SYD-SIN-FCO-LHR-SIN-SYD --- SQ and EK --- First time in International F

[robtemt]

Good morning AFF-ers. I thought I'd give doing a trip report a go on here, since I have learned so much from the collaborative minds on AFF. So before my partner Ian and I embark on this holiday that we've been planning since the whatever day reward flights we loaded into the system for today on SQ, I wanted to start with a thank you to everyone that has provided direct or indirect advice. There is no way I would have figured out how to book these flights (with a combination of VA,QF, and MR points) on my own (at least getting the flights/classes/dates that I preferred).

Now the good stuff, at least I thing so:

This morning we prepare to board SQ232 (in the lounge as I type). I was going to upload a photo or two, but after 11 minutes I gave up. So that would be my comment about the wi-fi speed of the SQ Silver Kris lounge.

Other than the wi-fi.... wow! Delicious eggs benedict. When we first arrived it was us and one other pax. Now at 1000, its quite "busy". Seating is very comfortable, and the lounge has a intimate and cozy feel. Vueve was the champagne. I only had 3 glasses (in 2 hours), saving room for my Krug. According to expert flyer, the there are now 7 pax in suites, vs. the 4 listed yesterday, so catering better stock up.

As for the plan? We fly to Singapore, and spend two nights. We then get on EK to DXB, quick nap, and onto FCO. We declined the off-site hotel and chose to stay at the airport hotel during our DXB layover. We stay in Rome for nights, then do a little driving to Milan, Lyon, and then Paris. Train (I know, you can kick me out of AFF now if you want) to London. Back onto SQ to Singapore for a quick layover (Aerotel and dinner out in the city before going to the PR), and then back to Sydney.

I'll try to do an update in each city, and will discuss our flight experiences as well as our adventures. If you're interested, our holiday Instagram hashtag for anything trip related is #townchungdoeseurope .

Time to board and get settled into our Suite!!!

Oh, just logged into the free SYD wi-fi. Much faster, so a few photos...




Empty dining room. And sorry, I'll figure out rotation...


Duck Pancakes:


Eggs Benedict


Our ride on the way to the gate:

 

[RooFlyer]

Excellent. looking forward to it.

if you are posting iPhone pics, go into the editing thingy and crop just a tad off the bottom and side, then re-save. Should post the right way up.

 

[RB]

Looking forward to reading along. It should be a good time of year to be over there.

 

[mmchow]

Reminiscing the good old SQ and EK first. Looking forward to the next instalment. Enjoy the holiday.

 

[VPS]

have fun and I'll follow along with interest

 

[BriarFlyer]

Boarding pass scanned. Look forward to reading your first-class adventures!

 

[Bazzi]

An Affer from our neck of the woods! Who knew!
Have fun!

 

[robtemt]

Well, just a slight difference in temperature from Sydney here in Singapore.

Starting at the end, let me say how amazed I was at the "wait" for immigration. Being an American expat, I am embarrassed by LAX and most other USA ports of entry. Here was how busy it was when we arrived:


Now to the good stuff....

We were welcomed onboard, wait, we were welcomed halfway down the jet bridge by two flight attendants and escorted to our suites. Lovely greeting, explained everything about the suite, brought menus, champagne, amenity kits, etc... All in under 5 minutes, and it was just perfect service. Polite, respectful, but not stuffy. Just as we had expected from SQ based on everyone else's experiences on here.

We presented the chief stewardess with our gift to the flight crew (large pack of regular tim tams and a small pack of the zumbo tim tams). They were so appreciative. I love doing something nice for our flight crew, just to brighten their day.

We were in 3C/3D. 2C/D were empty as were the window seats in row 4.


After a few glasses of Krug, it was lunch time. We started with the caviar, which of course was out of this world, and I would have happily had more. We both did BTC, and ordered the Boston Lobster Thermidor. I thought it was supposed to be a whole lobster, but it was a tail, and a bit over cooked, but still tasty (and it is being served on a plane). We each had 3 pieces of their garlic bread, yum! For wine, I had the 2010 Louis Latour, and the 2012 RTW, and the 20 year old Port with my cheese.

Being our anniversary they had a beautiful chocolate/chocolate mouse cake, and gold leaf all around the outside! Such a lovely touch.

They converted the seats into the double bed, and left us two boy teddy bears. I had the best sleep EVER on an international flight. I am now officially spoiled. My partner really had to work at waking me up (I can get cranky when I get woken from a deep sleep).

After our nap, they moved us to 2C/D for our refreshment. I requested a bowl of the soup that I didn't try at lunch which was a Jerusalem artichoke soup and it was delicious.

The Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee was so nice, but I couldn't fit anything else so had to just have one cup.

We had to be in a holding pattern for about 10 minutes, and then had a smooth landing into Singapore.

I have to say, even though I had such high expectations based on all the good things everyone has written, I was still impressed with the level of service, the friendliness of the crew, and just everything really.

Now for two days of wandering around Singapore, before we take our EK flight to Dubai (and then slum it in J from DXB to FCO). I suppose the only thing that can get better is having a shower mid-flight, and we'll experience that next.

Sorry, I'm still struggling with the photo orientation?

 

[robtemt]

The new EK lounge is open at SIN now. One lounge for all (no F or J segregation).

We arrived really early, since I thought our boarding time was out flight time.

The staff here are very proud of the new lounge, and it is beautiful. Elegant, but not over the top like emirates can tend to be.

Nice food selection, hot and cold. A bit disappointed in Moet as the champagne of choice, so SQ wins on that front. But a decent self serve bar nonetheless.

Can't be bothered with photos, as the size limit restricts most of the photos from being uploaded (I don't know how some of you do it!). I'm not spending my time resizing the photos though. (you can see them on instagram #townchungdoeseurope)

 

[robtemt]

OK, got a few to upload.

And, I forgot to talk about Chauffeur Drive. Because we had so many bags, we booked two cars. When they called to confirm the booking the day before, I mentioned they could send one van, or two cars. "Oh, we'll send two cars, no worries". So four of our 6 bags went into one E-Class Merc, and we went into the other with 2 in the boot. Beautiful car, very professional and safe driver. People were looking at us weird as our bags were loaded into a benz and we didn't even ride in it, but oh well.

 

[robtemt]

Here's our car and our bags car.

 

[ellen10]

Signing in sounds like a great experience.

 

[robtemt]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been engrossed in exploring Rome. Being my first time here, it's been non-stop. What a beautiful city. We did nearly 8 hours of guided walking tours on day one! I highly recommend "The Roman Guy" for tours if you visit Rome.

No flying stuff in this post though. However, I can say we've had an excellent experience with Hilton as Gold HH members. Upgraded to a 6th floor City View room on arrival. Wonderful staff.


We didn't do breakfast here, only one meal at the 3 Michelin starred La Pergola, which was just beyond words. We booked a Platinum table through Amex. We did overhear the table next to us, and they were Centurion, so they got a table with both seats facing the view, while ours had one seat facing the view, and one with it to the left side of me. They received Veuve on arrival, we didn't.

Nightly turndown saw chocolates left on the pillow and a bottle of still and sparkling bedside. Housekeeping and bell staff take less than 2 minutes to arrive at your room when called.

Uber Black is very reliable here, and I found not much more (within 5 euros) than the regular cab (and much safer!). Thankfully we decided to take EK Chauffeur Drive to the hotel, and are returning this morning to FCO to collect our car at Hertz to drive to stop #3, Milan. We've been emailed our car and its location, but its some sort of Ford G Max?, so we will take advantage of the Gold Five Star benefit of "driving something different".

I will upload some photos later today maybe. I'm being told to hurry up and shower since I'm the one who set an alarm for 0600 after a 4 hour diner that saw us getting back to the room at midnight.

 

[robtemt]

For the foodies....... Photos from dinner at La Pergola:

 

[robtemt]

Yesterday we went back to FCO via Uber Black. We found Uber Black to be on par with Taxi fares for anything around 20-35 minutes (or within a reasonable increase in fare given the comfort and cleanliness of the cab vs. uber). They are usually merc vans, but we also had Merc E Classes.

Anywho, we were allocated some awful looking Ford S$&t Box, so haggled for a change in car. There were no cars on the Hertz Transfer List to go to France from FCO (except a Merc C class which has been on there for 6 months and I think its a write off or something thats not processing?). They were giving me a Volvo SUV or Audi from the prestige collection at no charge, until they realised we were leaving the car in Paris. We then got a jeep renegade, which has some good get up and go, is roomy, and has GPS. Oh, and fits 4 large suitcases, 2 cabin bags, and our suit bags.

We drove to Milano, seeing some beautiful Italian countryside along the way.

On arrival at the Hilton in Milano, we were upgraded from a base room to an exec room with a massive balcony (but no furniture on the balcony?) along with exec lounge privileges. On arrival in our room, it STUNK of smoke (in a non-smoking room), and my +1 is asthmatic, and I'm a bit precious. We called the one number service for HH members (extension that goes right to a duty manager. They give you this extension on arrival), and we were moved to a different room immediately. The bellman was less than happy about moving our 100kg+ of luggage again, but TS.

For dinner we went to Boccodivino. Boccondivino . We thought we were just going for some samplings of local meat, cheese, etc. Nope. This is a set course meal, with paired wines for 65 euro a person. You start with a bowl of vegetables on the table (carrots, celery, tomatoes, radishes, onion, capsicum, etc.) a bottle of olive oil and balsamic to mix your own dipping sauce, and just chow down on some fresh local veg. Then comes meat.... TEN different types of Italian meats, all sliced on the plate for you. Then was pasta... A Risotto (not Risotto Milano) and a pasta thats stirred in the empty parmesan wheel. Then it was cheese. A cheese trolly that makes your jaw drop. Choose as many as you want. I could have just had a cheese plate there and then died an gone to heaven. Oh yeah, there is a bread basked they keep filling up, with 3 types of bread too.

They are not skimpy on ANY portion, and if you could somehow manage to fit more in, they would probably give you seconds on anything you ask. Next was a massive bowl of chocolate chip biscotto, a bowl of peach sorbet, limoncello, and coffee. Now when I say paired wines, I don't mean a splash of wine. They bring the bottle, and leave it at the table. Also included was endless sparking water (one that we paid 9 euro a bottle for off the "water menu" the night before at La Pergola. Yes, being a set menu, everyone eats the same thing. But everything tasted fresh, and perfect. The owner, who was also our server, obviously takes pride in the food he serves, and goes out of his way to make sure you're happy. Everything is explained in detail, no rushing through. If coming to Milan, don't eat all day, and then go here for dinner. Although we found it on Trip Advisor, there were no other tourists in the place. Their were two tables of families celebrating something, and two other large group gatherings, and our little table of 2. On TA, they have 7 review that are average or below, out of 555 (I allow up to 10% of ratings to not be very good or excellent before I cross them off my list, to account for the people who are never happy with anything).

Again, I'll post some photos when we get to our next stop after I sync the phone and laptop. For now, its time for a coffee and head to Lyon for our last one night stop before Bordeaux (or Epernay, I can't remember where we go first). We've got some great visits lined up in those places, before we head to Paris and London.

Only 15 nights left Why do holidays go by so fast?

Oh, and of course my other half "happened" to walk past a Louis Vuitton store that was also happened to be the ONLY LV store in all of Italy with stock of THE tote bag that he wanted, and they had ONE left. I guess the upside is I earned a good chunk of MR points towards our July 2018 holiday...

 

[robtemt]

Just spent one night in Lyon, and drove to Bordeaux today. Our original plan was 3 nights and then onto Bordeaux, but to spread out the driving a little, we changed it to one night in Milan and one in Lyon. I want to go back to Lyon again, soon. What a beautiful place, friendly people, superb food. We ate at a Buchon last night called Le Musse. OMG! Amazing. The owner/chef just comes and sits at your table and tells you what the choices are for the night (about 10 appetizers and 10 mains. We shared everything and went with the sausage cooked inside brioche, as well as the bone marrow. Mains we had fish soufflé in lobster cream sauce, and pig cheeks cooked in a white wine. It was heaven. For two foodies (one an ex chef who trained in a french restaurant), it was just perfect.

We then had some time to walk around Lyon, and I fell in love with the city. It was light until just after 9pm, so we got a good walk in to burn off a little dinner.

We stayed at a hip little hotel called Mama Shelter, which is very trendy. Comfortable bed, quiet rooms/halls, and apparently one of the top 5 bars in all of Lyon. I asked for a vodka martini but they made me a Vesper (which I love and make at home frequently, but NOBODY knows how to make one, except in France).

Today we checked into our B&B in Bordeaux. 3 Nights here at Au Coer De Bordeaux. I'll write about Bordeaux another day.

I'll get photos uploaded as soon as I can get the phone to communicate with the laptop. It's really frustrating me. For now, we are going into the B&B owners wine cellar to open a few bottles and socialise with other guests.

 

[jeng]

Following - am very interested to hear more about Bordeaux

 

[robtemt]

Well, we just left Bordeaux after three nights. I'll start by saying I seriously UNDER researched this place. I was picturing Napa, Barossa Hunter Valley. Oops. As we drove into Bordeaux, we both said, "wow, its a lot bigger than I thought". However, upon checking into our hotel (a 5 room B&B type hotel) and speaking to the owner, we started to warm up to it. The bottle of 2008 Bordeaux he had opened for us on arrival helped a little too. For those of you who haven't been, the centre of Bordeaux is a maze of pedestrian friendly (although there are a few special access cars and a lot of push bikes to share it with) streets, lined with shops, cafes, and best of all boulangeries. Add in some stunning architecture, museums, (including the wine museum that looks like a decanter). The people are friendly, the food is amazing, with a lot of focus on seafood in this town.

On our last full day, we had a private tour with a company called Bordeaux with Elodie. Our guide picked us up in a van (a Ford van that had aircraft style interior (but better pitch) including compartments in the ceiling that looked like oxygen masks would drop out, seatback tray tables, and a parking break that looked like a throttle. My partner loved it! Our tour focused on St Emilion and Pomerol.

The tour started with a little drive around St Emilion showing us the boundaries of appalachians, a little of the village, and showing us areas where a surprise frost a few weeks ago ruined 60%(?) of the crop for the 2017 harvest (thus delaying the release of the 2016 futures pricing even though the tasting has all been done). Finally, a stop at Chateau Beauregard. A beautful chateau that is one of a few that has been modernised with computerised concrete instead of stainless steel, and computer controlled barrel and bottle storage, all on this huge touch screen TV that can monitor the temperature, humidity, etc.)

We then went to lunch, at Restaurant Le Tertre. Not the place they had planned for us, but we requested this (#2 rated on trip advisor), and we were not disappointed. It was the best meal we had in all of the meals in Bordeaux (and region).

We had substituted going to a tasting at a wine shop, to instead go to a 3rd vineyard. She offered to talk to the wine shop owner (who's uncle also owned the 2nd vineyard we were scheduled to see) to see if he could adjust some times. She explained that wine shops in Bordeaux offer better prices than the cellar doors (or at least the same price) because there is an agreement for the cellar doors not to compete with their distributors since they give the commitment by purchasing the futures... Anyway, we went to the shop for a tasting. We bought 3 cases of wine to ship back to Sydney. He then closed his shop to take us to the family Chateau, one of only two in the actual town centre (with the vines just across the roundabout). What a great experience. He showed us all around, but then the real treat was talking us into the 2km storage cellar underneath the chateau, including the families private collection that has every vintage, going back to 1901. It was so special to be able to see this (we only bought 6 out of the 36 bottles from his families wines). Oh, this was Chateau Gaudet. And they do have some great wines. They are only Grand Crus, but this is because they do not meet the parking requirement to be Grand Cru Classe B or A (talk about politics).

By this point, I was on the border of being very well buzzed. But we had one more stop, at Chateau Figeac. They use equal parts Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Cab Franc at Figeac, making them very much to my liking (I love Cab Franc).

We eneded the tour by taking a drive back into the village and enjoying the view from above while snacking on macaroons that our guide picked up for us while we were at lunch. She then drove us back to Bordeaux in time for a nap before our dinner at Glouten Le Bistrot (our second favourite meal in Bordeaux).

Another thing our lack of research didnt reveal, was that the town practically shuts down on Sundays. Most shops were closed, as were many restaurants. We couldn't get a booking anywhere (the Bordeaux International Tennis Tournament started the next day so the town was a bit full) for dinner on Sunday, and the Amex Concierge had royally screwed up so many of our bookings already we were not giving them another chance.... so we at at L'entrecot, a place that has a set menu of Salad, Steak, and Fries. The line was to the end of the street by 715 (we were 6th in line at 1845). Do yourself a favour, and skip this place. I'd rather have KFC.

Our B&B was Au Coer de Bordeaux, and was classically decorated, clean, comfortable, reasonably priced, and located 5-15 min walk from anything we would have wanted to see, eat, or drink.

After three nights, we packed up and drove to Epernay, where we just checked into a lovely apartment above a Champagne house. THIS is what we were picturing on the drive in. Rolling hills, winding streets through town, etc. We have just popped the bottle of Champagne from our fridge, so time for me to sign off.

I promise, I will get photos uploaded, but it may be when I get back. Maybe I'll look at making them into a video and uploading that instead.

 

[ellen10]

Really enjoying your trip report. Sounds like a great trip.
We depart for our Europe trip in 3 weeks, flying in to Milan. We will be in France for all of July and I love French Wine.
I have enjoyed your food and wine reviews and reading of your travels.
You have certainly covered some kilometres in your trip. How have you found the driving?

 

[robtemt]

You have certainly covered some kilometres in your trip. How have you found the driving?

Growing up in the US, I find it very easy. Side streets though are a challenge, as the change from two way to one way etc with little notice. I find it easiest to try to follow another car (not a taxi).