Two Parks and a River – PART 1: Singapore Airlines A380 to Frankfurt and New York

[yflyer]

On this short flight, drinks were served. This was the Milka chocolate wafer that was handed out earlier.



The flight was uneventful, and we landed in Munich on a clear, sunny afternoon.

Munich Airport is pictured below...



After flying past Munich airport, the aircraft turned round for final approach and landing, giving those of us on the right a great view of the farmland below...



At the gate after a silky smooth landing in Munich...

[yflyer]

Munich Airport is beautiful. It is open, spacious and very passenger-friendly.



In the airside area, Lufthansa had complimentary newspapers, as well as coffee/tea for arriving and/or departing passengers. A very nice touch.







Close to the airport, there is also an aviation museum with several antique aircraft on display, including this Connie...



I headed to my hotel, the Hilton Munich Park.

[yflyer]

The Hilton Munich Park is located in a leafy, green part of Munich. In fact, this would describe most of Munich, which is very beautiful, green and spread out, without that urban sprawl that you get in many other cities.



This is a very new hotel, with a beautiful lobby and sleek, modern rooms as well.





The hotel is next to the Englischer Garten, or so called "English Garden" which refers to the style of garden landscaping in the garden. This leafy park is a popular spot for picnics, running, cycling, swimming -- and would you believe it or not -- surfing in the artificial stream. There are also beer gardens within the park, which are really popular in the evenings.

The hotel is about 3.5 km from the Munich city centre, at Marienplatz.

Late in the afternoon, I went for a run through the park to the city centre. My run started and ended close to the hotel (indicated by the green/red markers on the map below)



The park itself has many trails winding through it, past the artificial streams. There are many leafy shaded areas, as well as open fields.





There is an artificial stream running through the park. At one part of the stream, the flow of current is strong enough to surf in, and that is what they do...



After running through the Englischer Garten, I did my sightseeing in the city centre on foot, visiting Marienplatz and other sights within the city before jogging back to the hotel.

Marienplatz...





Close to this part of town, there were many restaurants with outdoor seating where you could enjoy the local cuisine (and beer) in the cool weather.

[yflyer]

I ended the day in Munich with an evening at the large Biergarten (Beer Garden) within the Englischer Garten, where I had my first encounter with the local beer served in litre-sized mugs...



How does anyone drink an entire litre of anything, let alone beer. My colleagues (admittedly larger in girth) downed several of these...

Between the beer and the awesome local cuisine, served on communal tables, I am sure I ate more calories than I lost during my run earlier in the day...



Interestingly, this biergarten had a Chinese theme, complete with pagoda. More on this biergarten in Munich here.

[yflyer]

After a short stay in Munich, it was time to head back to Frankfurt.

At Munich Airport, after check-in at the dedicated First/Star Gold check-in area, with dedicated security lane access, I headed straight for the Lufthansa Senator Lounge.



This is a large, well-appointed lounge with ample seating, work and dining areas.





I started with a glass of champagne at the bar, before heading for the buffet...

[yflyer]

There was an impressive array of cold and hot selections on offer, including selections specially selected for the World Cup.













Specials for the World Cup included Brazilian black bean soup...





And burger patties (although it was unclear what nationality the burgers were supposed to represent...)

[yflyer]

The return flight MUC-FRA was operated by an A319, with the same slimline seats as my FRA-MUC flight.





My seat on this flight was the first row of Economy.



In front of me, separated by a thin curtain, was what counted as "Business Class" for Intra-European / domestic routes. I wonder why they bother? It just looks like Y seating with an empty seat in between.

It was just a short flight to Frankfurt, where I would spend the evening in transit at the Hilton Garden Inn at Frankfurt Airport, before heading back onto SQ26 for my continuation flight FRA-JFK.

[yflyer]

I arrived in Frankfurt in the mid-afternoon, and after deplaning, walked through FRA to the adjoining Squaire complex, where the Hilton Garden Inn was located.

The Squaire is a distinctive new building at FRA, built between 2006 and 2011, as an integrated air-rail complex housing businesses, retail, F&B and hotel accomodation as well. It is a futuristic building located just in front of FRA, and shaped like a cross between a UFO and a giant Mars bar.



The Squaire (Interior pictured above), is a short walk from the terminal complex at FRA.

There are two hotels located within the Squaire: The Hilton Hotel, and the Hilton Garden Inn. Both hotels are spanking new, having opened in late 2011.

I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, which is the less expensive of the two.

The Garden Inn is located right next to the Hilton (to the left in the picture below).





The lobby is attractive, with attached bar/restaurant, and self-service pantry (items for purchase) next to the reception.

[yflyer]

My room at the Hilton Garden Inn was smallish, but beautifully appointed, and very new.







The chair in the room was a Herman Miller Mirra, an extremely comfortable (and expensive!) work chair, which is better than the chairs I use in my office.



Gleaming bathroom...





This was a wonderful airport hotel, which would be my first choice for any future transit stop in FRA.

[yflyer]

It was now past 5pm, on Friday, 13th June. I had an evening in Frankfurt before my flight to New York the next morning.

What to do next? I decided on a run to the Frankfurt city centre. What route? I had never done this, and went to Google, where I found a couple of examples where others had done this run in the past, I settled on a route which would take me to the Main river and to Frankfurt, a distance of about 13km.



I stepped out of the Squaire complex and walked about a km or so down the sidewalk of the driveway, alongside the roadways, to the start point of the run, at a Petrol station near the Steigenberger Airport Hotel.



The first 4km of the run was along the road and track through the Frankfurt City forest, a quiet and tranquil part of Frankfurt, before arriving at the bank of the Main river, which 9km later brought me right to the city centre.





An hour and a half after I set out from The Squaire, I was in the Frankfurt City Centre, where the Holland vs Spain football match was about to begin.



I sat at an outdoor table at the Cafe Hauptwache in the city centre, and settled down to watch the match.



This restaurant serves a selection of local specialities.



I settled on the seasonal white asparagus soup, and frankfurter sausages, washed down with beer.





Later that evening, returned to my hotel by taxi.

What a wonderful way to spend an evening in transit in Frankfurt!

[yflyer]

The next morning, it was a short walk from the Hilton back to the FRA check-in area for my flight to New York on SQ26.

[yflyer]

FRA wasn't particularly busy that Saturday morning, but there was still a lot of distance to cover in the terminal...



I love the old flipper flight displays. FRA has many installed...



Lufthansa World Shop...SQ should open a shop of their own too...



There were no queues when I checked in...



Orchids on the counter...

[yflyer]

As it was close to boarding time, I skipped the lounge and went straight to the departure gate.



There was an F&B outlet near the gate, where I ordered a curry sausage.



This was very tasty, with the mild curry powder doing good things to the flavour of the sausage.



It was soon time to board...



This was another clean and new A380, similar in configuration to my earlier SIN-FRA flight.



Y was on the lower deck, laid out 3-4-3.





I was seated in the front Y cabin this time. Up ahead were the Suites. They appeared to be fairly full today.

[yflyer]

Soon after take-off, the cabin crew served brunch.



The choices for today were tom yam fried rice or scrambled eggs.



After a few days in Germany, it was a no-brainer: I would have tom yam today.









Brunch was delicious, well up to the standards set on my earlier SQ flight.

[yflyer]

I took a stroll around the cabin.

This is the emergency row in the 2nd Y Cabin, at row 44. Note that there is no protrusion in the door, unlike the emex row 55 further back.



There was inflight wifi on this flight.



This was priced identically for any type of device, based on amount of data traffic. You could switch between devices based on a login ID which you set when you first signed up, however only one device would be connected at a time.



Cost per MB was not cheap, but 5-10MB was all you needed if you just used WhatsApp etc.