorld elite. I mean they will reluctantly bring you a glass of water poured from the plane's internal tanks...and in fact I requested one to prove a point, but apparently this water frequently fails safety inspections, and after a sip I decided not to press on because it tasted absolutely vile. It's really sad that an airline like BA that has delusions of grandeur and still views itself as a leading airline and a "full service carrier" can't even provide WATER to all passengers in economy, but certainly to top tier OW elites. Someone might want to inform BA that they have become a LCC. Perhaps they will align their prices with the product they now provide. Needless to say, I will avoid BA in the future when my travel plans call for intra-European travel. In fact...since OW is so weak in Europe, I may have to qualify to *G next year to make life easier.

Anyway, we made it to LGW, eventually found our driver and were off for our VERY brief stop in jolly olde.

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BA TO LGW AND LOUNGE

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LONDON

Not much to tell here. We got in about an hour late. I was surprised that I no longed needed to fill out a landing card with a U.S. Passport. The new biometric gates that work for EU/UK, US and a handful of other passports were super easy. It's somewhat of a shame not to get stamped into the UK anymore. Once we got to my gf's parent's house, we played with their dog for a bit which was lovely, then I wandered around aimlessly while my gf got her hair done in advance of the wedding we were going to in Moscow. The four of us had dinner at a pub (fish & chips for me, max Britishness for the sub-1 day stop), then turned in early since we would have an exceptionally early morning the following day. Our LHR-DME flight was leaving around 8:30am (BA 233), so we planned to wake up around 5:15am. As is often the case before an early wake up for travel, I did not sleep well. Nothing better than going to the airport exhausted and perturbed! Hopefully next time we're in London it'll be for a bit longer...I say that, but realistically, I know the next time I will be there (Dec.) and it won't be a long stop...oh well!

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BA 233
LHR-DME
Boeing 787-9
G-ZBKJ
Seat 6A [BUSINESS]
Flight #61 of 2019

While the previous day's flight in from Nice was not so great, BA put a much better foot forward on this occasion. There was almost no traffic, so we got to LHR way, way early. This was fine by me. We asked the car to drop us at the end of T5, closest to the F check-in. Since it was SO early, we were very quickly getting our documents and moving along. However, shortly after we wrapped up, there was a line out the door even for the F check-in section. Must have been a horrible combo of summer travel + the backlog from the IT fiasco. I was glad we were there early.

BA's F check-in at LHR is wonderful, once you have your BP, there is dedicated security (beyond painless) and then the walkway leads you directly into Galleries First.

While Galleries First isn't BA's TOP tier lounge (as you no doubt know, that's the CCR), I find it to be an excellent business class lounge. We had loads of time, so we dropped our bags on some chairs, then went to the a la carte dining section. We had breakfast sandwiches and coffee, then moved back to lounge in the chairs until it was time to go.

While Galleries First is lovely, I hate that almost all the BA widebody flights from T5 seem to depart from the B and C satellite portion, so you have to leave extra time to get out of the lounge and take the tramway over.

Our flight boarded just about on time. It seemed empty in all classes. At check-in I asked about a possible buy-up to F since 233 was being operated by a 787 with F, and EF was showing 2/8 occupied on the seatmap. The check-in agent told me they weren't selling upgrades today because they had to leave space open to accommodate people who had their flights cancelled the previous day. I thought this was odd since I don't think any Moscow flights were scrubbed, and it's not like BA would be routing pax through MOW to elsewhere. In the end, F went out only 2/8 and I guess BA was OK with leaving $ on the table.

We were in the front minicabin of Club on the 789, and as mentioned the entire J cabin was fairly empty. The BA J seats are highly mediocre with the exception of certain 744 UD seats and these were no exception. It's nice if you're traveling together, as we were, to be able to see each other at all times, but it's a terrible layout for solo travelers. There's also almost no storage space, the power port is in a very inconvenient location, you have to step over your neighbor if you have the window seat, the tray table is flimsy, the TV is small and the seat isn't particularly spacious. As a rule, just avoid BA in any class with the exception of A380 F, or 744 UD J. It's really not a very good airline .

Now for the meal service. As this was an 830am departure, it was breakfast service. Strangely the first thing the FA's brought out were warm, seasoned nuts. Maybe it's just me, but nuts before breakfast is weird. The salmon starter that followed was fantastic. For the main I had the "full English," that wasn't actually "full" as it was missing most of the usual components. It was mediocre, and I was full from the lounge and the starter, so I just picked at it.

During the flight, I watched the original "The Italian Job," which was quite entertaining, but COME ON with that ending...talk about a cliffhanger .

After the movie ended, I put the seat into bed mode and slept for about an hour. For all the faults of the Club World seat, I have to admit I do generally sleep well in them and I guess that has to count for something.

It was a very decent day in Moscow, mid to high 70's and sunny when we landed. It would be the best weather we'd see for a few days.

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BA 233

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MOSCOW, RUSSIA

As a child of the Cold War, I have always been fascinated with Russia. I first visited in 2006 and have returned several times since. Last year, I finally got a three year multi-entry visa, and that has made things considerably easier. This was (I think) my fourth visit to Moscow since getting the 3-year. Of the four visits, two have been very brief (1-2 night) stops to connect to or from Finnair flights. The last long stop (Nov. '18) was for my gf's best friend's b-day. It was NOT the most pleasant of stops, since apparently Russians take birthdays VERY seriously and there was a tightly packed calendar of events we had to follow for the duration of our stay, which gave us basically no time to relax or to sightsee. Also, we accepted her friend's invitation to stay in her guest bedroom, which entailed "sleeping" on a VERY uncomfortable pull out couch.

This time, we had wisely decided to stay at the Ritz-Carlton, but it would be another busy, busy stop centered on her friend's wedding.

After arrival at DME, we went out front to get a Yandex cab. Uber no longer works in Russia, only the Yandex app. The construction that has been going on just out front of DME is done, so cars can basically pull right in front of the terminal now, which is nice. Our driver looked like a heroin addicted version of Rasputin with wildly unkept hair, a beard and clothes that likely hadn't been laundered in days if not weeks (same for him I imagine). There were ants IN his cab...I don't even know how that happens.

As is often the case, traffic from the airport into central Moscow was horrible and it took close to 1.5 hours before we finally made it to #3 Tverskaya. Thankfully, our room was ready, and the hotel upgraded us. On our previous stay at this RC, we had been upgraded to #916 , which had a fairly nice view over The National, to Red Square. This time, we were given #917 . I think the view was SLIGHTLY better. Overall a very pleasant room, and a great hotel...I will discuss later in a hotel specific post.

After unpacking we of course went directly to Red Square. The majority of the square was occupied with rigging for a grandstand as there would be some sort of military tattoo shortly after our stay. As such, it was NOT at it's aesthetic best, but again as a child of the Cold War, there is something exciting about being in Red Square and seeing St. Basils, no matter how many times you've done it.

We exited Red Square and continued walking across the river, then down a pedestrian street to the Tretyakov Gallery. By the time we finished there, the sun was setting, and we strolled at a leisurely pace back across the river and to the Ritz. We were pretty beat from the travel and decided to call it an early night. The bride to be, who had previously told us there were NO events besides the wedding, tried to lobby us to go to dinner and out after, but we declined.

The second day, another event was added to the calendar...a "lunch" at Sakhalin, a restaurant near the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with nice views of the city, located between (I think) the first and second ring roads. This was primarily an event for the non-Russian speaking guests to get to know each other before the wedding, though a number of the "foreigners" also spoke Russian. Sakhalin is a seafood restaurant and the food was surprisingly great, especially the Kamchatka Crab. This may have been influenced by the free flowing wine, champagne and the vodka drenched influence of the bride's father.

I speak basically no Russian (like 30 words of "hi, how are you" bar Russian), and the bride's father speaks very little English, but we both play hockey and like drinking vodka, and so we bonded the previous November when I was in Moscow for the birthday, he's a great guy. He really likes to drink, and his wife does NOT like him to constantly crush vodka, so he needs a little subterfuge from time to time. A short time into this lunch, he said "GSJS, come, I show you Moscow skyline." We walked out of the private room and he points to the window and is like "This is Foreign Affairs Ministry...this is River, is nice...annnnnd this is bar." Vodka time...classic Russian maskirovka. This was repeated a half dozen times throughout the meal, and we slowly but surely added other male members of the group, although the groom was never invited to join. Possibly a bad sign!

I was quite drunk by the end of lunch and as is usually the case with these things, the "lunch" was close to six hours of eating, drinking and toasting. My gf had to go back with the bride to braid her hair or something like that, so I opted NOT to go with them, and I walked back down Old Arbat towards the Kremlin, then back over to Tverskaya, the Ritz and bed.

Day three was the main event...the wedding. My gf was a bridesmaid, so she had to go early to do hair, makeup, etc...and I was able to chill at the hotel, have coffee and relax. The venue, Villa Rotonda, was close to an hour by cab from central Moscow. I got there about 1hr before the predicted start time, because my gf was dying of boredom and begged me to come keep her company.

The setting on a lake was quite pretty, but as with most things in the post-Soviet or developing world, while everything looked nice, the roof was leaking in places, some of the decorations fell off of the ceiling, a smoke machine was making it unbearable to remain inside, etc...all hat, no cattle. These issues were all resolved before things kicked off at least.

Around 3pm, other guests started arriving, and most importantly, the bar opened. My gf was occupied with her duties, but thankfully one of the first guests to arrive was another guy I had met in Nov (another hockey player) and his wife. They both speak English, and we get along well, so I hung out with them until things really picked up.

Russian weddings are strange. Before coming out to the crowd, the bride and groom signed a piece of paper which I guess made everything official, then they walked out, stood together in front of the crowd and some woman made a speech about how they met etc...then that was it, ceremony over. No priest, no vows, just a summary and applause.

I don't know about you, but I HATE weddings that drag on forever, so this was a positive start in my opinion...things would not remain short and sweet.

Russian weddings are a lot like what I imagine Soviet Party Congresses were like. Everyone takes their turn going on record and making a speech/toast to honor Comrade #1 . While weddings in the West usually have short speeches by the best man, maid of honor and family, there was no end to the speeches at this Russian wedding. My gf was the TWENTY NINTH person on the schedule to give a speech/toast...and there were MORE AFTER HER! This amounted to almost SIX HOURS of speeches and toasts. To make matters worse, in between the speeches, there is no down time for people to chat amongst themselves at their tables. Russians hire a guy called a Tamada (forgive me for spelling) who functions as a professional MC for the event. Since the bride's father is quite wealthy and wanted to display this, the MC for this wedding was a Russian TV personality who hosts a late night show. I was told he was the "Jimmy Kimmel" of Russia. At each gap between toasts, the MC tells jokes, brings out acts to do magic tricks or plays some sort of games. This was INCREDIBLY grating.

On the plus side, the food was good and there was loads of booze. Around 10 the torture finally relented and some of the older guests started departing. A band came on playing old standards, which did not help me to keep my eyes open. After that, some Soviet musician that I guess was famous in the 90's played some of his songs and then FINALLY around midnight they switched to a DJ and the people who were still standing had a nice time until the party wrapped up around 2am. Considering lunch generally lasts 6 hours with this group, and the bride's birthday party went until 6am, I considered it quite a good result to get out of there by 2. I did a finally shot of vodka to toast the bride and groom with the father of the bride, then we took off.

We thought we would have a relaxing day at the hotel on Sunday, but the bride decided to jam in one more event for posterity before departing on her honeymoon. My gf and I went for a long walk, then turned up to another "lunch." This one only lasted 4-5 hours, and I managed to avoid drinking a bottle of vodka with the father of the bride, so that was nice. He told me next time I return to give him advance notice, and we can drive a tank, fire the main gun and fly a MiG. He also asked me to go hunting with him and said we could tour the Sukhoi factory. I told him I would love to do all of that, but as Sukhoi is producing the new Russian 5th gen fighter, I didn't think they'd let an American anywhere near the place. After the meal, my gf and I walked down Old Arbat again and back to the hotel before meeting some friends for cocktails at the O2 Lounge on the roof of the hotel.

Day 5 we finally had a chance to stroll around central Moscow a bit more, then I dropped my gf off to get her nails done with some of the other girls. I wandered for a while on my own, then met them all for Georgian food. I love Georgian food, and even when it's not great it's still pretty good, but the place we went was definitely not amongst the best i've had. We hung out with these girls for the balance of the evening, then took a long circuitous path home.

Before departing, we woke up early on the final day and went to Bunker-42. This was the ONLY tourist box I wanted to tick on this trip because, as mentioned, I am fascinated with the Cold War, so OBVIOUSLY I want to see the museum in a bunker under Moscow. I had previously explored a decommissioned WW3 bunker in Ligatne, Latvia, but Bunker-42 was much better.

We managed to make the 11:30am English language tour. The bunker was used by the Soviet Strategic Air Force from 1956-1986. It's located 18 levels below ground, and is connected to two of the Moscow Metro lines through secret passages. There were four parts of the bunker when it was operational, but only one is open as part of the museum. It was VERY neat. We were shown the war room where Soviet Generals assembled during the Cuban Missile Crisis to plan their strategy should the balloon go up, the access point to the metro, and a simulated missile launch which was very "Wargames." I loved it, my gf...not so much. I doubt she loved walking back UP the 18 flights of steps either .

After we finished the bunker tour, I roughly knew where we were, so we took another long loping walk back through Moscow to the hotel, packed our gear and got moving for the airport. It would be Moscow-Thessaloniki for a ~10 hour overnight stop, then an early AM connection to Crete to kick off three beautiful weeks in the sunny Greek Islands.

Overall, it was another great stop in Moscow, albeit a very busy one. We decided on our next trip, we'll have to budget some downtime to actually do the sightseeing we've been meaning to do. I will have to do more planning as well, as I was unable to meet up with my buddy in Moscow this trip, because he was in Vorenezh for work...I didn't think to give him and advance heads up, I just figured he'd be around, unfortunate!

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MOSCOW

RED SQUARE




TRETYAKOV...THIS IS JUST JOHN C. REILLY DRESSED AS YODA RIGHT?

WEDDING



ASSORTED

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MOSCOW CON'T.