RE 30014 SZG Hbf MUC Ost 0709 0902/S8 MUC Ost MUC 0927 0957

I didn't take this train. It turns out the_happiness_store
was on my flight to Chicago and had a car and was glad of
a passenger, so I passenged. Aside from a curious incident
involving a visit to the breakfast nook with melville and
a lost wallet followed by a wrong turn leaving town, thanks
to an incredibly ambiguous map drawn by the front desk, the
trip was uneventful, and we spent most of the time chatting.
There was plenty of construction on the Autobahn, plus
pretty heavy rain as we got to Munich, so we took perhaps
20-30 more than we could have under ideal circumstances.

Gassing up and car rental didn't take long, and we were in
the airport in plenty of time.

I breezed through checkin; the_happiness_store, not carrying
a US passport, had a harder time, so we agreed to meet at
the Senator Lounge, and I was on my way. Biz class security
took thirty seconds, and then only because I had trouble
getting my laptop out of my briefcase, passport control
even less, so I had plenty of time to enjoy the lounge.
I stood behind a young Asian woman at the entrance, and
after she was waved in, the agent went away! I had to pursue
her to show her my credentials; she apologized, saying "I
thought you were together," which was somewhat flattering,
as the Asian woman had been about half my age.

The place was really crowded. I can see why LH might want to
get sticky about letting the riffraff in ... it was a while
before I could find a place to park my butt.

The Lufthansa Cocktail was available: I don't know what it's
about, except that when it was invented in 1955 they must
have had sweeter teeth than we have now. It's a syrupy
apricot-vanilla substance that might go okay over ice but is
unbelievably cloying on its own. Cut 1 to 10 with Sekt it
was quite palatable.

J. Oppmann Schloss Wurzberg was honeyed and rather nice,
though a tad sweet for my taste.

I didn't bother with the Bouvet Brut, as I won't drink less
than the Saphir, which, as it's E2 dearer, doesn't appear.

I preferred the classical, restrained Schlumberger Brut 06,
which is made in the Champagne style and does a pretty good
imitation, with a certain flintiness, lemony yeasty notes,
and a good long dry finish.

I didn't check out the sweets or breads, preferring
charcuterie.

There was a deli buffet including Leberkase, Genoa salami,
something that looked like turkey roll but tasted like
bologna, a link sausage with liver, and little knackwurst
with a piece of metal. No cutlery anywhere to be found,
though, and napkins were hard to come by.

As opposed to the_happiness_store's experience at another
lounge - I'm not sure which one, where he didn't find any
food at all.

UA 907 MUC ORD 1220 1514 763 5F Ch9^ Empower^

the_happiness_store was in row 9; myself in the bulkhead.

Three FAs worked the biz cabin from time to time - a grumpy
young brunette, a pixyish and pleasant sort of Audrey
Hepburnish brunette, and a pretty hot Germanic blonde;
either of the last two would please even the jaded FT palate
were they perhaps a decade younger; or mine if they were
perhaps a decade older.

The seats are actually quite okay. My IFE console was dead,
so I asked for them to cycle the system, and the thing came
to life more or less. Just as well, F was full, with 5C and
something in the last row open.

The reds were the palatable if unsubtle Furiant Malbec,
with cherry and berry flavors, good balance of acid,
tannin, and a touch of sweetness. Audrey (not her real
name) sold me on the former; but when refill time came
around, the blonde poured the Bushmen's Gully Shiraz,
which is one of the more boring wines on this planet, with
a distinct resemblance to what you might get out of a box
someplace. Audrey's return made everything right again.

My seatmate was a young engineer working his dream job at
Audi; he was flying to the States to do some crash tests.
His flights MUC-CHO-IAD-MUC cost just over E4000, thank you
Audi, and he had probably not flown international biz before
(he had flown intracontinental, as he mentioned this) and
was enthralled with it all, especially the seats and -
oddly - the food.

Even though violist has already reported on his trip home from the Do, I will talk here about the Sunday evening dinner at which, to my embarrassment, I did not take enough note of who had stayed with us after the concert.

Vis-a-vis that concert, there was unanimity of opinion (at least between violist and me) about the performances. I will go just a step further than he did in the description of the pianist's (somewhat successful) effort in the Spring to pull the piece together. The young woman's name was Kato and I do not remember a professional performance of that piece (or that sort of piece) where the pianist took such complete charge. I thought that she was strong, she was pretty good, and we may very well hear of her again.

After the concert, we headed out to get something to eat and I had thought that the entire group (including violist) was strung out on the street as we headed down the hill and crossed the Salzach without having seen an open restaurant. As we made a turn heading toward the Getreidegasse, we observed that a place called Zum Eulenspiegel was indeed open and upon entering were greeted in the matter-of-fact style of an Austrian waiter and shown a pair of large tables upstairs.

Since I had lost track of who-all were there, I can only remember that I was seated at the table with four women who were intent on having a good dinner and a good time. Everybody at our table was hungry and three of them, lili, KLC, and Franny ordered the sirloin steak which was captioned on the menu as a Zwiebelrostbraten, making it obvious that there would be a substantial garnish of onions. totmode, who had been given some (interesting to her) information by a few of the locals concerning the meaning of her handle in German, ordered the Stroganoff, and I the Schweinschnitzel. I don't remember the accompaniments on the other dishes, but the Schnitzel plate had a very lovely shingle potato concoction which was advertised as a “potato salad.” This was the one best piece of schnitzel that I found in either Austria or Germany that week and I can heartily recommend the restaurant to any who wander into the Alt Stadt.

During the past year, I had been exposed to Austrian red wines really for the first time. We had always appreciated the whites, the slate dry Rieslings and the tangy Gruener Veltliners but when szg brought some of the Zweigelts and Blaufraenkisch to Tampa in the spring and again to New York in the summer, I got an education. This stuff was really good. Also, I knew that three of the customers at that table were red wine drinkers and when I turned to totmode and asked if she would like some red, it was clear that she was in.

On the list was one of the labels that szg had brought to the States and I ordered it up. It was called Rubin Cartuntum from the Markowitsch winery, the name only signifying to me that it was from the Cartuntum area to the east and south of Vienna. I did not catch the vintage but it was a very lively mid-weight red with a bit of tannin, good acids, and fruit all over the place. When I got home, I was able to examine the label on my bottle where it stated that it was a Zweigelt. That bottle, a 2001, was just as delightful as the one in the restaurant which we had all enjoyed.

Taxis were called by the waiter (who seemed to be a bit more relaxed in his demeanor). Maybe that was the result of some American-style tips left on the tables. It was a very nice Do and we appreciate the hard work that szg exerted in putting it together for us.

Thanks again, monitor !!

Nice trip report, violist ^

to begin
Smoked Tyrolean beef and Roma salami with tomato and
mozzarella; pine-nut pesto sauce

Fresh seasonal greens; Creamy Parmesan and peppercorn or
Honey Dijon vinaigrette

The beef, 5E told me, was nowhere near so spicy as it
should have been; otherwise the food was fine, and the
little blob of pesto was good enough for me to eat it
by itself with a spoon.

main course
Grilled filet mignon with shiitake port demi-glace; garlic
mashed potatoes with chives and a carrot zucchini saute

Roasted chicken with sweet chili sauce; mixed pepper
risotto and green beans with sun-blushed tomatoes

Cannelloni with spinach and ricotta; sun-dried tomato and
onions with a light tomato sauce

I had the chicken, which was quite heavily brined so very
salty but also tender. The risotto was very good, and the
beans were fine, though the tomatoes were really strips of
red pepper. 5E said that the cannelloni (his first choice!
I told you he was a newbie) were excellent.

Let his bright-eyed bushy-tailed view be a lesson! It's
not so bad as the jaded view that most of us espouse or at
least affect. Well, sometimes it is, but more often no.

dessert
International cheese selection
Bavarian Bleu, Red Cheddar

European specialty dessert

The specialty dessert was an apple tart; my seatmate said
that it was good, though it looked kind of stodgy to me.
I passed, having a Courvoisier and then a longish nap.

midflight snack
Assorted treats and sandwiches are available between
the two main meals

On my leg-stretch a couple hours before landing, Audrey
accosted me in the galley with the (sigh) nefarious purpose
of plying me with Toblerone and Kit Kats.

prior to arrival
Tuscan-style wrap sandwich
Herb marinated chicken, salami and cheese with tomato and
kalamata olives

Cheese plate with fresh seasonal fruit
Cheddar, Brie, Chaumes

I chose not to eat; 5E highly recommended the wrap, going
so far as to tell me he'd run down a FA to get one for me. I
told him I had a dinner date and didn't want to overindulge.

Channel 9 had been turned on as soon as I asked; I snoozed
of course through much of it, as it's my lullaby. There was
a bit of a scare around 1, when we were told over the middle
of Canada to turn to 290 for spacing. This put us on course
for Thunder Bay, and I wondered if something Dreadful had
taken place, especially as Montreal told UA941 that there
had been an emergency at ORD, and it was closed indefinitely
- but we were on this tack for a few minutes only and then
went back on course without being told to put down in some
out-of-the-way Canadian airstrip. During the interim I went
and told the_happiness_store to listen in on Ch9, which he
did, only to hear nothing to speak of.

The cause of the hoopla turns out to have been the AA flight
that slid off the runway during an emergency landing.

Airshow operated under the misimpression that our flight was
1160 miles.

We landed about on time, maybe a few late owing to our
brief detour. We landed at M14, I think it was, the far end
of the International facility.

C&I were quick and painless, the worst part being the quite
lengthy walk to the facility. We decided that it was as bad
as Heathrow. Said goodbye to the_happiness_store, whose
immigration was as easy as mine, and went to the B7 RCC to
get a bit of wi-fi, then back out of security to have dinner
at Andiamo with my friend Roger from U of C. Roger was off
to Boston to give a lecture about the lessons to be learned
from Xenophon about the Iraqi insurgency, and we had a fun
chat about this and about good and bad old days and our
friends in common. So, Nina, Nina, DT, and Yafo, if you are
reading, be gladdened that we had nothing but good to say
about you.

We split a starter of fried squid with a quite spicy rouille
and a fairly spicy marinara; good but no tentacles. A large
serving that, on trips past, has served as my entire meal.

Roger, worried about his health or something, ordered the
salmon; I had the pork chops, two smallish ones, one done
just right, one overcooked. Both dishes were sided with
a peculiar but not bad green-tea-infused sushi rice and
an assortment of quite good vegetables: baby zucchini and
carrots and asparagus. Roger got a celebratory sprig of
broccoli rabe, perhaps a recognition that he'd been seen
recently on the telly or something.

Rescreening through the elite line took mere moments.

We ran into a colleague of Roger's in the concourse, so
I guested both of them into the RCC, where we had cheap red
wine and gemlike blue conversation. Got Roger upgraded to
Boston: he had an E- seat and didn't realize that he could
get E+ as a Premier ... or could ask for the exit row. So
at my urging, he got the exit row, for which he was almost
pathetically grateful, and I put him on the list for F,
which he tells me cleared at the gate. We said goodbye and
went to our respective flights.

UA 766 ORD BWI 2105 2348 752 2A Ch9^ Empower^

An attentive crew. Courvoisier. Snooze. There was a
cheese plate on offer. I refused it.

When we landed, I went to the site of the former RCC, where
the hotspot was still on (they finally got round to turning
it off), and did e-mail. While I was hunched over the
computer, I heard a greeting. Looked up and found FBKsan,
who had come in I believe on the Denver flight. We chatted
briefly and he went off to meet his wife and I back to the
mail.

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