On my recent trip to Boston I needed to make an extra leg through Munich. Initially nothing to be happy about, but it turned out that the flight took an unusual route way north of the general course. It took us above Iceland and Greenland, a course generally only followed by flights to the US west coast.
LH424 Route (Screenshot from FlightAware)LH424 Standard Route (Screenshot from FlightAware)
Pretty exciting for everyone having a window seat on the righthand (northern) side of the plane including me. Instead of a several hour lasting sunset we were accompanied by the spectacular aurora borealis for about four hours. Inflight entertainment deluxe.
Aurora Borealis above Iceland
The photo quality isn’t quite what I wanted it to be. I needed to shoot with high ISO since I had only one hand available; with the other one I held a blanket to diminish the cabin light and thus the reflections in the airplane window.
I traveled to Boston with an Airbus A330-300, departing at a quarter past six in Frankfurt, Germany. With a scheduled arrival at Logan international airport at approximately 8pm, we flew almost along the day/night border falling little behind with a ground speed of roughly 820km/h (540mph) having a sunset vibe throughout the entire flight. Heading northwest first, I could enjoy the full moon sitting on the eastern horizon; for about the first three hours. For the last hours of the flight, now in southern direction, it was exactly the same case with the red sun, that seemed to deny the ending of the very October 2, 2012.
About four years after my first entry into the US, it’s obviously time to go back! It’ll be Boston this time and working for Dynatrace! Exciting! Let’s see what another year in the US can offer me. One is for sure: there will be a presidential election again!
I just came back from my first trip to Spain. The journey started with a train ride to Vienna, the city I lived for the last year. Vienna’s West Train Station was reopened recently after two years of reconstruction–and it looked beautiful: lots of space in the waiting area and comfortable places to stay. But I don’t understand why there is no free wireless. Anyway, my flight was late-evening from VIE and I arrived shortly before midnight at Plaza de Cataluña after taking the Aerobus. After walking down La Rambla, I met my friend at the hostel in Carrer de la Unió. We walked around the nearby neighborhood and the harbor.
Barcelona Harbor with L’Aquarium de Barcelona (red) and W Barcelona
Next day, early morning we took the metro to Vallcara and walked up to Parc Güell (actually escalatored up :)). Parc Güell is famous for the architectural elements designed by Antoni Gaudi. We continued to walk down to Sagrada Família. Later that day we had a short walk along the beach.
Sagrada Família
On Sunday, on my way to the airport, I stopped by at Plaça d’Espanya, to see the Venetian Towers and enjoy a last view over the city, right next to the Museo Nacional de Arte de Cataluña. Please have a look at the photography section for more photos of Barcelona; I’ll post them soon!
So says an ancient Chinese proverb. My train trip to Munich worked out quite well–the train arrived only ten minutes delayed. However, it was enough for missing the connecting train to the airport. I decided to spend the waiting time at–guess where.
Three stations before I reached the airport, it turned out that somebody committed suicide by jumping on the track. The DB (who runs the trains in Munich) was not able to come up with an adequate solution. They didn’t manage to install buses; people started to call cabs. Furthermore, this event far out of the city center caused a break down of the entire train net. My favorite announcement of the train conductor after several complaints is “It’s not the DB’s fault that somebody jumps on the rail”. There are two trains running to the airport; east and west. Luckily, I scheduled enough extra time. After all, it took me about four hours to get to the airport, instead of the planned 45.
The rest of the journey was very relaxed. At the airport in Munich I had still enough time to walk around the Christmas market. Yes, seriously, there is a Christmas market at the airport :). The flight was perfectly ok–I absolutely can recommend Lufthansa. Sunrise was somewhere above Kyrgyzstan. Later on, we passed the Taklamakan Desert. George picked me up at the airport in Hong Kong.
Tomorrow I leave for an almost two week journey to Hong Kong to meet an Emory colleague. What a pleasure! This trip also gives me the chance to reunite with a former JKU exchange student. Maybe I have the chance to meet Austrian exchange students too!
On Friday, driving from Linz to St. Anton am Arlberg, we stopped in Salzburg at Hangar 7. Our intention wasn’t just to see the flying bull fleet; the Carpe Diem Lounge-Café offered us a wonderful breakfast. I found something interesting on the menu that I couldn’t resist: poached egg with ham espuma. I had no idea what to expect and was quite surprised: a bowl filled with a very fluffy foam covering the poached egg. After talking to the waitress and additional research, I am still wondering about the exact preparation of the ham-foam.
We spent a kind of lazy day today! After the long ride back to Montréal, we were sleeping almost until noon. So, we went for brunch to L’Avenue, a very nice restaurant.
Brunch @ L’Avenue! Yummy!
Brunch @ L’Avenue! Yummy!
Right after brunch we took an afternoon nap 🙂 . And then coffee and cake at Premiere Moisson at Av du Mont-Royal corner Rue Saint-André, exactly the right place to linger around all afternoon long! We stayed there for almost three hours.
Look at this wonderful picture I took on our way from Montréal to Toronto on highway 401.
Sunset on 401
We started our tour quite late at about 11.30am and arrived after a few stops at around 8.00pm in Toronto. Just in time for a nice dinner in Chinatown next to our hostel. Here are a few impressions from our road trip.
