I made it ! It was 9 hours from Munich to Newark Liberty International Airport (in the New York area), 2 hours of stressful connection at Newark, and then another 6 hours to Seattle.
‘Welcome to the United States of America’ at the end of the international arrivals passage at Newark Liberty Airport.
At Newark (this is standard for USA international arrivals) you have to go through passport control, get your bags, clear customs, re-check your bags, and then go and stand in a very long line to go through TSA security again for your connecting flight. So the lesson is : try to fly directly home from overseas. If that is not possible, pack your patience and make sure you have two hours to connect, since one hour will not do it.
I am at Munich airport, and I am ready to go home. I did not get much sleep last night with all the firework-hubbub and noises outside. There is no prohibition on buying and shooting off fireworks in Munich, and boy, do the citizens go at it ! I also had to allow extra time for the train to the airport. The train would not be late, of course. But I could have read the on-line timetable wrong, or the New Years Day schedule could have been different from the usual Tuesday one. But not to worry, at Ostbahnhof station the signs confirmed that the S8 Flughafen train scheduled for 6.24 am, as I expected..
It’s 6 am on New Years Day and the ‘Young and the Restless’ are evidently done partying for the night and heading home, waiting for the train.The new BMW X1 on display at the airport would make a nice New Years present (for myself) – no?A ‘Special Edition’ Joe Camel outside the smoking booth in Terminal 2.
Here are today’s highlights. I did get to see some modern architecture ! I am pondering if I should go out at all tonight – to brave the Germans ringing in 2013 in the streets – but I probably will. I leave for the States and for Seattle in the morning.
I felt I had to stop at Odeonsplatz to take a day-time picture of Field Commander Hall, and here it is.The Theatine Church right next to it also looks a lot sharper in day time.This is the Olympic Tower as seen from across the man-made Olympic lake in front of the Olympic Stadium and the Tower.1972 Olympic Stadium had a unique construction and form for its time, one that has been used for many other structures since. The inside areas of the Stadium are not open, for the most part. Also, the fence stopped me from getting closer for this view.‘Dach Lawinen’ (roof avalanches), said one warning sign that I saw. But there is no snow on the roof at this time, so no problem there.
Here is the ‘tornado’ building of BMW Welt (BMW World)’s showroom and shrine to the Ultimate Driving Machine. It opened in 2007.I have now walked around the the front of the building. It was closed for the New Years weekend .. but BMW did put out some crumbs (bottom right) for the clamoring BMW Motor Machine fans that would otherwise have nothing at all to look at.These shiny buildings belong to BMW as well. The bowl is BMW Museum and the towers are BMW’s world headquarter offices.More mundane (square) offices and working area in the BMW World complex.I am now heading back on U3 to Marianplatz. This is the inside of the station.This is Munich Freiheit station also on the U3 route. The pillars are blue, but the blue is enhanced by LEDs shining from above. My camera actually added the pink.Aww.. is this the way to treat a little Mini ? (Well, it’s actually a real, full-size Mini ! ). Giant mural display ad in the BMW World complex.This is also in Munich Freiheit station, my reflection in the polished ceiling panels.The Galeria Kaufhaus homeware display sported this WMF brand egg holder for ardent FC Bayern fans (Munich based soccer club). Check out the little hammer for breaking the egg shell !
One more view of the Olympic Stadium, this space is called ‘Olympic Hall’.
So .. what to do if you arrive on a wintry Sunday when most of the restaurants, shops and museums are geschlossen (closed)? Well, the trains still run and so you go where you can ogle some old architecture. (Hopefully today, Monday, I will get to see some newer architecture!). Marienplatz (Mary’s Square) is ground zero for the city center and that is where the New City Hall (neues Rathaus) on the north side is found .. ‘new’ being a very relative term here.
This is 11 am on Sunday morning, and I am watching the Glockenspiel in the main tower of the City Hall building. There is a upper and lower carousel with marionettes that go around and around .. and at the end two knights with lances ‘charge’ each other and one is mortally wounded !The main gate is a work of art (well, the whole building is a work of art).Cool restaurant facade off Marienplatz .. I like the ‘tulip’ style light fixtures that blend into the building’s face.Montgelas Memorial (artist Katrin Sander, 2005) at Promenadeplatz square in the old city. Maximilian Josef Garnerin/ Count von Montgelas (1759–1838) was a Bavarian statesman.The Bayarischer Hof hotel off the Promenadeplatz square.I don’t know the name of this charming old department store off Marienplatz .. will find out and add its name in here.Always great to find a mirror for a self portrait ! I just hopped off the train behind me, at the Marienplatz U-bahn station.I’m not sure how this sign works ! It’s possible that some signals are for cars and others for trams or buses. Most crossings have buttons for pedestrians. I ALWAYS wait for the green ‘robot’ light and never jaywalk in a strange city.The ‘Kings Court’ hotel near Karlsplatz station. It was just refreshing to see a somewhat modern design after all the old buildings.Orleans Street runs by Ostbahnhof where my Marriott hotel is. Even here in the outskirts of the city there are plenty of taverns and bars for quaffing a great German beer.U-bahn entrance to Marienplatz stationThe Christmas markets are quiet now, but this friendly fella was outside a restaurant that still hosted an outside area with beer drinkers, making use of all of 2012’s merry-making !These beautiful Christmas market lights were still up, around Karlsplatz .. lucky for me.Christmas store display nearbyFeldherrhalle (Commander’s Hall) at Odeonsplatz. It gets dark at 4.30pm already! I had to use the ISO 1600 setting on my camera to boost the light for the picture dramatically. Theatine Church at OdeonplatzHere is the Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) at night. The building on the right is a department store. There is also an Apple store close by (sacrilege!).
These two old gentlemen waiting for the train are sporting traditional Bavarian outfits (at least I think it is, even though it is not lederhosen that they are wearing).
This is the S Bahn (regional train) that took me from the airport to Ostbahnhof in the east of the city where my Marriott Courtyard hotel is.
I arrived in Munich early Sunday morning. It is 32 F (0 C) outside, quite a change from the very muggy Johannesburg thunderstorm air we had when we boarded. The customs clearance and baggage claim process in Munich took all of 15 mins – amazing, might have been the quickest ever for me.
This cool green refrigerator was right there at the baggage carousel, as a marketing/ advertising placement by the manufacturer.This sure looks like Tintin’s rocket in Destination Moon. This is just outside Terminal 2 on the way to the train station.
Our South African Airbus A330-200 after we arrived from the terminal shuttle bus. I guess two engines suffice because we did not really fly over water. But the seats were very comfortable and the service was excellent.Welcome in Munich, says the sign (obviously) .. the buildings are all from around Marienplatz, the old city town square.
I am back at Oliver Tambo International airport, to make my way back to Seattle .. but I will spend two nights in an extended stop-over in Munich before making the final leg of the flight home.
There was a thunderstorm here at Oliver Tambo airport in Johannesburg, but the sky seem to be all clear now with beautiful pinks and blues.Bead work art from the Out of Africa airport store.I am sure these masks are ‘imports’ from central and west Africa. We don’t really have these in South Africa.Hmm. How many monkeys on the sofa? And will there be one more if I sit on it? These are a classic, carved giraffes also from the Out of Africa store.It’s 10 h 35 mins to Munich (the map should say Johannesburg to Munich, of course. A little glitch with the route map on the SAA web site).
This is the exit gate at Oliver Tambo International airport in Johannesburg’s parking garage. I am sure my American readers will appreciate the spiked barrier and the ‘wait for the green robot’ instruction. (Don’t expect a green robot cross in front of the car. ‘Wait for the green robot’ is South African for ‘Wait for the green traffic light’. And I love those mean spikes that will puncture your car’s tires if you do not comply .. as if the boom is not enough!).
These cute baby Springboks (mascot of the national rugby football team) are for sale at the airport store.
The heat gave way to a cool rainy day in the Western Cape. I am at Cape Town international airport -heading north to Johannesburg on South African Airways* to visit a friend for a day or two.
*The national carrier is in financial trouble, but the South African government announced in October that it would provide US$ 600 million of financing over the next two years.
The view from the lounge at the airport. The lime green plane is from low-cost airline Kulula Air. The orange ones are from competitor Mango Airlines, started in 2006 as a subsidiary of South African Airways.
Sunday was another beautiful blue-sky day here in the Western Cape. My brothers and I went to lunch with our cousin at the wine estate of Vergelegen (Dutch for ‘far away’). A little bit of history : in 1700, Dutchman and Cape colony Governor Willem Adriaan van der Stel was granted the property of Vergelegen. He set out to build a main house and others in a style under the Renaissance influence of wealthy estates and palaces in Europe at the time. However, his lavish spending on the property and other actions trying to establish a monopoly in the trade of wine and meat for himself caused a revolt under the free ‘burghers’ (independent farmers), and led to his recall and return to the Netherlands in 1707. The estate was sold several times after that, most recently to the mining company Anglo-American in 1987. At that time wine was no longer produced, but within ten years the estate was recognized as producing some of South Africa’s finest wines.
This is the ‘library’. It used to be a wine cellar, but is now lined with book cases and books, and there is a very old pool table inside on the lower level.
Vergelegen (‘far away’) wine estate is marked ‘A’ on the map. It is on the outskirts of Somerset West, a short drive from Cape Town and Stellenbosch.This is a scene of the surrounding landscape depicted in an old painting from inside one of the buildings (I did not note the artist). It still looks like this to this day.This is the herb garden with its neatly-trimmed hedges in the foreground. The ‘Stables’ restaurant building where we had lunch is on the left and the reception/ wine tasting building on the right.The 2012 Sauvignon Blanc was a little ‘young’ but crisp and citrussy. They had none left of earlier vintages!Here is the main house, viewed from within the large octagonal walled garden in front of it.Some – not all – of the lunch party. That’s me on the left, two of my brothers to the right of me, and my cousin and her husband.These camphor trees are from China and Japan and were planted between 1700 and 1706 on the Vergelegen estate. They were declared National Monuments in 1942.The window frames, clapboards and outdoor furniture pieces are well-maintained and in great shape.
I was my turn today to pick up my brother and his family from California at Cape Town airport. They arrived on Air France via Paris, on the Boeing 777 shown below. Check out the international arrivals board – 1. showing only about a dozen scheduled arrivals for the day (so Cape Town is a small airport by international standards) and 2. arrivals from some interesting places such as Antarctica and Maun. The flight from in from Antarctica is probably on an Ilyushin Il-76, a Russian-made transport plane. There was one on the tarmac when I came in on Wednesday. And Maun is a small town of modern buildings and mud huts in the north of Botswana on the Okavango Delta.
This Air France Boeing 777 at Cape Town airport has just arrived from Paris.The international arrivals board shows scheduled arrivals from Antarctica and from Maun in Botswana.
Our Lufthansa Airbus A380 from Frankfurt to Johannesburg was also namedthe ‘Johannesburg’. It’s a big bird, and on take-off it feels too slow and sluggish to lift off from the runway, but then it actually does. I sat upstairs on the wing. That was a 10 hr flight, and then a ‘hop’ of 2 hours from Johannesburg to Cape Town on South African airways got me to my final destination. Cape Town was at a sweltering 36°C (97°F) today, but the day temperatures are projected to go down somewhat for the rest of the week.
The Lufthansa A380 ‘Johannesburg’ after our arrival in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning.Front view of the A380 at the gate at Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.Here is the view from our approach into Cape Town International Airport. That is the iconic Table Mountain straight ahead with Lion’s Head to its right, and Table Bay in front of it (the Atlantic Ocean).
I came in at 7.30 am this morning and my flight out to Johannesburg is only at 10 pm. – so I checked into the Airport Sheraton for a day room. It was not cheap (€150), but completely worth it. As for my connection in Toronto – I had to hustle to make it since I had to go through customs and come back in through security (not clear to me why, maybe because I planned to switch airlines in Frankfurt). Here are pictures from Toronto and from Frankfurt, unfortunately all from indoors, but hey – best to stay inside since it’s pretty chilly outside in both these cities, this time of year.
The colored rings inside this giant skylight at Toronto’s Pearson International airport are mesmerizing.Lots of turquoise Air Canada planes with the maple leaf on the tail. I arrived in an Embraer jet from Seattle, and we took a Boeing 777 across the Atlantic to Frankfurt.This giant indoor artwork is at the boarding gate in E terminal in Toronto. Seattle has similar piece but as outdoor art, in Olympic Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle.This is 7.30 am in the morning in Frankfurt. The airport is on my left and I am walking across the skybridge to the Airport Sheraton to catch forty winks (quite a bit more than forty winks, actually). There is still snow on the ground from Monday, but it’s all clear for tonight, so there should not be any delays.Hansel and Gretel (or the witch’s) gingerbread house in the lobby of the Sheraton.This is early Tue evening and I am back in the terminal for the flight out to Johannesburg at Tue night at 10 pm.I like these sharply dressed ‘birds’ on a billboard inside the airport .. even though it was not clear to me what they were advertising!This is at the entrance of Z terminal where we will take off from. Looks the the theme for the decorations is ‘World Fairs’, since there a Shanghai Pearl Tower (2010), a Seattle Space Needle (1962) and the ‘Atomium’ from Brussels (1958). Oh, and the Eiffel Tower which was the entrance arch to the 1889 World Fair in Paris.
I am all re-assembled after the TSA security check – cell phone, watch, belt, shoes, jacket. A little earlier at the check-in counter I ran into a little obstacle. The Air Canada agent said ‘Your yellow fever vaccination documentation, please’ .. this after staring at her monitor for a few minutes (you just know something is up). Of course I did not have one. I was not even checked in yet – booked the ticket through United Airlines, and I found out last night that Air Canada allows on-line check-in from some US cities, but not from Seattle. Anyway – I said ‘Well, I travel to South Africa every year and it’s never been a requirement’ before another agent came to my rescue and confirmed that it’s just a guideline and the traveler’s responsibility.
What is yellow fever anyway? It’s a viral infection transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected mosquito.The majority of persons infected with yellow fever virus have no illness or only mild illness, but some 15% of cases progress to a severe form that can cause jaundice and bleeding and organ failure. Darfur in Sudan has one of Africa’s worst epidemics in decades, with a total of 732 cases and 165 deaths.
Here is the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control’s map of yellow fever areas in sub-Saharan Africa. It says ‘No Risk’ for South Africa.
I am taking off for Frankfurt Monday morning for a Tuesday morning arrival there local time. Then on Tuesday night I will continue south to Cape Town via Johannesburg. Yes, it’s a lot of stops! but I managed to get a business class seat on most of the segments, courtesy of United Airlines miles. (Will I ever get myself to fly coach again all the way on these long international routes? I hope so). The other thing to do to prepare these days is to load the smartphone apps for the airlines you will fly on, and even the airports you will visit, onto your phone before you leave. That way you have the updated flight information and airport information handy for the whole trip. So for me it’s Air Canada to Toronto and Frankfurt, then Lufthansa to Johannesburg, and South African Airways to Cape Town.
Here are the gory details of the trip stops and flight times. I am breaking it in two with a little layover in Frankfurt, just enough to catch some sleep in a day hotel, and then I will continue to Cape Town.A map of a new airport’s layout is always handy. I have connected through Frankfurt airport before, but I don’t have a photographic memory !It’s winter time, and so there is always the possibility of snow to delay one’s departure and time. Frankfurt does not have snow in its forecast for the next few days, fortunately.
This is on the way in to work on Monday, a little later than usual so the sun was just up high enough to color the sky above the snow-capped mountains a beautiful blue. We’re in Ogden on Wall Avenue (with a strange familiar tone to it because of Wall Street?), one of the main north-south avenues.
‘Avenue’ also makes me think of the ‘classic’ Electric Light Orchestra song ‘The Way Life’s Meant To Be’ :
Well, I came a long way to be here today
And I left you so long on this avenue
And here I stand in the strangest land
Not knowing what to say or do
As I gaze around at these strangers in town
I guess the only stranger is me
And I wonder (yes, I wonder)
Yes, I wonder (oh, I wonder)
Is this the way life’s meant to be?
Salt Lake City is a small airport and it’s very convenient not to have to catch a shuttle bus to a rental car location away from the airport. This picture is from Sunday night. I had just exited from the baggage claim and the rental car counters and garage are on my left. The snowflake decorations offer a little chilly cheeriness against the winter’s dark.
I was reading this Bloomberg Businessweek article with the provocative headline at the airport on Thursday night. Read it here ! http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-18/how-airport-security-is-killing-us From the article – ‘To make flying as dangerous as using a car, a four-plane disaster on the scale of 9/11 would have to occur every month, according to analysis published in the American Scientist. People switching from air to road transportation in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks led to an increase of 242 driving fatalities per month – which means a lot more people died on the roads as an indirect result of 9/11 than died from being on the planes on that terrible day.
[Picture from Wikipedia]. State route UT-39 runs from Ogden out to the Great Salt Lake and back.Here’s the scenery next to UT-39 as we go back to Ogden on Monday afternoon. The snow caps on the mountains are smaller than normal for this time of year. The ski resorts are all open now, but most only has limited runs and are running their snow-making machines to get by until there is more snow.
We take state route UT-39 from the hotel in Ogden to the factory next to the Great Salt Lake where we are doing our project. Utah is nicknamed the ‘Beehive State’, hence the beehive on the road signs. And the name Utah is derived from the name of the Ute tribe, which means ‘people of the mountains’. Speaking of mountains, it has not snowed much since I first arrived at the Salt Lake City airport two weeks ago.
This is Sunday night at the gate in Seattle airport on the way to Salt Lake City. I am sitting in the exit row right up front in the coach section of the Boeing 757. My seat cost me $19 extra but it is completely worth it to me. As the picture shows, we have the most legroom of anyone in the plane! Are we willing and able to operate the door in an emergency? The stewardess asked. Absolutely – we will be the first ones out the door, we assured her.
My flight into Seattle from Salt Lake City late Thu night was fine and without incident (the way all travelers like it). It’s just two hours. Friday’s Wall Street Journal had an interesting write-up about Delta’s fleet. It is very large, but older than most airline fleets, and made up of many different types of aircraft – 10 different models and some 750 planes altogether. The airline has been profitable for the third year running last year, but spent $12 billion on jet fuel : its biggest expense. So recently it made a bold move. In September it plonked down $150 million for an idled Conoco refinery, as a way to manage high jet fuel costs.
From Friday’s Wall Street Journal. Looks like I will fly in Boeing 757s to Salt Lake City and back .. I HOPE I am getting the 10 yr old ones, and not the 20 yr old ones! (Actually, as long as they are maintained well, aircraft can fly for much longer than 20 years).
