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  • Malta – Ferry Back From Gozo

    And since I got the ferry to Gozo, I had to come back again… There was a friendly chap on the bus to the ferry who was a Rambler from Wales, in his 70s, and he had been exploring Gozo on foot for the day. Lovely man, he was really enjoying his stay on Malta but is going home via Manchester tomorrow.

    The boarding process was efficient and professional, as it had been earlier in the day. Customers can buy tickets at the desks using either cash or card, with another staff member offering assistance at the ticket barriers.

    View from the ferry.

    I really should have brought my camera with me on this trip, my phone struggled with this one. It was a memorable view though during the ferry journey.

  • Malta – Ferry to Gozo

    I didn’t go to Gozo in my first week in Malta, so today I went to the north of the main island to take the short 25 minute or so journey across on the ferry. It’s free to get the ferry when going to Gozo, the charge is only applied when returning to the mainland (€4.65 which seems reasonable to me for a return fare).

    Setting off. It was a much larger ferry than I had expected, it has a capacity in the hundreds and there’s a cafe on board and lots of space to sit or stand. The organisation of the whole ferry was professional and although the bus timetables don’t entirely coincide with the ferries, there are sufficient buses to mean that delays aren’t excessive.

    Leaving the main island….

    There’s Gozo…..

    And the harbour town of Mġarr in Gozo, where there have been ferry services of some kind since 1241. In the background is Fort Chambray, which was designed to be the Gozo equivalent of Valletta. This meant that it would have been a new city and would have replaced Cittadella as Gozo’s capital, being well fortified and designed to a modern standard. However, despite work starting on this project in the eighteenth century, the threat of attack started to fall and so it was never completed to the scale that had originally been planned.

    There’s talk, even this month, of building a tunnel  between the main island and Gozo, but that would come at an enormous expense and for visitors at least, the ferry is an interesting little adventure. I imagine for the locals, they’re probably fed up of it though….

  • Malta – Malta International Airport – VIP Arrivals Lounge

    Malta is a relatively small airport, but they have an arrivals lounge, a luxury usually limited to larger airports. It’s not a very big lounge, and it’s actually rather small with just a few tables, but it’s a handy little option for those arriving into the country.

    There are a few pre-packaged snacks, cans of drink, coffee, teas and the like, and the environment is comfortable. It’s included in the Priority Pass scheme, and no doubt most similar lounge schemes, and it was spotlessly clean and tidy. Although I don’t think that the lounge is particularly heavily used, so it’s probably one of the easiest lounges to keep clean.

    The lounge is located at the rear of the baggage collection area and it relatively well signed. I only stayed for around forty minutes, but it’s possible to stay for three hours should anyone wish.

  • British Airways (Gatwick South to Malta) – Second Time

    The BA plane having arrived in Malta, this is G-DBCK, which is a former BMI A319 aircraft. I understand that this one might not be in the fleet for much longer.

    The flight load was very light, only 32 passengers across both cabins, meaning I had the row to myself. The seats aren’t the best in the fleet, although it’s inevitably comfortable when there’s no-one in front and no-one else in the row. A light load means customers want to change seat, but a crew member had to stop customers moving about the cabin for take-off on the instruction of the pilot because of the trim.

    The menu for the flight.

    I thought that the crew were meant to go front to back to take food orders, but they seemed a bit erratic in how they took orders. No matter, I got what I wanted, the meat platter which was as I had enjoyed before. Although it was served cold, and I know it’s meant to be cold, but it wasn’t far off being frozen. Those strawberries were rather pleasant, and all told, it was a nice light meal.

    The crew were polite, but they didn’t have the engagement of the crew member I had from Luxembourg the other day. I spent a lot of the flight asleep though so it all seemed to go quickly.

    I moved to the window seat when the pilot mentioned that we were flying over Sicily.

    Back in Malta.

    Disembarking, or deplaning as the Americans call it, via the steps. All on time, this was a comfortable flight. I’m aware it’s January, but it did seem a much lighter flight in terms of customer numbers than I’d have expected.

  • Gatwick Airport – Early Morning

    Gatwick Airport has the advantage that they open security early on in the morning, one of the earliest that I’m aware of in a major UK airport. So, I was able to go through the security process at 02.45 as I’d had enough of exploring the landside area. I’m not sure why more people don’t go through security, as they would at Stansted, as it’s not the best environment landside.

    It’s not surprising, but there weren’t very many of us who had decided to go through to airside at this time of the morning…..

  • Gatwick Airport – Grain Store (Visit 2)

    This was my second visit to the Grain Store at Gatwick Airport, which is part of the Priority Pass scheme. The timing is quite fortunate, as this restaurant opens at 04.00, with the BA lounge not opening until 05.15, so this fills in a useful time slot for when I have an early flight.

    I try to avoid arriving at any restaurant at the exact moment it opens, just in case the staff aren’t quite ready and I have to stand there looking confused and slightly desperate to get in. Fortunately,  this time there were two other customers by the time that I arrived at 04.05, so I didn’t look any more out of place than usual.

    The coffee art wasn’t quite up the standard of last time, but it tasted fine.

    I’m trying to work my way round the menu, so this time I went for the Eggs Benedict. It was brought out after six minutes and it looked well presented and an effort had been made with the garnish. The ham was of a decent quality and the eggs were cooked so that the yolk came gushing out in a satisfying manner. The muffin was a bit over-toasted, but I prefer it like that. The egg white itself had a slightly strange taste that I’m not sure how they’d achieved, but it was more unusual than unpleasant.

    The price of this meal and drink was covered by the Priority Pass scheme, but it seemed unusual for this meal to be priced at £11.50, which is more than the Full English. Even given airport prices, the £11.50 does seem to be at the slightly higher end of the pricing scale and more expensive than what the neighbouring  Jamie’s restaurant charges.

    The service was efficient and polite, if not particularly engaging, with the payment process being prompt and without any undue delays. The dining environment was also clean and comfortable, the open-plan nature of the restaurant suits it well. All in all though, I’m still pleased that this restaurant is part of Priority Pass, it adds a little variety to the whole scheme.

  • Gatwick Airport – Travel Insurance

    I’ve never seen one of these at an airport, the facility to buy travel insurance at a kiosk just before getting on a flight. It’s certainly not a bad idea though……

  • Trier – Amphitheater (Model)

    The Landesmuseum in Trier had a rather useful model of the amphitheater which I had visited earlier on in the week. A rather good idea to run the city wall through the structure, why pay for two walls when one will do….

  • Trier – Landesmuseum (Trier Gold Hoard)

    The Landesmuseum in Trier is very proud of its gold hoard, which they should be as it’s the largest hoard from the Roman period ever found. I can’t begin to imagine how much this collection is worth (the museum says it’s ‘incalculable’) and it’s located in a secure room. It is though difficult to photograph because light bounces off from overhead.

    The coins weigh a total of 18.5 kilogrammes and there were 2,650 gold coins within the find. They were found on 9 September 1993 when construction workers were digging a car park, and I can only begin to imagine the horror of the museum when they realised that there were likely many more coins at a dump site for earth from the project.

    All of the coins found at the car park site were recovered, but they lost a few of the coins at the dump site, although most were turned in as the law required. The museum recovered what they thought was 96% of the coins, although I’m not sure how they worked that figure out.

     

     

  • Heathrow T3 – American Airlines Lounge

    For BA customers who have silver status or above, or who are travelling in a premium cabin, they can access all of the Oneworld lounges at Heathrow T3, which are Cathay Pacific, American Airlines, British Airways and Qantas.

    I get to fly American Airlines from time to time, both internationally and within the United States, and I’ve never had a bad experience. The staff member at the reception desk was typically American, full of enthusiasm, customer service training and friendliness.

    The lounge itself is large and wasn’t particularly busy, but everything seemed pretty well stocked up. There’s a First Class section to the lounge as well, but that’s beyond my access level unfortunately…..

    The lunch menu consisted of smoked Spanish style chicken and chorizo with roast new potatoes and green beans. There was also a cured meat platter and and a pasta option.

    There’s the cured meat platter mentioned on the menu.

    This is the Spanish style chicken and chorizo, although I neither saw nor tasted any chorizo element to it. It all tasted fine, the chicken was tender and the green beans were served al dente (I think that phrase really applies to pasta, but I’m applying it to green beans anyway).

    So Cathay Pacific are very proud of their noodle bar serving dim sum and other delicacies. American Airlines don’t have anything like that, but they have a sweet counter instead. This is partly why I like American Airlines so much…..

    How rather lovely.

    Reading other reviews, not many people pick the American Airlines lounge as their favourite if they’re taking part in a lounge crawl. Perhaps it isn’t, but I think it’s better than a fair few people say it is. Friendly service, spacious and, well, it has unlimited jelly beans and chocolate mints.