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| We are underway. |
The contents of this blog are the personal reflections of me, Ryan Saunders, and do not reflect an official opinion of The Chorus of Westerly nor an official statement from the Chorus of Westerly (or from me as Executive Director). It is being shared with you on a personal, friendly basis, as a member of the Chorus family, a tour participant, or friend of Ryan personally. This blog is NOT to be reproduced by media outlets without my permission. For now, I also ask that you do not share this blog's link on your Facebook walls, Twitter feeds, personal, or other online sources without my permission first. You may feel free to share the link, without my permission, with those considering the tour or considering supporting the tour as long as you explain for me that this is a personal journal/log of my trip site inspection and not an official itinerary or other document.
There certainly might be some geographic errors, or detail errors, or typos, or grammar mistakes, and I do apologize for them. No need to send me corrections. You are getting this straight out of my head. I'll edit it later.
Andrew texted me at 2:41 pm that he and Emily were leaving Westerly for my house and Alisa text me ten minutes ago that she was on her way home, so I best clean myself up, double check that I have my passport and get ready to go.
Written Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 3:16 pm
It’s great fun to be on this tour inspection with Andrew Howell. I must say that on my inspection for the 2014 tour I had great company in Nick Abbott the entire way - and I mean that - but it is nice to have Andrew here too and all of us (Nick, Amanda, Andrew, Sue, and Stephan) all together. We’re like this Chorus of Westerly Force roaring through Germany with a goal of the best Chorus Tour ever — and I think this can and will be it, and that is saying something as we’ve had some pretty great tours in the past.
Emily Howell drove Andrew to my house in North Attleborough as I was to drive the two of us into Boston for our flight on Lufthansa at 8:20 pm. Alisa came home quickly from school to see us off. The Howells arrived at about five minutes after four and after we said farewell to our wives, Andrew and I loaded into my Altima for our drive to Logan departing at 4:16 PM. As we departed, literally as we pulled out of the driveway, Andrew realized he had forgotten his jacket in their minivan, so we chased Emily a little ways down Landry Avenue before pulling into a side street for the jacket transfer. That was, thankfully, the only little snafu of our travels and the only thing - at least that we discovered so far - that we forgot. It only added about five minutes onto our journey into the city, so that was a very good thing.
Our ride into Boston and to the airport was remarkably easy considering it was rush hour. Mind you, much traffic can be in either direction at that time and we did encounter about ten minutes worth, but nothing crippling. We arrived at Logan at about quarter after five and went to park in Central Parking, but were oddly redirected out of Central Parking and to the other side of the airport to economy parking. They said the lot was full but it was visibly not full - not even close. Our theory was that they were about to do some work in a portion of the garage. They strangely had people all a long the route to economy and then inside the lot to guide us to an economy spot — it was seemingly a useless outlay of staff as it was quite easy to figure out where to go.
By 5:19 we were parked on the top deck of the parking garage. A quick trip down three floors to the bus station and right on to a departing shuttle bus and we were on our way to Terminal E. We met a colleague of my brother-in-law Tyler McCabe while on the bus too, but, apologies Tyler, we didn’t get his name. I noticed his backpack was one for Tyler's company.
We got off the economy parking shuttle bus and into Terminal E quite quickly. Ascending up the escalators to the departure level, Andrew had an amusing conversation with a TSA agent about Smashburger and all the deliciousness that comes with their product. I'm always in awe at Andrew's ability to interact so quickly with strangers or people he just met. He's got such a gift at that. That sort of random conversation horrifies me. He's great at it.
We found the Lufthansa check-in kiosks quite quickly and no lines at all. The massive pre-security part of the terminal itself had some people in it, but we estimated no more than 100 or so side to side. It was, despite about eight international flights boarding in the next two to three hours, quite quiet. In fact, we were through security in record time. There was literally no one in front of us. We just sort of strolled in. Maybe strolling is the wrong word, but it was quite simple. It won't be this way, we should all be aware, in the summer months.
At the security checkpoint where I took off most of my layers, but not enough to cause a scene, I was surprised to discover we no longer needed to reveal our iPads and such. I actually got zinged for that in 2014 in Frankfurt - but I suppose the iPad threat to society is not as grave these days for a variety of reasons no one has yet explained.
Once we cleared, I was determined to take Andrew down to the newer part of Terminal E, which was in fact the old Terminal D and included domestic departures on JetBlue and Southwest. They have a far better selection of restaurants and chairs in that area, and no one from the international side ever tends to use them. But alas, I was foiled as they had the stairwell down to this section was closed off for terminal reconstruction. It seems on both ends of Terminal E they are knocking old gates down to presumably build new ones — I’m guessing maybe they are thinking about the Airbus 380s in to Logan and need some space. That’s a guess, but it sounds smart, doesn’t it?
Anyway...
We settled back in the original Terminal E at the Logan Airport version of Durgin Park which is dreadfully over priced with a selection of food items that was not exactly what we were searching for on this evening (well, I should say me, Andrew made a side stop at Chipolte on the way up with Emily on Bald Hill Road). But, they did have overpriced beer, so over the next few hours I enjoyed a few Cold Snaps - including spilling half of one over the floor (it was like pouring away money) and Andrew enjoyed the fine brew that is Shock Top. We got some chicken tenders as well and bothered folks with text messages, I also gave Verizon a call to activate my international plan, before heading down to our gate for a very on time boarding at 7:44 pm (that was boarding time, we walked on the plane about 10 minutes later).
The flight pushed back on time from the gate for our scheduled 8:20 pm departure and the take off out of Logan was as smooth as I can ever remember. It was a perfectly clear evening leaving Boston, and our seats were right on the wing, so this certainly helped. In fact, for nearly the entire flight to Munich, there was no real moments of turbulence - maybe one little set, but not enough to turn the seat belt sign off. Once we were airborne, the captain left the seat belt sign off for the entire flight.
It is highly likely that the entire group will be on Lufthansa this time around (two of three planes were last time), and if this is the case, one group will likely head to Frankfurt and one to Munich. There is much discussion happening already about airport transfers and getting to Leipzig and the best plan to make this work. Leipzig has an airport, the jets that come in to it, that we could connect on, are too small to hold our large groups. This adds quite a layer of complication. There are a few solutions, but both involved coach buses and good drives.
On this inspection trip, we were to connect through Munich, then an hour layover, then to Berlin on a smaller jet. But, there is still a good drive from Berlin to Leipzig. The drive from Frankfurt to Leipzig is longer than Berlin to Leipzig, but the total time traveling is similar.
Details on flight and coach bus plans to be worked out in the capable hands of your Chorus staff, Nick, Amanda, Sue, Stephan, and the rest of the brilliant ACFEA management brains.
On the flight over, and this will likely be the same in the summer of 2017, we were served a drink and a light snack soon after take-off (Happy Mix!). For a drink, you can literally get anything, including nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and there is no charge. I was quite impressed with the selection they had available for us on this flight. Good selection there, I’m a bit boring and simply enjoyed a Warsteiner beer. Andrew did as well.
As some of you can recall from the 2014 tour, the seats on Lufthansa going across the pond are functional, and that is about the only nice way to describe them. They are certainly better than domestic seats on the same airline, but sadly quite narrow and without a lot of cushion on the bottom. Using your blanket or pillow to help with this is effective, but only to a point, and, heaven forbid you want to actually use your pillow or blanket for their real purpose. The seats do have little head rests you can move out and use to lean your a head against, and that is lovely, but sadly Andrew didn’t discover this until he notice me using them about 40 minutes from landing after nearly 7 hours on the plane. My fault for not pointing it out.
Lufthansa does have an excellent television and movie on demand service. There is loads of programming of all sorts, good for kids, teens, and adults. There are current movies, or movies that came out maybe two to six months ago, and old classic movies. There are fun, good any time sorts of flicks in the library along with tons of old television programs. I believe there is something for everyone on there and if you are a person who can’t really sleep on a plane like me, you can find ways to keep yourself entertained for such a long journey in a thin metal tube.
Dinner came round to us about 85 minutes into the flight and was quite a good size portion. There was a pasta dish or chicken available. Andrew and I both went with the chicken which was a bit spicy, but came with a little salad, cheese, a huge roll, and a delicious chocolate brownie for desert. Lufthansa always has done a good job with their meals. You certainly do not feel underserved. They also keep coming by with drinks. No, I did not get beer every time. But, throughout the flight the cart makes its way up and down the aisle. In the middle of the flight when they turn all the lights off and everyone should be sleeping (but we are mostly not sleeping), they walk around with trays of cold water (no bubbles) and orange juice. If you go to the galley too and ask for something, they will politely give it to you with no attitude.
I must say, I have never had bad service on a Lufthansa flight from the cabin attendants and this flight was no different. Hopefully our way home is just as successful.
Andrew managed to get a little sleep on the plane. He read a semi-recent book of mine on Bach by John Eliot Gardiner for most of the time he was awake. He watched a movie for part of the time too, but I couldn’t see which one it was. I got no sleep at all, though I did try. I did watch Black Mass during the middle of the flight. That’s probably not a story I’d recommend for kids, but I thought the acting in the movie was top notch. We got a nice breakfast, very simple, of a muffin and some fruit (plus coffee and tea and such) about 70 minutes before we landed. Again, it was out and on our tray tables quickly and they cleaned up just as quickly. I should also note the plane was full minus maybe 5 or 6 empty seats in economy class.
Our landing into Munich, despite it lightly raining and starting to snow, was fairly easy. The plane didn’t really bounce coming down despite the weather conditions being pretty nasty. We did hit the ground a little hard, but otherwise it was an easy landing. Our flight was scheduled to land at 9:55 am, but by 9:30 we were at the gate. By 9:35 pm we were off the jetway and heading to the escalator that led to the terminal. This was a great relief to us as we knew we had passport control and a long walk ahead of us and our next plane was to board at 10:35 am. That extra 20 minutes or so eased our minds quite a bit.
Tuesday night had magically turned into Wednesday morning and the next step of our journey was a flight from Munich to Berlin Tegel.
Well, here we are ready to go on another whirlwind Chorus of Westerly adventure. Or, at least, here we are about to go on another whirlwind Chorus adventure to plan a Chorus adventure for 190 or so of our beloved singers, family members, and friends. Our destination this time around is someplace quite near and dear to my heart, Germany. As you all know, we are more than a year and a half away from this grand 11-day adventure taking place, but Chorus Music Director Andrew Howell and I are headed out on a site inspection, planning, and management trip with our tour management company, ACFEA. Specifically, we will be with our masterminds of the last tour (and this one) Nick and Amanda, and joined once we get to Deutschland by ACFEA’s Germany personnel Sue and Stephan. We leave on a Tuesday night and get back on Sunday, and we have a lot of work ahead of us.
Andrew texted me at 2:41 pm that he and Emily were leaving Westerly for my house and Alisa text me ten minutes ago that she was on her way home, so I best clean myself up, double check that I have my passport and get ready to go.
Written Tuesday, February 2, 2016, 3:16 pm
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Where were we:
Westerly (Andrew)
North Attleborough
Boston
Lufthansa 425
Where were we:
Westerly (Andrew)
North Attleborough
Boston
Lufthansa 425
Emily Howell drove Andrew to my house in North Attleborough as I was to drive the two of us into Boston for our flight on Lufthansa at 8:20 pm. Alisa came home quickly from school to see us off. The Howells arrived at about five minutes after four and after we said farewell to our wives, Andrew and I loaded into my Altima for our drive to Logan departing at 4:16 PM. As we departed, literally as we pulled out of the driveway, Andrew realized he had forgotten his jacket in their minivan, so we chased Emily a little ways down Landry Avenue before pulling into a side street for the jacket transfer. That was, thankfully, the only little snafu of our travels and the only thing - at least that we discovered so far - that we forgot. It only added about five minutes onto our journey into the city, so that was a very good thing.
Our ride into Boston and to the airport was remarkably easy considering it was rush hour. Mind you, much traffic can be in either direction at that time and we did encounter about ten minutes worth, but nothing crippling. We arrived at Logan at about quarter after five and went to park in Central Parking, but were oddly redirected out of Central Parking and to the other side of the airport to economy parking. They said the lot was full but it was visibly not full - not even close. Our theory was that they were about to do some work in a portion of the garage. They strangely had people all a long the route to economy and then inside the lot to guide us to an economy spot — it was seemingly a useless outlay of staff as it was quite easy to figure out where to go.
By 5:19 we were parked on the top deck of the parking garage. A quick trip down three floors to the bus station and right on to a departing shuttle bus and we were on our way to Terminal E. We met a colleague of my brother-in-law Tyler McCabe while on the bus too, but, apologies Tyler, we didn’t get his name. I noticed his backpack was one for Tyler's company.
We got off the economy parking shuttle bus and into Terminal E quite quickly. Ascending up the escalators to the departure level, Andrew had an amusing conversation with a TSA agent about Smashburger and all the deliciousness that comes with their product. I'm always in awe at Andrew's ability to interact so quickly with strangers or people he just met. He's got such a gift at that. That sort of random conversation horrifies me. He's great at it.
We found the Lufthansa check-in kiosks quite quickly and no lines at all. The massive pre-security part of the terminal itself had some people in it, but we estimated no more than 100 or so side to side. It was, despite about eight international flights boarding in the next two to three hours, quite quiet. In fact, we were through security in record time. There was literally no one in front of us. We just sort of strolled in. Maybe strolling is the wrong word, but it was quite simple. It won't be this way, we should all be aware, in the summer months.
At the security checkpoint where I took off most of my layers, but not enough to cause a scene, I was surprised to discover we no longer needed to reveal our iPads and such. I actually got zinged for that in 2014 in Frankfurt - but I suppose the iPad threat to society is not as grave these days for a variety of reasons no one has yet explained.
 |
| LH425 - We got there a bit early. |
Anyway...
We settled back in the original Terminal E at the Logan Airport version of Durgin Park which is dreadfully over priced with a selection of food items that was not exactly what we were searching for on this evening (well, I should say me, Andrew made a side stop at Chipolte on the way up with Emily on Bald Hill Road). But, they did have overpriced beer, so over the next few hours I enjoyed a few Cold Snaps - including spilling half of one over the floor (it was like pouring away money) and Andrew enjoyed the fine brew that is Shock Top. We got some chicken tenders as well and bothered folks with text messages, I also gave Verizon a call to activate my international plan, before heading down to our gate for a very on time boarding at 7:44 pm (that was boarding time, we walked on the plane about 10 minutes later).
The boarding process was quite efficient, which is not at all surprising with Lufthansa. We were all well sorted and in our seats quite quickly. One of the unfortunate things about Lufthansa these days is that, unless you pay a varying level of fee - which I noted is more than a few dollars - you cannot pick you seats until you check-in for your flight. To tour participants, take note of this and remember it. It is not likely we will have the same flexibility in terms of individual seats in 2017 like we did in 2014, though policies do change from time to time and year to year. Alas, we will find a way to make it work somehow, but we might need some good group swapping once we figure out who goes where on the plane. This is quite a ways off though, so no worries about it in February of 2016.
The row Andrew and I were on, however, on our Airbus 330-400, was row 27 and we were both on an aisle. I'll admit, I'd paid the fee to pick our seats. It was worth it as we, fortunately, were in the row directly behind economy which came with it an extraordinary amount of extra leg room. Looking ahead, it will be very well worth it for our tallest singers and followers in July of 2017. But, no promises. We were across the aisle from each other in seats G and H respectively.
The row Andrew and I were on, however, on our Airbus 330-400, was row 27 and we were both on an aisle. I'll admit, I'd paid the fee to pick our seats. It was worth it as we, fortunately, were in the row directly behind economy which came with it an extraordinary amount of extra leg room. Looking ahead, it will be very well worth it for our tallest singers and followers in July of 2017. But, no promises. We were across the aisle from each other in seats G and H respectively.
The flight pushed back on time from the gate for our scheduled 8:20 pm departure and the take off out of Logan was as smooth as I can ever remember. It was a perfectly clear evening leaving Boston, and our seats were right on the wing, so this certainly helped. In fact, for nearly the entire flight to Munich, there was no real moments of turbulence - maybe one little set, but not enough to turn the seat belt sign off. Once we were airborne, the captain left the seat belt sign off for the entire flight.
On this inspection trip, we were to connect through Munich, then an hour layover, then to Berlin on a smaller jet. But, there is still a good drive from Berlin to Leipzig. The drive from Frankfurt to Leipzig is longer than Berlin to Leipzig, but the total time traveling is similar.
Details on flight and coach bus plans to be worked out in the capable hands of your Chorus staff, Nick, Amanda, Sue, Stephan, and the rest of the brilliant ACFEA management brains.
On the flight over, and this will likely be the same in the summer of 2017, we were served a drink and a light snack soon after take-off (Happy Mix!). For a drink, you can literally get anything, including nonalcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and there is no charge. I was quite impressed with the selection they had available for us on this flight. Good selection there, I’m a bit boring and simply enjoyed a Warsteiner beer. Andrew did as well.
 |
| The "maestro"? |
As some of you can recall from the 2014 tour, the seats on Lufthansa going across the pond are functional, and that is about the only nice way to describe them. They are certainly better than domestic seats on the same airline, but sadly quite narrow and without a lot of cushion on the bottom. Using your blanket or pillow to help with this is effective, but only to a point, and, heaven forbid you want to actually use your pillow or blanket for their real purpose. The seats do have little head rests you can move out and use to lean your a head against, and that is lovely, but sadly Andrew didn’t discover this until he notice me using them about 40 minutes from landing after nearly 7 hours on the plane. My fault for not pointing it out.
Lufthansa does have an excellent television and movie on demand service. There is loads of programming of all sorts, good for kids, teens, and adults. There are current movies, or movies that came out maybe two to six months ago, and old classic movies. There are fun, good any time sorts of flicks in the library along with tons of old television programs. I believe there is something for everyone on there and if you are a person who can’t really sleep on a plane like me, you can find ways to keep yourself entertained for such a long journey in a thin metal tube.
I must say, I have never had bad service on a Lufthansa flight from the cabin attendants and this flight was no different. Hopefully our way home is just as successful.
Andrew managed to get a little sleep on the plane. He read a semi-recent book of mine on Bach by John Eliot Gardiner for most of the time he was awake. He watched a movie for part of the time too, but I couldn’t see which one it was. I got no sleep at all, though I did try. I did watch Black Mass during the middle of the flight. That’s probably not a story I’d recommend for kids, but I thought the acting in the movie was top notch. We got a nice breakfast, very simple, of a muffin and some fruit (plus coffee and tea and such) about 70 minutes before we landed. Again, it was out and on our tray tables quickly and they cleaned up just as quickly. I should also note the plane was full minus maybe 5 or 6 empty seats in economy class.
Our landing into Munich, despite it lightly raining and starting to snow, was fairly easy. The plane didn’t really bounce coming down despite the weather conditions being pretty nasty. We did hit the ground a little hard, but otherwise it was an easy landing. Our flight was scheduled to land at 9:55 am, but by 9:30 we were at the gate. By 9:35 pm we were off the jetway and heading to the escalator that led to the terminal. This was a great relief to us as we knew we had passport control and a long walk ahead of us and our next plane was to board at 10:35 am. That extra 20 minutes or so eased our minds quite a bit.
Tuesday night had magically turned into Wednesday morning and the next step of our journey was a flight from Munich to Berlin Tegel.
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