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  • Flights – British Airways (Luxembourg to Heathrow T3)

    A morning flight back to Heathrow T3 from the beautiful country of Luxembourg.

    A relatively light load across the cabin, which meant sufficient space in the overhead lockers. I had a row to myself, the same as on the way out.

    As for the crew, they were exceptional. The crew member who managed the cabin had a service style which made me wonder if he was a crew trainer, he was faultless. He introduced himself to everyone and he remembered the names of all of the customers, that alone is a very impressive service standard which is rarely ever attained by the crew. For the first time in a long while, I’ve contacted BA to tell them just how good he was.

    There was a choice between warm quiche or the above, which is smoked salmon with cottage cheese. Served with a roll, which appeared after I took the photo, and fruit and dessert. The salmon was sapid and flavoursome, the cottage cheese was unexceptional and the cucumber was, well, cucumber. BA seem to have thing about capers, and I’m certainly not one to complain as they add taste and texture. Overall, it was a perfectly acceptable brunch, as the airline calls it.

    Note my initial choice of drink, which was sparkling water, was served alongside with a champagne I hadn’t even thought of having until the crew member so politely mentioned that it went well with the salmon. As did the glasses of it he followed up with during the flight.

    The flight departed about five minutes early and landed around ten minutes early, not that I was in any particular rush. Heathrow T3 was well staffed, so I was able to leave the airport within twenty minutes of having landed. I’m sure that BA is on an upwards trajectory again after some years of complacency….

  • Luxembourg – Luxembourg Airport

    Luxembourg airport this morning, it looked quite inviting as dawn started to break….

    The view over the runways….

  • Trier

    I’ve had two visits to Trier, unfortunately, my first visit to Trier in June 2018 was very brief, at just three hours whilst I waited for my connecting Flixbus. However, the depth of history here meant that I came back in January 2019   🙂

    JANUARY 2019

    Colourful Buildings

    Roman Bridge (Römerbrücke)

    Bastion Südallee

    River Moselle in the Morning

    Woolworth

    Ibis Styles

    Fleischstraße

    Therman am Viehmarkt

    Backwerk

    Chicken Lounge

    Schweinehüter

    Klemens Pfeil, Alfons Pfeil and Louise Pfeil

    Imperial Baths (Kaiserthermen or Barbarathermen)

    Amphitheater

    Porta Nigra Model

    Burgeramt

    Market Cross (Marktkreuz)

    McRib

    Porta Nigra

    Braterei Betz

    Back Again

     

    JUNE 2018

    Trier Railway Station

    Flixbus

    St. Anthony’s Church

    Porta Nigra

    Galeria Kaufhof

    Kaufland

    Cathedral of St. Peter

    Karl Marx

    Basilica of Constantine

     

  • Trier – Colourful Buildings

    I won’t upload hundreds of random photos of buildings, but there were some interesting and colourful frontages of properties in the city.

  • Trier – Roman Bridge (Römerbrücke)

    At first impressions this just looks like any other road bridge spanning a wide river, in this case the Moselle. However, it’s the oldest bridge in Germany and dates back to the second century AD. The upper part is modern, but the nine bridge pillars are all original Roman. The French destroyed the upper part of the bridge in 1689 and it was later widened in 1931.

    The Germans didn’t destroy the bridge during their retreat during the Second World War, although this seems to be more down to technical problems than any desire to maintain the historic structure.

    A plaque noting the antiquity of the bridge.

    And a reconstruction of what part of the bridge would have looked like in Roman times.

  • Trier – Bastion Südallee

    There’s no information about this structure at the site, but it’s known as Bastion Südallee, or the Bastion on the South Avenue. This street used to be the line of the city wall, but it was demolished in the nineteenth century and turned into a park.

    The bastion, also known as the Red Tower, was saved from being demolished. It was originally built in 1543 with the tower being fortified and the lower level was used as a gun chamber.

    Unfortunately, the downstairs section is only occasionally opened up to the public and it’s a shame that something a little more can’t be done with this structure.

     

  • Trier – River Moselle in the Morning

    The River Moselle looking just a little foreboding in the morning…..

  • Trier – Woolworth

    In Germany, the Woolworth name lives on, originally founded as a subsidiary of the US chain in 1927. Between 2007 and 2010 it was owned by the British company Argyll Partners, before being sold to Tengelmann, who were able to save it from decline. They’ve been opening up new stores and have acquired the rights to expand the chain to countries across Europe, with the exception of the UK.

  • Trier – Ibis Styles

    The Ibis Styles in Trier, tucked away in the courtyard of the city’s former Post Office.

    Ibis Styles is part of the Accor chain and I like them because of their informal feel and their almost excessive theming. I say almost, as I really like it, they tend to take it a bit far and it makes for a different kind of visit (see here for Ibis Styles Bremen and Ibis Styles Grudziądz). This hotel is Roman themed, which is appropriate given Trier’s history, and includes a little statue in the room.

    The ceilings are apparently nearly four metres tall, so there’s an inevitable feeling of space and the room is also sizeable in itself.

    That isn’t real stone, but it looks realistic at first look, and there’s more subtle Roman theming with the not insubstantial image of an Emperor looking out onto the room.

    Just in case that’s not enough, this is the image on the bathroom wall. All marvellous, I like it.

    This is the flooring in some of the public areas and it’s realistic since it’s actually carpet.

    My Accor status got me an upgraded room, I think the others are smaller, and this free beer. The hotel doesn’t have its own restaurant, so I didn’t expect anything, but this was a kind gesture.

    The breakfast room was spacious, as it can be just a little tiresome trying to find a seat in some hotels. There were no issues here on any of the three mornings I came for breakfast, all organised and efficient.

    The food quality was decent, lots of peppered salami which pleased me. Good quality rolls and some hot options, of which the bacon was particularly tempting. The breakfast room was clean, tidy and organised, all very relaxing.

    The staff in this hotel were friendly and engaging, doing their best to help. There isn’t coffee or tea in the rooms, but they do have help yourself flasks of it downstairs, which was a popular option for many. The prices were reasonable and the hotel itself seemed spotless to me, a rather remarkable effort. I couldn’t really find any fault of note and I’d stay here again in a visit to Trier….

  • Trier – Fleischstraße

    The city’s Butcher Street is easy to locate, since they’ve put a big sign up at the entrance, and it’s one of the most historic streets in Trier. It was pedestrianised in 1977 and was named after the meat stalls which were operated along here by butchers in the medieval period.

    Many of the historic buildings along here were though unfortunately destroyed during the Second World War. This included the property at number 14, a fifteenth century property which had partially rebuilt in the eighteenth century and which was then used as a school and courts.