Koelner Weihnachtsmarkt by train and Germanwings

Koelner Weihnachtsmarkt by train and Germanwings - Cologne Christmas Markets

From previous reports, you will know that I have been home alone for a short while, whilst my wife and children are in South Africa with the in-laws. During this time, my own mother asked if I would take her to a German Chirstmas market, as we had done a few years previously to Hamburg. Naturally I agreed, and set about finding a good deal on transport and accommodation. All big cities in Germany have the markets, and it seems most small towns do as well, so the choice was mainly down to travel. Deutsche Bahn have a deal called "London Spezial" where a one-way ticket from anywhere in Germany to London costs EUR49, provided it is booked early enough. I thought this would be a good idea to get to somewhere, and then found a price on Germanwings for the return to Stansted for GBP24 each from Cologne. This was the clincher, so I booked the 4U flights (at good times of the day, not at stupid o'clock like some cheap flights!) and when the DB tickets went on sale 90 days before, I bought them instantly. This ticket includes Eurostar from London to Brussels, then ICE train onwards. There are also Thalys trains to Cologne, but these were not part of the offer. I also then found a cheapish hotel in the suburbs, B & B Hotel in Frechen, near a tram stop. The outward ticket was finished with a one-way 1st class ticket from Norwich to London for £12 for me and £8 for my mum (with her senior railcard) - train from Stansted to Newmarket where I had left my car at the office I left as the price was the same on the day, so I left it in case of any problems (ie plane delay missing the last train so needing to take the bus instead).



Fast forward to the day in question, 6th December. I met my mum at Norwich station after stopping at Subway for a hot breakfast sandwich on the way, and we found our 1st class seats. They were identical to the ones in my last report. The journey was ok, despite the train waiting for 15 minutes in Diss station due to a potential problem with the brakes, but on testing they were found to be fine. I wasn't worried as I had built a substantial window for delay into our connection. We arrived at Liverpool St Station and took the tube to St Pancras, where the Eurostar departs from.

St Pancras station, note the large Christmas tree made from Lego.

We arrived in plenty of time, and looked around the station. Sandwiches were bought from M&S, and we proceeded through the checkin line - I had a DB e-ticket printout so was directed to the manned desk rather than the machine gates. Through security and passport control, we sat to eat our sandwiches, then when the crowds cleared slightly as a Paris train was boarding, we bought a cake and some hot drinks from the Costa. Eventually it was our turn to board, and we went up the escalator to the platform and found our seats on the train.

Eurostar seating

Obligatory legroom shot

The journey passed smoothly, watching the cars on the adjacent M2 and M20 motorways being left behind is always good. Soon enough the train dipped into the tunnel, and out into France. A while later, we stopped in Lille where quite a lot of passengers got off - Eurostar offers connections from here to Marseille and the south of France, bypassing Paris. Then it was on to Brussels, by this time however it had gotten dark. Less than 2 hours to Brussels, with an on-time arrival. We got off the train here, and went to find our connection.

Train information screen. Ours is the bottom of the middle screen, to Frankfurt

We had about 35 minutes to connect, which was plenty of time. My mum bought a bottle of water from a machine, and we found our train already on the platform, but we couldn't board yet. Apparently boarding is only allowed 15 mins before departure, and bang on then the doors opened. Our seats were in the last carriage, and through the rear glass you could see out to the tracks behind. Would have been very cool to sit in the seats next to the view but ours were accross the vestibule in the next section.

Our train, waiting to board.

Destination confirmation

View from my seat. Plenty of legroom.

The train pulled out slowly, stopping at Brussels Nord, before hitting the high speed track to Liège.

Monitor showing our speed

After stopping at Liège and Aachen, we arrived at Cologne on time. By now it was getting late, so we had dinner in a fast food Asian noodle bar on the station, and had a look outside at the cathedral and market.

Market by night, with a lit net above the area in front of the music stage

Cathedral by night.

We struggled to find a stall selling Glüwein, as most seemed to be closing around 21.00, but one was still open and we had our hot mulled wine and kept the mugs as souvenirs (you pay a EUR2.50 deposit on the mugs, or you can keep them, as we did). We then caught the tram out to our hotel at Frechen, which as the reception had closed at 22:00 we had to use the electronic kiosk to pay and receive a code for the main door and our room.

The next morning we had the full day in Cologne. We had breakfast at an Oebel bakery near the hotel before heading back into the city on the tram. Our first stop was Neumarkt, where we looked around the market there, before walking along to the river and the chocolate museum, which is now branded by Lindt.

Tram crossing the bridge on the quayside

For anyone remotely interested in chocolate, the museum is well worth a visit. Detailing the history of chocolate manufacture and consumption through the ages, and old and new advertising for brands throughout the world (not just Lindt) - though Cadbury's was conspicuous by its absence!

Greenhouse part of the museum with cocoa bean plants

Small factory part of the museum

Chocolate eggs arranged as a pinecone, with chocolate fountain

On leaving the museum, we stopped at the small market outside for some lunch - bratwurst and currywurst. We continued to yet another market, by Heumarkt, which had an ice rink and ferris wheel. Here we continued eating with some fried potato rosti with apple sauce before heading to a cafe for some cake.

Heumarkt market

Nativity scene carved from tree trunks

Ice rink and ferris wheel

We then visited the cathedral itself.

Cologne cathedral

Inside the cathedral

One of the stained glass windows was this random pixel design, the others were all traditional bibical scenes.

By now it was getting dark, so we headed back to the Newmarkt market and my mum bought some small decorations, and we found a Turkish restaurant for dinner.

Star lamps hanging from trees in the Neumarkt market

We then headed back to the hotel. As there was free wifi, I checked the Germanwings site, and using my phone checked us in online, using mobile boarding passes. Basically this means that I was emailed a barcode each to scan at the airport.

The next day we were due to fly home. Our flight was at 15:50 so we still had the morning in the city. We packed up our belongings and hit the tram for the last time, and had a last look around the cathedral market. We also decided to visit the Roman museum, well worth it if you are even remotely interested in classical times. We then took the S-Bahn to the airport.

08/12/2012
4U358
CGN-STN
D-AGWO

Walking from station into termainl.

Whilst walking from the station into the terminal, we saw a line of 4U A319s lined up - it turned out that the front one was ours. I tried to use a machine to print off a paper boarding pass, but it just said "You are already checked in" so wouldn't - I figured if there was a problem at security or the gate I'd come back and ask, but there was no need in the end. We headed round the terminal to find the viewing deck.

Inside the terminal

Cargo apron from the viewing deck

After a cold few minutes, during which I watched a FedEx MD11 land, we headed back inside to find some lunch. We settled on sandwiches from a bakery-type place that had a seating area with a view of the apron - though there was not much action! The LH 737 didn't move the entire time. We did see a "Luftwaffe" A330-based transport plane arrive, and my mum was surprised to see the word "Luftwaffe" actually still in use.

View from our cafe seats.

We passed the LH checkin desks and I noticed one of the self-checkin kiosks had a windows error.

Windows error.

By this time we arrived at security to find a massive queue, and only 4 of the 8 x-rays open. Eventually we got through, the mobile boarding pass was fine. Our gate was along to the right, so we headed straight there. There was a boarding pass check, and passport control - but the 3 staffed desks must have had some kind of computer problem as they weren't allowing anyone to pass, and speaking urgently on the phone to someone. Eventually one of the desks opened, to process the queue that had by this time formed. Inside was a duty free shop, a cafe and some seats. By the gate was parked another 4U A319 - I took a picture but it turned out not to be ours.

Parked by our gate.

When boarding started, we went downstairs to a bus - which then drove round the corner to the aircraft.

View when boarding

Inside when boarding.

From the window

Legroom shot. Not too bad.

Everyone boarded, it was quite full with a few empty seats here and there. It was a quick taxi to the end of the runway, and a powerful liftoff and climbout. It was a short flight after all. Looking out of the window I could see the meandering Rhine before passing through the cloud layer, which would remain in place until landing.

Mum bought a coffee

Winglet

Cloud layer

Between two layers of clouds

Descent began almost too quickly, and we only poked through the clouds at a 1000 feet or so of height. The landing was quite smooth, despite the strong winds buffeting us, and we taxied to the stand where I saw this and thought "That shouldn't be there":

Luxair Dash 8 behind the Air Berlin example

We disembarked through an airbridge and caught the shuttle train to the terminal. There were massive queues for passport control, but as my mum's doesn't have the chip in it we had to stay and wait for an agent. The wait was about 25 mins, impressive considering how many people were waiting. The guy in front had come in on the Luxemboug flight, apparently they had almost touched down at LCY but pulled up at the last minute, either through high winds or fog. They then had to take a bus to LCY instead. Us however, once we cleared immigration, headed for the station to buy a ticket to Newmarket via Cambridge. There were major problems on the Cambridge to Kings Cross line (someone under a train, and also a broken down train elsewhere on the line) so the station was horrendously busy, but our trains were fine, and we were soon back in the car heading for home.

Overall then a good trip. The train to Germany is certainly an option to consider, especially when DB gets to run trains direct to London - this will eliminate the 45 minute wait in Brussels. Germanwings are certainly a good LCC, I would consider using them again (indeed, I had another flight booked with them but it was cancelled - all will be revealed in the next report). And Cologne Christmas markets are certainly something special, worth a visit!

SA2011 take 1: Return to UK

SA2011 take 1: Return to UK

After almost 2 weeks in Durban, it was time for me to return home alone, leaving my wife and children staying with Granny and Grandpa. I had a rental car to take back to the airport, so our tearful goodbyes were said on the driveway, before I headed out to the airport. Roads were clear and I was soon there, with plenty of time to spare. I had contemplated spending R100 for a visit to the Bidvest Lounge (pre-booking rate) but decided against it - after all I'd have 2 lounges to visit on my return in December.

The terminal from outside.

I had some time, so I went outside to look for a Geocache, but with no luck I returned into the terminal.

Statue of come cows, that were accompanied by one of the airport's namesake, King Shaka, but was removed as apparently it looked too much like a cow herder.

13/11/2011
DUR-JNB
BA6210
ZS-OKG

Checkin was a breeze, in fact checkin was still open for the previous BA (Comair) flight to Johannesburg. I handed over my luggage, and proceeded to the security checkpoint. I had completely forgotten that I had recently downloaded the BA Android app, that allows for mobile paperless checkin - if I remember I will give it a try for my next BA flight. Security was easy, so I went through to Departures and had a look around. I bought a copy of Getaway magazine, as it contained an article about the resort that my wife and I had spent our honeymoon (Umngazi River Bungalows, well worth a stay if you're in the area!)

FIDS. My flight at 17:55

Looking along the terminal

The previous BA flight departing

A red-nosed 1Time MD preparing for departure to Cape Town

My aircraft on stand

By now it had started to rain heavily, at the old airport boarding was only by stairs, so thankfully we now had air bridges to board.

View from the window still on the ground

We boarded and I took my seat. Load was good, around 80%, though the middle sear next to me was free. The captain gave an announcement that heavy turbulence was forecast, so no hot drinks would be served, and to expect lots of movement during the flight. We took off to the south, and immediately entered the cloud layer. After a while we entered clear air, and cruised comfortably. Aside from a few small bumps, the ascent was smooth.

Mini burgers and beer

The crew started their service. The "meal" on board was mini burgers - which were 3 very small bread rolls, two of which contained an inch square piece of cheese (nothing else) and the middle one a similarly sized piece of chicken in a mild periperi sauce. They were ok, nothing special though, and the cheese ones a bit dry. No hamburger patties at all though! Still, slightly better than the birdseed another A.netter was served recently! I took a beer with it.

Sunset over the Drakensberg (not that you can see the mountains under the cloud)

More clouds

We started our descent, all the while I was expecting major turbulence, but there was very little except when going though the clouds. I spotted a lake below, but my seatmate said that there were no lakes in this area, so it must be cloud. (I later found the Vaal Dam on Google Maps - I was right!) We landed with a jolt and taxied to the domestic terminal, where we parked at a remote stand and boarded busses to the terminal. Bags took a while to come through, as before they had been sealed with cable ties. After thinking this was a Lanseria Airport idea, perhaps it's a Comair (BA and Kulula) idea. My next domestic flight is on Mango, I'll see then if it continues. I picked up my rental car and headed for my brother-in-law's house in Centurion, though the occasional downpour and thunderstorm.

The next day I headed back to the airport, and dropped the car off at the rental returns, after filling up at the petrol station that is on the roof of the car park. I headed inside to checkin.

14/11/2011
JNB-ADD
ET808
ET-ALP

I presented my passport, and put my luggage on the scales - it only weight 7kg so no worries about being overweight. I was given my pre-selected seat that I had guessed was a bulkhead seat, but turned out not to be - Ethiopian publish seat plans on their website of each aircraft, but there was no way to guess what actual aircraft would operate the flight! Still, the more pressing issue was that I could not be issued with a boarding pass for my 2nd flight, ADD-LHR, as this flight had not yet opened. I was advised to ask at the gate.

FIDS above the checkin desks

After leaving my bag, I decided to hunt out the viewing decks at the airport. The first was above the International terminal, which involved going down some corridors that appeared to house general office space, not looking promising at all, until it reached the end where the viewing gallery was. The view was great, I managed to get a few good pictures.

Cathay Pacific 747 at the gate immediately below the viewing deck. This was the gate that my flight was due to depart from, but didn't, as a BA 747 arrived in the meantime. I'm not sure what it would arrive then, perhaps it was late.

A statue of some pioneering aviators

I decided by this point to head airside. I used the security point between International and Domestic, that usually is empty, but it seems that more and more people are becoming aware of it. Since the originally allocated gate was by now taken with the BA arrival, our new gate was right at the end of the new pier.

BA 747 at gate behind the Saudi

Pair of A380s waiting for their return night flights. A 3rd, belonging to EK, was out of shot to the left.

First sight of my ET 767

A crowd was gathering at the gate, and boarding was called. There was no preboarding announcement for anyone - business class, status passengers, people with children, noone. People did form a kind of queue though. When it was my turn, I asked about my 2nd boarding pass - I would get it on arrival in Addis, I was told. I then headed down the bridge to the aircraft.

Front on shot of ET-ALP

The Star Alliance logo is a little premature? ;)

The legroom shot. Not bad.

Once everyone was on board, we pushed back, and headed down the taxiway to take off northwards. Load was close to 100%. Takeoff wasn't very powerful, though JNB has very long runways.

Engine view, somewhere over Limpopo province

View from my seat

I set my IFE screen to the airshow, and left it there. The system was quite basic, with only about 6 films on loops, so not AVOD. One of the cycles showed the direction of Addis, much like sometimes the direction of Mecca is shown on Muslim airlines, though it seemed to be somewhat pointless as it was almost always directly in front. Not long into the flight, the meal was served, it was quite substantial and of good quality.

Meal

There were two large pieces of chicken under the tomato sauce. I had a white wine to go with it. After a few hours, a juice round was offered.

I spent the time dozing, and watching the airshow, until it got dark, and soon it was time to land. We came in low over the lights of the city, and landed very smoothly. Unlike Nairobi the previous year, there was no mention of any photography ban.

Pulling onto stand

As we got off, there were plenty of uniformed staff waiting, so I asked about my boarding pass. They referred me to a desk behind, next to an escalator upwards to the main departure level, instead of the baggage reclaim and exit. I waited here, despite several people pushing in front (including an African lady with a t-shirt with Bible quotes on it), until I was served. I was told to go upstairs to the gate, there I would be given my boarding pass, so upstairs I went.

Departure level of Addis Abeba airport, glass wall on the right, behind which are the gates.

There are 8 departure gates, in a line, and 2 security points, one at either end of the terminal. The gates themselves are separated from the rest of the departures area by a glass wall, with the 2 security points being the only way to get from the duty free shops area, to the gates. The FIDS told me that the London flight was from gate 2, so there I went. The guy at the security point said no, London was from gate 8, and he showed me a piece of printed paper showing this. So I went to the other security point. No, they said, gate 2 is for London. Still, I went through the security (with several women in Muslim robes pushing in front) and along to gate 2 on the gates side of the wall. At gate 2 was the flight to Tel Aviv, so the agent advised I take a seat and wait, which I did.

Seating area at Gate 2

14/11/2011
ADD-BEY-LHR
BD904
G-MEDN

The Tel Aviv flight left, and an agent came around advising all London passengers to queue and have their documents checked. This I did, and by this time one agent (called Benjamin) arrived in BMI uniform. He said to wait, and he would arrange for my boarding pass to be brought here from checkin. Also by now, the flight to Rome and Stockholm was also supposed to be boarding from gate 2, and the 2nd agent was dealing with this flight. Benjamin had taken my passport, and I was a little worried about it, so I stood near the desk. Rome and Stockholm passengers' boarding passes were checked, and they were invited to board through the door (or rather, downward stairs) at gate 1, despite the paperwork being dealt with at gate 2. By this time, a BMI A321 had arrived at the gate.

Benjamin disappeared down the airbridge, but I'd got my passport back before that. By now the scheduled departure time had been passed by almost an hour. Benjamin came back holding a boarding pass, mine! The other agent had started the boarding process, when people started coming back up the bridge into the departure area. Noone knew anything, and we were all advised to sit and wait. After another 30 mins or so, we could all board again, those whose boarding passes had been torn off as well as those (like me) who hadn't got this far yet. I hadn't been given my pre-selected window seat, instead I had been given the aisle, but I wasn't complaining at this point.

Anyway, once we were all aboard, it became apparent that there were no more than 30 people on the A321, most of them belonging to a large family group. The captain came on the tannoy to apologise for the delay, saying there was a computer problem and they rebooted the system and it appeared to be working again. We pushed back, and waited for a while until the captain again came on and said the same issue had reoccurred, and that we would be returning to stand for an engineer to come and look. This happened, the system was rebooted again, and we pushed back again. This time the problem did not reoccurr, so we were ready to take off, only 3 hours late. I wasn't too worried about the delay, as originally the flight was due to go via Amman, leaving 6 hours later than now, so I had pre-booked a train ticket home from London leaving plenty of time.

View from my seat

Once airborne, the drinks service began, followed by the meal service. I had a G&T (dedicated to Gabrielchew), only the one though, despite the steward offering me a 2nd G and an 2nd T.

G&T

Then came the meal, a type of pancake containing scrambled egg. Not bad tasting.

Cooked breakfast number 1

Airshow

I then put the airshow on the IFE. Our route was rather strange, in that we headed almost due east to the Red Sea, then followed the sea northwards. Does BMI have a problem with both Sudan and Eritrea? I then fell asleep, and woke as we arrived into Beirut.

Arriving on stand in Beirut

View of the city of Beirut

The crew changed here, they had spent a few days here before doing a round trip to Addis. Our steward was a young French guy, he was chatting to the one passenger in the row in front of me, as the rear-facing crew seat at the exit row was facing him. His place was taken by a Spanish lady. As for the other seats, the load jumped to almost 100%. A father and son (who was probably about 8) had the seats next to me, the father asked if he could have the aisle. Of course I complied, and moved to the window seat.

Boarding in Beirut

We took off towards the sea, and climbed through the cloud layer. Another cooked breakfast was served, an omlette this time with sausages (that tasted like beef sausages), the rest of the meal was identical though. I took a juice this time, no more alcohol for me as I was working that night!

Somewhere above the Rhine canal in Belgium

I like this picture of the sharklet

Antwerp from above

Antwerp docks

I spent most of the flight dozing. As we approached London, we were put in a holding pattern above the East End, with occasioally the Olympic site poking through the clouds. We then headed westwards accross north London, to approach Heathrow from the west, coming in to land smoothly. The boy seated next to me started to vomit though - his father handed him a plastic bag, it looked like it might have safety holes in it though so I handed him an air sickness bag from the seat pocket. In the end, I think he must have had a bug of some sort, as I was sick with it a couple of days later. We were soon on stand at Terminal 1.

Arrived on stand, notice the bus.

We disembarked through the jetbridge, but were led down some stairs to the waiting bus. I assume the aircraft was next to be used on a domestic or Dublin flight. The bus drove under the bowels of Terminal 1 to another part, where we entered.

Our aircraft from the bus. Other side was the Lufthansa retrojet.

Baggage took an age to arrive, but it did eventually, and the queue for passport control was huge, except I used one of the E-gates with had a queue of 1, and I passed through quickly.

That is almost all, though I took one jumper with me to South Africa (it was summer after all) but I couldn't find it when packing. So I arrived into winter England wearing a t-shirt and a light rain jacket. I took the bus from Heathrow to Feltham where I bought a thick jumper from Asda, and had a cup of tea in McDonalds (after a fortnight of foreign tea, even McDo's PG Tips was lovely!). I arranged to meet my sister in Shepherds Bush, as she was in London for a few days, and we had lunch in Pho noodle bar in the Westfield Centre. Then I took the tube to Liverpool St Station, for the train home. I'd pre-booked a cheap First Class ticket, that allowed me to use the lounge at the station. The ticket cost £12, booked in advance, compared to over £90 bought on the day.

Entrance to the lounge

Interior of the lounge.

Offerings were a hot drinks machine (but no milk to put into the tea) or water.

My train. The loco stays at one end, either pushing or pulling the train.

My First Class seat.

I tried to sleep on the train, but the continued announcements over the tannoy prevented this. Still, I got home after walking from Norwich station, got into my car and drove to work for a night shift, which was completely knackering.