Category: Travel

I rarely ever write about the flights I take. However, this was probably one of the emptiest flights I have ever taken. I am heading to Chengdu Polytechnic for a few days and had a book flights straight to Chengdu, there was not that many options and most of them either went via Beijing or Shanghai, adding several extra hours with slow transfer times at Chinese airports. I managed to find a direct flight from Frankfurt to Chengdu, which even with having to fly from London to Munich and then Munich to Frankfurt was over 4 hours quicker than the other Star Alliance options. The downside was the intercontinental flight was with Air China. I have only ever taken Air China between Europe and China as a last resort and can count the times which I have. The first being when I got to the airport in Beijing and Lufthansa were on strike, so they put me on a direct Air China flight to London, the second time when my Air China flight from Changzhou to Beijing was cancelled so I missed my Swiss flight, so I was put on an Air China flight. The third time was when I had to get a one-way flight to Beijing to pack up before moving back to Europe, so wanted to get an award mile flight to avoid getting a costly one-way fare. The final time was a last minute flight at the end of Golden Week, and was the only flight available. So I did not have high hopes for a good flight to Chengdu, however, we boarded from a bus gate and only used only one bus to get to all the passengers to the plane. This was the first indication of how empty the flight would be, using only one bus to board passengers for an A320-300. Once on board it was pretty clear the flight was not more than 15-20% full. So it was easy to have a whole row to lie down on. Which was good given the cramped leg room and the stupid foot rests that Air China have, which are only good if you are around 5 foot. If taller than this takes up your leg room and bruises your knees. The plane was only not in a great state with most of the seat back screens not working (I had several rows to test) and the seat pockets destroyed or hanging off. I think I got very lucky with this flight. The ample space made up for the inability to listen to music on my phone, work out when I could go to the bathroom as the seatbelt light was on the whole time, not use any electronics for the final hour of the flight and eat two meals which were identical. The normal quirks of flying with Chinese airlines. When I got off the plane I also realised the plane blanket had got fluff all over me 🙂

For a break over the New Year I visited Napa after spending a couple of days in San Francisco. Napa seemed like an ideal place to spend New Year, with wine plentiful and the weather moderately warm. Previously, having stayed in Calistoga in the north of the Napa Valley it was nice to stay in Napa itself, to see and visit new places. Napa itself is probably not as nice in my opinion as the smaller and quaint town of Calistoga. However, there is a lot more there and more choice. It is nice to be able to explore wineries in the day and then visit tasting rooms in Napa itself in the evening, without having to drive or peddle too much. Plus, many of the tasting rooms are open later, so you really can make a whole of wine if you wanted too.

During our time in Napa we visited the Bell winery (the name prompted making an appointment there) which was very friendly and had some very fruity red wines. On New Years eve we had a day of bubbles cycling the 14 and a bit miles from Napa to Mumm Napa and stopping at Domaine Chandon for a tasting and sparkling wine cocktail class. It was interesting to visit Mumm Napa after visiting its glitzier mother GH Mumm a couple of months before. The tasting room was very nice, and the slogan ‘Crafted for Everyday Celebrations’ is quite nice, given the amount you get given for a tasting. At Domaine Chandon we made a festive Holiday Mule, a New Year Spirit and a Berry and Sage Sparkler. It was a good way to prepare for the start of 2018.

Between Christmas and the New Year, we headed to San Francisco to get a break before the start of the New Year. I previously have only been in San Francisco briefly, stopping at a few attractions whilst driving through. So, this trip allowed a slower paced opportunity to explore more of the city. We hired bikes for 24 hours to help us get around more of the city. We started the morning by visiting the Coit tower, and viewing its views over San Francisco, before heading down the hill to the Piers and visiting the Pier 39 sealions. After a lunch of chili inside sourdough bridge we cycled along the coastal parks and crossed the Golden Gate bridge and headed for Sausalito. Sausalito was a little bit of a tourist trap plus the line to get a ferry back to San Francisco was nearly an hour long, so we decided to cycle back and visit the Golden Gate Park.

Thankfully, we had our bikes for a full 24 hours so we could get up and visit the Pier 39 sea lions again in the morning before the crowds arrived. They really are a sight and noise to behold, so many of them and some of them are so big, all bathing in the sunlight and playing in the water.

On our way (going the wrong direction) to Napa we visited the Winchester Mystery House, which is situated just above San Jose in Silicon Valley. The house was built by Sarah Winchester the wife and heir to the Winchester gun company and its fortune. Being ‘haunted’ by back luck, her young daughter and husband dying, she built a house to appease the spirits. Plus, in order to support the good spirits and hide from the bad spirits she kept employing workers to built and develop the house 24 hours a day until see died. This led to a house with 160 plus rooms, which contained doors to nowhere and fake cupboards and many other interesting features. The house also had many other quirks such as low riser steps to allow Ms Winchester to move around the property with bad arthritis and many features built around the number 13, such as adding additional holes in sinks and lights on chandeliers. It was a very interesting place to visit and with a new filmed based on the story starring Helen Mirren set for release in February, it was an interesting time to visit.

This weekend as the cold really starts to bite in Moscow, I had the opportunity to go to the Kristall №1 Distillery and Museum for a tour and tasting. Both the tour and tasting were fascinating, even with the tasting of 8 different straight vodka starting at midday, which made the first couple a little challenging.

The Kristall distillery has a lot of interesting history which the museum explained. At the beginning of the 20th century when Russia was transferring all production of vodka to public ownership, to guarantee the quality (and no doubt support the public purse) the Kristall distillery in Moscow (originally founded as Moscow State Wine Warehouse №1), was founded as the first state sanctioned distillery. This gave it the name №1. During the second world war the factory started producing Molotov Cocktails to fit into specially built launchers to attack marauding German tanks. Both the Molotov Cocktails and the launchers were on display in the museum as well as vodka in space packaging, which was provided to Russian cosmonauts.

The Kristall brand which I was most familiar with was Stolichnaya. It was explained that when Stolichnaya started exporting to the US, they agreed a distribution agreement with Pepsi, distributing each other’s products in their respective countries. As Americans were not drinking vodka straight and using it in cocktails, the strength of Stolichnaya for export was increased to 50% abv, so people could taste it. Having tasted a range of their vodkas I would suggest that Stolichnaya Sever Special Soft is the best. It contains a gram of sugar (per bottle) and a subtle taste of honey to take some of the bitterness away.

After being in Moscow for nine months the time has come where I have finally been forced to take an Aeroflot flight from Sheremetyevo (SVO) and all the challenges which come with it. This weekend I am going to Nanjing to work with a vocational college regarding their enterprise education offering, and at the same time meeting colleagues at Southeast University regarding research. The trip is only for 3 days, so I didn’t want to spend too long travelling. Plus, it is the Friday after the big Chinese holiday of Golden Week, so many of the flights are at capacity. Maybe unsurprisingly one of the only options which is not fully booked is Aeroflot. I am not expecting a comfortable trip and their will undoubtedly be much hassle much hassle at the airport. So the three days on the ground in Nanjing could be a struggle. But hopefully, after this trip I can say I have flown Aeroflot and never have to do it again.

The highlight of the journey was finding a couple of pigeons at the departure gate SVO. Of course what kind of quality airport does not have pigeons drinking on a drinking fountain.

The last weekend I got to attend my first ever Oktoberfest event. Whilst it was not in Germany, it was at the German Embassy in Moscow. My theory is, this is probably pretty close to the real thing. A range of German beers were served ranging from lagers to wheat beers. I focused on the wheat beers as this is always my preference. Generally, the less hops the better. There was also the option to try one of the meal selections, which included pork knuckle, roasted chicken and bratwurst. I went for the bratwurst as it was easy to eat and supplemented the beer well. Maybe my experience wasn’t the real authentic German Oktoberfest experience but it was good fun and maybe in the future I will get to Germany at the right time of year to experience Oktoberfest actually in Germany.