Coffee Report from Thailand

First coffee today was on the plane at who knows what hour in the morning, probably something like 2am or 3am London time which my brain was still set to, so it helped me wake up before they started doing all the landing prep. Once in Bangkok we got straight into a transport car and got to the hotel, so that was actually the only coffee I had until later this afternoon.

We were getting a few things from the little store in the apartment complex, and of course being in Asia they had plenty of coffee in a can ! so I bought some of these cold gold nuggets. I had one as soon as we got upstairs, nice and cold with a little sweetness. I can understand why they are so popular here, they are just perfect for a coffee hit in this climate.

Ahh, cold coffee on a humid hot day (about 35c)

Breakfast & coffee. Lingon berry and Apple yoghurt.

Its true, its coffee.

Essential supplies

Finland Finland Finland - Day 31

Today was our last day in Europe and all of it was spent leaving Europe with a short stop in Finland. We woke up before 7 to get ready and depart the Hilton at Rome airport. The Hilton has a shuttle, which is great as I didn't fancy pushing all our luggage back to the terminal, even on a cart, as it was slightly up hill the entire way. The Hilton at the airport was quite nice, really comfortable beds, great shower and of course didn't have to travel into Rome just for one nights sleep.

Oh and I forgot to mention one thing from yesterday that happened when we arrived... Since we are back in Rome the SCAM-O-METER was back in full operation, and sure enough a dodgy looking guy came up to me the second I walked out of customs asking me if I wanted a "taxi". FFS Italy, you need to crack down on this shit. It would seem the UK have it under control, I felt a stack load safer there overall than in Italy.

Finnair is only a small airline in global terms and only has a very very small check in desk at the airport in Rome. It took us a while to find it. Checkin was supposed to start at 8am, but nothing happened till 8.30 am, even though there were staff there just chatting away to each other. After finally checking in, we eventually found the lounge that Finnair utilise in Rome (Avia Partners), and its a sorry excuse for a lounge, it was small with few chairs and not much food selection (and the coffee was horrible)

We had about €17 in coins still left, which are pretty useless once you leave as no one will convert them, so Sharon and Emma went out on a mission to spend them. Emma found some more Italian Twisties that she likes, so she got those. The remaining euro coins were spent in Helsinki getting a keyring. With all the security checked were I've had to take my belt on and off, it finally broke, so just like my shoes, it got dumped in Italy. I should have got one in Florence whilst I was there...

We board the plane, a A321. the BA flight was also a A321, however BA have a much nicer layout and also have an entertainment system and power sockets, where as Finnair don't. We were in economy in BA, but business in Finnair. Whilst BA provide nice seats for business, Finnair just have a seperate section and don't put anyone in the middle seat. On this flight business was mostly empty and I had an entire row to myself. There were about 13 people in business on this flight, and 9 of them were Australians. The food service was excellent and it was a great flight to Finland. I think the pilot is also better than the BA one, yesterday we had the roughest landing ever, there were things flying all over the cabin, someones rechargeable battery pack from a row or two behind ended up hitting my foot.

Europe of course has a much more congested airspace than Australia (pretty much every where does compared to Australia) and looking out the window you could see lots of other jets whizzing by in the distance, one or two others very few minutes. It was such a nice day with minimal cloud cover so we saw the mountains of central Italy, the islands and coast off Croatia, the farmland and small towns of Hungary and Poland before crossing the water again and seeing the coast of Finland. What was noticeable was the really tall skinny trees, the many hundreds of lakes, really colourful houses and the fact that all the snow we saw four weeks ago was now gone. Although it was still only 5c outside.

The airport at Helsinki is quite small and there was no room at the terminal, so the plane parked on the tarmac and we caught a bus into the airport. We had to go though departure control, then found the airport lounge. Its it a very very nice lounge, but unfortunately we were only in it for about 30 minutes before our flight left.

Thanks to the wonders of modern satellite internet, I'm now sitting comfortably in this A350 updating this blog post about the trip today. We are now somewhere over Russia (queue the in soviet Russia internet meme jokes), about 19:45 Paris/Rome time and have just finished dinner. Still quite lively onboard, most people watching movies or chatting. Its pitch dark outside and can't see anything at all.

We have 2 nights (almost 3 complete days) in Thailand before our return to Oz early Monday morning.

Waiting waiting and waiting for the checkin counter to open at Rome airport

The "lounge". It was really small

The small food selection in the "lounge"

My favourite belt finally died. Like my favourite runners, its staying in Europe.

Twisties in a cup !

Row to myself on the flight from Rome to Helsinki.

Great view today

Crossing over the sea to Finland

On the bus into the airport terminal.

The excellent Finnair Lounge in Helsinki.

They have help yourself beer on tap. 

On the flight to Bangkok

Really nice noise cancelling headphones

And we are in the air.

Final Coffee Report from Europe

Today we are flying to Bangkok on our journey home. We left Rome for Helsinki, then Helsinki for Thailand. Its basically just a day and a night of travel. I'd been hoping that since we were in Italy I'd get a nice Italian coffee before we left, but alas, that wasn't to be.

When we finally got into the lounge, they only had a coffee machine, and the coffee tasted like they had used UHT milk in the machine. It was not nice at all. Sue also had a coffee from the machine, as soon as she sat down and took a sip, the only words uttered were "YUCK!". Thankfully the machine only half filled the cup so we only had to endure half a cup of rubbish. This was as bad as that coffee I had on my first day in Paris. The lounge was really less than impressive overall, but more on that in my later blog post, so stay tuned.

Second coffee of the day was on the plane from Rome to Helsinki, it was only brewed coffee with milk, but given how bad the first one was, and the fact I'm drinking hot coffee 10KM up in the air, it was pretty nice. Thank you Finnair !

Third coffee of the day (on a caffeine buzz now) was at the lounge at the airport in Helsinki, again, machine made, but a better machine and with proper milk this time. We were not in the lounge for much time, but it was nice to get another coffee in. 

The machine at the "lounge" in Rome

My last coffee in Italy

My in sky coffee, I guess you could say I had this in Hungary, as we were flying over it at the time.

Coffee bar in Helsinki

Super duper coffee machine here.

Also in a really cool marimekko mug.

All Planes Lead to Rome - Day 30

Not exactly an exciting day, just final packing, an airport transfer, waiting for a flight, flight to Rome and then hotel check in.

Car was due to pick us up at 9.45 am, and he was exactly on time. We didn't have anything prebooked by the time we had got to London and I wasn't happy with the options the apartment company offered (basically just calling us a couple of black cabs) and with all the luggage I wasn't going to risk the Tube, so I checked trip advisor and the top of the list was Tony's company, sliver fleet.

http://www.silver-fleet.co.uk as he had a near perfect rating on Trip Advisor, I booked through him. If you are in London and need a transfer check out his web site, I would book through him again next time I'm in London.

I can see why he has a great rating, great spacious and clean Mercedes people mover van, arrived on time and very friendly. He managed to Tetris all our luggage in (with room to spare) and soon we were on our way to terminal 5 at  Heathrow for our flight to Rome. Traffic was pretty good and were there with plenty of time to spare. I was a bit nervous checking in the mountains of luggage, but I'd prepaid one additional bag and it all got accepted with no hitch. This is our only economy leg, so nothing to worry about with luggage tomorrow.

We had lunch at the airport, got on the plane and after 2.5hrs was is Rome. Quite a bit warmer here, and this terminal where British airways landed was a lot nicer than the one where Finnish airways landed when we arrived a month ago.

We are only in Rome overnight to get our flight to Bangkok via Helsinki, so we are in the Hilton at the airport. Not a bad place, comfortable and restaurant is ok.

Checking out involved putting keys in the letterbox 

Luggage Tetris 

Terminal 5

Waiting for lunch

Sue ordered the biggest meal she has ordered the entire holiday

Giraffe cafe in terminal 5

Emma found these unusual tic tacs. They do taste a bit like popcorn 

Nice afternoon flying into Italy 

Transfer train at airport 

Hotel room

Bread with dinner 

Only place I've seen in Italy that provided butter with the bread

My salad for dinner 

Paul's pizza

Sharon's seafood pasta

Emma's Chicken dinner (it was a winner)

Final British Coffee Report

Last coffee report from the UK for today. I went out just before 8 and was praying to the coffee gods that Bellboi was open (the cafe with the Aussie Barista). It wasn't, the shutters will still down so I resigned to the fact my last UK coffee would be from Costa. 

We were all packed up and our car to the airport arrived on time and after just over an hour we were at Heathrow checking in for our flight to Rome. 

Having lunch at Giraffe in Terminal 5 whilst we wait. Paul had a coffee which he rated as good. The costa coffee was massive and I was still buzzing from that hit so passed on this opportunity for another coffee.

Tomorrow will be another Italian coffee report !

I guess the thing that surprised me most about coffee in the UK is that it was way better than any coffee I had in France. 

 

Churchill and Cats - Day 29

After all my coffee today and shopping for an extra suitcase, it was a tough decision I had to make, London is full of great stuff to see and we really only scratched the surface. I still had quite a few things on my list I wanted to see but in reality would only fit one or maybe two in. I decided on the Churchill War Rooms, a relatively new exhibit as part of the Imperial War Museum that opened in 2005. For me it was a little difficult to find, I approached it just like the man you see walking down the stairs, Google maps was telling me I was right on top of it, but I couldn't find it on that path at the top, I had to come down the stairs to see it. Paul also wanted to see this, so I meet up with him in the museum. 

Its 100% underground and some of the corridors are narrow, but its an amazing historical resource. When the war ended, everyone just left it as it was and started working upstairs again, so its virtually as it was in 1945. They had added a few props and extra lighting. There is also a section dedicated to the legacy of Churchill himself. 

Whilst I was doing this, Sharon, Sue and Emma got some last minute shopping in, and Sharon did a tour of the Globe theatre. We then headed off to see the Great Fire Monument, and the London Stone before heading back to the apartment to pack everything for our flight to Rome tomorrow. 

We also had one last thing on the list, at 5pm, we booked in for a tea/coffee at the Cat Cafe just down the road from where we are staying. It was lots of fun, Emma had a ball. It was very clean, they have two sets of staff, one set handle the cats, the other handle the food, and where the food it prepared there are no cats. 

For our last dinner in London we had takeaway curry from City Spice in Brick Lane.

This is the entrance to the War Rooms

Churchill's underground bedroom. He only used it a handful of times.

Heading towards Blackfriars station

Emma with some of her shopping

I picked up a few things for Sharon

I paid Idiot Tax, left my Oyster card in the apartment after dropping off the bag, Walking back to get it would cost me close to an hour, so I sucked it up and bought a day ticket for £12.

Here is my Oyster card. Serves me right for having a donut !

Monument to the fire. Unfortunately other buildings around it overshadow it.

The London stone. Unfortunately it would seem it gets mistaken for a toilet quite often.

Our apartment building in Shoreditch

Emma just adored the cat cafe.

This is one very large kitty.

Beer whilst we wait at City Spice

Hate to break it to you shoes, but you are not coming with us. The super glue fix sealed the deal, you are staying in the UK.