Although the city changed from French rule to British rule in 1763, only a mere 1.5% of the population is considered an Anglophone — 95% of Québec’s population speaks French as its first language. Québec City is the seat of Québecois government and about 95% of the people conduct the government in French. With a total of 550,000 people living in the city, appx. 50,000 were provincial government and 30,000 were Federal and government subcontractors…so a LOT of these Québec City residents are fluent in French.

Sure, Québec is French Canadian, but there’s no doubt that these parts were settled by the French not too long ago. Many things about the walled city are similar to Arles, a walled city in “its motherland.” In fact, Grande Allee looks almost identical to a road in Arles. And, FYI: this street is DEAD on a Monday night at 11pm in May…although rumored to be hopping on weekends in the summer.

Even though you surely won’t need as much time to explore this small city as you would in Montreal, the drive up is absolutely, 110% worth it because of the pretty Canadian countryside you pass on the way up and also for the authenticity it offers– despite feeling a bit like a tourist trap.

After wearing shorts in Montreal (in May), just a few hours north (and, granted, a significant cold front coming in), it was literally FREEZING in Québec City. I mean, WTF? All I packed was flip-flops and we’ve only got 1 day in this city…so, as much as I wanted to stay inside, explore we must. The #FWP of a self-proclaimed “adventurer.”

Inside the walled city, the atmosphere is a little more lively, with at least a few stragglers walking along the streets and several bars filled with who I would assume to be fellow tourists. The Saint Alexandre Pub was filled with people at 11:45 pm on a Monday night. We highly recommend it for a little atmosphere– and a break from the numbing cold.

The post Québec City – A Photo Gallery Walking Tour first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

BATHROOM

Proving size was really the theme of the experience, even the bathroom was huge:

I took a quick glimpse of the stairs, just to confirm that we were, in fact, on the 2nd floor:

ON-BOARD BAR

Before turning in for the night, we walked around the cabin to explore the on-board bar.

The bar is situated on the top deck of the A380 aircraft, in-between First and Business class:

It was completely empty when we made our way over.

We were a bit dismayed to find that the bar wasn’t stocked as it normally is due to Ramadan, but you can certainly lounge in the area. A flight attendant came over and said that she’d be happy to discreetly make us a drink of our choice in the galley and then bring it in.

The bone-dry bar

The sitting/lounging area was very nice and had seating for 6. We took a few pictures and then headed back to our seats for bed.

THE SEAT – SLEEPING CONVERSION

Having had plenty of food and drinks for one day, we decided it was time to catch a few zzzzs. The flight attendant swiftly converted the suite to sleeping mode while we got ready for bed in the bathroom.

We returned to find the sofa portion of the seat folded down and nicely made up with comfortable sheets and pillows. One of the coolest parts is that, if the divider between the apartments is lowered, our beds were basically touching, so we had the illusion of sleeping in the same bed, which is a nice option if you’re traveling together.

While in the bathroom, we took the opportunity to change into the provided pajamas which was the perfect decision before hopping into the lavish bed.

Pajama time!

The bed is huge and is advertised as 6 feet 10 inches long!

SHOWER

About 3.5 hours before departure, the flight attendants realized that I was awake and came by to announce that I could have a shower whenever I wanted. I let her know soon after and she set off to prepare it. If one is offered the opportunity to shower at 6+ miles high in the sky, there is no choice but to take advantage.

The shower area was loaded down with Bergamote amenities:

Here are a few poor quality photos, sorry in advance:

Pretty crazy and surreal to shower in the sky. The bathroom is large enough to change in and there’s a hairdryer stocked there, too, so the shower is a comfortable experience.

INTERNET

After taking a refreshing shower, I enjoyed a cappuccino and did a bit of computer work.

I purchased Internet for the entire flight for $21.95 and found it to be quite fast and very usable! A quick speed test rendered download speeds of ~4.5 Mbps but upload speeds of only 0.17 Mbps, good thing sending emails and browsing the internet mostly relies on the download speed.

The sun was up and the rest of the cabin began to stir:

DINING/MEAL SERVICE – “BREAKFAST”/LUNCH

With just a short time before touchdown, the flight attendants came around to set our tables for the final meal service.

Instead of “breakfast”, we wanted to better adjust to Melbourne time and thus ordered more of a lunch since it was around 4 pm Australia-time after all.

We started with a tray of freshly sliced fruit.

And a Bloody Mary, because “why not?”

We each ordered a soup, the “Spinach and Green Lentil” and “Green Pea and Mint Soup”. The pea soup was fine but we found the lentil to be much better. The “cripsy Arabic bread” that it was topped with was delicious, though.

McCown tried the Chicken Breast with “zucchini, fava bean, and lemon risotto.”

I ordered the Gulf Mix Grill with “Mint tikka, lamb kofta, markook roll, muhamarra with labneh” and it was certainly one of the highlights of the onboard dining.

And the most depressing part of the flight was that we didn’t get to see much of the sun as it was already setting as we made our approach to Melbourne.

SERVICE

Excellent service. I think it can be attributed partly to the fact that there were only a total of 4 people in the entire cabin.

At the press of the button, someone is by your side in just a matter of seconds.

You feel like they are almost just there for you (again, because only 4/9 seats are used on this flight), but nevertheless, very professional, friendly and helpful.

And, just like that, our 14+ hour stay in the First Apartment was over as we deplaned in Melbourne.

BOTTOM LINE: Although a 14+ hour plane ride seems like it would drag on forever, this flight literally passed like lightning – we couldn’t believe we were already in Australia! Flying in the first apartment was one of bucket list items (and really, the main reason why we picked Australia as our destination – to have the longest amount of time on-board) and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

The post Etihad A380 First Apartment – Flight EY 460 Abu Dhabi-AUH to Melbourne-MEL – Part 2 first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

BOOKING

We booked with Hyatt Cash+Points for $125 + 10,000 points per night. Cash rates are easily in the $500+ range, so it makes redeeming points a very attractive offer.

We used a Suite Night Award and were booked into a “Park Suite King” and “59 to 72 sqm: Sitting area: Shower and bathtub: Flat TV: DVD: Butler.”

CHECK-IN

When we were headed to the hotel from the domestic airport (Buenos Aires-AEP), the cab driver had never heard of the hotel– we had to show him name of hotel– but it wasn’t until he read the address that he finally had a general idea of where to take us. Then, he drove right past the entrance, but we said it was fine and just jumped out at the intersection. Walking up, the hotel staff obviously seemed a bit confused that we were arriving by (what looked to be) foot.

At check-in, she confirmed our stay and rate and said, “we have a great room for you in our historic building” — perfect. As it turns out, there are essentially 2 hotels in one: a newer building with many more rooms and the old, renovated “palace” or mansion, connected by a courtyard (and underground walkway).

underground walkway between the two buildings

ROOM

The room, a Park Suite on the Palace side, was very well appointed but somewhat small. In fact, I’m not sure that it could even qualify as a “suite” as it had no separate sitting area or room, just a bedroom with a very large bathroom. From what we’ve read online, the suites are much larger in the newer, more contemporary building, but we really liked the style, feel and decor of the Palace building with the very stately feel of the deep molding around the ceiling and the huge antique windows.

view from room window

Within a few hours of checking in, two of the “butlers” arrived with our welcome gift: a fruit tray with apples, some type of chocolate snack and a bottle of Malbec wine.

BATHROOM

The bathroom was huge- almost as big as the bedroom itself. There’s a bathtub in the main, open area with the sinks and then a closed-in shower and separate toilet area. Plenty of space for two people to get ready at the same time.

SERVICE

While we didn’t need anything special while we were there, we found the service at check-in, breakfast, etc. to be top-notch. They were very helpful if needed, and friendly- everything we’ve come to expect and appreciate in a Park Hyatt.

Welcome letter

PROPERTY

The historic property feels regal and luxurious and, for us, provided a comfortable home base for our stay in Buenos Aires. While we didn’t get as much time to enjoy the courtyard as we would have liked, the view from the breakfast table was charming and it was nice to have the feel of both an old, palatial building coupled with a new, modern one.

One if the lobbys

Big area with an in house florist

RESTAURANT(S)

Breakfast was included with our stay and was served in the larger, more modern building. Totally worth the walk, though, because everything was fantastic: a very fresh, hearty breakfast that we looked forward to each morning. There were many options and we took our time savoring the breakfast each day. It was on par with other Park Hyatts around the world, but much better than the Park Hyatt Mendoza where we’d just come from.

A few pictures of the other restaurants and bars:

BOTTOM LINE: 

The Park Hyatt BA didn’t disappoint. We’d eagerly stay here again if we found ourselves in Buenos Aires. The luxurious-feel, historic building and delicious breakfast all fit into what we’ve come to know and love about Park Hyatts.

The post Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Review first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

BOOKING

We booked this bucket list flight using American Airlines AAdvantage miles for a total of 60,000 miles; this was before a major AAdvantage devaluation and now the flight would cost you 100,000 miles for the one-way route from the “Middle East” region to the “South Pacific” region. Furthermore, since we both have the Barclay AA credit card, we got a 10% rebate, driving the total price down to 54,000 miles + ~$79 in taxes each for the ~$6,300+ flight. We got even more value than that though since we arranged a 23 hours stopover in Melbourne-MEL before continuing on to Townsville, Australia-TSV in Qantas Business Class.

CHECK-IN

We were able to take advantage of the free Etihad Chauffeur Service from the Park Hyatt Dubai to Abu Dhabi International Airport for our Etihad flight.

Our (free!) chauffeur service

The trip took about 1.5 hours total.

The airport has a dedicated First & Business class check-in area.

And so the experience begins!

First Class check-in desks

We left the lounge and made the (extremely) long trek to Gate 61 in Terminal 3, literally the furthest away from the Lounge.

As we approached the gate area, they were doing a secondary document check:

BOARDING

Knowing it would be dark at the time of boarding, we snuck a few pictures before hopping in the lounge:

Etihad A6-APG sitting at the gate

We made our way down (ok, more so really up since we were on top deck) of the long jet bridge to board the flight.

We took a left after boarding to find the First Class cabin:

While I didn’t necessarily need to be shown to my seat since I’d studied it online numerous times and been counting down the days to this moment, a flight attendant escorted us anyway. She showed us to our seats, 3K and 4K:

Of the 9 First Class seats (well, 10 if you include The Residence), there were just 2 other passengers aboard, so 4 of us total.

SEAT

The seat was, well, let me just type a direct quote from McCown as we got settled it: “OMG. There was what I expected and anticipated from reading many, many reviews and then there’s the real thing. And let me just say, OMG.”

The sheer size and space and privacy are unprecedented and staggering.

The big, leather seat is luxurious and makes you feel like you’re visiting your grandfather instead of couped up on a plane.

The couch is perfect for having company over in your apartment. And then switched into a bed when you’re ready to sleep.

I mean, it’s realistically closer to a throne than a seat:

The empty neighboring suite

View from seat 4K

View of IFE and sofa (that converts to a bed)

The actual seat featured a few tactile buttons as well as a touchscreen for a variety of controls.

It was all really a sensory overload. The tiny compartments, sliding doors and gadgets and gizmos to check out will leave your head spinning.

Here are just a few of the storage compartments:

With the A380 being a nice, new modern aircraft, it did not lack power/USB outlets:

And it wouldn’t be a true “apartment” without your own fridge stocked with a few soft drinks and waters:

Or without a personal vanity table:

The vanity was loaded down with the amenity kit and various toiletries:

The exterior of the compartment, near the door, opens to reveal a tiny closet suitable for holding a few articles of clothing.

I mean there’s just so much space!

Shortly after getting settled in, a pre-departure glass of champagne was offered. It was served with dates and a warm towel.

Cheers!

There was also a nice letter welcoming us to the experience.

In-flight Entertainment

The First Apartment features a giant screen with a great entertainment selection and, at 24″, makes it one of the biggest in the industry, possibly the actual biggest since it looks like Singapore, BA, and Emirates don’t exceed 23″.

The handset was pretty cool because it can be used as a mini TV or as a remote to select and then broadcast to the bigger choice, very helpful since the enormous suite prohibits you from touching the main LCD screen to change the program.

One of the cool features I found was picture-in-picture, meaning you can broadcast a movie and also watch the tail camera.

Did I mention tail camera? I just love that A380 tail camera, it really never gets old.

A little too dark for a good image but you get the idea

So cool to see a bird’s eye view of this mammoth gliding through the sky

While they weren’t name brand and certainly not anything special, the noise canceling headphones worked well enough.

The safety video played and highlighted just how big the A380 is with a ton of emergency exits.

And, as always, Etihad make it easy to find Abu Dhabi and Mecca at any given point.

DINING/MEAL SERVICE – DINNER

Right after takeoff, we were offered a nice Chardonnay with a few snacks such as olives, crunchy Asian snacks (wasabi etc.), warm nuts.

Once the pre-dinner drink and snacks were cleared, the flight attendant came around and offered to set our tables so that we could dine together. It’s still hard to imagine that all of this is happening at 35,000 feet in the sky.

Might as well wash it down with a Manhattan, since they’re offering

Despite not being hungry in the least, we caved in and took advantage of the in-flight dining. I ordered the Steak Frites from the “Lounge and Grill” section of the menu which “offers sophisticated yet familiar favorites.” I tried to order it rare but said they couldn’t with the way they cook it on the plane. We settled on medium rare which was perfectly fine and it turned out beautifully. It was served with onions, tomatoes and Bernadine sauce. The steak was delicious and everything on the plate was really very good.

While I had just one course, McCown wasted no time in ordering 3 in all. Her first course was the Gulf Mezze: “a selection of hot and cold appetizers.” It included a spinach and cheese kabob (more like a fried wrap) and beef kabob (fried beef ball)- the beef kabob was the best thing I’d tasted in days.  Hummus, baba ganoush, tabouli (all very fresh and much better than even expected), served with Arabian bread (pita), pickled carrots and olives.

Somewhere in between, a refreshing dish with grapefruit was served– hard to remember exactly when as the drinks were flowing by this point.

For the second course, we tried the Sea Bass with purple potatoes, asparagus, and carrots. The fish was delightful, cooked perfectly and not too “fishy” at all. It was served with a buttery sauce that made the fish very good.

The final course was named “Textures” and featured 3 types of camel milk-inspired desserts, all with very different textures.  We sampled the ganache, mousse and ice cream. All three were very chocolatey and quite rich but all very tasty. Although it was made with camel milk “flavor,” there was no distinct, unusual flavor.

The full dining experience was awesome, and made that much better since the tables have room for 2!

Continued in Part 2 with pictures of the onboard bar, shower, the seat in sleeping mode, breakfast etc.

The post Etihad A380 First Apartment – Flight EY 460 Abu Dhabi-AUH to Melbourne-MEL – Part 1 first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Mendoza is quite a small, mostly domestic, airport. They have a few international flights, but mainly just to Santiago, Chile-SCL, just on the other side of the mountains. Our hotel advised us that arriving appx 1 hour before departure is more than enough time to check-in with bags when traveling to Buenos Aires.

BOOKING

We booked this segment as part of a larger Delta SkyMiles award ticket. Finding and adding Aerolíneas Argentinas award space to a Delta award reservation can be a bit tricky, so check out our guides here: Booking an Awesome Argentina Itinerary with Delta SkyMiles + Other SkyTeam Partners and All about our South American trip to Chile and Argentina: Santiago, Mendoza and Buenos Aires.

CHECK-IN

We arrived right at 10:25 am, one hour in advance, and made our way up to the Aerolíneas Argentinas check-in counter. There were only about 3 people in line with plenty of agents available to help. We handed over our passports and checked our 3 bags without any trouble.

BOARDING

There seem to be very few gates and waiting areas, so they had us wait until the small post-security gate was clear. Once we got on the other side of security, the waiting area was virtually empty:

Boarding, from what I could gather, started with rows 22-15 and then everyone else. This makes total sense: let those in the very back board first which, in theory, should speed up the boarding process.

SEAT

Our aircraft was a Boeing 737-700, in a 3 x 3 configuration with appx 22 rows of 6 across in economy + a 1st class cabin with 2 rows of 2 x 2:

We made it to our seats near the back of the plane:

The plane is noticeably older but still in fine shape with cloth seats. The pitch of the seats seemed quite small. It seemed like tighter legroom than most domestic Delta flights, probably more in line with AirAsia or Spirit Airlines.

The plane was only about 1/2 to 2/3 full with lots of empty seats. This might explain why they had already canceled a few of the flights before us in the morning: cancel one and just move those passengers to the later flight.

Seated by the window and ready to take off!

After a quick safety demonstration, we were airborne!

MEAL SERVICE

The drink and snack service was started promptly upon reaching cruising altitude so as to try and serve everyone on the relatively short flight.

While no choice was given, we were handed snack boxes with mini alfajores, cheese crackers, and another small pastry.

If nothing else, the boxes were cool and celebrated the history of flight and the airline

After a short flight, we began our descent into Buenos Aires.

Touchdown at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires!

After deplaning, we rushed off to baggage claim and then into the city to start our few days in Buenos Aires!

The post Aerolíneas Argentinas AR 1413 Mendoza-MDZ to Buenos Aires-AEP first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Because Singapore is a hub, they’ve made sightseeing during a layover very easy! The airport offers free two-hour tours but, since we had more time than that, we opted to DIY and head out on the hop-on, hop-off bus. This gave us the freedom to do things on our own time and see more than the 2-hour free tour, plus Singapore Airlines/Silk Air boarding pass holders receive a 50% discount on bus tickets! We purchased adult tickets for just $19.50 SGD (roughly $14 USD) each once we hopped on a bus.

We knew that our luggage was checked through to our next destination, so we only had our carry-ons. We opted to store most of what we were carrying so we’d have less things to lug around with us all day and found the baggage storage at the airport to be more than adequate. Plus, there’s a storage area in all three terminals, so it’s very convenient no matter where you’re flying in/out (and pretty cheap for just carry-ons since they charge by weight).

Once we were free of everything but the day’s essentials, we headed through customs and right to the metro stop inside the airport (the metro leaves from Terminals 2 and 3).

It takes about an hour to get into the city center from the airport, so be sure to factor traveling time in your layover plan. We got off the metro at City Hall and walked to the nearby bus stop: aptly named City Hall, too.

Once on the Red Line bus, we decided to stay aboard until we found stops that we wanted to explore more, knowing that we’d get to see more stops if we stayed on the bus longer. Here are the stops where we got off for a bit and explored on foot:

• Chinatown: having never been to China, Singapore’s Chinatown was as close as we’d get for a while, we figured. It was pretty similar to other Chinatowns we’ve seen, but still very cool to see and different from the rest of the city.

• Old Customs House (near the Raffles Hotel): The famous Singapore Sling cocktail was originally concocted at the Raffles Hotel. We headed to the Long Bar Steakhouse in the luxury hotel to try it from the original place. It’ll cost ya, though… just one drink costs close to $30 (!!) but it does come with all-you-can-eat peanuts.  

Note: The Long Bar Steakhouse is closed for renovations with plans to re-open in mid-2018, but you can still try the Singapore Sling at the nearby Bar & Billiard Room.

The grounds of the Raffles Hotel make you feel like you’re in a time machine to the colonial era since it was built in 1887. Even in the rain, it was very luxurious:

With just those two stops, we were running short on time, so we wanted to ride the bus through all the stops to see more of the city. One of the highlights? The Marina Bay Sands building with the boat on top! This is a resort with more than 12,000 rooms and a casino — built in 2010. It’s definitely a site not to miss!

Once we made it back to the City Hall stop, off we went to the metro to make it back for our connecting flight. We factored in some extra time to make sure we didn’t run into any issues and we were able to make it through customs easily with no problems.

Our short time in Singapore was awesome (despite the rain) and we’re excited to visit again for a longer time. Some things we learned: the city is very clean – even chewing gum is not allowed! – and it’s very, very expensive. It’s fun to compare huge Asian hubs like Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc. and we’re adding more to our bucket list to keep seeing the similarities and differences between these large world-class cities!

The post Singapore City Tour during a 10-Hour Layover first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

BOOKING

We booked this flight using United MileagePlus Miles. We spent a total of 90,000 miles each for the Business Class award, including:

• Lufthansa Business Class Charlotte-CLT to Munich-MUC
• Lufthansa Business Class Munich-MUC to Delhi-DEL
• Air India Business Class Delhi-DEL to Colombo-CMB
• United Economy Class Charleston-CHS to Newark-EWR

We purposely switched our flights around to have the opportunity to fly Lufthansa’s first A350 since it was a bit of a novelty and was still basically brand new.

CHECK-IN

Although most of the check-in was performed in Charlotte-CLT the day before, the gate agent was checking visas before boarding and marking boarding passes to help speed up the process later.

Boarding and visa check prior to boarding

LH D-AIXA waiting at the gate

BOARDING

Boarding was, as I’m sure we’ll be used to soon once in India, disorganized and very pushy. Quite crazy that people are in such a hurry to get on a plane that isn’t going to leave anyone behind.

Instead of breaking the boarding up by class or zone, they had priority boarding of wheelchairs and babies. But, that’s all the announcements they seemed to make as business class travelers just sort of started going through. Then, people were jumping lines; it was confusing and we didn’t know what to do next. Plus, while the priority boarders were still waiting on the elevator to take them downstairs, the business class travelers were streaming past them to get to the stairs….beating the priority boarders onto the plane. A bit odd…especially since this was Lufthansa.

Business Class boarding area, the calm before the storm of pushy people

Once past the gates, the jet bridge had 2 boarding doors, one for Economy and another for just Business Class (well also for First but the A350 is 3 cabin, not 4).

Rounding the corner, we found the bright, new and clean cabin:

Right after boarding we were offered a welcome drink:

SEAT

We quickly got situated into seats 5A and 5C.

The seats on this A350 are nothing new; it’s the same exact Business Class seat you’ll find on their A330s, A340s, A380s, 747-8s, etc.

It is, by all means, a great product, but it is quickly getting outdated as many other airlines have already switched to an all-aisle access Business Class cabin– that is to say: 1 x 2 x 1 as a seating configuration. Lufthansa, by contrast, has installed their standard (and relatively new) 2 x 2 x 2 seating configuration on this brand new plane.

Here’s the seating chart from Lufthansa’s A350s:

The Business class section (split up by a galley and lavatories) has 8 rows x 6 seats for a total of 48 seats.

And, here’s the seating chart for a bunch of other airlines that have received the A350; all of their cabins feature the 1-2-1 configuration:

One small complaint was that there was not a huge amount of storage space. Despite this, there was plenty of foot room for a bit of storage and it’s really hard to complain at all about having lie flat seats when traveling at 515 mph at 34,000 ft in the air.

Other features of the seat:

• Small cubby by side of seat that houses headphones
• 2x power plugs, one for each seat, by feet
• Small cubby with bottle of water and amenity kit by the floor
• Above that: a small place to hold menus, magazines etc.

Time for take off!

Beautiful day at MUC

IFE

While it might just be my imagination, the one thing that did seem upgraded from their standard Business Class seating was the IFE.

Having just taken a flight on a Lufthansa A333 the prior day, the A350 monitor seemed to be substantially bigger and of better quality. Also, the screen was a touch screen that was also able to be controlled by a handheld remote; this is a step up from the A333 aircraft. The screen also adjusted to help with the viewing angle depending on if you’re sitting upright, reclined or somewhere in between.

The movie selection was good, not great, but had plenty of Oscar-nominated new releases to help pass the time.

The TV show choices, however, were pretty bad.

A350

Here are a few A350 specific features:

Cameras

While I realized it’s no longer a complete novelty since it’s been around on the A380 for nearly a decade, I still just can’t get enough of watching the cameras that Airbus is installing on their aircraft these days.

Cabin pressure/humidity

Also, this might be totally my imagination, but I remember thinking to myself near the end of the flight how un-tired I felt despite having already been traveling for 24 hours. I have to think that this was partly due to the lower altitude pressurization settings (I’ve read that the cabins are set to 5-6,000 ft vs closer to 8,000 for a traditional airliner). And partly to the humidity that is being introduced to the cabin to prevent the air from being too dry.

Cabin noise

Upon takeoff, a flight attendant made mention of the reduced cabin noise of the A350. I have to say that I didn’t notice too much of a difference but maybe that’s the goal since you tend not to notice the absence of noise.

Cabin width

The A350s are said to have a wider cabin than other similarly sized aircraft; I think this is all margin, however, since the extra width allows them to squeeze in one extra row of seating in Economy to make it a 3-3-3 configuration. So, in reality, I think the extra width is really only around 18-24 inches max.

Time to enjoy the scenery on this great new aircraft:

Here’s a map of our route:

I thought it was pretty interesting that we totally avoided flying over Afghanistan:

Despite it being a bit out of the way from the most direct route:

MEAL SERVICE

Not long after takeoff, we were served a hot towel along with a cocktail and roasted almonds.

After the snack, we had a choice for appetizers and main courses. For an appetizer, I tried the “Smoked Filet of Trout, Cucumber Mustard Seed Salad and Lime Creme Fraiche.”

McCown had the “Chicken Breast scented with Thyme, Gazpacho Salad, roasted Artichoke and Basil Oil.” It was fresh, roasted chicken served cold. The basil oil tasted a bit like pesto and the dish was very refreshing.

For the main course, I had the “Grilled Corn-fed Poularde with Ginger Chicken Jus, Ratatouille and Pearl Barley Risotto.” Again, it had a great flavor and was very fresh tasting.

McCown went with the Indian option and tried the “Paneer Tikka Lababdar” which was an “Indian Cream Cheese cooked in a savory Bell Pepper, Onion and Tomato Sauce, Ragout of white and yellow Lentils cooked in Tomato and Onion Fond, steamed Indian Basmati Rice sautéed with Cumin, green and black Cardamom.” It was a great, spicy meal.

About 1.5 hours before touchdown, they came around to take drink and dinner orders.

We both had the Indian meal. Served all on 1 tray with appetizer, main and dessert. So, you could basically choose the Western or Indian track. The dish consisted of a few items:

• “Shakarkandi Chaat: Sweet Potato Salad marinated with Lemon Juice, Chaat Masala enhanced by Feta Cheese and Pomegranate Seeds garnished with Arugula Salad”
• “Avial: Stewed Carrots, Potatoes, Beans, Pumpkin and Eggplant cooked in a creamy sauce of Yogurt, Coconut and Curry Leaves, Ragout of green Moong Lentils and fresh Spinach prepared with Tomatoes and Ginger, steamed Indian Basmati Rice sautéed with Cumin, white Lentils and Cashew Nuts flavored with Tamarind and brown Mustard Gains”
• “Steamed Yogurt with Vanilla accompanied by Mango Coulis”

The cubed sweet potatoes with feta and pomegranate seeds on top was one of the highlights. The yogurt, on the other hand, was a bit strong and I didn’t find it very good as it had a bitter taste.

We learned that there was a Nespresso machine onboard capable of producing delicious espresso, so we took full advantage. Oddly enough, though, lattes/cappuccinos weren’t possible, so we just ordered a side of milk. I guess they just don’t have a good way to properly steam or heat the milk to call it a cappuccino.

SERVICE

Service was great. From what we could see, there were all German flight attendants with one who could speak fluent Hindi on board. All pretty attentive and fast. Friendly but definitely not overly friendly.

AMENITY KIT

The amenity kit was a bright blue color and made by Jil Sander Navy. While it was fine, it certainly wasn’t too nice and definitely not anything that I’ll be keeping and using in the future like Thai or EVA Air Rimowa or Delta Tumi kits.

We landed about 12:30 am Delhi time, about 20 minutes after the scheduled arrival time. This was due to airport congestion and caused us to circle for a bit before being granted landing permission:

We were excited to see the “Welcome to India” signs:

BOTTOM LINE: We were thrilled to have been some of the first people ever to fly Lufthansa’s first Airbus A350. The cabin was fantastic and service was great, as well.

The post Lufthansa A350 Business Class – Munich-MUC to Delhi-DEL LH 762 first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

As a result, we were purposely very, VERY early arriving at the airport for as much lounge-time as possible before heading to our gate. We checked in quickly and were welcomed into the lounge which is located immediately after going through security.

CHECK-IN/ACCESS

We were greeted at the entrance and, after checking our boarding passes, she ushered us onto an elevator. One of the best parts about this lounge is the exclusivity, access cannot be purchased at the gate and there are very few ways to gain access. Here’s a list of ways in:

• Etihad guests of The Residence
• Etihad First Class guests
• Etihad Guest Platinum member + 1 guest
• Etihad Airways Partner airlines platinum members + 1 guest
• Virgin Australia Velocity Platinum members + 1 guest

First thoughts: the lounge is absolutely huge! It is apparently nearly 1,700 sq m (18,000+ sq ft) and has more than 16 “zones”, i.e. distinct areas that help break up the lounge and make it feel very private, even if you’re one of 100 guests.

FOOD & DINING

After arriving in the lounge, we kept up with the standard procedure of our trip thus far: eating a meal while not hungry in the least. A server showed us to a nice window seat and we began the quite elaborate dining process. In fact, I imagine this is how most people kill their limited time in the lounge. Our start-to-stop dining experience was nearly 1.5 hours.

–> FULL-SERVICE DINING

The full-service dining area was enormous

Full-service dining area

Views of…mainly construction + a few airplanes

Our server didn’t have to do too much arm twisting to convince us to try the 5-course Emirates Palace tasting menu.

Emirates Palace Dining Menu

The multi-course feast consisted of the following: starter (dates), foie gras de terrine (a course that we added from the a la carte menu), soup, scallops, lamb and then a great dessert.

The first course was a simple date filled with yogurt and crumbled pistachio. The sweet and delicious snack definitely left us wanting more.

Dates with Chami: fresh dates with local homemade yogurt

We added on a course of the Foie Gras Terrine, because, why not?

Foie Gras Terrine: slow-roasted plums, fig and ginger jam with bitter almond tuile

The chicken & barley soup was also good but we didn’t eat it all to save room for the next courses.

Chicken and Barley Soup: rich broth with tender poached pieces of chicken, onion and fresh coriander

The next dish, Scallops Mughrabia was by far the highlight of the meal. Mughrabia is a traditional ingredient in Lebanese cuisine and is essentially a type of wheat-based pasta, about the size of a chickpea and not unlike orzo. We were told everything was made at the in-house kitchen and certainly believed it after tasting this dish. The rich, flavorful saffron sauce was amazing.

Scallops Mughrabia: pan-fried scallops, mughrabia infused with saffron and finished with herbs

As for the main meat dish, we sampled the Lamb Medfoud. The slow-cooked lamb dish was a perfect portion, perfectly tender with amazing flavors. It was served over a bed of saffron rice which was also very tasty.

Lamb Medfoun: marinated roasted local lamb, saffron rice and tomato chickpea stew

For dessert, we tried the Batheatha, which was prepared with layers of special dough made of dates, saffron (they love cooking with this stuff!) and cardamom and filled with fresh cream. It was decadent and we were certainly unable to finish the whole thing!

Batheatha: layers of special dough made of dates, saffron and cardamom, filled with fresh cream

We finished off with some mint tea.

Each course was unique and had a vast contrast of flavors; all-in-all, it was a phenomenal, top-notch dining experience that I would easily expect to pay at least $150 per person for in any western city. All ingredients are sourced from within the UAE and cooked in their local kitchen.

Full-service dining area

Kitchen and bar seating in full-service dining area

–> SELF SERVE DINING

If you’re tight on time or simply don’t want to spend 1 to 1.5 hours having an elaborate meal, there are plenty of quicker options to enjoy for food.

Self-serve coffee machine

Self-serve dining area

Self-serve dining area

BAR & DRINKS

The bar–arguably the most important part of any airport lounge–was closed until sunset due to Ramadan. It opened somewhere around 7:15 to 7:30, depending on whoever is officially in charge of announcing sunset (but seriously, could that be someone’s job?). They had a few special cocktails that are only available in the Abu Dhabi lounge (they have special cocktails that are unique to each lounge around the world).

A bartender setting up the bar display as they get ready to open after sunset

Lounge area near the bar

A smaller bar, with alcohol still hidden due to Ramadan

Lounge area near the main bar

After sunset, we tried a few of the cocktails from the drink list.

This “Los Angeles” drink came topped with cotton candy!

Relaxing with a drink after dinner and the massage

STYLE, SPA & SHAVE

Passengers flying in First Class with Etihad are entitled to one free 15-minute treatment: either an Express Salon treatment (Express Clipper Cut or Express Wet Shave) or any of the 15-minute spa treatments from back to head to foot massage or even a facial or jetlag body treatment.

–> Six Senses Spa

We both made an appointment for a massage. We found it to be a VERY intense back massage, nearly painful at times. But I guess that’s what you get when you say you’re fine with a lot of pressure. It was a chair, not a table, and you basically sat backward with your feet wrapped under you– interesting, instead of lying down.

The massage lasted 13 minutes and was very well done. They poured some strong aromatic scents on a towel for you to smell at the very beginning and then rang a gong to end it. The room was private and they separated the genders into different sides with relaxing music playing- you couldn’t hear anything going on outside.

–> SHAVE

I paid an additional $15 US for a wet shave after the back massage. The guy that performed the service was great and it was truly a unique experience as it was my first time having this done and quite cool to have it done at an airport none the less.

The “Style” room where they give haircuts and wet shaves

Clean shaven and ready for the flight!

GYM

I had the guy that performed the wet shave show me around the gym. It had a treadmill, elliptical, etc… Also a dumbbell set with weights you must change yourself. There’s a shower inside, as well.

The gym: a bit cramped but certainly functional

Shower off the side of the gym to freshen up after a workout

Compact dumbell set in the gym

I can’t imagine that the gym gets much use, especially for people that are originating their journey in Abu Dhabi. Maybe for connecting passengers who want to stretch a bit after a long flight. But you’d really have to plan ahead for this and probably pack your workout gear in your carry on. Again, I can’t imagine that this will get much use but it’s cool nonetheless.

OTHER LOUNGE FEATURES

–> Relax and Recline Room

“If you need to use this time to gather your thoughts, visit our Relax and Recline Room. Recline on our comfortable Poltrona Frau leather chairs and enjoy a sensory experience with a combination of soothing sounds and imagery on our video wall. Any sounds from the main lounge will fade so you can lose yourself for a few minutes, or maybe longer.”

–> Play Room

–> Smoking Room

–> TV Room

–> Private Family Room

–> Cigar Lounge

Enjoy one of nine best-in-class varieties of cigars and a large selection of single malt whiskies and Cognac.

–> Bathrooms

SERVICE

The service was fantastic — while I was waiting off on the side, the lady walked over and addressed me as Mr. Griffin. She had not met me before and did not have my boarding pass. They must have a description for all current guests in the lounge. Magic.

After talking to our waitress in the dining area, we found out that many of the Food and Beverage Managers from planes had been pulled to work at the lounge for 3 months. We found that pretty intriguing that the airline decided to pull tried and true employees for the opening of the lounge instead of hiring new people (and, I guess, train the new hires while working). You could tell that these people had plenty of experience and it was really top-notch service.

Also, we found it quite interesting that there were no Emiratis working in the lounge; everyone we met was from a country pretty far away from the UAE. The people who we encountered were from India, South Africa, Trinidad & Tobego and Serbia– quite the eclectic and global group (and, all very good looking).

BOTTOM LINE:

It sounds like this lounge was under construction for quite some time but we agreed that it was definitely worth the wait. It is truly a world-class experience and we would have loved to have spent even more time in the lounge. It is worth the flight to Abu Dhabi and by far the best airport lounge we’ve ever been to. Kudos to Etihad for making this lounge an experience by itself.

The post Etihad Airways Flagship First Class Lounge – Abu Dhabi-AUH first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Turns out, though, that planning a day trip to wineries is a little harder than we thought. Mendoza’s wine regions stretch out over more than 350,000 acres and there are three separate regions within Mendoza. So, with just one day set aside for this, we quickly realized we couldn’t see it all. First, we had to pick a region (we went with Maipú) and then we had to choose a plan. We had the option of paying for a tour that picked up and dropped off at our hotel but, for a fraction of the cost, we could make our own private tour if we were a little more adventurous.

We found “Mr. Hugo’s” bike rental and decided to go that route as opposed to the all-inclusive (and much more expensive) bus tour. For a much, much, much more affordable cost, we could find our own way out to Maipú and we thought it’d be more fun to take the local bus anyway. We took a city bus for 8 pesos to Maipú. The trip is pretty short– only take about 40 minutes total from the city center:

The best news is that the bus drivers know exactly what’s up. They let us know exactly when we should get off the bus and then pointed us (and the two other English-speaking tourists on the crowded bus of locals) toward Mr. Hugo’s.

1- Mr. Hugo’s

Update: Mr. Hugo’s appears to have closed. Instead, try Maipú Bikes (Website / TripAdvisor) which has fantastic reviews and is just a few blocks up the road from the old Mr. Hugo’s.

Mr. Hugo himself welcomed us and we watched as a whole boatload of Americans chugged champagne from the bottle then finished with beer before riding off into the sunset 11 am sunshine. I think the 50 – 70-year-olds all took the all-inclusive & more expensive bus tour choice, so you’re mixed in more with the party crowd on the DIY bike tours. That was fine with us and really more of what we were after anyway, but just something to consider when deciding which route to choose.

We rented bikes for 70 pesos each (looks like it’s up to 100 pesos/bike now because of inflation… still, that’s roughly $5-$7 USD). Mr. Hugo gave us a small paper with a suggested route showing all the wineries around (the drawing isn’t to scale, so some wineries had more space between them than we thought).

We started biking around 12:30 pm and took a total of 4 hr 15 mins of which about 1 hr 15 mins was spent actually biking and the remaining 3 hours we enjoyed eating and drinking in the various wineries and the biergarten.

Here’s a map of some of the highlights:

2- Museo del Vino

Website / TripAdvisor

Our first stop was “Museo del Vino” which is very close to Mr. Hugo’s. Spanish tours are 70 pesos/person but English tours require a reservation (which we didn’t have) and were 100 pesos/group. The good news is that the actual museum is free and it has lots of cool artifacts and old machinery in the wine production department:

They have a nice tasting room and sell glasses for 38 – 328 pesos and tasting for 90 – 220 ARS.

3- Vinoteca La Botella

Website / TripAdvisor

Next, we biked to La Botella for a free tasting advertised on Mr. Hugo’s route. The free wine was obviously pretty bad and was just used to get you in the door, but then we also tried the tasting of three (better) wines for 20 pesos each.

From there, we biked down the main road looking for the Trapiche winery but it was very hard to find! At many times, the road doesn’t have a proper bike lane, but cars and trucks do seem very cognizant of cyclists and pedestrians and move way over, so we always felt pretty safe.

4- El Patio Cervecero Beer Garden

Website / TripAdvisor

Finally, we stumbled across the “Biergarten,” but don’t be dissuaded, as we almost were. It’s really just a cafe with pizzas, empanadas, 3 types of draft beer and wines by the glass. We weren’t really feeling a biergarten on our winery tour, but it had a cool, relaxed vibe and was a great stop for a cheap and quick lunch. The English-speaking staff and free wifi make it fantastic. (3x empanadas for 8 ARS each and 550 mL for 32 ARS. Glass of red for 25 ARS.)

Our weather couldn’t have been more perfect: the leaves were changing and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Perfect fall weather – crisp, not humid at all (and a nice reprieve from the weather back at home with humidity ramping up for our springtime).

We also noticed that there were plenty of others who had rented bikes and were following the same route as us, but we think in peak tourist season, this place would be crawling and quite possibly over-crowded.

5- Trapiche

Website / TripAdvisor

On our ride back to Mr. Hugo’s, we finally found Trapiche! We rode into the perfectly manicured winery that was by far the largest and most well-maintained stop of our day. They waved us right in and actually offered us a free tasting and tours (I guess because it was nearing the end of the day?).

The tasting room overlooked the vineyard, so the view was the best we’d seen all day. Of course, the wine was delicious. This was probably our favorite stop of the day because of the view and the enormous facility.

BOTTOM LINE: Overall, our bus trip to Maipú and the DIY winery tours using Mr. Hugo’s bikes was just what we were after– we didn’t want to blow the bank on a day of the fanciest wineries but just wanted to get the experience. Although the bike trail is usually along main roads and you’re biking with traffic, we still had a great time and were thrilled to have great weather to enjoy the day.

The post Cycling Winery Tour – Mendoza, Argentina first appeared on Weekend Blitz.

Especially after taking the culture tour of Ramadan (here), we learned that Dubai used to be a small fishing village– and, of course, it’s right in the middle of the desert, so we wanted to see a type of terrain that we were unfamiliar with. We’d also just visited Arizona, so we were curious to compare that desert climate with the UAE’s.

After reading a few TripAdvisor reports, we settled on booking Oceanair Travels & Tourism’s Morning Dubai Dune Bashing Safari and Camel Riding with sand-boarding in Dubai Desert for $68 each. It was designated as “semi-private normal dunes,” meaning we were expecting to have a few other people on our tour. However, it turned out to be just the two of us and the driver, which was an unexpected treat. What’s also great is that they’ll pick you up straight from your hotel (we stayed at the Park Hyatt Dubai–review here).

We headed out of Dubai and drove for about an hour until we were pretty far out of the city. Soon, the desert pretty much took over and we were driving with dunes on either side. Turns out, you can see a bit of this while driving between Dubai & Abu Dhabi, but, when we’d flown into Abu Dhabi and driven to Dubai, it was after dark.

Map of drive from Dubai to the dunes:

Soon, the driver turned off the road and into the dunes. He let some air out of his tires and off we went.

Letting some air out of the tires for better dune driving

He started off slow and let us tell him if we preferred him to drive faster or slower. I was sitting in the backseat and it felt just like a roller coaster. One second, I could see nothing but sand in front of us as we drove downhill and then he’d swerve and all I could see was sky. I was trying to take some video on my iPhone, but kept getting moved so much that the video was pretty terrible…but does attest to the crazy spins.

Neither of us really get carsick at all but soon enough we were ready for a break from the dune bashing and we stopped at the top of some dunes. At that point, we were so deep in the desert that you couldn’t see anything or anyone from any angle except more sand dunes. Pretty crazy.

We got to try sand-boarding and our driver was so great at taking so many pictures and videos of us (way more than we requested). Because it was a private tour, we were able to start and stop activities whenever we wanted, which was nice but definitely not necessary (we still would have been more than happy to go with a group).

Here’s the map of the part of the desert we drove in:

When we’d had about enough, we left the dunes and headed nearby to the camel farm for lack of a better word. This part definitely felt very touristy and like it was made just for us, but it was still pretty cool to see a camel up close. Again… a little weird to wake up about 10 men from sleeping in the sun just to get one of them to go get the camel saddled up… but, nonetheless, a neat experience and pretty cool picture, too.

While at the camel farm, we also were told to try on some items from their store– they even made us try us some traditional garments and took photos of us:

We were delivered back to our hotel that afternoon and were grateful to get a feel of the UAE outside of the tall skyscrapers. I think it added an extra dimension to our trip to see outside the big buildings and fancy shopping malls. You can picture Dubai before the big buildings and oil money… just lots and lots of sand.

The post Dune bashing and camel riding in the Dubai desert first appeared on Weekend Blitz.