Tag Archives: Eurowings

Champagne Bucket trips, Finland, Latvia

A true first world issue (cross-posted)

Cross posted on my main blog. The featured photo was taken in 2019, when Bill and I went to Sweden to pick up our car and drove it on a Nordic adventure.

I’m in the midst of trying to plan a summer vacation/birthday trip for Bill and myself. Because of the whole COVID-19 odyssey, and the seemingly endless lockdowns that followed, we’ve decided that this year, we’d like to fly somewhere. And because there are a lot of places in Europe we still want to see, we decided to choose our destination using the “champagne bucket” method.

I’ve written about the champagne bucket method on this blog. Basically, I got the idea for it from “blind bookings” on Germanwings (now known as Eurowings). I’m not sure if Eurowings still does blind bookings, but Lufthansa does, and Lufthansa owns Eurowings. It basically involves booking a surprise flight, and usually paying a lower fare. You don’t know where you’re going until after you pay for the ticket(s). Bill and I have done it four times to great success. We visited Barcelona, London, Berlin, and Munich that way.

When we moved back to the States, I decided that it wouldn’t be hard to plan more of our vacations that way. Instead of relying on the airline, we just put our choices on slips of paper and put them in the champagne bucket. Then, Bill picks one of the slips out of the bucket.

I was really rooting for a trip to Armenia and possibly Georgia this summer. That was one of the choices, too. Bill was a bit reluctant, because of political and military issues going on in Armenia right now. We may still go there this year, but for a short trip to Yerevan, instead of an all out country tour. Then, I can show Bill where I lived, when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer, and sign him up for a more extensive trip. 😉

Anyway, when we did our champagne bucket challenge, Bill ended up choosing Finland. Neither of us has ever been there before. We have been to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Estonia together. Bill has also been to Latvia a couple of times on business. Neither of us has seen Lithuania, but we’ve met people from there and Latvia on cruises.

Originally, I was planning for us to go to Helsinki and do a land based trip, then go by ferry to Tallinn, Estonia, stay a few days, and work our way south to Latvia and Lithuania, before flying back. Then I started researching and discovered, there’s no easy way to travel to Latvia and Lithuania that doesn’t involve riding a bus. We considered renting a car, but that seemed potentially risky.

So then I thought, maybe instead of trying to hit the Baltic capitals, I could go west. Visit Finland, do a day trip in Tallinn, then head west toward Norway, which we know we love. Then I thought, maybe it would be better to start in Norway, and head east to Finland, then go to Tallinn and spend a night or two…

Then I realized how expensive flights would be… plus the stress and inconvenience involving finding transportation, hauling bags, and booking hotels… and although I’d already looked for cruises and initially didn’t see any I liked, I kept getting ads for Regent Seven Seas on Facebook. And Regent is– or was– considered a luxury line, although it’s a much bigger ship than we usually go for when we cruise.

I noticed they had a cruise available during the time we plan to travel. It starts June 23 and ends June 30, and hits ports in Sweden, Helsinki, Estonia, Latvia, and Denmark. We could still go to Norway and do a land based trip, working our way to Stockholm, a city we’ve been to, but didn’t really get to explore at all in 2009. Best of all, the cruise in question is on sale. It’s still expensive, but doable for us. We wouldn’t even have to stay in the cheapest stateroom. I pitched the idea to Bill, who liked it.

I started making a booking request. It took about a half dozen times to finally get registered. I mismatched my email address, or added one too many dots in the address, or the passwords didn’t match. Finally, I had my account, and started to make the request.

But the stateroom I wanted was listed as twice as expensive than was advertised. While we technically could do it, I’d rather spend that much money on a new car or a down payment on a house. So I stopped making the request, and sent an inquiry to Regent, asking them to confirm that the cruise is on sale.

About an hour later, I got a phone call through my iPad, which I wasn’t prepared to answer, as I was reading something to Bill. I also got a message, written in German, indicating that the cruise is on sale, and inviting me to call between 11am and 8pm today. I sent a message back in English, asking if I have to call to get that rate, and clarifying that I’m American and can’t speak German worth a damn. 😉

Then I went on Cruise Critic and started reading reviews and comments on the messageboards. The consensus is, the ship I’m looking at booking is beautiful, although Regent has “gone downhill” in recent years. Bill and I have done cruises on Royal Caribbean, SeaDream, and Hebridean Island Cruises. SeaDream and Hebridean, like Regent, are considered luxury and are all inclusive. However, they are much smaller ships. So Regent would be a different cruise experience for us, and it would offer some convenience, as we’d be hitting places we want to visit– albeit for a shorter time than we would personally plan for ourselves.

I truly am attracted to the cruise because of the itinerary and the time the cruise is going. I don’t have particularly high expectations of great service or being treated like royalty. A cruise just offers a convenient way to cross some items off our bucket list.

On the other hand, I was kind of looking forward to a deeper dive into the areas, and exploring more on our own. Also, there’s less chance of running into people with whom we don’t mesh when we do land based trips, or getting sick from any number of viruses on ships. I like to plan trips and look for interesting places to stay. I guess the pre cruise travel to Norway would offer that, but I was kind of wanting to get more of a feel for Finland.

Either way, this trip is going to be expensive. Good thing Bill got a generous raise this year. We do have the money, too… at least for the cruise. I’m just not used to having that, either… being somewhat well-heeled is kind of a new experience for us.

Sigh… a trip to Armenia would be a lot more economical. On the other hand, if I develop a bleeding stomach ulcer, I’d feel better about seeking treatment in a nordic country. 😉

This is truly a first world problem. I’m sure I should just go for it and see what happens. We’ve had some great times on cruises and made some friends. And a bonus is, since Regent ships are a lot bigger, there’s less chance I’ll get seasick this time.

We’ll see what happens. I may scrap the idea of the cruise. It is tempting, though… Regent is probably more comfortable than the Stockholm to Helsinki ferry.

Standard
Uncategorized

Blind booking #4: Berlin! Part 2

On Friday, December 8, 2017, Bill, Parker, and I ventured to the Stuttgart airport.  We lucked into a mid afternoon flight, which was a great thing.  Sometimes, when you do a blind booking, you can end up with flights at inconvenient times.  Not surprisingly, Berlin flights are a dime a dozen from Stuttgart.  We were scheduled to leave at 1:45pm, so we arrived at the airport at lunchtime and enjoyed a relatively painless trip through security.

We sat at an airport bar and had some beer.  Bill was talking about how he doesn’t like sitting in the middle seat, although he was willing to do it for our flights to and from Berlin.  I helped by reminding him that he was sitting between his wife and his mother, adding “You once came out of her and now you come into me.”  Yes, I know that’s a disgusting joke.  It was still pretty funny, though.  I was rewarded with the reaction pictured below.

My husband has an infinite amount of patience.

 

We really should have had a snack while we were waiting.  Although Eurowings provides snacks if you reserve a seat (up to 19 euros per person each way), it’s a pretty paltry offering.  You get half a sandwich, water, and a tiny packet of gummi bears.  They also give you another small drink in a little plastic cup.  By the time we arrived in Berlin at about 3:00pm, I was famished.  I have a tendency to get “hangry” when I’m hungry.  The bright side is the flight from Stuttgart to Berlin is only about an hour and it’s relatively painless.

I also paid to check our bags, so we stopped by the luggage carousel on the way into the city.  Our bags were among the first to be offloaded, so it was quick and easy to get through Berlin’s “old style” airport.  Before I knew it, we were in a taxi headed for Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte.

I had originally looked for a self catering apartment on Booking.com, but the ones I found didn’t suit our purposes as well as the Adina Apartment Hotel did.  I had not heard of the Adina brand before our trip to Berlin, but I learned that it’s owned by TFE hotels in Australia.  The Adina brand is all over Australia, New Zealand, and certain European countries.  There are three Adina Apartment Hotels in Berlin; besides the Mitte location, there are also hotels at Checkpoint Charlie and the Hackescher Markt.

I did not have especially high hopes for the Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Mitte, but I must admit I was very pleasantly surprised.  When we entered the lobby and greeted the receptionist, he asked if my name was Angela.  There was an Angela Crossan registered at the hotel.  My name isn’t Angela, although that is my husband’s sister’s name.  We spell our last name with an “e”, too.  Once they found our reservation, we were assigned room 308, a two bedroom apartment.  Below are some photos.

Bedroom #1.  I think this was the spare bedroom, since it didn’t have its own bathroom.  The bathroom was located across the hall.  Both bedrooms had king sized beds and wall mounted flatscreen televisions.

Bathroom #1 had a tub/shower combo.

Sitting room.  There was a TV in this room, as well as a small kitchenette that had a mini bar, a fridge, a small stove, and a microwave.

This was the master bedroom.  Parker stayed in this room.

Her room had its own bathroom with a stand up shower.

There was a desk with free Internet, though you could pay extra for “premium”.  I did pay extra for premium Internet and can say that it wasn’t worth the money.  The free Internet worked as well as the pay version did… and that’s to say that both were pretty slow.

Little kitchenette.

I was very surprised to find a washer and dryer in Bathroom #1.  They even provided detergent!

 

Had Bill and I been traveling alone (without the dogs, that is), we probably would have opted for a hotel room.  However, this apartment hotel really suited our needs beautifully.  It’s perfect if you’re bringing kids or in laws and want to stay together, yet have privacy and the ability to cook your own meals.  Of course, if you’d rather not cook, you can also use the hotel’s restaurant, Alto.  Breakfast costs 19 euros a person.  They also have dinner at the restaurant and a full bar.

The weather on Friday night was pretty nasty, but we ventured out looking for food, anyway.  We weren’t successful, mainly because the one place we stopped into was hosting a Christmas party.  There are actually a number of restaurants close to the Adina Berlin Mitte, but it was cold and rainy and I was really hungry and cranky.  It was also pretty dark outside, even though it was only about 4:30pm.  It gets darker earlier up in Berlin than it does in Stuttgart at this time of year.  There is an Italian restaurant right across the way from the hotel, but we didn’t go in there because it got really horrible reviews for bad service.   There’s also a kebab shop and a bakery in the same building complex as the hotel.

After a short walk around the neighborhood, we headed back to the hotel, stopping at a Lidl on the way.  We picked up snacks, bottled water, and wine.  I got a slight kick out of the heavily tattooed and pierced clerk who rang us up.  The person was very friendly and nice, although I couldn’t tell if s/he was male or female.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter, but it did make me wonder a bit.

After we put away our snacks, we decided to try Alto.  The bartender was a man named Awsam, which I thought was awesome.  I wrote about Awsam on my main blog.  We had a rather special interaction with him that I won’t go into on this blog.  In this post, I will simply focus on the food.

We had a couple of cocktails, which did a lot of soothe my crankiness.  Then we ordered dinner while we sat at the bar.  I had duck, which came with red cabbage and what Bill knows as collard greens (although it said kale in the menu).  He was happy to eat lots of kale, along with a steak sandwich.  Parker stuck with pumpkin soup, which came with plenty of bread.  I did get a picture of Parker’s soup, but it turned out blurry.  Bill had it a couple of nights later.

Gin smash… we first learned of this drink when we visited Hamburg in 2015.

I had a Long Island Iced Tea, which Awsam the awesome bartender said was not a lady’s drink.  Good thing I’m no lady.

 

 

Bill’s impressive steak sandwich.

 

Duck with collard greens/kale and dumplings.

 

Awsam, the bartender, took great care of us.  Bill tipped him generously and he beamed.  So we came back each night.  More on that in the following posts.

Standard
short breaks

Blind booking #4: Berlin! Part 1

My husband’s mother, Parker, has been visiting us for the past ten days.  While she’s here, my husband, Bill, wanted to do something special.  The last time she visited us in Germany, we got trapped in Italy.  We decided that this time, we would do something different… something not involving a car or driving through the Alps.

At first, we considered taking the train to Paris.  It seemed like the perfect solution.  Parker has not been to Paris and it’s a really interesting city with plenty to do.  But then it occurred to us that we were just in France last month.  I’ve been kind of hankering to do something different.  So then I suggested a blind booking on Eurowings.

Blind booking is not a new concept for Bill and me.  When we were living in Germany last time, we did it twice.  Basically, it involves buying a cheap plane ticket for a secret destination.  The first two times we tried blind booking, we scored excellent and super cheap trips to London, England and Barcelona, Spain.  Both trips were in 2009, when Eurowings was still Germanwings.  Prices were significantly lower than they are today and more services were included.  For instance, I don’t remember paying for luggage or even the paltry snacks they give you.

The next time we tried blind booking was in May 2012.  We had taken a Space A hop from Baltimore to Ramstein.  I was still crazy about the mystique of blind booking, so we went to Cologne, visited the city, then did another blind booking from Cologne.  That time, we got Munich.  I was slightly disappointed, since I had been to Munich.  On the other hand, we had a great time!  On that trip, we bought train tickets that were good for all of Germany and certain border cities.  We ended up going to Trier, Salzburg, and Luxembourg City, in addition to Munich and Cologne.

Although blind booking is not as exciting to me as it used to be, it had been five years since our last one.  And when we pitched the idea to Parker, she was excited about it.  The decision was made.  About ten days ago, I went on the Eurowings Web site, selected Stuttgart as our airport, input the days we wanted to travel, and chose which group  of cities we wanted.  I know there are ways to “game” the system.  Checking to see what days certain cities are offered is one way to improve your odds of going somewhere “exotic”.  You can also pay a little extra to exclude certain cities, which we have done in the past.  This time,  I wanted to leave it up to fate.  Besides, there weren’t any cities in the “Culture” group that I wouldn’t mind visiting, even if I’d already been there.

We got Berlin.  I had kind of mixed feelings about it.  On one hand, neither Bill nor I had ever been to Berlin, despite having spent a lot of time in Europe.  On the other hand, I was kind of liking the idea of getting out of Germany for a few days.  But then I realized that I told myself I couldn’t leave Germany again until I saw its capital city.  Now that’s done, so we can focus on going to some truly different places… provided we can board our dogs.  😉

Parker was pretty happy about going to Berlin.  The three of us are old enough to remember when Berlin was much harder to visit than it is today.  When I was in sixth grade, I wrote a paper about Germany.  As I researched the topic, I learned about its history.  It was the first I’d ever heard of East and West Germany.  I remember being shocked that the country was divided; one side was a “free” part of western Europe.  The other side was “communist”, like the Soviet Union and the satellite countries.  I read about how the people in East Germany weren’t allowed to leave at will.  I learned about the huge wall that once separated Berlin.  One side was “free” and the other side was not.

A look at what life was like in Berlin, back in the 1970s…

As an eleven year old in the early 80s, I had no idea that one day I’d live in the former Soviet Union and get to visit a lot of those “forbidden” eastern European countries.  I didn’t know then that I’d eventually live in Germany twice and visit its eastern side with ease.  I didn’t know that one day, I’d stay in what used to be East Berlin.

I’m truly surprised it took me so long to finally see Berlin, although I did visit its airport once before when Bill and I took a Baltic cruise originating in Oslo, Norway.  We did have a great trip.  If I’ve piqued your interest with this first part, I hope you’ll read on as I lay out yet another exciting travel story.

Standard