Wow … 24 hours in Amsterdam … all business so really nothing worth talking about. Flew into Schipol (AMS) Sunday on British Airways from London Heathrow. Love it … the airlines tell you to get to the airport early to avoid long security lines … so when you do, they tell you that you are too early. (No checked baggage any earlier than 3 hours before departure.) Arrrgh.
So how did i get to Heathrow, and how much did this cost me? Took the tube. Now here is a bit of advice. When using the TFL web site to get routings, it will try and get you the shortest times. It would be much better to look for the fewest transfers. Why? Well the tube is not very baggage friendly. Many stations have lots of stairs connecting lines, which navigating with bags can be less that fun. So from West India Quay, I took the Jubilee to Green Park and made one transfer to the Piccadilly line, which runs all the way to Heathrow. Relatively painless and only 5GBP (compared to the 58 GBP I paid on the way to the hotel).

BA to AMS was fully predictable. Full as always, on time which it is more times than not, a small snack and a drink, despite it being a 45 minute flight. Preflight in the BA Gallery Lounge - one of the benefits of being an AA Platinum level traveller.

Tonight it was KLM to Milan. Paid 20 Euros for an exit row seat - worth it, as it was another full flight. Equipment was a B737-800. Full size sandwich, cold drink, and coffee with a cookie - on a 1 hour 20 minute flight … hello US airlines … anyone listening. Oh that’s right … no one cares.

Checked into the Milan Marriott. Well, it is a bit overly ornate in Italian Renaissance decor … but it is a Marriott, the room is larger than a closet (the standard Fujitsu hotel accomodation), air conditioning works like a champ … and OMG … there is a real alarm clock in the room. It is literally been years since I have found a European hotel with a real clock in the room …. worth the price of admission. Here for four days, which means I can relax and unpack. So far … about 5000 of the 11,000 air miles for this trip completed … so far, 4 different aircraft types, 3 different airlines, 2 different European time zones, and 1 weary, I can’t wait to get home traveller.

The 8 day, 11,000 mile European trip begins. Arrived at RDU at 4:30 to check-in for the 6am Eagle flight to New York JFK. Flight was an Embraer, only about 2/3 full and the flight was smooth and on-time. Killed two hours in the Admirals Club which is a nice quiet place to hang, but when you compare it to the British Airways clubs in Heathrow … a poor comparison. The food choices are dismal, and the drink options limited. BA’s clubs have enough hot and cold food to gorge on and easily accessible unlimited drinks.

AA 142 from JFK to LHR operates with B777 equipment. It was full - but I had 31H, an aisle exit row, so the flight was very comfortable. I have been taking the morning flight to London since I was 18, and just don’t understand why passengers don’t flock to it. No lost sleep - an easy day time crossing that is only an hour longer than NY to Los Angeles, for example. Two meals served - and my luck I had the foresight to order a diabetic meal. The breakfast wasn’t much better than the regular one, but my pre-arrival snack was a very tasty grilled chicken breast on a bed of spicy rice with fruit and a cookie. The regular snack was a half sandwich that was frozen - or at least so the folks around me said. One of the flight attendants suggested they could sit on it to thaw it out … service with a smile. We arrived almost 30 minutes early … just as the sun was setting in London.

Lugging a bag with a week’s worth of clothes just doesn’t lend itself to any inexpensive way of getting to your hotel. The Heathrow Express to Paddington is 18GBP, but then it was three different tube / DLR lines with all the stairs, or a taxi. I chose the taxi - and 40GBP later arrived at the hotel. Not a cost effective option - but cheaper than a taxi from Heathrow, which is over 90 GBP. Sigh.

Staying in the West India Quay Marriott. A lousy option for location, but a very reasonable price of 129GBP. I am tired of rooms the size of closets in Europe, so this trip it is Marriott (London, Milan) and Hilton (Helsinki) for all but one of the nights. Thanks to Ashton’s hockey team last year, which gave me enough “planner nights” credits to make Gold status at Marriott, I have a key to the lounge, with complimentary soft drinks and snacks.

So … while all my friends and colleagues are sitting home enjoying their July 4th holiday … I am sitting in Europe working.

OK, I admit it … how exciting can a trip to Topeka, Kansas be. Two flights, and you end up in Kansas City - which oddly enough is in Missouri. I suppose it says something when even a city named for a state wants to me located somewhere else. And then you have to drive 75 minutes or so to Topeka. Both flights were on Delta - the first from RDU to ATL was an MD88, the second from ATL to MCO was a B757, complete with a completely inoperative in seat Video entertainment system. Both flights jammed to the gills … but what else is new. I did get about 125 pages of “In the Garden of Beasts,” by Erik Larsen, read. Should finish that tonight heading back to Raleigh. What is most surprising about the drive to Topeka is that you pass two very significant historical sites on the way. The first is Lecompton, Kansas where the second proposed state constitution for Kansas’ entry into the union was written and enacted; it was a sham written by slave owners, and voted on by mobs who crossed the border from Missouri and posed as citizens of the new terriroty (remember - Kansas wasn’t state. To become a state, one of the criteria was a state constitution - which is what this mess is all about). This was a major milestone in a series of missteps that led to the Civil War. Was Kansas going to enter the Union as a “free” state or a slave state. Worth a stop. The second historical site is Brown versus Board of Education. This was the battle which led to landmark legislation in 1954 which outlawed segregation in the schools and essentially overturned the idea of “separate but equal” that had been established by “Plessy vs Ferguson.” This was the first of many legislative acts that started to address the horrible prejudice that marred the country. As an interesting side note, in the above mentioned book, Larson posits (and he is not the first) that one reason Roosevelt was hesitant to attack Hitler in the late 1930’s on human rights violations was fear that the German leader would turn right around and throw our own miserable record on slavery and segregation back into our faces. Another very remarkable site worth visiting.

The closing of the Sahara is old news, but no less tragic. I have no strong affinity to the Sahara, other than it is another piece of the old Las Vegas that is slipping away. To say that the Sahara of April 2011 is a shadow of its former self is being kind. Years of neglect left a poorly maintained, poorly managed property that cried out for renovation - and not the wrecking ball. I suspect that the ghosts of the past are happily living in the old hotel, filling its rooms and public spaces with memories almost too many for the walls to contain. Sometimes I wonder whether hotels contain so many ghosts of the past that they have to close - for the walls can only hold so many shadow guests.

I visited the Sahara for two night in mid April with the sole purpose of one last visit prior to closing. I went wanting to relish my last visit, and in some ways I do. The furniture in the room gave new meaning to falling part - for it was. The drawers in the dresser were all broken - but I had no desire to unpack in any case and risk my clothes to the unknown living inside. The Internet didn’t work - and really, who was going to care. The front desk was polite, but given that the whole place was to be shut down in 5 weeks, how much could I expect them to do. The public areas - what there were of them - were in better shape. One has to worry when the main shop across from the front desk is a Tattoo parlor (I have nothing against tats - I think they look great - but hardly the first thing you would expect to see in the lobby). There was one coffee and snack shop for all your dining pleasure - and an over priced steak restaurant that was rapidly running out of food (I kind you not. How much were they going to stock up on … the place was closing). The casino was more of a morgue than party, but the $1 Black Jack was fun. The slots were largely empty, and old by other casinos’ standards.

One of the odder things was their players club. They were no longer accepting new members - which was wise since they had stopped taking the cards at the tables and at the slots. But if you were already a member, they were happy to reprint your card. I guess it gave the staff something to do. The night club was long closed. The pool area was actually fairly well maintained - albeit largely unoccupied. That could be because April in Vegas is not great pool weather, and the water was frigid - or it could be because the hotel was also largely unoccupied (only one of the three towers were even open). Another oddity … there was a lone caretaker meticulously grooming the hedges around the pool and entrance areas. I liked that.

With limited dining options, I ate the first night at the buffet at the Riviera, and the second night at the Monte Carlo Buffet. The Riviera is an example of a hotel desperately trying to stay in business at the North end of the strip, rather than giving up the ghost the way the Sahara did. To say that the Riviera buffet is basic would be kind, but it is also $9.99 - a fraction of what other strip buffets cost these days. For the money, it was worth every cent.

Oh what a difference 30 days can make. I was back in Vegas on Memorial Day and headed back down to the Sahara. Boarded up like the abandoned property it was.

It has been ages since I updated this blog … but no time like the present. The next five weeks present a great reason … 24,885 miles on 31 flights via 7 different airlines. A combination of business and pleasure, flying everything from the B777 to a DC-3 (not a typo). At the moment, it all breaks down like this:

RDU - Atlanta   352
Atlanta - Kansas City 678
Kansas City - Topeka 60
Topeka - Kansas city 60
Kansas city - Atlanta 678
Atlanta - RDU   352

Trip total: 2218

RDU JFK425
JFK - LHR London 3463
London - Amsterdam 221
Amsterdam - Milan 514
Milan - Helsinki 1204
Helsinki - Chicago 4434
Chicago - RDU  739

Trip Total: 11,000

OK .. EAST OWNS the West. The East beat the West tonight 8 to 7, and even though Carolina Hurricanes only sent one player to the game (Eric Staal), he WON MVP of the Game. ITS STAAL GOOD !!! Way to go Eric and way to go East, winning both nights. Next year, the NHL All-Stars game in Montreal. Think snow and cold and Canadian hospitality.

So has the hotel improved? No way. Noise all night. No sleep. This Marriott is the PITS .. avoid it. The room service wait time is 45 minutes to an hour for a salad, and there is a 20% service charge added. Not worth the $144 per night. Oh well …

Walked to Underground Atlanta this afternoon. Atlanta is a real ghost town in the business district, and Underground continues to suffer because of that. I have been visting underground since my early teens, and it should be such a great entertainment magnet for the city. How bad has it gotten. Let’s put it this way … they now have a Dollar Store in Underground Atlanta. Enough said.

I learned something … Atlanta was originally called Thrasherville. I didn’t know that. I mistakeningly thought that might be where the local hockey team - the “Atlanta Thrashers” - got there name. I was wrong. The team chose their name from one of the indigenous birds. In fact, the three native sports team all chose the names of local birds … the Atlanta Hawks (NBA); the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) and the Atlanta Thrashers (NFL). Again, I never thought about that.

So what was special about the Phlips Arena. Well, being terribly transparent … the “Blue Crew” … these girls are AWESOME. And even better … there are the Ice Girls. The Hurricanes (my home team) has the Storm Squad - and they rock - but we have the regular RBC maintenance guys cleaning the ice. In Atlanta, they have the Ice Girls … six girls from the Blue crew that rotate the job. WAY TO GO. Almost enough to make you a Thrasher Fan (well, almost

So that is about it. Visiting Atlanta. Stay away from the Atlanta Marriott. Use Marta - it is the best way of getting around. Each ride costs $1.75. Beware … you HAVE to buy a reuseable fare card. That card costs you .50 cents. That is a one time charge, and its rechargeable. But still, no where have I ever seen a transit system charge separately for the fare card. What to see: 1) CNN Center; 2) World of Coca-cola; 3) Georgia Aquarium; 4) Centennial Park; 5) Underground; 6) Stone Mountain. Worth a trip. And oh yes … Delta Airlines has a wonderful museum at Hartsfield. Call ahead and let them know you are coming as they need to pre-clear you for security (you will be on the tarmac at some point). Its back to Raleigh tomorrow morning. Cheers.

Wow … 14 years ago I lived in Atlanta. Today I am returning for a weekend at the NHL All-Stars game. We are staying at the Marriott Atlanta on Spring street (not the larger Marquis). This is newly renovated … and I strongly believe they forgot to put back the sound proofing back in the walls. This is absolutely one of the noisest up-scale hotels I have ever stayed in. I would expect this from a Super8, but not from a full price hotel. Bummer. And oh yes, the room smells of paint. Lucky me. On the other hand, the games are at Philips arena, which is very nice, especially when compared to our rather utilitarian RBC center. My son thought the escallator at Peachtree Center Marta station was cool; it is reported to be the longest escalator in the southeast; according to the web, the longest in the United States is at the Wheaton Station of the Washington Metro. We rode that a number of years ago. The problem with downtown Atlanta always has been … what to do. There are only so many times you can walk through the CNN Center or the World of Coca-Cola. Amazingly, we have been pan-handled more times in Atlanta in one day that an entire week in New York. No wonder no one wants to go downtown. In any case … the East beat the West in the Skills Competition. That is a good thing. We’ll see how the actual game goes tomorrow.

I was saddened to see the fire at the Monte Carlo hotel in Las Vegas yesterday. While there were no serious injuries, and the damage looks largely cosmetic, nonetheless it saddened me to see the dark smoke and the dark charring on the exterior. The Monte Carlo was the very first hotel I stayed in on my very first trip to Las Vegas. It’s a nice, well maintained hotel with no particular theme. It was built in the late nineties (1996) just before the mega-theme hotels went up. I have never gone back to stay there, as it just never really had a compelling value proposition over other hotels on the strip, but I always visit the Buffet - which is one of the best buffet values on the strip, and I enjoy Lance Burton’s show. The casino is very pleasant as well - on the quiet side which is not always a bad thing. But whether I choose to stay there or not, I hated to see the fire. I hope the damage can be repaired quickly, and the hotel reopens soon. The last I saw was the hotel would need extensive work on the roofline before being permitted to reopen. I haven’t seen any estimates on how long that might take.

The irrational never ceases to amaze me … flew a Delta MD80 from Raleigh to Atlanta today. I kid you not, the row numbers of the left side of the aircraft are different from the opposite one on the right hand side. We were sitting in 20D & 20E. I looked across the aisle, and it was 21A, B and C. These rows are not offset; they are absolutely aligned. I can’t wait for someone to explain to me who came up with this idea. As the flight attendant noted … only a “man” could have come up with such a thing

The next few posts are all about Vegas in April 2008. As you will see, things change. Some better, some just sad … others for the worst.

Some properties remain hot - Belaggio was hopping on a Thursday night - and some are dead, like the Monte Carlo (all signs of the recent fire are gone, at least from the facade.) The buffet at the Monte Carlo remains one of my favorites - I hit it twice this week. Monte Carlo is a nice, quiet property - but does little to really distingush itself. Oh well, enjoy the posts that follow. More from Vegas in July when I am back again. Cheers.