Christmas & New Year's in Spain plus Portugal mid-trip: Lufthansa 747-8 & A321

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Yesterday (Saturday) we went to Royal Palace of Madrid for the guided tour. Up to a certain point of the tour is where picture taking is not allowed. The weather was very nice for doing this activity

Downtown Madrid on a sunny late morning



If you go on Tuesdays and Saturdays, there is also the Changing of the Guard like Buckingham Palace (went in 2005, plan to go once more in the future)









We took a walk to meet our tour guide at a Plaza de la Villa where the statue of Don Alvaro de Bazan was.











We began our trek to Royal Palace of Madrid





Royal Palace around here



Almudena Cathedral, which we did not go to.











Inside the Royal Palace











The Spain flag







We went inside the chambers and only 2 of them you could take photos, then you couldn't take photos for the rest of the tour (not the decision of the tour guide, it's the palace rules)































Some Christmas nativity around in the Royal Palace









































A few views from the Royal Palace of the city of Madrid around 3PM









Heading back to the plaza to catch our Uber



Went to see a bit of the cathedral from the outside.

















We took a break and trekked a bit towards the Prado Museum and Neptune fountain before having dinner and doing the night tour



McDonald's right next to our hotel is 24 hours, has coffee only from 8AM onwards is more premium what you get in the US...Cappucino & lots of more sophisticated snacks (i.e. cheesecake, tiramisu, etc). The US can learn a thing or 2 from Europe









Tried to once again go during the free hours to Prado Museum but time was ticking and we skipped it, will try again today.





Around 6:30PM - Very colorful Neptune Fountain (Fuente de Neptuno)



A very large chocolate shop in Madrid. Crowded but nice. If you are not extremely fluent in Spanish (I know a little because I took in high school), you need to check what all chocolates are alcoholic if you are NOT an alcoholic like myself or my parents.



We went back to the same spot for dinner. My dad went back to the hotel while my mom and I took an Uber to Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas (bull ring) where the bus would begin and end for seeing holiday lights.





The NaviBus that would take us around downtown Madrid a little after 9PM





The holiday lights were beautiful overall



























More to come as today's New Year's Eve, hence in sync with the current days. Here till Tuesday, Jan 2 in Europe

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New Year's Eve weather was very cloudy. Unfortunately, the museums were closed around 2PM and even New Year's Day closed. Also a family member was quite ill that we couldn't go anywhere tlll a little later in the day.

In Madrid, a well known place to see the fireworks is Puerta Del Sol. I decided to take the metro in the daytime to generally survey the area.

The sun rose very late (after 8:30AM) in Madrid





The weather was generally cloudy, some sun came in during the afternoon. Some pictures of the Madrid Metro.

Estacion del Arte (Art Station) was right across from our hotel. The train ride itself to Sol was no more than 7-10 minutes, so very convenient on that end.



Like Barcelona, got the ticket for 10 euros which meant a 10 way journey on a bus or metro.











Inside of the train:

Certainly not sleek like some transit systems from a digital point of view to know where you are but not too bad either.





Inside Sol station (Puerta del Sol was right outside)





Pictures of and around Puerta del Sol

































The area itself reminds me of Times Square in New York.

Went to a cafe and had some cappuccino and churros. A fun fact here is that the Queen of Spain would have churros with hot chocolate

Not sweet churros at all, and loved the cappuccino.



Some more pictures walking towards Prado Museum, with no luck as we found that this closed around 2PM





















Around New Year's Eve night, we went to a Chinese restaurant called Sichuan Restaurant, with a lot of nice Chinese style Sichuan food, one of my favorite styles. Crowd was a lot but the wait time was around 30 minutes. Had the egg fried rice with mapo tofu, which was really delicious



The Christmas tree not too far from Puerta del Sol

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Heading into the rest of New Year's Eve night in Madrid, I took my mom to Puerta Del Sol as she was feeling better. The crowds were a lot and the police blocked a good number of entrances. Eventually as the clock struck midnight, we could see the fireworks. No waterfront where you can see a lot but it was still something. And yes we had the grapes after we got back. Nice to bring in the new tradition for a change on a vacation.











The ride back to the hotel was not more than 15 minutes so we still got back around 12:45AM to the hotel.

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Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2024! Hope you all brought it in nicely with your families and hopefully it'll be a better year (or if a good year, just as good) for all!

As many places are closed for New Year's Day, we had breakfast at the hotel and I'll tell you compared to what I've seen in 4-star hotels elsewhere, Radisson in Madrid is very lackluster.



The breakfast buffet area





I went with a simple bread, croissant, apple pie tart and some granola cereal with juice and cappuccino. Not bad overall from the quality point of view. However, a few problems with this place for breakfast:

If you order something like French toast or pancakes, they will give it to you. However, the problem is that it is NOT freshly made and when we got it, the texture was a little bit too hard and cold. Thumbs down on that from Radisson.

Even generally while the bed was good and room was nice, the service was lacking. We threw the provided bottle of water away by accident and the staff had an attitude saying they wouldn't bring it for us. They also did not refill the coffee maker with any pods or tea bags. We raised it to the front desk and it was done.



Cool coffee maker machine.



The rest of the day was spent going locally and also exploring Retiro Park again. It was chilly, but the sun didn't make it feel so bad. More in just a bit

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Started around 12:30PM this afternoon in Madrid going right across the square from our hotel. All museums were closed but took a good walk around them for exploring.

The Reina Sofia Art Museum (Pablo Picasso art museum)





Prado Museum





Daytime version of Neptune Fountain





Curious what this plant is - I saw this at the plaza before going to Royal Palace. It looked like cabbage but I'll leave it up to you to tell me.





At Parque del Retiro



What a gorgeous day. While it was a little chilly, the sun didn't make it feel so much chilly. I even got a good incline workout over here, too. Really nice overall.













Some daytime shots of Plaza de Santa Ana while going to a different Indian restaurant this afternoon

















Last few shots around Madrid at 5PM on a gorgeous New Year's Day.







Holiday lights right around the Radisson hotel.



The Europe trip has finally come to an end and will be leaving back to the US tomorrow on Lufthansa. I will share my thoughts on the next post.

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Thoughts about Europe overall?

Although I went to Spain & Portugal, I can tell you both are beautiful countries. Lot of culture and history revolving along palaces & cathedrals. The tours really worked out well, but Parc Guell was something I wish I'd known to do on Christmas Day but still covered nonetheless.

The best part was the weather worked out perfectly. 2-3 cloudy days (but sun peeked out in the afternoon), Winter itself is very mild and similar to that of the San Francisco Bay Area (50's to around 60's) - Barcelona is very beautiful weather and temperature wise. It's not tropical that's for sure, but it's extremely mild and comfortable to walk. No rain which was the second best part of the trip. Otherwise, almost every day in this part of Europe is very sunny.

It's a little disappointing because of certain constraints we could not cover a few museums just across from our hotel in Madrid, but the Royal Palace tour was nice as is with the beautiful weather.

Traveling within Europe is good. Lots of crowd control, quick on security checks and you have an option of a Fast Track like you have in the US...something Asia should seriously consider adopting.

The culture is very nice and the people I've encountered are very polite here. You can get by with English but it's advised that you learn the national language (i.e. Spanish). Luckily for me, I took Spanish in high school and even used Babbel so I know at least some of the basics and can translate quite a bit. Not an expert but not extremely fluent either. It was a pleasure to take in the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes (because I'm diabetic didn't even eat all the 12).

Portugal there's not a whole lot to do unless you're into cathedrals and palaces and seeing the Atlantic from a different view. I've had friends who told me to visit Porto, but there's not a whole lot that interests us.

The next Europe trip, likely to be in Spring 2025 (not 2024) is going to be Italy most likely and another in Summer 2025 in London and Paris (which would be the first time being there in 20 years).

Hotel prices were quite expensive, but the fact of the matter is if you want to stay somewhere central, near numerous landmarks or near the Hop On and Hop Off bus points, it's worth it. Maybe a better suggestion is rather than pick a 5 star hotel, try to go a little lower 4-star if possible. At the same time it's expected hotel prices would go up for New Year's.

I hope at some point in my life to come back here with my future family. Really enjoyed visiting Spain and Portugal.

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Flight: Lufthansa flight LH1121
Route: Madrid - Frankfurt
Aircraft: Airbus A321 (D-AISO), 15.3 years at the time of departure
Livery: Normal
Date of Departure: January 2 (6:10AM), Arrival January 2 (8:45AM)
Seat: 5A (Economy Class)
Configuration: 2-class (Business, Economy)

Our journey started around 3:30AM in Madrid Airport. The issue with European airports are with respect to the airlines, the lack of check-in counters. Only 2 and not even a dedicated check-in so the lines become super long. Even in Dubai or in India, there are at least 5-6 check in counters (as well as in Hong Kong/Singapore). It took nearly an hour to even check-in for a couple of reasons:

1) One passenger likely would have had an issue which warranted him to stand 1 hour, meaning only 1 counter was open to process everyone.
2) Short staffed - Eventually a third check-in counter on Lufthansa opened.

Madrid airport very early in the morning





Around 5AM, we got to the security and airside, fortunately it was quick, but we barely got time to even get a coffee. I bought one and a croissant but it was rushed as boarding eventually began at 5:45AM for our flight to Frankfurt





It was a long walk to our gate at E72







Madrid airport is very nice. In Lisbon similarly, you'd also pass through a duty free shop before going to the gate. Common in many European airports like Frankfurt.













Our Lufthansa plane on the first leg to Frankfurt (Airbus A321 D-AISO in its old livery)







Boarding began around 5:45AM and we got seat 5A, which especially helped if in case our connection was so tight in Frankfurt - it was but we still had a little bit of time.

The same seat as our plane that took us to Barcelona, doesn't look as dated on the aircraft. It was comfortable enough to sleep.





Next to another Lufthansa Airbus A321



Pushed back and started the engines, you don't really hear the barking dog sound as much if in the very front of the plane. Take off began around 6:30AM for a 2 hour flight to Frankfurt



Because this was a 2 hour flight, the crew came around with drinks and snacks available for purchase. I slept most of the way and by the time woke up the captain made his announcement for landing. Sunrise only came after 8AM this time of the year and the weather being cloudy and rainy made for a turbulent flight.





Descending into Frankfurt after 8:30AM













Roads and airport area look very nice

























Lufthansa Airbus A340-300 (D-AIGZ)











Parked next to an Austrian Airlines plane at gate A38, the very last gate at the very end of concourse A (we departed from A34 for Barcelona)









Rainy day in Germany. We got out around 8:45AM and it was a bit of a walk to concourse Z. This involved taking the elevator at the end of the A concourse to Z and the gate was only a few minutes walk.

Thoughts on this sector? Crew were welcoming and very friendly and ensured we were comfortable overall. The flight was bumpy but was able to sleep well

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Flight: Lufthansa flight LH454
Route: Frankfurt - San Francisco
Aircraft: Boeing 747-8i (D-ABYG), 10.9 years at the time of departure
Livery: Normal
Date of Departure: January 2 (10:05AM), Arrival January 2 (12:35PM)
Seat: 40A (Economy Class)
Configuration: 4-class (First, Business, Premium Economy, Economy)

Our layover was for 1 hour and 20 minutes, which meant going from gate A38 to Z23. In this case, we had to go through passport control after taking the elevator up to concourse Z









Passport control line was long but not extremely chaotic. It took roughly 15 minutes to get through that as there was no additional security.



At the Z concourse for our flight to San Francisco



There were 2 Boeing 747-8i aircraft parked next to each other.

D-ABYG - the one that would be flying us to San Francisco



The view is certainly not perfect but not too bad either. Next to it is D-ABYM that would go to Los Angeles a little later than us.







We began on-time boarding, but it was not before going for another passport check as that part of the line at the gate was extremely chaotic.



Boarding the 747 aircraft



Lufthansa Business class in a 2-2-2 configuration



Premium economy in 2-4-2 configuration



Economy 3-4-3 configuration, which is acceptable for a 747 or A380







Seat 40A



A pillow and blanket on the seat





Next to another Boeing 747-8i (D-ABYM) that would fly to LAX later on.







Captain came with an announcement mentioning our flight time would be 10 hours and 50 minutes and we'd be in an on-time pushback.

The 747-8i cabin - Looks a lot like the Boeing 787 cabin (even the chimes are just like the 787) and the 777 window panel

I wonder why that says Mont Joli, as this plane was showing XXX as Singapore as this plane had come from Singapore a few hours before this.

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We began our pushback around 10:20AM and started our engines. The taxi to the runway was pretty quick though.





A Lufthansa 787 in its new livery



Flap extension after the engine startup. It was a quiet startup compared to the modern smaller aircraft (777, 787 and A350). The second quietest is the A380. Wish the aircraft manufacturers would have this in mind when manufacturing twin engine aircraft.













Taking off around 10:35AM from Frankfurt on a rainy morning.









D-ABYL another Boeing 747-8i landing from San Francisco.





View of Frankfurt











Cloudy skies and lots of turbulence for the flight





Snacks were first served (crackers).





Cruising into clear blue sky but there was still turbulence



First meal service (lunch) on the flight to San Francisco.

My meal was a vegetarian lacto-ovo meal. It was a pesto pasta with cheese ravioli and bread along with salad and dessert (whipped cream with some nuts). It was very delicious and filling overall



My parents' meal, which I had a little bit of. Rice and paneer masala along with some sambar on the other side. They enjoyed it and I tried a little bit and enjoyed it a lot.

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Flying further north and soon over Greenland. Because it's Winter, on a Trans Atlantic flight you'd encounter a sunset since the sun sets early in that part of the world. However, it doesn't get that easily dark.

Late afternoon over Greenland





Beautiful sunset from the backside of the seat





Some map pictures flying over Greenland. It's not interactive - Even I saw Premium Economy folks have a 3D interactive map.



























After sunset over Greenland



A little bit of the lavatory - Very nice and clean on the 747-8 like the previous 747 versions as well as how airy and comfortable the seat and cabin are.



Beautiful sunrise later over Greenland and entering Canada





Had some tomato juice with salt as I was a little under the weather.



Flying over Northern Canada



Lots of sun glare hit the window later on. Surprisingly, the crew did not insist on closing the window shades.





We weren't given a second meal service till the last 1.5 hours of the flight. It was a pre-landing snack though it was more like a dinner with respect to Germany time.

My parents' meal (Indian vegetarian meal) - Paneer masala (again) with lentil curry. Had a little bit of that which was very fresh with a lot of aromatic flavor and delicious.



My meal - Vegetarian lacto ovo meal, which was a mushroom with tofu. I had the tofu which was good but not a fan of the mushrooms.



Soon the captain came with his announcement for landing in San Francisco (SFO) that we'd have an on time arrival around 12:25PM and a quick taxi to the gate.



Look below and you can faintly see the red San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. The reason for the clouds was because it was increasing since it was forecasted to rain in the afternoon hours





The Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco in the distance







Flying over Palo Alto and Stanford at some point while making a turn















Flaps extending and flying over the San Mateo Bridge before landing





















We taxied to the gate, but while at the gate, the plane had to be towed. This is never the case with the A380 or 777, 787 or A350. In the past was never the case with the 747, but is this the case now. The gate was G11.













Deplaning at SFO passing through every class up to Business Class.







Premium Economy class



Business class





Wanted to take this last shot of the 747 as it will probably be my last time ever flying it, let alone the -8. More airlines should have ordered some of this aircraft. It's very nice and quiet.



Proceeding to customs after going to the restroom and brushing our teeth.



The trip is over. However, one problem is that with the expectation we'd get our bags reasonably quickly, none came. We found that Lufthansa lost our bags in Europe and it's coming back on today's flight from Frankfurt (FRA) on 1/3/2023 (1 day late).

[SQfanatic]

Final thoughts on Europe and Lufthansa flight?

Europe is a beautiful country with a lot of older architecture still being maintained. People know how to drive, lot of narrow streets mostly dedicated to it being walkable. The climate was just like the Bay Area, not extremely cold, mild if at all anything and the best part was there was no rain, rather than a few cloudy days.

Everyone in Europe was nice and friendly and helpful. However, it is recommended you try to learn the local language before traveling to Europe. Hotels we had a good stay but the last hotel of the trip, service was lacking and they never changed out the cups or coffee pods or anything like that. Had to inform the front desk and they'd do that.

The bad part was at certain times we got sick with just a cough and fever. But no food poisoning so the food we had worked out well for our system. One other problem is in Spain, there's a lack of South Indian restaurants especially for dosa or prepared rice. It was there in Portugal which was definitely great. I hope there will be more South Indian restaurants in these tourist spots in Spain.

Airports have a designated Fast Track security line which like the US can save time on security lines. However, the check-in lines have to be improved. There should also be a designated online check-in and a couple more counters so that people don't snake their way outside completely.

Lufthansa was pretty good and even better than I was expecting. Service was good, crew were friendly, came around with food and drinks regularly and ensured our flight was a comfortable one. Food was definitely fresh and of great quality that's for sure. However, for Indians they just only give paneer mostly. They should tailor the selections for US routes to give something like idli, dosa, upma, etc. They did give a very nice payasam South Indian dessert, which wasn't sweet at all, but very tasty. The German coffee Lufthansa serves is out of the world, even better than the coffee you'd get on Singapore Airlines or Emirates these days (no offense to SQ, but lately their coffee quality has gone downhill compared to previous days, so there's not much that stands out there).

If there's one thing I suggest they improve on, it'd be the inflight entertainment system. They should expand the variety of movie and music selections to throughout the world (i.e. Tamil, Hindi, Telegu, etc). Second thing, the entertainment system is a little slower, you just have to be patient but it is workable. If they do that, they can definitely become a good airline.

I'd definitely recommend Lufthansa for sure and I don't mind flying on it again.

Frankfurt Airport is huge, sometimes it takes time to go from one concourse to the next but the nice thing is you don't need to go through additional security checks for bags, only passport control which is pretty neat. Something I guess the Asian and Middle East airports can learn from for a transit perspective. The airport, however is old but still nicely functioning but crowded in the mornings. The reason for picking this airline was the price but also the timing convenience, and it was pretty good overall.

Only one bad way to unfortunately end this trip. Lufthansa lost our baggage in Europe, and heard stories that it happens a lot in Europe. After putting the numbers, they are expected to come today from the same flight we took (but today, the bags are on D-ABYU). Even a couple from Chennai said they lost it but eventually it turned up. If it's on a Lufthansa flight, it's hard to imagine how they'd even lose it in the first place.

Fingers crossed that they will come asap.