Tag: London Heathrow

TallyHo-Traveller’s Springtime Gallop Through Northern and Central Europe 2012 – Final Day Twelve

Posted on by carol_tallyho

Wake up Thursday the 12th to a full travel day back to the US! We had yet another efficient checkout of the Holiday Inn Mitte. After deciding the evening before to use a taxi to return to the airport because of the amount of luggage we were bringing back, the front desk promptly handled our request for a large taxi. Within minutes the auto arrived with enough room for 5 people and all our luggage – all this for less than 20 euros! What a deal!

Since the check in process for BA did not start until 90 minutes prior to departure, we stopped at the airport coffee shop Wien for juice, cappuccino and the biggest slice of cheesecake ever! Finally we said our goodbyes to Kaitlin and checked in, quickly went through Passport Control and Security (all the same queue) and after a short wait, boarded the plane.

An hour and a half later the plane landed at London Heathrow and, having eaten a smaller breakfast while approaching lunchtime, we opted to dine at Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food. Chris and I loved the beef carpaccio appetizer! While the fishcakes others ate were a little dry (Shame, Gordon!), the banana toffee pudding was fantastic. Not a cheap lunch, but a great location for watching planes take off and taxi to their respective gates!

After lunch, a final cruise of the duty free shops while awaiting the posting of a gate during the 1 and ½ hour delayed BA Flight #991 back to Denver. Finally a gate was posted and we took the underground train to Terminal 5 Concourse C to reach our departure gate. Eventually boarding began and the flight back to home was underway.

The flight crew aboard this plane was very friendly and competent – MUCH better than the other trans-Atlantic flight! I watched the movie, The Iron Lady, while eating a very flavorful dinner that came with complimentary wine and other beverages(when requested). After the dinner trays were removed and the Iron Lady ended, I started to watch War Horse but fell asleep halfway through (probably due to a combination of the previous week’s activity and not feeling well more than the actual movie itself). Upon awakening, I viewed part of the movie Tower Heist prior to a hard landing in Denver, but we brought the RAIN back with us (which we desperately needed)!!

All in all our April gallop through Northern and Central Europe was a fantastically memorable trip and we didn’t get lost once (Thanks to Vanessa)!!

Can’t wait ‘til our next visit…

TallyHo Traveller’s Springtime Gallop Through Northern and Central Europe 2012 — Day Two

Posted on by carol_tallyho

Having landed at LHR a few minutes ahead of schedule on Monday, April 2nd, at noon (UK time), due to constant tail winds, all passengers were offloaded and transported to Terminal 5 by bus. The weather was in the low 60s and mostly sunny – no expected British rainshowers for once! Once inside the Terminal we followed the purple Flight Connections signs to Security and quickly went through that process. It’s amazing how much faster the Security process went with not having to take shoes off! Once belts and jackets were back on, two of us decided to window shop some of the Heathrow Terminal 5 shops – Harrods, Dior, Prada, Gucci, Burberry, Tiffany and the Caviar House (free smoked salmon samples there) – before meeting up with the others. Since we still had a 3 ½ hour layover before the next BA flight, it was time to eat lunch (or was it an early dinner?) at Terminal 5’s Crown Pub bar and restaurant. What a great decision for reasonably priced airport pub grub this choice was! I waxed poetic over a British mini-pie selection consisting of a steak and ale pie (my absolute favorite), a chicken and root veggie pie (much better than anticipated) and a shepherd’s pie (still good, but the least liked of the 3). The mini-pies were accompanied by a huge serving of mashers (mashed potatoes as we Yanks would say) and steamed mixed veggies. Add a half pint of Guinness as the perfect beverage and a perfectly memorable lunch was slowly savored. Chili and smoked salmon baguette sandwiches ordered by other members of the traveling party were equally consumed with great satifaction while we waited for a gate assignment to be posted on the Departure board for the final segment of our trip to Berlin, Germany.

After a couple of hours we decided to walk off some of our d mouth-watering lunch and try to find information regarding our rapidly approaching departure gate. Stopping at the British Airways Customer Service desk we were given the information we needed. A short walk from that desk and we were at the correct gate. Soon our fellow passengers began descending on the area and a general boarding call was made soon after. Let the cattle call begin! After going through another Customs check with passports at the ready we actually boarded the plane via a walkway and not stairs and a bus. An improvement to be sure!

A short, efficient hour flight later we landed at Berlin’s Tegel airport. After a few minutes waiting for a gate (due to being early yet again) we finally disembarked the plane. Getting through German Customs was quick and efficient and our luggage was waiting for us at Baggage Claim when we got there. Upon exiting the Baggage Claim area our daughter, Kaitlin, met us and directed us to the bus transportation area. We took Bus 109 from the airport to the Kurfurstendamm/Uhlandstrasse stop. After deciding which direction our first hotel might be, we took a guess and headed south on Uhlandstrasse. Two blocks later and there it was, the Hotel-Pension Kassandra, located on the corner of Uhlandstrasse and Lietzenburger Strasse.

A buzz of the door button opened the wooden security door and we walked up a flight of gorgeous older white marble steps to Reception. Anna, our evening hostess, was a very efficient and friendly older German matron who took us to our room and described, Auf Deutsch, how the room’s door lock and light switches worked as well as cautioned about the step up to the bathroom. Our requested room of a quad consisted of 1 double and 2 single beds, 2 writing desks with chairs, a small TV with multiple channels and a large wardrobe for luggage and clothes. The double bed mattress was new and very comfy (NO bedbugs here!) and the feather comforter kept me VERY warm at night.

The Hotel-Pension Kassandra was a clean, but older, building in need of some TLC (in particular the threadbare carpets) but considering the price of the room, which included a wonderfully extensive breakfast buffet and the central Berlin location, our 2 night stay here was a great start to our Berlin holiday. After dumping our luggage in our room we walked and window shopped the Ku’damm down to the Europa Center and ate a late dinner at the Irish Pub bar and grill. One tasty toasted ham and cheese sandwich washed down with Irish Mist made for a satisfying end to a very exciting travel day.