Visiting Europe in the winters is never a very inspiring prospect. But mid March and with some of the cold receding, I thought never mind, I’ll survive.
The Journey
Lufthansa offers the best options on direct flights to Frankfurt and if only their flight timings were not so odd, it would even have been a pleasurable experience. But this time I was better prepared and instead of roaming around on the airport for hours on end after arriving from Vadodara, I took a room in a hotel nearby the airport and slept for a good 5 hours before the check in time. Being rested is the best way to face a grueling 9-hour night flight! And fortunately this time the girl at the check in counter even acceded my request for an emergency exit seat, which gave me a lot of extra leg space. Lufthansa is anyway a member of the star alliance and one can claim miles on the miles and more frequent flier programme whenever you travel with them. However having traveled Lufthansa after a considerable amount of time, I was a little disappointed that they did not even have the personal entertainment system (in the economy class) at each seat as most other airlines do these days. But anyway they did have 14 inch screens hung up in the alleyway and personal speakers to be plugged in. With the flight timing ex Mumbai being at 3.30AM one is hardly in the mood to watch movies anyway, but on the return I did see a wonderful movie, which I intend to review also separately. Further my timely decision to update the food choice in their system helped me to get the desired low calorie meals (LCML) as well, which I enjoyed thoroughly and did not have to revert to the usual antacids throughout the flight.
From the Frankfurt airport I usually take a train or bus when I have to go to Mannheim. But this time our conference had been arranged in a hotel resort about an hour from Mannheim in a place called Weinhiem, and one would have had to get off at Mannheim and take a tram to the resort. Not wanting to take all this trouble with the luggage in toe, I had asked our Germany office to book me a car. After I cleared the immigrations and collected the luggage I saw the driver waiting for me at the “meeting point” with a placard that said Herr ____ (my name). And friends, this was such an enjoyable drive of about an hour through the beautiful German countryside on the lovely 8 lane concrete highways. I took several pictures of this experience and will share with you when the same are developed. It was still winters in Germany with temperatures hovering in the range of 2-4 oC. The German music on the radio, heated car and lovely views were an experience to remember.
The Resort
The hotel where we were booked was more like a resort. Not too much star type but a nice lovely small city hotel resort. The room was decent sized with an excellent view of the rows of cottages lining a road. The bathroom too was decent. A usual shower cubicle as is standard in most of Europe was in one corner, glasses, several outlets for the shavers and driers etc. The room had a TV which showed about 35 channels one among them being in English. If you are traveling to Europe with your children, do be careful as many channels show adult content during the late nights there. There was also the option of about 10 radio channels on the TV itself. After I adjusted the temperature of the heating apparatus to a comfortable level, I settled down in the snug bed to sleep off the tiring night journey.
The Gymnasium and Pool
When I got up in the evening, I felt very refreshed and hungry too. However I decided to have a good workout before feeding my culinary senses. When I went to the gym I was really impressed. Even though the equipment there was limited, it was obviously made from the casual traveler’s point of view rather than a professional trainer, I thought the same would suffice anyway. But the rest of facilities were really impressive. They had two specialized message showers, a sauna, and also an indoor heated pool. Since I had never anticipated that this place would have a heated pool I had not carried my swimming trunks, but I did enjoy the rest of the facilities for the three days that I stayed there.
The Lobby was another place that I liked very much. It had a Wi Fi Internet available they’re totally free of cost. Also the coffee maker was good. The aroma of fresh beans being ground every time you press the button for some coffee is very inspiring. Even though I am primarily a tea drinker, I did help myself to several cups of coffee as well during my stay there. Even for tea they had several flavored teas to please all tastes. The herbal teas were especially satisfying. And all this included in the room rates.
The Food
In one word, it was sumptuous! Every single meal that I had there was so well done. I don’t know if it’s just that European food generally agrees with me or that the one here was so good, I just loved every part of it. All I had to do was be careful to inform them that I don’t eat pork or beef and then there was no issue. Since we were almost about 25 participants in the conference and all meals were booked we really did enjoy them all. They have at least about 7-8 different areas where people can be served the meals depending upon how many are to be catered. So starting from the soups, the salads, the main courses (consisting of roast turkey, grilled fish, mushrooms and noodles etc) were all delicious. The wines and other drinks were good too and served with aplomb.