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  • Schengen – Berlin Wall Fragment

    This is, to my knowledge, the only piece of the Berlin Wall which is displayed to the public in the country of Luxembourg. It was placed here because it’s near to where the Schengen Agreement was signed  in June 1985 which did away with border controls between many EU nations.

    The segments of wall were placed here in 2010 and they marked the 25th anniversary of the signing of the agreement. The segments overlook the banks of the River Moselle and they were donated by the Sony Centre and the City of Berlin. Before being moved here, the pieces of wall had been located at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.

    For some reason the base of the plaque which gives information about the wall notes that the segments aren’t for sale. I’m not quite sure what prompted that useful information to be added, perhaps tourists from certain nations tried to put an offer in…..

  • Flights – British Airways (Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    This is the evening flight from Luxembourg to Heathrow T3 as the earlier one had gone tech. The forlorn and lost looking aircraft can be seen towards the back on the tarmac above, with the nice and shiny new aircraft waiting at the gate. Well, relatively shiny.

    The aircraft was an A320 with the registration G-EUYC, the same aircraft that I was on when I flew out to Luxembourg last week.

    I arrived a little early at the gate, which was the quietest that I’ve ever seen at Luxembourg. In terms of boarding, this was a bit of a mess and the staff didn’t make any audible announcements about who was supposed to be boarding when. This meant that people were queueing up in the wrong place and blocking the priority lines, although there were no particular delays.

    The crew from the aborted earlier flight were also no doubt keen to get home and they were seated in Club Europe. One of them said to their colleagues that they thought they should be professional and hang back for other customers to board first, although the others collectively agreed that they didn’t like that idea.

    I boarded early and so the flight looks quite quiet from the above photo, but the aircraft soon filled up because of the delayed earlier flight. The captain apologised for the problems with the morning’s cancelled flight and the rest of the announcements were also professional and helpful. BA’s communications had been good all day and I didn’t hear any customer complain about the situation.

    I don’t know if the engineers from Heathrow had arrived on the inbound flight to Luxembourg, but work was starting on the slightly stranded BA aircraft.

    Waiting to leave Luxembourg airport. The crew on board seemed efficient, although they didn’t manage to complete the buy on board trolley service, a situation caused by BA’s policy rather than a lack of ability from the crew. There’s been great play made by BA about the 12 different covers they have this month on the new in-flight magazine. It’s fortunate that I hadn’t got myself over-excited about this, since the aircraft didn’t have any in-flight magazines.

    Arriving back into London, landing around ten minutes ahead of schedule. The pilot did say that he hoped that the ten minutes made up would be useful for those who had been delayed earlier on in the day, although since that flight was nine hours earlier, I’m not sure that the ten minutes made much difference. Anyway, all was professional and the disembarkation process was well managed.

    All in all, I thought that BA managed the problems delay well. I got to sit in the lounge for eight hours (in addition to the two hours before my first flight) and the rebooking process was simple and easy. I was given a window seat and was able to confirm everything via the app, so the technology worked well. Another customer told me that they had gone into Luxembourg for the day, but I had rather got myself settled in at the airport and decided against that idea.

    But, that’s my first flight which has been cancelled due to technical issues, so I’ll probably remember it for many years to come. Although goodness knows why, I’m sure there are better things to remember.

  • Luxembourg – Battin Gambrinus

    Since I’m in the airport lounge for nine hours due to a flight cancellation, I thought that I’d at least inspect the quality of some of the beers. Usually my flight leaves at 11:35 and so I don’t pay much attention to the alcohol selection.

    And this is the Battin Gambrinus, which was founded in the Luxembourg city of Esch-Alzette in 1937. I read the on-line reviews of this beer before trying it, and since they’re frankly pretty poor my expectations were low. I have the useful (well, arguably not useful at all) advantage here of not really knowing much about beer, so my views are frequently out of sync with everyone else’s….

    But, anyway, I quite like this beer, which is a pale lager. It’s a bit watery and not my normal type of beer, but there’s a lingering malty flavour which I quite like. Not as good as eating eight packs of Maltesers, but interesting nonetheless. All very acceptable and the beer is 5.2% ABV and is just 180 calories.

  • Esch-sur-Alzette – Café Casablanca

    En route to the country’s National Resistance Museum I decided that it was too hot to walk any further without a drink. So, this cafe looked a suitable stopping point.

    So this became the mobile office for an hour or so…..

    The alcohol menu, but searing heat and alcohol don’t in my mind really mix. I settled for just having a coffee, which I was pleased to discover was €2.80. I was pleased to discover this as I only had €2.80 in change and normally things don’t work out quite as well as that.

    The latte, which was perfectly acceptable and was at the temperature that I like, which isn’t so hot that I can’t drink it for three hours. And it came with a biscuit, the hallmark of a decent coffee (I’m easily pleased).

    I don’t really like sitting outside usually, as I’m usually attacked by insects, street sellers and dogs. There’s the other disadvantage of smokers, who effectively have a monopoly on the outside area. So, typically, of all the seats that a smoker could have sat at, they choose to sit next to me. They seemed more confused than irritated when I subtly managed to move five tables along. I say subtly, but it’s a hard action to hide.

    Anyway, other than for the continental love of outdoor smoking, which seems common in Luxembourg, this was a pleasant place to spend an hour. There was a slight breeze coming down the road to help keep me cool, although the temperature is still far higher than I’d want it to be.

  • Luxembourg – Public Transport

    I know that it’s a little easier for Luxembourg to achieve an integrated public transport policy given the size of the country, but nonetheless, they’ve managed to do it. A day ticket across all public transport in the country, including buses, trams and trains cost me £3.61 today. So, given the weather is at 39 degrees, I’m taking this opportunity to travel around the country in air conditioned public transport.

    What makes this even more remarkable is that in eight months the entire public transport is becoming free for everyone. A real achievement for the country and I hope it improves on the congestion problem on the roads that they’re trying to tackle.

  • Flights – British Airways (Gone Tech and Cancelled – Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    This is the forlorn looking BA aircraft that should have operated route BA0417 from Luxembourg to London Heathrow T3 today. The flight was cancelled due to technical issues and customers rebooked onto other services as it can’t be fixed within the next few hours.

    Being towed from the gate…. The aircraft is G-EUYG, an Airbus A320 which was brought into service in 2010 and has always been operated by British Airways.

    The whole flight delay process was well managed by the airline and there were verbal announcements which matched the information being displayed on the app. The pilot came out after around 45 minutes to explain that an oil leak had been discovered on board en route and that engineers had gone to look at it to see if the aircraft could keep flying. The information that the pilot gave all tied in to what we had been told, so the communications seemed excellent all round.

    Unfortunately, the engineers found that the oil leak was substantial and it couldn’t be fixed locally. Engineers from British Airways are flying over to Luxembourg to fix it later today or tomorrow and until then the aircraft will remain on the tarmac.

    This is my first flight gone tech and I think I’m up to somewhere around 200 sectors flown over the last few years (with around 150 of them with BA). The British Airways app automatically booked me onto a later flight and I have returned to the lounge to spend most of the day waiting for the late evening flight back to Heathrow. On the bright side, the delay was of over two hours, was the fault of British Airways and so I have claimed compensation of €250 via the airline’s web-site.

    Not entirely lovely, but I’d rather sit in the lounge all day than be flown on an aircraft with oil pouring out of it across the English Channel. And, incidentally, this is one positive element about the current weak pound as the compensation is delineated in euros……

  • Heathrow – Off to Luxembourg

    A quick breakfast in the BA lounge at Heathrow T3 early this morning, before my flight.

    Today I’m off to Luxembourg for the day, then getting the Flixbus to Bern. Given my past experiences with Flixbus, it’s anyone’s guess just whether I’ll actually reach Switzerland, but we’ll see. It’ll be an adventure.

  • Flights – British Airways (Heathrow T3 to Luxembourg)

    Sadly, and most inconveniently as I prefer this terminal to T5, this is probably the last time that I fly to Luxembourg with British Airways from T3. It’s relocating to T5 in a few weeks, shortly before my flight which I had scheduled from there.

    I’ve written about this route before, and since I was in Euro Traveller, there’s not much that is new to say. The boarding process was all very efficient and well managed, with customers called forwards by group both for the document check and also for boarding. Although there’s a slight flaw in the plan that boarding passes aren’t checked for the latter, but I can’t imagine many people were that keen to rush on board. Although, having said that, there are always a few who barge on board perhaps thinking it might leave without them.

    I had an emergency exit row seat, so there was plenty of legroom. It was nearly a full flight and so there were very few empty seats on the aircraft, with my entire row being occupied. The in-flight magazines were a bit battered, but the cabin was unusually clean for a British Airways flight, although it was likely the aircraft’s first flight of the day.

    The crew were efficient although I didn’t see them particularly engage with any customers, although the whole buy on board process makes that much more difficult for the crew. The flight was around 20 minutes late taking off, but that time was mostly caught back up in the air, with a journey time of under one hour.

    This photo was taken on arrival in Luxembourg, with the temperature being 39 degrees, which is entirely unsatisfactory as far as I’m concerned. The aircraft was an A320 and it had the registration G-EUYC which has always been part of the BA fleet, first flying in 2008.

    Luxembourg is one of the few countries I fly into which doesn’t inspect passports by hand, they’re done my machine. As with most things in Luxembourg, everything seemed to work as expected in the airport (with the exception of the sole hand dryer in the male toilet, but that’s not necessarily the most important thing to get right in an airport).

  • London – Puma Court

    I walked down this street whilst following the Jack the Ripper Ramblers Route, otherwise I’m not sure that I would have ever found this street.

    It’s hard to imagine this quaint street is actually in the heart of Spitalfields. The street was formerly known as Red Lion Court and the Red Lion Court Chapel which was once on the street has long since been demolished.

    The text of this tablet reads:

    “These almshouses were erected in the year 1860 for poor inhabitants of the liberty of Norton Folgate in place of those taken down for the new street”.

    The original almshouses were in Blossom Street, but a road widening was needed there, so compensation and new land was provided to the charity.

  • London – Ramblers Routes

    I’m off to Luxembourg tomorrow and got the train today to my hotel at Heathrow. Inspired by the Hike Norfolk London trip on Saturday, I decided to follow one of the Ramblers routes which are available to members of the organisation via the national web-site. It’s a handy resource and the walks come with a .gpx file to follow, as well as the route description.

    This one is the ‘Jack the Ripper’ walk which is a 3.3 mile walk around the area in which the murders took place. There’s not a great deal to see of the murders, as obviously the areas aren’t what they wanted to preserve, but the walk does visit some of the parts of the city which the murderer and victims would have known.

    More of the walk itself in separate posts….