So to the Aegean lounge. It’s very similar to all
of their other lounges these days but so much nicer than the old one, which was just a dark
room. I imagine it’s lovely to look out of the panoramic windows in the daylight. I’ll be long gone
by then so here are some night pics.


Larnaca airport airside

A3 lounge entrance

A3 lounge Larnaca

Spinach pie



Cold food

Sweet stuff




Coffee!

Wine

Not sure what this is but it’s something to do with the 26th birthday

Something a little stronger.

Cappuccino, rice pudding, spinach pie and water. I couldn’t find any water glasses at the water station so used a coffee cup.

Back in ATH. The flight from LCA was great but it was the same aircraft as on the way over so wifi wasn’t an option. A nice breakfast of “salted cake” and an early landing. Not many pics, as I was dozing. I was allowed to use the EU passports lane in ATH thanks to my residence permit which saved about an hour I reckon. Loads of people from the Norse, Gulf Air and Etihad flights clogging things up. One final security check and now in the A3 Schengen lounge which is as full as ever so not many pics of that but it’s very similar to the others.

Going to try to get some work done for the hour or so
until boarding for the last flight to VIE starts. Looks like a bus gate as is common here.


PDB of water is much more generous than the bubbly.

Breakfast menu

A lovely sunrise

Table set

The breakfast. Very nice and again, a great amount for such a short flight

GF A321neo parked next to us

A3 Schengen lounge ATH

A3 Schengen lounge ATH

Boarded the aircraft. For once, they didn’t fill the bus so full you couldn’t breathe. Now on a classic A321 with way better legroom than the neos. I suppose 20 fewer seats is noticeable. No wifi on this one though so this will be the last update for a while, as I’ll be rushing to catch a bus in VIE. Will hopefully update from the bus if I make it. If not, I’ll update while waiting for the next bus. 🤣


Bus gate

Sneaky shot of the aircraft before I got told off.

Row 5

Massive legroom compared to the neo

Classic Aegean cabin

Told off?

There were lots of ground crew hovering around looking at me suspiciously so I didn’t want to risk their wrath.

We landed in VIE early but then had a really long taxi to the gate. Then the police wanted to check everyone’s passport at the top of the airbridge. Then I had to walk back almost as far as we’d taxiied from the C gates to the exit. Fortunately, I made the 10:55 bus and am now sitting in comfort being whisked to Bratislava central station. The only annoying thing was that the app would no longer sell me a ticket so I had to pay the full price of €17. I’ve booked my train from Bratislava for 12:27 now so have plenty of time to get there. Ironically, the 2 hour journey in first class cost less than the bus to Bratislava. The next fun question is whether the train will be on time. More than likely not.

Not many pics to add at the moment. I mainly snoozed on the flight but did wake up for breakfast part 2. The menu was the same as LCA-ATH so I decided to try the other option: the muffin. It was also nice to be fair. Breakfast is definitely the weakest meal on A3 but I think that applies to most airlines. Maybe with the exception of the BA fry-up.


Same menu as before

An ET MAX-8

Breakfast round 2

Slovaklines bus from VIE to Bratislava

Better legroom in the back row of the bus than row 17 on Aegean. 🤣

Next stop, Bratislava in about half an hour.

Clever itinerary. I don't know much about Aegean FF programme, so what does this route get you? It's MUC-ATH-LCA-ATH-VIE right? And back?

Thanks for reading. Yes, your route is correct but I’m not going home that way. That’s a surprise for another day. This route gets me 5600 miles, as it was booked in the Comfort Flex fare but more importantly, it gets me the 4 Aegean sectors I need to take my gold renewal requirement down to 12000 miles rather than 70000 without the 4 Aegean sectors. Miles&Bonus is easy to retain gold once you have it but getting there can be a bit tough these days. I earned gold the “easy” way back in the day before they introduced requalification and have managed to keep it ever since. Have a look at the A3 forum for more information. There are some real experts over there.

I’m now on the train from Bratislava to Zilina following the same route that Fabo.sk took last week. We left Bratislava on time so let’s see if it stays that way. The normal carriages that Fabo.sk showed the other day have been replaced by older carriages that are not quite as comfortable but at least it’s still first class.


Bratislava Central station

And a close-up of the outside

Not the most modern station. Kosice is much nicer.

Departure board

Nice mural

Tunnel to the platforms

Platform 3 today

The old second class coaches

And my old first class coach

A bit retro.

Next stop: Zilina in just under 2 hours

Amazingly, the train was on time into Zilina but I had to hot-foot it to the hotel to get showered after all that travelling before meeting my client at 15:30. Following a very productive meeting, I’m back in my room and will probably crash out for a couple of hours before meeting some colleagues that I’ve only ever communicated with by email for dinner at 8.


Loads of work going on to finally upgrade Zilina station. It desperately needed it!


New platform being built

The remains of the old statiom front. I’m excited to see what they end up doing here.

The main street from the station to one of the many squares

And looking the other way

One of the big squares with the Mirage shopping centre. One of the Christmas markets always takes place here in December

Looking to the church from the square

In case you didn’t know where you were.

My absolute favourite street name in the whole city. How often can you say you’re staying just off Horny Val? 🤣

The hotel my client always books us into

Reception

And looking to the other door

My room. Been given a deluxe this time. I’ve had everything from the most basic single to the biggest suite in this hotel. 🤣

Looking the other way

Bathroom. Wish there was a proper shower though

So I’m going to leave it here for the moment. Tomorrow is the company sports day and summer party so I will probably not be in much of a fit state to
post. My journey home starts late Saturday afternoon so I’ll resume posting from then. It’s nothing like the outbound is all I’ll tell you for the moment.

Thanks for reading and commenting so far. This has been fun and not too arduous like a full-on post-trip report. You never know, I may get around to posting my crazy routing to get here and back last December one of these days though.

Have a good couple of days and see you Saturday.

Greece used to be very intolerant of any form of aviation interest such as logging aircraft registrations or taking photos of aircraft. Sounds like it might still be the case.

Enjoyable read so far.

Thanks for reading. I’m not sure if they would have told me off but I really didn’t fancy risking it.

So after a fun sports day, where my team came 3rd of 8, and way too late a night, I’ve been working from my client’s office today. I’m now on the train bound for Kosice. However, I’m not flying from there but getting the night train to Prague and then on to Berlin before there. And before Fabo.sk says anything, yes I am aware that the night train to Prague stops in Zilina. 🤣 My colleagues were all highly confused as to why I’m going all the way to Kosice just to come back. The reason is that the night train costs the same from Kosice as from Zilina but only leaves Zilina at 01:42 and arrives in Prague at 07:53 so I’d have had much less sleep time. This way, I can hopefully be long asleep by the time I even get to Zilina and I won’t have had to hang around until nearly 2am. I also don’t fancy being in Zilina station at that time in the morning on a Sunday.

Enough preamble, on with the latest pics before I get back to my project:


My room at the mountain hotel where the sports day took place. The bed was way more comfortable than Hotel Boss!

Bathroom

Shower

Sheep on the farm that the hotel is part of


And horses

ZSSK also like to announce the platforms very late, the same as many airports. This results in a huge bottleneck and a rush to the platform. 😒

Here comes my train.

Coach 1 again.

Newer first class product on this train. Still not the newest one but much better than the one on Thursday

My seat

Next stop: Kosice in 2 3/4 hours time.

So after a really pleasant journey to Kosice on a really quiet, on-time train, it was time to grab some dinner before the main event. Unfortunately, the kebab shop I’d researched earlier decided to close early and so I ended up being stuck with a Greek-style panini from the station bistro, which was the only place around/open. It was quite nice but not what I was expecting. I may have to try the room service on the night train.

The platform was announced nice and early so I went up to find my carriage hadn’t even arrived yet. Soon after, it was coupled up and I could board. I’d seen online that one of the sleeper carriages had been replaced by a couchette carriage but that was the next carriage along fortunately. I’d have been very annoyed if that had been mine, as the last time I did a night train, my carriage was out of service and I ended up having to share a couchette with a family of 3 which was a nightmare. Not because they were noisy but because you just have no space and privacy. The “beds” are also like ironing boards so I’m glad I was spared that this time.

I’m on the night train now in a single compartment with private toilet and shower. A bargain for €166 including the first class section from Prague to Berlin. We depart in 10 minutes and arrive in Prague at 07:51.


Kosice station platform 1

My train from Zilina

Into the station

Kosice is such a nice station. Much nicer than Bratislava. I hope Zilina will look like this when it’s finished.



Departures board

Outside the station

The no-longer open kebab shop. Epic fail.

My dinner

The only time England will be shown first in anything to do with football.

Platform 2, here we go!

Not my carriages. These had arrived from Hummené and were waiting for the ones starting in Kosice to be coupled.

Here they come

Nearly there


Done!

My carriage


Corridor

Compartment 8


Single deluxe

Bathroom

Toilet in the compartment

Shower

Looking from the window to the door

Amenities

Breakfast menu

Room service menu

Goodie bag

Contents

For your information

Another compartment set up as a triple

And a double

The back end of my carriage

We left Kosice 1 minute early. Next stop Prague in about 10 hours time.

Good morning from Prague! The night train was surprisingly early and I arrived just before 07:30. I also had the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had on a sleeper train. I think it’s because there weren’t a load of stops where carriages are uncoupled and coupled. I also had a quick shower after waking up because, why not? I’ve had a look at the station and am now sitting in the CD lounge waiting for my next train at 08:28. It’s rather basic but does at least have coffee.


Breakfast box

Contents: 2 bread rolls, jam, butter, apple juice and a wafer. Coffee was also provided and was decent.

My carriage in Prague

The couchette carriage that thinks it’s a sleeper carriage.

Slovak sleeper carriage

Welcome to Prague

Modern station


Outside

Historic station building





CD lounge

Very small but with coffee.

Now on board the final train to Berlin. It’s really busy even in first class. We departed on time so let’s hope there are no delays on the way.


My carriage at platform 5

CD first class carriage

Next stop Berlin Hbf in just over 4 hours time.

Nice report . Good A3 flights and lovely lounges.
The trains look interesting also. Hotels a bit dated but did the job. Good way to rack up some miles / TPs .