St. Petersburg & The Baltics

Berlin, Germany
July 6, 2011

After a sea day, we arrived at Warnemunde, Germany just after dawn. Warnemunde is a lovely small seaside port, however, it is about 250 km from Berlin. We met our driver at the pier at 8:30a and, with a couple of pit stops, arrived in Berlin just before 11am. With only 5 hours before we have to head back, we did a whirlwind tour of a city that I would like to return to and spend more time.

One of the few remaining sections of the wall...

Brandenberg Gate...

Our 24 hour trek home.
CPH-FRA-ORD-SFO
SK to LH to CO
July 8, 2011

SK at CPH... quite possibly the most clueless airline ground employees I have ever encountered. With *A award seats at summer premium, terrible connecting options for our return forced me into a 75 minute SK to LH connection at FRA, and no FCT today. A mandatory 10:00a cruise dis-embarkment meant we arrived at CPH nearly 4 hours before our 1450 SK departure. Loads of check-in lice, but the good news is that the *A Gold/Business/First was wide open.

The bad news is that our agent was one of the most clueless agents I have dealt with in ages. Apparently LH First is not good enough for this line. "Are you Gold?" Um, yes. Also LH First. Thank you AC. Without my *G AC Elite card, we might still be in the lice queue, I give the SK agent our passports and tell her FRA-ORD-SFO. Yes, it certainly is going to be a long day. Everything seems fine until I notice our luggage tags say ORD. "Oh, good catch" she says. More tap-tapping. "This is strange, I can't seem to add your CO flight." A couple minutes later and she proudly proclaims success and produces baggage tags with CPH-FRA-ORD-SFO. "I had to uncheck you in for your LH so you will need to check in at FRA. It will be no problem. It happens all the time. Just go the transit center." On an F ticket, you must be joking.

I figure I've gone a far as I can with this moron, I'll just find the LH counter and get is sorted out. Oops, bad decision. Unfortunately there is no LH counter at CPH as SK handles LH. Back to the counter to talk to Miss Clueless who is currently on the phone processing four other Crystal pax (the umbrella is a dead giveaway and probably a minimum $100 post departure charge to your CC). While in line, the lone helpful CPH SK rep comes over to see if she can help. I explain that why am back at check in, adding that there is no way I am leaving without an LH BP since checking in at FRA won't work because we will miss the check-in cut-off. If my option is "bags to SFO or no LH check-in" or "bags to ORD and LH check-in", I want the ORD/LH option. This agent seems to have a clue and interrupts Ms. Clueless to find out what is going on. After a couple of minutes of animated chitchat and my twice reminding them that "I will miss the check-in cut off time even if we're on time", she motions me over to her podium and 60 seconds later I have my SK and LH BPs and my bags are still going to SFO. At this point, my CO BP for later tonight is irrelevant.

Priority SAS security was a breeze as we were the only two who turned left at the top of the escalator, The SAS lounge was immediately after priority security... it is spacious and two levels, but in need of an extreme makeover. LH First was again apparently not good enough for access to the Scandinavia Lounge so I had to show my *G card for access... but I'm not sure what the difference is between the two levels.

LH 432
FRA-ORD
747-400
July 8, 2011
5:35p-7:30p
LH New First Class
Seats 83CH

We made it, and even though we were treated like cattle on the connection, I immediately cheered up on boarding when I noticed the flat screens TVs in Business. Finally, something went right today and we were lucky to get one of the three newly configured 744s with the new LH First. Wow!

OK, so it is still the upper deck but I really, really like the new configuration... eight all aisle seats with a bed by the window where the window seat used to be. What a much more spacious feeling to the cabin. Our Senior FA greeted us and shared our excitement as it was her first flight in the New First as well. I still prefer row 83 in the new configuration as it is the most private. Rows 81 and 82 invariably use the front lav, so there are no other pax walking by row 83.

According to our FA, LH rolled out a new menu starting in July, with Lufthansa's "celebrity chef" Roland Schmid.

The LH Wine List, not yet fabulous and still no Dom or Krug, but definitely more interesting and creative than a couple of weeks ago...

Champagne
Feature Wine
White Wine
Red Wine
Spirits
Spirits, Liqueurs and Ports

Dinner time...

Choices, choices... our last hurrah, I decided to go all in. 
To start, of course the caviar, with champagne.

Since our FA offered, I went with the entire appetizer stack, or at least tried a sampler, with more champagne...

1st up, the King Prawn Confit with Strawberry Salad and green Pepper... wow a rather strange combination of tastes.

Jellied veal with chervil, snow pea salad and lime vinaigrette. This one was actually pretty tasty...

Zucchini and bell pepper terrine with basil sour cream...

Next up, a very nice chilled vegetable sour with basil oil, paired with an excellent 2007 Mendoza Pasionada...

For dinner, it took all I could muster to not select the pigeon strudel. 
The medium rare saddle of lamb crusted with gorgonzola cheese and herbs, vegetable au gratin and potato blini was... medium rare and very good... paired with a lovely 2005 Redoma Tinto...

Excellent artisan cheese selection with a nice Neipoort Late Bottled VIntage Port.

For dessert, Schmid's Chocolate Dream: Pave, Sorbet and chocolate sauce was positively sensational.

Wow, how much more of this can I take?