BA Y to Europe - Runs, Floods, War and Wine

[yflyer]

TR INDEX

BA12 A380 SIN-LHR
BA T5 Galleries South Lounge
Rome – Sheraton Roma and City Run
Paris – AC by Marriott Porte Maillot, Le Meridien Etoile, City Run and Dining at Flottes
CX Lounge – CDG Terminal 2A
London – Dining at Gordon Ramsey's Maze and Imperial War Museum
BA T5 Galleries North Lounge
BA15 77W LHR-SIN and Enhanced/Gourmet Pre-Order Y Meals


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BA Y to Europe - Runs, Floods, War and Wine

I woke up in the belly of a whale.



Where was I? What time was it?

It all slowly came back.

I was on BA12, an A380 about two-thirds of the way from SIN to LHR, probably 2am UK time but already 9am in Singapore.

Many hours earlier, before I had fallen asleep in my seat, I had eaten dinner: This was chicken with potatoes. The other selection offered on this flight (If I recall correctly) was oriental style fish and rice.



It tasted good. The starter of smoked salmon and mashed potatoes was foolproof. A sure-fire winner that withstands the rigors of freezing and thawing well. The chicken was tasty as well, with potatoes and vegetables that still retained decent flavour and texture.

There were still several hours to go before breakfast. My routine on this sector is was sleep soon after boarding, then wake up around late morning SG time and remain awake the rest of the flight…

About an hour and a half before landing, breakfast was served…



Breakfast…choice of two egg-based dishes. I decided on the full English…



This was fine, although no match for the elaborate breakfasts served on other airlines like SQ or JL.

Another plane was flying alongside…it peeled away on a different course only when we were above the UK…



A smooth landing, by A380 standards. Many A380's land with a thump. Not today.

There was no queue in the transit lanes back to the airside area at Heathrow T5 for my connecting flight.

[yflyer]

I headed to the BA Galleries Club Lounge South, up the escalators past the iconic “Cloud” kinetic sculpture…



On that day, the moving parts on this kinetic sculpture were not moving, and the top of the sculpture was a little dusty. Hopefully it was just temporarily down for maintenance, and I hoped that it would be back in motion soon. This sculpture has become an iconic image for BA -- it would be a shame if it were not kept in tip-top condition.

Dining area near the lounge entrance…



Breakfast buffet spread…



Fresh fruit…



Bakery items…



Savoury cheese and fried egg rolls…



Bacon rolls…



Cheese/egg roll, or bacon roll? They both looked good. How to decide? Simple, I took one of each…

Porridge…



But these were oats, not Chinese style pork, chicken or century egg rice porridge that I was used to…

On impulse, I scooped myself a bowl, and added syrup and raisins…



My first taste of oats porridge in many years. I took a spoonful. Mmmm…delicious…very smooth, warm with great mouthfeel. I never liked oats porridge before, but I do now!



The egg & cheese and bacon rolls were good too.

Elsewhere in the lounge, a full bar was open…



There were posters announcing the availability of a new Cornish Pale Ale in the lounge, named "Tribute", in distinctive purple cans.



But it was too early in the day for a drink here in LHR. (If this were FRA, it would have been ok…)

[yflyer]

I headed to the gate to board a BA 767…



I passed through the front cabin. Was this a single class aircraft? No, this was “Club Europe”, which looks like Y (Who are they kidding? As far as the seats are concerned, it is Y), except that the middle seat remained empty.



The regular Y seats are 2-3-2 and come with white plastic seat backs (No IFE on this 2 hour intra-Europe sector).



Leather seats in Y. Small overhead bins by today’s standards.



Legroom was ok…



Breakfast on the plane…my third breakfast of the day so far: first on the A380 before landing, second in the BA lounge, now this…



Ham and cheese croissant…



Pleasant, bright cabin ambience…



Landing in the late morning in bright, sunny Italy…



Down airstairs…

[yflyer]

Just a short queue at Rome FCO immigration, then the hotel shuttle bus from FCO to the Sheraton Roma.

The Sheration is on the outskirts of Rome, just 20 minutes by car or shuttle bus to the city centre.



Not a new hotel, but the elegant rooms have been fully renovated.





Great view of lush greenery out the window.



Bathrooms with tub…



You can now interact with guest services via Chat / WhatsApp etc. I used this quite a lot, and it worked well.



Perfect weather the day I arrived. Warm and sunny. I headed to the hotel poolside restaurant, AQVI, for lunch.



Iced coffee…



Lunch was a veal tartar/carpaccio and melted cheese starter, followed by rigatoni pasta amatriciana, with a creamy sauce, bacon and parmesan cheese…



Italian food in Singapore is very good, but of course what you get in Rome is at a different level altogether…the pasta had a bounce and texture that you almost never got in Singapore...I think I would have been happy eating a different plate of pasta for every meal I had in Italy...

[yflyer]

I enjoyed lunch so much that I headed back to the poolside the next day for spaghetti vongole…



A smooth double expresso...



…served with cookies…the entire glass bowl of cookies placed on my table for me to help myself…



I ate them all. (Joking lah, I ate one.)

The breakfast buffet was decent as well…



Taxi’s are not cheap in Rome, and my impression is that the stereotype of Italian drivers, who drive their Fiat’s as if they were Ferrari’s, is not far off the mark…

[yflyer]

On a warm, sunny afternoon, dressed in PT kit, I took the hotel shuttle bus to the city for a run. This is very convenient and inexpensive (EUR 6 one way and EUR 10 round trip). Just 25 minutes from the hotel to central Rome, stopping at Via del Teatro Marcello, near the Piazza Venezia.

A great place to begin my run. It was now 4pm. I had 1 hour 45 minutes to complete my run, before catching the 5.45pm bus back to the hotel from the same spot. I jog at a very leisurely pace, let’s see how many of Rome’s sights I would be able to cover…

I began my run…

Close by, the Altare della Patria, also known as “The Typewriter”, which it resembles from some angles…



Roman ruins near the colosseum. For anyone from Singapore, where anything 50 years old is considered “historic”, Rome is a magical, wondrous place, with history all around you.



The scaffoldings around the Colosseum the last time I was there are all gone…a great time to visit…



Similarly, the Trevi Fountain, which was undergoing restoration the last time I was here, has also reopened…



This must be one of Rome’s most popular attractions…



I continued through the narrow streets of Rome…



…to the Pantheon, built in 118-128 AD...incredible...



…and past countless gelato shops…



…resisting the urge to end my run prematurely and indulge in a scoop or five…



Palazzo Madama, seat of the Italian Senate…



Piazza Navona…



Here, like most of the other tourist attractions in Rome, there was some police / military presence on hand. A sign of the times…

[yflyer]

I crossed the River Tiber...



...and headed towards the Basilica of St Peter, in Vatican City…



...before heading past Castel Sant'Angelo…



…and back across the Tiber…



On to the Spanish Steps (Closed that day…)…



and the shopping streets of Rome…



…line with fashionable boutiques, including such prestige brands as…



One of Rome’s many public water fountains, called Nasoni, continuously spouting clean, drinkable water…an amazingly forward looking and advanced public facility available in Rome since 1874…



I finished my 12 km run about 90 minutes later, having covered many of the sights of Rome. Conclusion? Rome is an eminently runnable (and walkable) city…

(The blue line in the map denotes the planned route, whereas the red line shows the actual route taken. It is always good to have a planned route, but the deviations, whether intended or unintended, were fine too…there is only so much you can plan from a map, even a detailed one like Google Maps…once on the ground, there is invariably a more interesting route to take.)



I caught the 5.45pm shuttle bus back to the hotel, and had a G&T by the poolside to cool down, before showering and heading back to central Rome for dinner at Babette Ristorante. No photos from that evening as it was a business dinner, but it is a great restaurant.

Street lights in Rome highlighting the beautiful cobblestoned streets…

[yflyer]

The next day, I found myself in a slow moving queue to check in for LCC Vueling…no fast track, no FF priority queue, but the ticket price was an offer which I could not refuse...



Airside in FCO, I headed to a burger restaurant to see if Italy had anything unique to offer in the world of beef patties.



A delicious burger, but structurally this was impossible to bite into top-to-bottom without dislocating your jaw, even if you removed the ball of mozzarella buffalo cheese first…



A bus to the Vueling Airbus…

In typical LCC fashion, where speed is everything, boarding took place from both front and rear doors, with the “big luggage in the overhead bins, small luggage under the seat” rule very strictly enforced by a cheerful, young Spanish flight attendant.



The only time I have had seat pitch this narrow was…on my previous Vueling flight…



Snacks for a fee…



Drinks for a fee…



We landed on time in Paris Orly Airport on a wet cloudy day. In the distance you can see a white 744, which is the Korean version of Air Force One.



South Korea uses a 747-400, unlike the older, but cooler looking, and more highly modded, 747-200 series that flies Barack Obama around.

[yflyer]

I checked into the AC by Marriott, Porte Maillot. This is a newish business hotel near the Palais des congrès de Paris and Porte Maillot metro station, just a stone’s throw from the Hyatt Regency Etoile and also the Le Meridien Etoile, and not far from the Arc de Triomphe.

I was just there for a night, and was upgraded to a suite.







Nespresso machine with complimentary coffee capsules…



Bedroom…



Large bathroom with separate tub and shower…





The only quirk was that the WC was not located in the bathroom, but instead in a separate toilet in the living area, which had no attached tap or basin.



For many people, I suspect this would mess up their usual bathroom workflow…doesn't this bother the French, or is this another one of their idiosyncracies?

[yflyer]

It was too late at night to head out for dinner (Or maybe I was just lazy). I headed to the hotel bar/restaurant...

The warm and cheerful staff manning the bar were happy to offer me dinner. “There is no kitchen in this hotel, our dinner menu is pre-prepared and heated, is that ok?”

“Sure”, I replied.

There was a choice of beef or fish. I chose the fish. It came in a jar, together with roll and salad. I accompanied that with a glass of well chilled white…



Not gourmet dining by any stretch, but quite delicious.



View out of my room window the next morning, with both the Hyatt and Le Meridien (And the Eiffel Tower) visible.

[yflyer]

The next day, I checked out of the AC hotel, and checked into Le Meridien nearby. Not because of any unhappiness with the AC hotel of course – the AC was great! It was just that Le Meridien was not available for all the nights of my stay, so I had to book the AC for the first night.



The rooms in the hotel have been refurbished, and are very elegant and stylish. I liked the room decor very much. Some of the public areas are still undergoing refurbishment.







Again, the WC was in a separate room (with no tap/sink) next to the shower/bathroom.

[yflyer]

The nice part about Paris at this time of the year is that daylight hours are very long. After work, I headed out for an evening run on a wet, cloudy day.

The Arc de Triomphe is not far from the hotel…



From there, I headed down the Champs Elysee, which was festooned with French and South Korean flags to commemorate the state visit by South Korean President Park Geun-hye.



I continued past Place de la Concorde…



…and the Jardin des Tuileries, which was quite popular with joggers…





…and then to the Louvre…

[yflyer]

The street artist JR has covered one surface of the Louvre pyramid with an amazing trompe l'oeil picture, which, when viewed from the right position, appears to make the pyramid disappear…



You have to stand at exactly one spot to see this optical illusion as it was intended.



I passed through the courtyards of the Louvre…



…to head to the banks of the Seine, where water levels were approaching unprecedented levels…





Padlocks attached to various bridges across the Seine…intended as permanent declarations of affection…



The roads and footways lining the Seine were under several feet of water, halting almost all river activity, including river cruises, as no boats could pass under the bridges.



Not that anyone could even get to the boats, since the passageways along the river were all under several feet of water…

[yflyer]

I continued along the banks of the Seine towards to the Eiffel Tower, then up the steps of Trocadero…



…where there was a good view of the Eiffel Tower, as well as the giant football had been hung in the middle of the Tower in anticipation of the Euro 2016 tournament about to start a week later…



My route that day...a very pleasant 13km evening run through Paris.

(Blue line: Planned route. Red line: Actual route taken.)

[yflyer]

The next day, I retraced my steps on another run, although this time, rather than head to the Eiffel Tower, I continued past the Louvre to Notre Dame…



Flood waters were just as high that day, perhaps even higher…



The roadsign in the picture should tell how how high the water levels had risen…



In fact, a photo of that exact scene appeared in the newspaper the following day…



That day, the Louvre (And the Musee d’Orsay) were closed, with frantic activities in the Louvre to pack the art pieces in parts of the museum prone to flooding, in case any flooding took place.



Water levels outside the Musee d’Orsay…



Although the Louvre was closed, there were still visitors milling about the outer courtyards, including this long queue to stand at the exact spot where the Louvre pyramid trompe l’oeil street art could be photographed.



I retraced my steps past Place de la Concorde, passing tourist trishaws – even the trishaws in Paris are so stylish…



…back past the Champs Elysee, back to the hotel.



Another very pleasant 13km run.



(Blue line: Planned route. Red line: Actual route taken.)