nequine

Aye that sounds about right regarding the weather! LOL

Fabo.sk

Sounds like The Netherlands over the last few days.

You did not take the plane on the right, by the way, must have been the one on the left.

Concerto

I'm a bit lost... which photo do you mean?
According to Flightstats, D-AIDU carried me to Edinburgh on 5th September.

Sorry I can't get on with posting the rest of the trip report, but my hours are just ridiculous at the moment. On Thursday I am finally free from all the rehearsals and concerts and I can complete posting the report before the end of the year.

Concerto

It has been a while since I have been back to Scotland, probably because there is less need to go now that my parents are no longer around. The pandemic didn't help things either, so I reckon that brings it to 6 years since I was last there. My sister lives in Perth, the crossroads of Scotland from where all major roads and railway lines branch out. On this trip I didn't get any further north than Perth, so my previous safaris up to Caithness remain a memory for the moment. In my school years, it used to be a major hassle to get back to Caithness and it always involved lengthy bus or car journeys which used up at least a day to get there and a day to get away again. In the distant past it was possible to turn up at Aberdeen airport, having just come off the overnight bus from London or some such, and get a £10 standby flight on the Loganair flight to Wick. There were also the Dan-Air flights between London Heathrow and Inverness, which I often found myself on back then.


A great paella from my sister


Behind the house flows the river Almond with a normal water level as shown here


The dog loves her walks and going swimming in the river

Once at my sister's in Perth I ended up being somewhat confined to the house because the rain started coming down like it had never rained before. After such an endlessly dry summer it was good to see some rain, although it quickly began to look like we would need a Noah to build a new ark. The river Almond began rising alarmingly and, although it has never flooded the house in the 20 years my sister has been there, it got to the point where another 10-20cm would have seen the river bursting its banks. Among other things, I had a few official tasks to do in town, so I braved the rain to complete these. It was good after such a long absence to pop into and browse some of the usual UK outlets: Tesco, John Menzies, Currys, Halfords.


A traditional cafe in Perth


Back at the house the rain starts pounding down relentlessly, not so easy to see in this pic


The level of the river rose suddenly

Perth seemed somewhat run down, which was surprising because Scotland has been so much on the up recently. It was really looking quite scruffy and neglected, which made me wonder if the incredible growth of nearby Dundee has eclipsed it somewhat. We did make a trip out, right at the beginning when I arrived and before the rain kicked in, which took us to just north of Stanley, which is to the north of Perth off the A9 (on the B9099). Our destination was the cafe on a large farm, Stewart Tower Dairy, which offers good value lunches made of local produce as well as the usual Scottish tea and cakes during the afternoon. This place is more known for its ice cream and milk products, but the lunch options were really good. Food has definitely improved in the UK since I used to live here years ago.


The water level continued rising to an alarming level






While I was in Scotland the Queen died; her portrait was everywhere, including here at Edinburgh airport

Silver Fox

Halfords! I think that will be the first and last time I will ever see that place mentioned in a trip report!

Concerto

Yeah. It's not really my sort of thing but my brother in law needed some odds and ends so I had a good look around while we were there. Good selection of items and helpful staff. Same with the other shops.

Concerto

Edinburgh airport is no place to be without lounge access, although the newsagents and bookstores offered plenty of interesting browsing. The airport was never designed for the masses of people milling around inside it and my memories of it in the 80s and 90s was that only businessmen and people who actually really needed to travel used it. Yet again, the Eurowings flight to Cologne was posted with a delay, this time of 1h05. I began to worry about the train journey back up to Oberhausen, with all the problems and cancellations at Cologne main station with water damage due to extreme rainfall and a signal box failure. As time went on the delay became reduced to about 35 minutes, but despite this the plane landed at Cologne Bonn Airport at 20h20, exactly one hour later than scheduled.


Boarding the Eurowings flight to Cologne/Bonn on the apron at Edinburgh


The only evidence that this flight was operated by TUI fly Deutschland was on the safety card, as you can see here


Some interesting late afternoon cloudscapes as we flew over the North Sea

When I initially tried to check in online, 3 days earlier, I was offered a middle seat once again. So I simply waited until about 4 hours before the flight and found myself automatically upgraded to the extra legroom seats at the front of the plane. There was no Biz Class on this flight, just lots of extra legroom seats at the front consisting of about 12 rows. Although the plane had been painted in Eurowings colours it was actually a TUI fly Deutschland plane and crew. The flight itself was nice enough, once we finally pushed back, took off and left Edinburgh. The catering trolleys began at both ends of the plane and met around about where I was sitting, such a quick operation that it seems like nobody bought anything from it. I had a sandwich which was a corn pastry with thin slices of chicken breast and an apple spritzer (Apfelschorle), a menu deal which cost €7.50. This was probably a wise move because later on I faced a mess with the trains and got back to Oberhausen quite late that night. Prior to arriving at Köln Bonn Airport we circled around and landed from the south in cloudy weather, which had yielded considerable rainfall earlier on.

Rating 7*
Aircraft 73H
Seat 8A
Registration D-ABKJ


A look at the meal deals in the Wings menu


I had a meal deal for €7.50, the same tasty sandwich shown on the left side of the menu


Getting from Cologne/Bonn airport to Oberhausen was a bit challenging that evening because the train system was in total chaos; even the DB app didn't know what to suggest; this shot was taken at Köln Messe Deutz station

Concerto

Just a few short days separated the trip to Scotland from my next trip, a few days in Majorca where I would try three different hotels. The flights there and back were in Condor business class, a mixed experience. The weather in Majorca was so muggy, humid and hot that it prevented me from doing some things which involved physical exercise. I just wanted to sit around and drink beer. However, I did manage one hike from the small red Rother walking book for Majorca.

The trip begins with a review of the IHG hotel voco Seestern in Dusseldorf, which was a lot better than the previous IHG hotel stay, which was at the Crowne Plaza in Neuss just outside Dusseldorf.

Concerto

This is my second stay in a voco hotel, a transition brand at IHG which is assigned to hotels who don't quite meet the standards of the brand they are aspiring to. It was as good as my first stay in Solihull, England, and was located in a part of Düsseldorf (Seestern) which wasn't quite the same industrial wasteland as last week's Crowne Plaza was located in. There were a number of restaurants in the area along Hansaallee and I selected the excellent ramen joint Daidokoro Umaimon, just 6 minutes walk from the hotel. Back at the hotel, which was situated in a quiet street with other hotels and a fitness studio nearby.


Check-in at the voco Seestern Düsseldorf


The Lounge bar next to the check-in for the voco Seestern


On the way to the hotel, crossing the Rhine with the tram


The Daidokoro Umaimon restaurant

The modern building was really without character and appeared to have been built relatively recently (I forgot to ask), but it was impeccably clean with a pleasant lobby area and touches of the voco chain signature yellow everywhere. Reception was really friendly and welcoming, with the amenities of the hotel patiently explained. All platinum benefits were observed, with a welcome of locally made biscuits, a welcome drink at the bar (which was closed but the drink could be ordered through room service) and a room upgrade to the 5th floor (original booking was for a standard room). The hotel was virtually empty, so it was a peaceful stay.


My room in the voco Seestern Düsseldorf




The toiletries in the bathroom and shower

The room was indeed very pleasant, with enough seating and a proper desk with the usual sockets and a flat screen TV which I did not use. It was possible to open the window, which looked out onto an interior courtyard with some greenery, and there was total silence during the night. The bed was excellent, firm and not hard, but the pillows were awful and soft, nearly always the case with these hotels. The tea and coffee facilities were decent, with a Dallmayr coffee capsule machine, but I did not see a fridge (although I did not look too hard). The design of storage space in the room was a bit strange and somewhat lacking, amounting to a bad use of the existing space. The bath and shower was really good, with modern fittings which actually worked and plastic dispensers on the walls with Antipodes products which were rather good, I think. All in all, I would stay here again, if nothing else to try that Ramen restaurant again.

Concerto

I must say that I have reached a stage where I am totally fedup with German airlines and aviation. They all seem to be run by complete incompetents, their operations are a mess and service levels have dropped below those of the American carriers, something I never thought could come to pass here in Europe. As I said on the German frequent flyer WhatsApp Chat just before finally boarding, I think it's time to completely avoid German carriers. So, that's going to put me onto the Deutsche Bahn trains (but I think even their delayed trains will arrive before the flights I have been taking), Air France KLM or Ryanair (SWISS is a German carrier, IMO, and I don't like this airline either).


Entry to the Hugo Junkers lounge in Terminal B of Dusseldorf Airport


The upstairs area is the nicest part of the lounge



This trip started well enough, approaching the airport from Seestern with the SB51 bus and walking down through the construction site in front of the Maritim Hotel instead of going to the airport station and taking the Skytrain. Security was a walkthrough, took about 10 minutes tops, so I had plenty of time in the Hugo Junkers lounge and it was during this time that I saw that the flight was delayed 1h25 from 15h35 to 17h00. The gate area was a complete mess, a zoo of lost passengers, fractious kids with no information or explanation given. What actually happened was that the aircraft planned for this trip developed a technical problem and a 767-200 was quickly flown in from Frankfurt. It still necessitated new boarding passes being issued to everyone because the seating layout was different because the original aircraft was an A330.


A view of the terminal building from the lounge


The plane finally turned up and we eventually boarded


Chaos at the gate due to the 2 hour delay caused by a change of aircraft

The flight itself, once underway, was very good and the flight crew was attentive. I had ordered my meal in advance, a Thai chicken red curry with rice, but a standard meal existed too, braised beef with potato gratin which I tried as well. There were no extras, no bread roll, no cheese, no salad, so it was effectively an economy class meal. Given that economy is BoB service, business class is now the new economy class. A small box held two cupcakes for dessert and designer chocolates were offered later in the flight. Drinks were offered from the bar, an unchilled French white wine (I wasn't shown the bottle) and the usual soft drinks and water.


Condor's business class seats on the 767


I like the presence of Monument Valley on the IFE screen


Quite an unusual amenity kit, which consisted of a collapsible bag which can be used for packing clothing or shoes; personally, I think this could be really useful

The main plus point about booking business class was the seat, because the aircraft was a long haul plane (as was the cancelled aircraft), so we got a proper business class seat with a lie flat button. Seat 1G right at the front had endless legroom, with the irritating result that other pax would use the space as a shortcut instead of passing through the galley. I quite enjoyed the Condor hospitality, to tell the truth, but I'm not inclined to book them again in a hurry because of all these irrops and irregularities.

Rating 7*
Aircraft 76W
Seat 1G
Registration D-ABUB


This was the business class meal that I pre-ordered, a Thai chicken curry


The standard business class meal offering, which is a lot better than that Tasting Heimat rubbish at Lufthansa


Dessert was rather small but very good

Concerto

This was a slightly unusual visit to Mallorca because it involved visiting and reviewing three distinctly different hotel types. Hotel prices were sky high and it was difficult to get anything decent under €200.
My Condor flight to Palma was very delayed so I am happy that the Wiber car rental office remained open quite late. There are a lot of cowboy car rental outfits in Mallorca who try to fleece you, but I find that Wiber offers a reasonably priced and respectable operation (€75 for 3 days for an Opel Corsa, thanks to rentalcars.com, which in turn offered 8% cashback at Quidco UK). It wasn't much fun driving to Cala Ratjada in the extreme northeast late at night in the dark, but all went well and it was easy to find the Parque Nereida Suites hotel along with free onstreet parking.


Looking out over Cala de s'Àguila


The lighthouse (far) of Capdepera


Looking south from the Far de Capdepera

At Cala Ratjada I walked up to the lighthouse at Capdepera, which took half an hour. The descent to Cala Ratjada town was fast and went past the pretty but overvisited Cala Gat. The one notable sight, the old house and gardens of Sa Torre Cega, appears to be closed indefinitely. I also went swimming at Cala Aguila which was crowded but worth it.


Cala Gat, a lovely secluded place for swimming just outside Cala Ratjada town


Cala s'Àguila bay, crowded but pleasant enough


Down the coast at Cala Millor, where I made my one and only hike on this trip, taken from the red Rother walking book

On the second day, which was really hot and very humid, I did a walk from the Rother walking book for Mallorca (No 64 - Punta de n'Amer, 1h25) near Cala Millor. This is a blue rated walk which loops around the headland and goes past a "Castell" which is an old fort, from an earlier era (there were also remains of bunkers from the Spanish civil war). The outlying part of the hike, along a karst plateau along the sea, while the waves pounded the cliffs below, was quite tiring because you had to watch where you put your feet. I made it back to the car which was parked at Cala Millor totally soaked due to the humidity.


The Castell de n'Amer, a fort which clearly served as a lookout and protection on this spit of land (Punta de n'Amer) which juts into the sea


The coastline is really quite wild along the clifftops of the Punta de n'Amer


Along the more remote parts of the Punta de n'Amer the path was quite indistinct, but here, as we approach civilization once again, the pathway is clearly demarcated

Later, after driving the full length of the Ma-12 along the north coast (the exact end point of the Ma-12 in Port d'Alcúdia was a bit indeterminate), it was easy to find free parking just outside the old center of Alcudia. The next hotel, C'an Moxtatxins, was a short walk away, behind the facade of a wonderful old townhouse in a narrow but immaculately clean street. While in Alcudia I made a visit to the extensive archaeological site, Ruïnes Romanes de Pol-léntia, which includes a whole Roman city and a theater in a ruined but fair state of preservation (€4). These sites as well as local museums tend to be open only in the morning. I also sought out a basic cafe in the modern part of Alcúdia, away from the tourist areas, which was cheap and cheerful.


At the Can Polit tapas restaurant in Alcúdia, this is a typical Mallorcan starter, including cheese, sausage, olives and a sort of tapenade spread


This place was recommended by the Mostatxins hotel and it did not disappoint!


Alcúdia is a walled city in a remarkable state of preservation, as can be seen here

I finished my trip in Port de Pollença, sitting on the waterfront in the middle of the town enjoying a cold Perrier, looking out over the narrow beach back towards Alcúdia. No trouble getting free parking. For some reason Port de Pollença seems to have avoided all the building of concrete resorts that has gone on elsewhere and retains an element of class (whatever that is these days) along its waterfront. From there I returned to Alcúdia and followed the Ma-13 all the way to Palma, a heavily used highway most of the way.


Just on the edge of Alcúdia, easily accessible on foot, is a huge Roman settlement


The remains are fascinating because the vestiges of a theater 75 metres in diameter can be visited


I really enjoyed wandering and exploring the car free streets of old Alcúdia


Detail of a window in an old mansion in central Alcúdia

At Can Pastilla, which is what the urban area along the waterfront near Palma is called, I managed to find parking (more tricky) and checked into the Hotel Amic Gala, leaving my bags there. Then I refuelled the car and returned it to Wiber, caught the shuttle to the airport, then the local bus (A2) just two stops to Can Pastilla, which was slapped with the airport surcharge of €5 - I should perhaps have taken a taxi. The Hotel Amic Gala was booked using Hotels & Cars of Miles & More, which yielded the completion of my next app challenge along with 500 bonus M&M miles and 1,094 miles for the hotel night itself. It was the best of the bunch in Can Pastilla, I think, although it wasn't cheap at €115 for the night. The room was somewhat spartan but very clean, with a fridge and decent bathroom facilities. I had to use the aircon to chase the mosquitoes away (I forgot to bring my burner) so I did not sleep very well. Oddly, the hotel restaurant is where Mallorcan friend Pep took me to eat when I last saw him 4 years ago. They offer a buffet for €14 including a drink, open also to non residents and much of the food quality was excellent, such as the fresh tuna and dorade fish which was cooked (but not overcooked) in front of me at a cooking station. Later that evening I met up with Pep again and went out with him and his partner, down to the Mai Mai cocktail bar on the busy waterfront where we almost drank ourselves under the table (but I was up at 06h30 the next morning to get my flight back to Düsseldorf!)


Reserva Natural de s'Albufereta near Alcúdia


Looking out over the water at Port de Pollença


I think Port de Pollença is my favourite town in Mallorca

offerendum

A friend of me owns a house in Cala Ratjada, so the region is not unfamiliar to me.

Concerto

I really like Cala Ratjada too but I don't like the hordes of people crawling all over it. But I didn't have the opportunity to try any of the restaurants there because I got a very good half board deal at the hotel.
In the Rother walking book there are a couple of hikes in the surrounding countryside and on the coastline, one on the far end of the beach at Cala s'Àguila which is graded red. I think that this particular book in the series exists in other languages, including English and Spanish.

Concerto

This is just one of a series of upscale resorts on the north coast of the peninsula at Cala Ratjada, the northeast corner of Mallorca which has been totally conquered by the Germans. One server in a bar on the main strip told me that I was a complete rarity because there are usually no Brits in Cala Ratjada. Despite all that I felt very much at home there and enjoyed my 2 day stay.
The Parque Nereida Suites Hotel is an adults only resort and that made the stay quite peaceful and allowed use of both pools without kids splashing around and screaming. Personally, I find this whole "adults only" thing a bit of an indictment on parents and the lack of proper parenting nowadays, because kids are kids and they are part of our society whether or not they make noise. But the dining room, with its self serve buffet, was definitely a more peaceful and enjoyable experience this way.


Main entrance to the Parque Nereida complex


Entry area to the room and suite with a table for writing or eating and a seating area


The sleeping area was a separate bedroom with the bathroom located between the bedroom and the living room at the entrance to the suite


The sizeable bathroom, with one of those showers that tends to make everywhere wet

The air conditioned main reception area made a very good impression and my immediate thought was that they had employed the services of a Feng Shui expert. My suite was located overlooking the lower swimming pool and was impeccably clean, just like the reception area, and the beds and pillows were truly comfortable. This is one of the rare hotels in which I was actually able to sleep, which means a lot to me. There was plenty of space in the suite, as well as outside due to clever design. A walk around the complex revealed different levels of accommodation in other parts of the resort, all of it decent quality.
The dining room offered a good eating experience despite rather a lot of people milling around, something that I usually loathe. Although the food offering at dinner was in the style of an upmarket buffet, a lot of items were cooked to order and there were a good number of Mallorcan dishes. One could sit outside or in: I chose inside to avoid potential mosquito issues. Breakfast was excellent, with a significant Mallorcan spread and less presence of the usual endless western carbohydrates. Only negative point was that the coffee machine was pretty awful so I stuck to tea.


This is the lower of the Parque Nereida swimming pools


The upper pool - it is not possible to go swimming at night

There is a bar on the roof, ideal for a romantic nightcap. On the second night there was a concert of rock classics from the 70s and 80s, targeted exactly at the age group in the hotel, which was very good indeed. As a musician I can report that the playing was very refined and tasteful, given that I could hear small details such as very few fluffed notes, the balance, the sound equipment and set-up, as well as very refined percussion playing which enhanced the other musicians' playing rather than drowning them out.
The lower pool area overlooked the bay below and a surfaced walkway led along the clifftop to the big beach of Cala s'Àguila. The beach certainly was crowded but I enjoyed spending some time there in the sun and swimming. The center of Cala Ratjada town is about 10 minutes walk away, with lots of cafes, restaurants and shops, including many outlets of the Spar supermarket chain.


Concert of vintage Pop music at the upstairs rooftop bar


I made a tour of other parts of the resort, which was very pleasant

nequine

Totally agree and non UK folk reading will be wondering why we’re amused!

I was also amused at you mentioning Dan Air. That’s a right blast from the past!