Alps 2016 (pic heavy)

[Kaiser]

Lots of research and planning last year saw Mrs Kaiser and myself embark on a fantastic trip through Italy and Slovenia this April. We've always loved the outdoors as well as bustling cities- not to mention wonderful food, hence we picked our destinations with these aims in mind. I'd like to share some of the experiences we had along the way. I will include brief reviews of the flights, airports and accomodations, together with plenty of photos. Maybe it will give some people some inspiration for their holiday planning

Flights reviewed

QF BNE-SIN J (A333)
QR SIN-DOH J (A359)
QR DOH ZUR J (B787)

Air Dolomiti VCE-MUC Y (E195)
SQ MUC-SIN (77WN)
SQ SIN-SYD (A388)

Airport Lounges

QF J lounge Brisbane
QF J Lounge Singapore Changi
Al Mourjan lounge Doha
LH Business lounge Munich Satellite Terminal
LH Senator Lounge Munich Terminal 2
SilverKris Lounge Changi Terminal 3

Flight redemptions

Purchased AAdvantage miles to redeem BNE-SIN QF J 2 pax, and SIN-DOH J for one pax.
ANZ 50k QFF sign up bonus redeemed for QR DOH-ZUR J one pax.
GOL Smiles miles purchased ($987 AUD) to redeem SIN-DOH-ZUR on QR one pax. (Non-Brazilian residents now ineligible to use this program)
The SQ flights were redeemed using last year's Amex Velocity promo of 110,000 sign up bonuses.

 

[Kaiser]

Our trip began at the packed QF lounge in Brisbane. The morning breakfast spread was pretty decent (had to try the pancake machine) and the barista made flat white was actually pretty good. By the time we went to the gate many flights had left and the lounge was much quieter.

We were flying on an A333 with the updated business suites - seats 5A and 5E a left window seat and the aisle seat across from it. A good combination for couples in this configuration.

In retrospect we both agreed that this one was the most comfortable of the lot and had the best storage and entertainment - great hard product. The service was friendly and attentive but not overbearing. Catering was quite good with an excellent soup starter and fantastic dessert. My main was a bit average - should have probably gone for a protein. The IFE had an extensive range of movies and music and the amenties kit was sufficient. A great flight overall - I'm now a fan of the A330 business suite.

We arrived in Singapore at around 18:30 and proceeded into town as we were having an overnight stopover. Took the MRT into Chinatown which took about an hour - in retrospect probably easier to get a cab - although the line up at the airport for cabs was huge.

Our accomodation here was nothing to write home about - The Southbridge Hotel in Chinatown district. Just a budget option to see us over until our next flight really. The following morning we braved the humidty and walked around town for a bit of sight seeing, before heading back to Changi mid afternoon hoping to get into the QF lounge a little earlier than usual.

This proved to be a little bit problematic -as unbeknown to me - Changi isn't exactly mobile boarding pass friendly. You require a paper boarding pass to get airside (not a print at home one) and we had to wait for Qatar staff to man a desk and issue our BP 3 hrs before departure. So a lot of wasted time but eventually we were in the QF Lounge for a shower and a decent bit of grub. Great showers here and a wide selection of hot and cold food options plus a well stocked bar. The bar man said he was unable to make me a Singapore Sling so i had to make do with beer instead - first world problems hey.

 

[Kaiser]

QF Lounge in Singapore T1.

Our next flight was Qatar Airways SIN-DOH on an Airbus A350-900. I had been looking forward to flying this bird for a while. We chose a centre pair of seats in this reverse herringbone layout which were roomy enough even for my 6'2" frame. Slightly less room in the footwell compared to the QF suite.

Our flight was delayed about 45mins waiting for connecting paxs - and I think everyone in our cabin breathed a sigh of despair when those last pax got on and proceeded to fill the last business seats with not one, but 3 screaming toddlers and 4 adults who spoke at a similar volume to the toddlers. Not even ear plugs and noise cancelling earphones could eliminate the piercing screams that we endured for the next 8 hours. This put a damper on an otherwise good flight. QR have an a la carte menu concept where you order any dish whenever you like throughout the flight. I'd eaten in the QF lounge so I only had a starter and tried to get some sleep.

 

[Major]

Punching my boarding pass

 

[boomy]

Looking forward to reading more, thanks for taking the time to write this TR Kaiser.

 

[snabbu]

Enjoying the report for sure, keep it up Kaiser. That new QR J cabin looks great. Out of interest which did you prefer between QF and QR?

 

[Kaiser]

So - the Al Mourjan Business lounge in Doha. Where do i start? The reports are right - this place is massive. You almost need a map to navigate the lounge, which is divided onto two levels. THe upper level containing the restaurant, bar and seating areas. The lower level has a multitude of seating areas, toilets, showers, the quiet rooms and two deli style catering areas. The ultra high ceilings and vast space give the lounge a very open feel, especially the bottom level. Not having slept much on our flight - we made a b line for the quiet rooms, located behind the large food hall downstairs. We booked in a space (last one) , which doesn't have a bed as such, but a nice sofa which we took turns of snoozing on. It's also very quiet here (as is most of the lounge apart from the upstairs restaurant). The showers are also located next to the quiet rooms - they are cleaned after each use and there were a heap of staff offering amenity kits and the like.

Showers:

Quiet room

Bottom level seating area (one of many) most seats had USB ports for charging devices. In the background is the bottom level dining hall, which also leads the the quiet rooms. Tip: if the quiet rooms are booked out / full - head to the other side of the dining hall, past the games rooms and there is a "family area" that was completely empty, quiet and also had the long sofa seats to sleep on.

Bottom level looking up towards upper level restaurant / buffet.

We had a glorious 8 hours to kill in the Al Mourjan lounge. Not likely to experience business class again for a while - I went slightly nuts in the upstairs restaurant - treating myself to a rib eye steak and bubbles. This was followed by a shower, a nap, before waking up and heading back to said buffet for a champagne breakfast at 5am Poached eggs on toast, pancakes with syrup, yoghurt , fresh fresh coffee and of course more champagne.

 

[Kaiser]

Enjoying the report for sure, keep it up Kaiser. That new QR J cabin looks great. Out of interest which did you prefer between QF and QR?

TBH I actually preferred the QF offering, I found the bed slightly more comfortable and the service was friendlier and more composed. The QR staff seemed a little colder, a little more rushed and did not make any attempt to resolve the screaming toddlers situation (although to be fair, they may not have succeeded in any case).
I liked the QR dine on demand concept - from what I sampled though, the QF food was slightly better. My second QR flight was a lot better in terms of staff, will write about that one shortly.

 

[Kaiser]

A morning flight from DOh-ZRH on board a QR 787. Seated in 2A and 3A, these seats are very similar in layout to the A359 although they are slightly narrower. Good service on board from the ISM. The QR noise cancelling headphones seemed to work better than the Sq ones we had on the return flights.

Take off over Doha

The menu

 

[Kaiser]

We used Zurich as our gateway to the Alps and beyond. We only had a brief 2 days in Switzerland as we made our way south towards northern Italy. Straight from our flight we caught the train down (and then up to) Wengen, a small ski village that sits atop a cliff in the Lauterbrunnen valley. The was low hanging cloud, drizzle and a max temp of 7C on our arrival - not exactly inspiring weather, however we were optimistic it would get better and were determined to do some light hiking weather be dammed. Coming into the Lauterbrunnen valley, the views were stunning. The cliffs loomed either side of the valley, with countless waterfalls cascading down the gnarly rock face.

Our lodge we found on AirBnB and it was just perfect. https://www.airbnb.com.au/rooms/9480501 The owner had already started a fire, so when we arrived cold and somewhat wet it was just bliss. The views down into the Lauterbrunnen valley weren't bad either.

Stepping out from the bedroom

We donned our rain gear and caught the cogwheel train back down to the valley floor, walking the length of the valley before catching the cable car up to Murrën on the opposite side of the valley, where we walked all the way along the top. All together about a 20km walk. There was still some residual snow walking from Murrën to Grimmelwald which was a bonus.

On our way up to Murrën in the cable car

 

[Kaiser]

Walking back along the ridge

As dusk fell, we had a brief glimpse of the mighty Jungfrau peak

Twilight silhouette of the mountains was very peaceful to just sit and watch (with a mug of hot tea).

 

[Austff]

The size of your photos is great

 

[earlyriser]

Great pics. Wengen and Murren are really great. Good to see some great pics when not completely covered in snow.

 

[snabbu]

A morning flight from DOh-ZRH on board a QR 787. Seated in 2A and 3A, these seats are very similar in layout to the A359 although they are slightly narrower. Good service on board from the ISM. The QR noise cancelling headphones seemed to work better than the Sq ones we had on the return flights.

Take off over Doha

Brilliant shot.

 

[GarrettM]

Stunning imagery Kaiser. Well done.

 

[Kaiser]

Sadly, our time in Lauterbrunnen was short - and before we knew it, we were back on the Swiss trains on our way to the Italian border station Domodossola. The trains in Switzerland run accurate to the minute. I used the german Deutsche Bahn app which is fantastic for planning train trips anywhere in Europe. I also used the Trenitalia mobile site to purchase Italian train tickets which you can keep as mobile e-tickets on your device. From Domodossola we changed trains to take us to our final destination of Lake Orta, just inside the Piemonte region of north west Italy. I chose this stop primarily to break up our train journey, otherwise it would have been a 6hr slog on the trains to Parma. There was also an agriturismo I'd heard good things about which also had a highly regarded restaurant attached. I'm all about the food - so it made perfect sense It was also a much smaller, perhaps less touristy lake the the larger and more well know nearby Lake Maggiore and Lake Como.

We arrived at Lake Orta late afternoon to find the place draped in a dense fog and an ice cool, light rain - perfect weather for our short walk to the agriturismo. By the time we checked in, the rain had stopped, so off we went for a walk around the lake to get our appetites going for the seven course dinner which was pencilled in for 7pm.

Quite a pretty place despite the gloomy weather. Typical charming Italian architecture and narrow cobblestone alleyways that led you on a mysterious path.

Lovely colours everywhere you look

Old derelict buildings were scattered throughout the town.

You can't avoid stumbling across churches in Italy

We spent a solid 3 hours walking around before our stomachs indicated it was time to return to the nest and prepare to be feasted. The agriturismo has a restaurant on the property, sharing the same name ilcucchiaiodilegno
which translates to "The Big Wooden Spoon". For 25 euros each, we were given an amazing 7 course meal consisting of: Home made prosciutto and salami, crumbled veal cutlets, pickled vegetables, the most delicious pasta dish I had on the whole trip - handmade penne with zucchini and sausage, a chamomile infused risotto, roast potatoes, slow cooked beef, pork cutlet, a "petit "3" of desserts including an apple crumble, a white chocolate mousse and a gelato with popping candy inside. This was accompanied by excellent local red wine (7 Euro per bottle) and followed by coffee and pralines. Total bill was 67 Euros - fantastic value. The menu changes all the time according to season and most of the produce is from the local area or the farm itself. The breakfast buffet in the morning was just as impressive and generous. I have a weak spot for pastries so I was in big trouble on this trip.

 

[Kaiser]

Back onto the Regionale Veloce train to Milan, where we would be connecting onwards to Parma, birthplace of terrible things such as Prosciutto di Parma and Parmagiano Regianno. I love the architecture of European hub trainstations, and Milan was one of the more impressive ones. Theres just something about that giant hangar-like dome at the terminus that makes me feel nostalgic.

Tried to capture the scale of the arrivals hall with a vertical panorama - results were interesting haha

One thing we were still getting accustomed to was Europe's infatuation with UHT milk. I guess it is more enviromentally friendly having to do away with refrigeration and transport of the fresh stuff - but gee it takes a bit of getting used to for us coffee snobs. Thankfully, there was an abundance of cafes in Milan - and one right outside the terminus that was using fresh milk - have your coffee standing at the bar and it was 1.30 euro per cappuccino / latte.

Arrived into Parma with great weather, quite a clean, elegant city with plenty of gelaterias, salumeries, patisseries - we were going to have to do a lot of walking a cycling it seemed. Luckily there were plenty of parks throughout Parma.

It was fun to just grab a gelato and sit and watch the world go by.

Or just aimlessly wander the streets with the locals and observe

Who knows who you might meet

 

[Kaiser]

Of course, at the end of the day, towards appertivi hour - one must go grocery shopping

...and give thanks to the cheese gods

Nibbles - Parma style

 

[RB]

A great report and fantastic photos. We had 3 nights on Lake Orta in 2013 and stayed on the lake at Apartment La Darsena which would not be far from where you were. We had a great time there although it was still pretty cool in mid May. I am looking forward to reading/viewing the rest of your adventures

 

[JohnM]

BP scanned, settling into 1A .

Great photos!