Plane Tales, Part 2

Post coming soon...

Dinner Date

My tour to Dachau was a guided English-speaking tour. The guide was this guy from England, with the rest of the party consisting of: 2 South Africans (male/female couple), 1 lady from Perth, Australia, 1 lady from Montreal, 1 guy from Madison, Wisconsin and myself. I chatted up everyone during the entire tour and when we were leaving, the guide was giving us directions to wherever we were headed next. The lady from Australia and I were headed in the same direction, so we walked together. Then, we ended up dining together… It was nice having company for dinner. I am enjoying my time here alone, but I do wish I had someone with whom I can share my experiences…

Dissed at Dinner in the City with the Most Difficult Roads

Anyone who knows me, knows that I always get lost! Everywhere I go, I get lost. I tried my best to avoid this in Munich. Within 5 minutes of being in the city, I got lost. I turned the wrong way out of the train station. I ended up meeting this bellman at the Le Meridian who started speaking to me in English. I want to “pass” for European so, I was insulted by this. And, I let him know that. He then attempted to give me directions to my hotel. I walked down the street looking for the side street, on which it was supposed to be. I could not find it. I ended up asking this newspaper vendor and he told me it was like three blocks back the other way. I finally found it.

I had a busy Tuesday afternoon planned. I was going to visit Marienplatz, the Lady Church (or as the German’s and the rest of the world call it, the Frauenkirche) and have dinner at one of the best vegetarian restaurants in the city, Prinz Myshkin. I reviewed a couple of maps and was on my way. After I started walking, I realized I was on my way to know where that I wanted to go. I got so very lost. Not lost to where I did not know how to get back to from where I came, but lost to where I did not know how to get where I was going. I ended walking back to my hotel and asking someone at the front desk for detailed directions on how to get to Marienplatz and the Lady Church. At this point, I was not worried about finding the restaurant because it was nearby. I should have been worried.

I followed the directions the clerk gave me and found the places okay. They are so beautiful! Apparantly the Lady Church was one of the few buildings to survive the War and the Marienplatz is where the famous Glockenspiel is located. After I viewed these attractions, I decided to make my way to dinner. It was around 5:45. My reservation was at 7:00. I made it there at 6:55. In reality, the restaurant was about 4 blocks away. I was lost for an hour! I walked around Munich, looking for a restaurant for an hour! It had nothing to do with me not being able to read the signs, because street signs are street signs. If you can read, then you can read them! Munich is just completely unorthodox in their street layout! Later, I spoke to people who are not as directionally-challenged as I am and they have said the same thing! I know I could have used a GPS on this trip! $200 would have saved me from 2 blisters and extremely sore legs.

When I arrived at dinner, I order the tofu stroganoff, which supposed to be a mix of tofu, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes and broccoli. It sounded very yummy and figured I could pick around the broccoli. While I was deciding on my entrée, I thought I would also have the apple strudel for dessert! Apparently, the German’s should have invited the Super Size. I have never seen such a large plate full of food. I wanted to take a picture, but thought it would have been rude. What I did not think was asking for my check without finishing my dinner?!?! My waiter kept asking me if the food was good. I told him, it was great but way too much for me to consume in one sitting. He look at me like he was a bit disappointed and walked away… I paid and walked back to my hotel, getting lost one last time that evening…. I did not even get my apple strudel! :-(

Photos coming soon…

Plane Tales

Business Elite is supposed to be the pride of Delta’s operations. I, however, found it to be overrated. Yet, I could not imagine being in Coach for 9 hours. So, why is it just okay? The amenity that people find the most appealing are the recline seats. They are horrible…I did not sleep well at all. I just could not get comfortable. Delta is planning on reconfiguring this class to full-size sleepers by the end of the year. This would be great! However, there is a downside. There will be about 25% less seats with this layout, which means less available for Frequent Flier redemption….

The food part was pretty good and plentiful… For dinner, I had:

Warm mixed nuts, which I should not have had considering my allergy

Variety of rolls with butter
Appetizer of sesame chicken with cucumber, nut coated trout and goat cheese with sun-dried tomato, of which obviously I did not eat any

Mixed green salad with balsamic vinaigrette, yummy!

My vegetarian special entrée of rice with tofu and mixed vegetables and side of spinach…. This was absolutely delicious!

Fruit plate with cantaloupe, strawberries and pineapple. And, I ate the pineapple, even with my allergy.


Dessert of vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce, whipped cream and Pirouline coffee. A great way to top off a meal!

About an hour before arriving, I was served breakfast. Or should I saw that breakfast offered to me. I tried to eat, but it was unrecognizable, unappealing and disgusting! Chris, my steward, did not even know what it was…. By the way, this time I did not eat the pineapple…

Before all of that happened, I cried…for about 20 minutes, from about 5 minutes before they closed the door until we were in the air. Some of the tears were because I am overwhelmed that I am living my dream and the other from the pure fear of the unknown. I thought that if I screamed, “stop the plane, I want to get off.” They would pull the plane back to the gate and let me off… Obviously, I did not.

One final thing about Business Elite, that is where they have the heat. I have never been hot on a plane. Well in most places, I am not hot at all…very very cold usually. I was hot on this plane. They had the heat on super high! I guess it was better than me freezing…..