Toddler Travel Archives - Page 15 of 16

Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 14 2014

Bavarian Summer: Sightseeing in and around Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I think we’ve gotten into our vacation groove at this point. We’ve hit up a bunch of smaller sights in the past two days (aka barely mentioned in Rick Steve’s), dodging um…dodgy weather, as we wait for the good weather later this week to hit some of the biggies. Here’s what we’ve been up to.

We ate this pork knuckle at some point. Salty.

To start, a little health update. M is pretty much fully recovered from her variety of maladies and I think she’s all adjusted jetlag wise. Her current schedule is sleep from 10-8ish, nap once in the morning and then again in the afternoon. She’s done that three days running – I’ll take it. I don’t think we’re gonna shift her up closer to her “regular” bedtime (8 PM) because if she sticks to 10 PM life might be a little easier with jetlag on the return. Anyway I think we’ve gotten off pretty easy on this front. Jess has been one day behind illness wise so I think she’s about done with it too.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Bavaria is a great place to bring kids of all ages. It’s mostly hiking and beautiful scenery – everything is framed by the stunning mountain ranges. The crazy weather actually has made things look more dramatic so it hasn’t been all bad. I think I’ve thought this before about towns in the mountains – the weather forecast is NEVER right. They said it was supposed to rain every day we have been here and they have been right – except it predicts rain every single hour as opposed to the actual two hours of the day it rains. It makes it really difficult to plan.

Partnach Gorge entrance — The entrance to Partnach Gorge

To get around this, we’ve been planning shorter excursions which of course gel well with a toddler’s schedule. Yesterday we drove down to the Olympic Stadium to take a short twenty minute walk to the Partnach Gorge. Having spent a lot of time in Ithaca, we figured the gorge would be like Watkins Glen, a place we love. It was Watkins Glen and then some.

The walk up to the gorge consisted of some pretty scenery that I will never get sick of but am already sick of writing about. The gorge itself, which cost 3 Euros to enter, was kind of spectacular. It was like walking into the middle of a sharp canyon in a mountain, watching a river rush through it while runoff from various parts of the mountain just kind of cascade down into the river and onto you.

Partnach Gorge — It can get pretty dark in spots – no strollers inside either

It was kind of jarring because walking up to the entrance it’s very quiet and serene. You then walk through this cavelike entrance and then all of a sudden all you hear is roaring water all around you for the next twenty minutes as you work your way through the gorge. It was quite a force of nature.

It's like the water only carved up this 800m section — It’s like the water only carved up this 800m section of the mountain

Towards the end of the gorge my parents turned back while Jess, M, and I trudged on. Oh, M absolutely loved the gorge by the way. She was squealing in delight the entire time – she LOVES running water. It’s kind of weird. She kept asking for a hat when the water dripped on her and we kept having to stop so she could just stare at the river. She’s weird in a super cute way. Or maybe all kids like watching water roar? I dunno, I only have the one.

After we got through the gorge, we made one of those not so brilliant decisions parents tend to make. By we I mean mostly me. There was a way to “walk around” the gorge to get back to where our car was. Long story short, that way involved a 45 minute hike including a steep ascent and descent. Pretty simple stuff, except for the fact that I had M strapped to my chest and Jess was lugging the stroller. Geniuses.

"I hate you and your stupid ideas." — “I hate you and your stupid ideas.”

"Wheeeee more selfies!" — “Wheeeee more selfies!”

Eventually we made it to the top where there were a few houses, restaurants, and cows. We were rewarded with (more) beautiful views and a sense of accomplishment, but also a sense of our own stupidity. Live and learn. After running around at the top for a bit, our daughter passed out (after I switched her onto my back) and we descended to finally meet up with my parents.

Near the Olympic Stadium there is this cool thing where you can ride a luge down (for only 2.50 Euro!), but I decided with the number of young children riding I was too embarrassed to partake. Regrets…

Yogurt for breakfast at the cheese shop in Ettal

Today was our most ambitious day, we were out from 10-430 and hit three sights. We first stopped by Ettal, a monastery famous for brewing beer. It was cool I guess but I haven’t tried the beer yet so the jury’s out. Next we hit up Linderhof Castle, one of “Mad King Ludwig’s” castles (two more are on our itinerary later in the week). Ludwig was a weird guy – he was like, obsessed with the French and Versailles.

Linderhof Castle Gardens — Family portrait in front of the fountain at Linderhof Castle

Linderhof is kind of like a German version of Versailles with some weird things like portraits of Louis XV. Um…was he really good at basketball or something? Kinda odd. The castle grounds were beautiful – especially the gardens and fountains. Well maintained (like Versailles) but with a more dramatic backdrop. Pretty cool. Oh, and I ate like my 12th pretzel of the trip.

Ritter Sport — 59 cents for each Ritter. WAH!

We ended with a stop in the town of Oberammergau, notable for the passion play they put on once a decade and their wood carving skills. But I was just there for the gelato.

This gelato from an Italian cafe was preeeeetty darn good

Oh right, Germany won the World Cup last night! Except…I couldn’t even tell. Seriously – didn’t hear any noise, people didn’t seem any happier (or less happy) today than before, nothing. It’s probably because we live on the very edge of town, but since I was greeted with this in Brazil any time they scored, I expected more. Still, I’m happy for Germany – would have been a shame for that team to end its run for the past eight years without a trophy.

View from St. Anton's church — View from our after dinner walk tonight

Final Thoughts

A few reflections on our trip thus far. Starting in a small town with a house has been great – in fact I’m a little concerned what will happen once we move M to the city. We have our own space, can set our own schedule, and aren’t worried about bumping into people in the street all the time. I highly recommend Garmisch-Partenkirchen for kids of all ages – especially if you want to force your kids to hike and enjoy nature. You will experience nature and YOU WILL LIKE IT!

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Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 12 2014

Bavarian Summer: Slow Days with a Sick Toddler

Lounge chair at the summit of Mount Wank

We’ve spent the last two days acclimating to our house in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a lovely little town that unfortunately is going through a spat of ugly weather. We’re also still dealing with jetlag and a still sick toddler, which in combination with the weather has us taking it easy. Luckily I booked us to stay here for over a week – I anticipated that M would need some time to adjust to traveling and while I didn’t predict she’d be sick, it works out.

M has been good spirits considering she's still under the weather — M has been good spirits considering she’s still under the weather

After our sweet flight and sixteen hours of slumber, I woke up ready to tackle the world. M, on the other hand, passed out after breakfast. Ultimately, we made it out to the local farmer’s market where we grabbed lunch and picked up some supplies. Aside from the pushy fruit salesman, the farmer’s market was great. We grabbed some cheese, fish, zucchini, and then picked up some chicken thighs for dinner from the local grocery store.

Farmer's Market Garmisch-Partenkirchen — Four pretzels and two wieners in my first ten waking hours in Germany – notice lack of hoodie

If you’ve seen any of my trip reports or know me at all, you probably know that I never leave home without my most trusted article of clothing – a hooded sweatshirt. Well, the 90 degree weather in Boston the day we left combined with my brain not having enough working memory due to worrying about M led to the unthinkable, THE UNTHINKABLE – I forgot all my hoodies at home. And while normally Jess would rejoice, it’s like 50 degrees here and I am woefully underpacked. So of course, I bought a hoodie at H&M after the farmer’s market and now am ready to conquer the world. I’m sure you all are thrilled that I shared this wonderful story with you; this is probably the first time in seven years I’ve had to buy clothing on a vacation – I blame it on you know who.

Our cheap stroller plus a disposable poncho did the trick for the rain

Anyway after shopping and a short siesta, the unexpected happened – the sun came out! Jess, M, my mom, and I decided to go for a walk while my dad had already begun a short nap. As Jess shut the door she casually called out, “Hey do you have the keys?” “Noooooooooooo <slam>”. Doh. So, we were locked out, but we figured we’d just wake my dad up on the return.

A toddler walking uphill redefines the word "slow" — A toddler walking uphill redefines the word “slow”

We took a lovely walk through Partenkirchen, the older part of town. Garmisch and Partenkirchen were once two towns but they merged for the 1936 Winter Olympics. We walked past a bunch of lovely stores and eateries that we could not go into because we also had left all our wallets inside. But M enjoyed the walk and also the hour it took us to wake my dad up after we got back (their room is on the third floor and the doorbell only rings in the foyer).

Jess cooked dinner and we sat down together for a lovely meal in the dining room. In my opinion, renting a house or apartment has a real advantage when you have kids. The extra space and the ability to make a place feel like “home” really makes life a lot easier. Since we were able to cook at home on our own schedule we weren’t forced to subject M to eating out when she isn’t feeling very well. Plus we’re bound to get sick of sausage soon enough so it was good to take a break.

M seems pretty well adjusted jetlag wise (slept from 9-6), but since she’s sick she needs an extra nap after breakfast. This has proven difficult because of her cough; she’s just not comfortable. Right now there is only one thing that will put her to sleep: this song. It’s just one of those weird things that has been working without fail since we got here. I’m not even sure why I played it for her the first time but it’s worked three times so far – hopefully it sticks until she feels better.

The view of Garmisch-Partenkirchen from our cable car up Mount Wank

Anyway, Jess and I were thinking of climbing the local mountain, Mount Wank (hold all snickering, Wank means “mountain” in ze old German or something). Since M wasn’t feeling well and Jess is under the weather too, we decided to hold off and let them both nap. When they woke up the five of us took the cable car up to the top of Mount Wank and had wieners and noodle balls at the Wank Haus. Yes…that is exactly what we did.

Summit of Mount Wank — Jess: “Who needs Cristo Redentor?”

The views from the summit are exactly what I expected this trip to be about and hopefully the first of many spectacular views. Since the weather was dodgy it wasn’t too crowded at the top; everything was just so peaceful. We spent some time ambling around and just enjoying the views – and lounging in these massive wooden lounge chairs. The sun peeked in and out; the clouds really made everything feel just a touch more dramatic. We could have stayed up there for hours but eventually a storm looked like it was rolling in so we took the cable car back down. Hopefully we’ll be back to conquer the mountain soon.

Final Thoughts

With thunderstorms in the forecast it looks like tomorrow might be another rest day – which M and Jess probably need. We might all need it, I passed out while typing this – I’d estimate at least three of us are at sleep at any given time. On the cable car ride down, while M was snoring on my chest, Jess mentioned, “This is pretty different from how we would have done it without her.” And that’s true – we probably would have already climbed that mountain when we were childless. But it’s the little things that make it worth traveling with the toddler – teaching her her favorite word in a fourth language (dog = hunde), watching her walk two feet at a time to see if the river looks different from different vantage points, or seeing her demolish a pretzel with one hand while eating a sausage in the other. She might never remember this, but I think she’s having a great time.

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Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 11 2014

Bavarian Summer: Lufthansa First Class with a Toddler

I’ve just woken up from sleeping for sixteen hours straight, give or take. You’d think that would indicate that our transatlantic flight with Little M was a disaster, but really it was quite the opposite. I think I’m just exhausted from the time change and life in general – so was M by the way I think she slept for 15 hours last night (and she’s sleeping next to me as I type this so she’s about to catch up).

Air Canada Business Class Regional Flight — Air Canada Regional Flight

Our day started with a short business class regional flight on Air Canada to Toronto. I wasn’t planning on writing about it (flight was smooth, we preoccupied M by feeding her lunch, and the cabin had extra space so she got her own seat for half the flight), but there were two things of note besides that long parenthetical.

Air Canada IFE — On demand IFE for a one hour flight – not bad

First of all, security at Boston Logan for Air Canada amuses me. I mean it’s totally up to regular TSA standards so it’s not unsafe or anything, but Air Canada has three gates and its own little wing, so security is just like one checkpoint. The funny thing was, I was selected for TSA Precheck, but had just assumed that I wasn’t going to get any of the benefits. It turns out at that gate they give you a little slip of paper that says TSA Pre on it and you hand it to the guy on the other side of the metal detector without having to take off your shoes. But I still had to take my laptop out and all that so…thanks?

Secondly, it’s always interesting to me how airlines from different countries deal with lap infants. The one universal rule we’ve encountered thus far is no infants in carriers (bjorns, becos, k’tans, whatever). Other than that, everyone has their own policy. On US Airlines, keep them on your lap facing forward for takeoff and landing. On Air Canada we were told to hold M in a burping position (which they called the brace position) for takeoff/landing/turbulence, and on the European carriers we’ve flown we always get that extra seatbelt attachment (her least favorite).

Air Canada lounge Toronto — Jess and M in the Air Canada lounge, Toronto

Anyhoo. We landed in Toronto and spent some time in the Air Canada lounge in the international wing. There is also an American Express lounge in Toronto but I didn’t get to check it out because I was on daddy duty, which was composed of walking around the terminal pushing M for an hour and half to squeeze out fifteen minutes of naptime. Airports = overstimulation. They at least had the World Cup semifinal game on so I was paying attention to that.

Boarding was smooth and my hopes and dreams were realized – it was a Cheung-only first class cabin. My parents, my wife, my daughter, and me. SWEET! The first class attendant introduced herself (Katherine I think) and gave us the run of the cabin. It was a great relief not to have to worry about disturbing others, though it wouldn’t have been an issue in the end.

Lufthansa first class cabin — The entire cabin was ours!

The great thing about being in first class with a toddler is the SPACE. We spent 45 minutes on the ground but I didn’t even notice because M was running around exploring everything from the ottoman to the buttons to the remote control – and that’s before the flight attendant gave her some toys and coloring books to play with. Jess and I managed to sneak in two glasses of (excellent) champagne in during all the commotion, M didn’t even notice except when she wanted to do “cheers” with us. Oh it was at this point our Dutch captain began informing us of the score in the game – unfortunately 30 minutes into the flight he told us that his Dutch team had lost – poor guy.

Sippin' that Grand Sicele — Sippin’ that Grand Sicele

M wasn’t a huge fan of the aforementioned baby belt and was squirmy during take-off, but that wasn’t a major issue. We then decided to take dinner separately so one person could watch M at a time. I ate first, starting with some caviar (which generally is lost on me), then a trio of appetizers (ginger prawns, pork tenderloin, and salad), and culminating in my beef tenderloin entree. I’ve heard complaints about Lufthansa catering but this was my third first class flight with them and I’ve always enjoyed the food. In the meantime, Jess tried to feed M the food that we had brought with mixed success. She also ate some pretzel bread but turned down most of the airplane food.

Jess and M came to visit me during my meal

Once I was done, I asked the flight attendant to hold off on dessert so Jess and I could eat that together and I took over M duty. The four of us were all on the right side of the cabin (so we shared access to the same aisle), Jess moved over to the left side to eat while I put M to bed. In first class this was so straightforward it almost seemed like a joke.

It was pretty straightforward putting her to sleep on the first class "bed" — It was pretty straightforward putting her to sleep on the first class “bed”

As always in Lufthansa first, the flight attendants make your bed when you ask so I asked them to make Jess’ seat into a bed for M. After that, I just laid down with her for a little while, read a book, hummed some tunes and patted her until she was down. At that point I moved back to my seat and ate dessert with Jess while finishing CAPTAIN AMERICA THE WINTER SOLDIER which is the movie I had been hoping was available on the plane. Yes!

Dessert was excellent, I had a strawberry gazpacho with sorbet, Jess had the cheese plate, and we each got a chocolate cake with ice cream. That’s about all I have to say about that! At that point Jess got her bed made and went to sleep while I finished my movie. I went to sleep with about four hours left in the flight, but M started crying half an hour later.

Dessert. Yum. Um, sorry, I half ate one before I took the picture... — Dessert. Yum. Um, sorry, I half ate one before I took the picture…

She likely would have settled herself like she does at home, but just in case she was disturbing anyone in the cabin behind us, I moved over to her bed and she settled down pretty quickly. She had another little “sleep adjustment” two hours later, but other than that she slept very soundly for about five hours on the flight.

The one negative thing about the flight is that it was incredibly dry, not that Lufthansa really had any control over that. That really exacerbated M’s cough and she was coughing/wheezing in my ear all night. So lying next to her my ability to sleep was greatly impeded and I only caught about an hour of solid rest.

When breakfast service started M woke herself up so the three of us ate together, though I was exhausted at this point. Before we knew it we were on the ground in Munich. M pretty much held it together even though we were walking through the terminal (with her awake) at around 1 AM home time. I needed some rest before picking up the car so we spent half an hour in Munich’s Lufthansa First Class lounge, where we also had our passports processed (a nice perk).

We didn't need to give M her first "present" until an hour before landing — We didn’t need to give M her first “present” until an hour before landing

After a two hour drive to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we checked into our huge house, grabbed a quick lunch, and then I don’t know what happened because I fell asleep for sixteen hours straight – ten of those next to M. We decided to sleep with her to help her with the jetlag and also to monitor her cough. I thought she was over jetlag because she woke up normal time but since she’s passed out again I’m not so sure. I guess we’ll find out.

Looks like we’re in for five straight days of rain – yikes. Hopefully we find something to do!

Final Thoughts

Our Lufthansa first class flight with M went better than expected. She enjoyed all the space and having such a small cabin really allowed the flight attendants to give us the help we needed. Having a lie flat bed for her to sleep on made a huge difference as well. Best of all, Jess and I even got to enjoy ourselves a little bit. Hopefully M gets over her illness and starts enjoying Germany soon!

P.S. – We ended up ditching the “drag car seat through terminal” contraption and putting the car seat in this $15 carrying bag we got. We threw some extra clothes and supplies into the bag and checked it in. Worked out great!

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Lufthansa First Class Terminal – Good for Toddlers?

Jul 09 2014

Bavarian Summer: Introduction

After spending what felt like an eternity writing my Bora Bora trip report, I’ve decided to go more “running diary” for my trips. We’ll see how it works out. Anyway when this posts hopefully we’ll be over the Atlantic in Lufthansa first for our summer trip to Germany and Austria! Also, today marks a big milestone for the blog – I am upgrading Baby M to Little M – this girl ain’t a baby anymore. Why did she have to learn the word “no” three weeks before we left!?

Little M's "presents" for distractions: ready to go! Thanks, Jess! — Little M’s “presents” for distractions: ready to go! Thanks, Jess!

Now, full disclosure, we would probably be taking a trip this summer without points and miles – it’s just something we as a family believe in and value. Before I got into this madness, we would take trips every summer but it would either a) cost more than we spend now or b) cost the same but be less comfortable. So I just wanted to lay out some of the strategies we used to book this trip and how it saved us some money.

Flights

Most of you know by now, but United completely hacked their award chart when it comes to partner airline premium cabins. When they announced this, I thought I would never get to fly Lufthansa First Class again (Jess and I flew it for two legs when she was pregnant BOS-MUC-PEK). I couldn’t justify shelling out 110,000 miles each way (the current price), and Lufthansa typically only releases first class space 7-10 days out and with a kid we’re just not that flexible anymore (for the record, there seems to be some space available in LH F for the next two weeks from Boston to Frankfurt). So I had given up the dream.

Lufthansa new first class cabin — Jess in Lufthansa first class in 2012

But sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Last fall, Lufthansa for some reason opened up a bunch of first class space on their new Toronto to Munich route – before the United devaluation. This was a brass ring opportunity, I didn’t hesitate. It pays to be decisive in this game. I not only booked Jess and myself in LH F for today’s flight, but my parents as well (with their own miles). Jess and I are returning in LH F on our own since my parents are leaving earlier, but to get LH F roundtrip was a real coup.

So in the end, Jess and I spent 270,000 United miles (mostly from Chase Ultimate Rewards) and about $250. Little M’s infant ticket cost $269.10 due to the best United agent in the world (IMO). So it cost us $500 out of pocket plus the value of the miles. I don’t have time to do any serious math, so I’ll keep it simple – if we take into consideration the fact that I can convert Ultimate Rewards points to cash back for 1 cent per point, one could say that these flights cost us about $3200. Though Airfare Watchdog has been posting some pretty sweet $700 RT Europe deals, all of those have been last minute deals for summer – deals we can’t wait for when making plans. If we weren’t using miles, I would have budgeted about $1300 each for airfare, plus M’s infant ticket which would have been around $130 (10% of adult fare).

The current roundtrip cost of a first class ticket to Germany is around $14,000, but it’s stupid to say I saved $12,000 per person. Here’s a more accurate breakdown of the cost.

Current first class prices for our dates (click to enlarge)

So, our estimated cost for the flights we booked are $3200, we would have spent around $2700 to get to Germany anyway. I think of it at worst as a $500 upgrade from economy to first class. So we didn’t necessarily save money here, but it’s worth it to me. Hopefully it’s worth it to Jess too, she’s the one who likes caviar. Also, as of this writing, the other four seats in our cabin are empty which means it could just be Jess, my parents, M, and me in the cabin. That’d be pretty sweet.

OH! I didn’t even count the cost of the FREE PAJAMAS we get! So yeah – maximum savings!

Check out those free pajamas from 2012, yo. Still wearing them. Not joking.

Hotels

So in the past, I’ve budgeted around 80 Euros a night for lodging. Now that we have M, I’ve kinda upped that to 100-120 Euros/night because a lot of rooms in Europe are double occupancy only and they are sticklers for that.

Here’s where we are staying:

Airbnb in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at 110 Euro/night (per family)

Hilton Munich City at 109 Euro/night

Hilton Vienna Plaza at 40,000 HHonors points/night

Intercontinental Berchtesgaden at 35,000 IHG points/night

Crowne Plaza Salzburg at 30,000 IHG points/night

We'll be checking out Hitler's final hideout while we're in Berchtesgaden — We’ll be checking out Hitler’s final hideout while we’re in Berchtesgaden

I had enough points in my Hilton account to pay for both ours and my parents rooms in Vienna, and enough points to cover our stays in the IHG resorts. I ended up buying IHG points at 0.7 cents each to cover the second room in IHG, which is over my daily budget (180 and 130 Euro/night respectively), but I think of it more as a wash since we had all those IHG points lying around. Again, we haven’t necessarily saved money with our hotel stays, we just are getting more for our dollar (in my opinion).

Intra-Europe Travel and Activities

I rented a car and we also still need to book a train from Vienna to Munich. It’s tough to really save money on stuff like that, though I’ll probably use my Barclaycard Arrival Plus World MasterCard® to get reimbursed for the train tickets. I am planning on cancelling that card soon and I haven’t “zapped” any travel purchases yet so hopefully this will cover most of it.

In terms of activities, there’s no real way to save money using miles and points – we just need to make good decisions. The areas we will be in feature lots of hikes and scenery gazing which is generally cheaper anyway. Although Sound of Music tours probably aren’t cheap – I’m pretty sure we’re gonna have to hit at least one of those.

Final Thoughts

The day will come, possibly quite soon, when we’ll likely only be able to afford economy tickets on points and miles, and that’s okay. Points and miles are just tools by which we can offset the costs of travel we would be doing anyway. Still, while Little M can still go as a lap infant, it’s nice to use them to make life a little more comfortable – which is how we’re using them on this trip. Did we save a ton of money? No – there’s always an opportunity cost (we could have flown to Europe twice in economy with the number of miles we used). But this is how I’ve chosen to use our miles, and I’m looking forward to this adventure. Hope you enjoy my ramblings for the next few weeks!

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