wormulon.net

finally ... this has been sitting on my harddisk for weeks already.


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Before I even start to sort and post any gorgeous Dubrovnik pictures I should clean up my photo queue esp. the Nizwa trip late last month.

The second day in Oman I got myself a rental car at the airport with the intention to drive to Nizwa which is about 90 minutes away from Muscat in the Omani desert. I got to the airport, found the small Sixt rental booth and waited about 20 minutes for my Nissan Sunny. Apparently there was nothing bigger available. When the helping hand of the agent turned up with the car it had a flat tire. Another ten minutes later he showed up with a new(er) Nissan Sunny. With 54444 km on the clock it wasn't anything spectacular but should be able to do the trip. I kinda was hoping for a nice upgrade as Sixt Platinum. To make things worse the contract had a mileage restriction and showed the wrong meter reading. The fuel tank wasn't topped off. Color me underwhelmed for that experience.

I took the car to the next gas station to get some gas and water (for me). Off I was driving straight into the desert. Roads were much like their UAE counterparts with lighting, speed cams and good conditions in general.





The ride was quite relaxing (as long as the a/c unit was on). For whatever reason the car made itself heard and required a tire change. It's been a few years since I last changed a tire and the heat outside did not help either. I actually burnt my hands in the process but was over with the tedious work 15 minutes later.



First thing to do when I arrived in Nizwa was to find a restaurant to have a local bite to eat. With only few options I turned to the Lonely Planet approved Bin Atique restaurant serving up traditional Omani dishes in a local setting.







I was ready to explore and headed across the street for the fort area. I passed the closed souq bound to the fort museum.





Throughout the entire trip I've only seem some six to eight tourists which made it a pleasant experience.















Before continuing outside I spend the better part of an hour inside the fort reading upon the history and looking at numerous exhibits. Finally I took the long way up the stairs into the tower.













Soon later I started my journey back to Muscat and eventually back home via Istanbul and Berlin. Once at the airport I returned my car but did not get any sorry or whatnot for the flat tire and general bad shape of the car.
I had some trouble getting airside at the airport so many hours before my flight. A Oman Air official checked me in and printed my Turkish Airlines boarding passes, though. Thanks! A few days before the trip I thought about booking a fast roundtrip to a random destination to kill some time in the evening. I should have booked one of the 30 Euro Oman Air roundtrips since that would have gotten me into the airport right away. With a few hours to spare I headed for the lounge which got the better online reviews for the showers but was once more disappointed by the offerings. I started to raid the buffet for something edible.

I spent my leftover Omani money on a pizza and some cheap cigarettes before some lounge-hopping. Eventually I settled into a lounge chair and caught up on Flyertalk, emails and the web in general.

I started off my first day in Muscat with breakfast at the hotel. The hotel got mixed reviews for the breakfast and I found it to be somewhere in between a nice try and mediocre. I left for the harbour area to start exploring.



The taxi dropped me off at the fish market where locals were trading everything from small crabs to huge tuna. While in the front row unprocessed fish was traded an entire section of the covered market was occupied by men cleaning and cutting fish for the customers. Quite interesting to see how fast those men cut down fish.
The fish market is in the northern corner of the small corniche which is lined with merchant houses, a mosque and the famous Muscat souq.



I walked along the corniche towards the souq on the southern end of the corniche.






In front of the souq a sign confirmed what I've already guessed while walking around in the sun. It was already quite hot.








After walking around for almost an hour I got myself some water and a cold mango juice at one of the many coffee shops.



I wanted to walk back through the souq to the waterfront where I wanted to grab a cab back to the hotel for a nice break. After all Muscat proper is quite small and I would have enough time for more exploration later in the day. I ended up chatting to a spice vendor in front of his shop for an hour. He had amazing mixes of roasted spices. Not only did I taste and buy a lot of things but we also traded a few recipes. I told him about my figs with feta cheese creation (baked in the oven with fresh ground pepper and some honey) which he loved and wanted to try asap. I've asked him for some pointers on what to see in Muscat and Oman. He got me interested in the Nizwa region which I looked up on the Internet and in my Lonely Planet book. Later that day I put in a reservation for a small car the next day.

Next to the hotel one of the few large Lulu Hypermarkets just opened offering an amazing array of fresh cooked food as well as prepackaged local salads and fresh fruit. I did some shopping and took the loot to my hotel room.



In the evening I hailed a cab to take me to the old town area. The driver dropped me off in a region that somehow matched the destination but then wasn't. It was one of the few rip off things that do happen. Well it happened which means I'll be safe for the rest of the year. In the end I walked a bit and took another cab ... I might have lost 2 Euro but did not care too much.

Relatively few people live in the palace area and as I was a bit early for sunset most of the tourists (not that there were so many) had yet to arrive.

My Oman trip was about to happen and I headed for work early with my small suitcase and camera bag in tow. My plan was to grab lunch with colleagues and hop on the subway bound to the airport. Lunch did not happen so I took a late train to the airport. On the way I came up with the idea of trying the Cindy's burger restaurant inside the plaza. Without further ado ...



Now that is a crappy burger with simple ground beef in the shape of a meat patty. One of the sauces was clearly a regular thousand islands dressing. Pricewise it wasn't that bad for an airport but from a quality perspective any Burgerking meal is better. I went upstairs to the lounge, grabbed a cold one and sat outside in the sun waiting for boarding to begin.



On the flight a full meal was served and Do&Co did not let me down. I rate the meal being better than most transatlantic offerings that United, US Airways, KLM and Delta dare to serve passengers.



In Istanbul I had little time on the ground, barely enough to transit, stop at the lounge for a water and head to the boarding gate.



It got dark just the moment we taxied to the runway. As we were gaining altitude the sun rose again giving us a mere 10 minutes of sun - right in time as we were passing downtown Istanbul for some photo opportunities. During the four hour flight we passed the oil fields of Northern Irak which in the night are clearly marked by the towers burning excess natural gas - a byproduct of the oil production industry.

We arrived on time and with hand luggage only I made a dash to the visa counter to buy my visa on the spot. The cab ride through the night was a pleasant one although the driver tried to overcharge a lot before even asking where to go - a reoccurring theme for the entire weekend.



The hotel was good with brand new Samsung everything: A/C unit, flatscreen TV, fridge, microwave, ... Even the toaster and coffeemaker were Samsung-branded. Unfortunately they came with the wrong power plug and have never been used. I turned on the A/C to cool down the room a bit before getting some more sleep. Some 40+ degrees at night are not too pleasant to sleep.

Quite a few things happened over the last two weeks and I decided put the bank holiday next week to a good use and fly somewhere fun. The good last minute deals were already taken and with the ash cloud looming on the horizon it was clear that I'd stay in Europe or fly east. Miles&More award tickets were booked like I haven't seen it in months ruling out that option (although I'd love to sample the new Swiss Business and First long-haul product).
After some research Tallinn ended up on my radar due to a good weather forecast and interesting/affordable routings. It's off the beaten track meaning accommodation wouldn't skyrocket over the weekend. But then I figured the very flights I am interested in will be rescheduled in a few weeks for more time at the destination.

Thanks to my own flight searching tool I discovered a cheap Hamburg to Muscat, Oman fare. I've been waiting for a few days and finally saw availability drop so far that prices increased. The segment that increased the overall price was the last leg home from Istanbul. I tried a few diversions - i.e. through London - and was hoping to enjoy a long-haul Boeing 777 instead of a regional jet but failed to find availability on the London-Hamburg leg. A few seconds later I got back to the Tallinn deal. What's amazing about the Tallinn trip on Estonia Air is that they actually fly Hamburg-Berlin-Tallinn - most likely so that they could pick up passengers in both Hamburg and Berlin to make the route profitable. With less passengers on the German domestic leg I knew I could score a cheap ticket. I altered my Turkish Airlines routing on the way home from Muscat so that I'll be in Berlin with a few hours to spare before my short hop to Hamburg.



I just love it when things come together like this; a nice weekend and a few aviation highlights on the way.

While leisurely surfing the usual travel sites I noticed that I failed to scout out a decent last-day-of-summer-schedule trip. Usually the cheap summer tourist airlines sell off the seats on their last service of the year cheap. Who would want to fly out to a Mediterranean beach destination in the end of October without a chance to grab a seat back a week later? Well, I happily grab that outbound seat and find myself another cheap seat back home. In this case there were several opportunities on Germanwings/TUIfly to Croatia due to the way they rotate their aircraft (i.e. flying Hannover-Split-Hamburg-Split-Hannover).
I was too late to grab a cheap (as in 19.99 Euro) daytrip to and from Split (SPU) I decided to give Zagreb and Zadar a try. It turned out that I could fly home out of Zagreb late night. In addition Croatia Airlines has a dirt cheap (37 Euro) fare between those cities connecting in Dubrovnik.


For a total of 87 Euro I'll have a day in Split and a few fun flights around Croatia. I could resist booking Business Class (just a 50 Euro premium) on Croatia Airlines, though.

Now there are already at least three folks from one airline geek website booked on the Hannover-Split flight.

With the mileage run needs satisfied for the next two years I started looking for interesting intra-European weekend trips. Thanks to pricing errors, 40 Euro off vouchers, rebate codes and sometimes pure luck I've been able to secure myself a few flights.



Bologa
Wikitravel calls Bologna the nation's food capital and beautiful - only second to Venice. So two good reasons to fly there for a weekend.

Dubrovnik
A few days ago I came home and did my usual scouting for cheap fares when I found a 249 Euro trip to Dubrovnik. Sure, that's not cheap at all but I got interested in the flight times for a weekend trip and went to the Austrian website. There, the same route with perfect flight times was advertised as a 154 Euro deal. I continued to Expedia where I would save the ticket service charge (yet another 10 Euro off) and receive some cashback. In the sub-150 Euro range this trip moved into the worth doing range, esp. since weather should be amazing in June.

Basel
Late in the year this is somehow a I wanted to fly that route at some point trip while also visiting Basel. With Basel/Mulhouse airport being a low cost carrier (LCC) hub I might find myself hop on one of those less-than-10-Euro deals to an odd destination, though.

Yet another day of mileage running. This time it is a bit more compressed with a redeye (overnight) flight back from the West Coast to the East Coast. I should be in Minneapolis before 10AM the next morning leaving me enough time to relax and prepare for my return to Germany.



My scheduled flight to Chicago was delayed due to bad weather in the Chicago region. About an hour after we boarded we were allowed to deboard the plane if we promise to be back 20 minutes later. Lots of people rushed out to fix their connection issues. With the ticketing desks flooded with people I turned to the Red Carpet Club where there was no line. Since Minneapolis has a direct Denver flight I jumped on that. Instead of connecting to Denver in Chicago I would simply fly the direct route.



I arrived in Denver just in time to board my flight to Spokane, Washington. Scenery-wise this was the most impressive flight as we left the high plains in the Denver area, crossed the Rocky Mountains which were still covered with snow and eventually made it to the Pacific Northwest region. In Spokane the plane was turned around with an hour and I flew straight back. The crew was changed so they did not give me strange looks for turning around immediately.






Once again I was in Denver, heading upstairs to the lounge for a minute before boarding the next flight. This time I would be flying to San Diego. The flight was long enough to warrant dinner service - yet another steak salad for me. In San Diego I had plenty of time to go landside, change terminals and find out that there is no usable lounge in the US terminal. With free WiFi the situation could have been worse but as the jet lag kicked in I was happy to hear the boarding announcement. I planned on trying out the in-flight WiFi on the way to Charlotte but since I just served the web for two hours I simply slept for most of the flight. The US Airways First Class service has nothing First Class about it thus all I really missed was probably a few runs with the snack basket. Some four hours later I woke up when we approached Charlotte.
With only one flight to bring me home to Minneapolis my mileage runs were coming to an end. I was well rested but simply wanted to shower. I Minneapolis I took the shuttle to the Holiday Inn Express where I've been staying before. I left my bag there and was hoping to get a decent rate for a dayroom (as promised by the night staff). The best they could offer was $139 plus taxes for around five hours. I declined, popped open my laptop and fired up Hotwire hoping to score a cheap deal for the Holiday Inn. After all for the last days I was paying $49 for the very same place through Hotwire. I ended up calling the nearby Comfort Inn which offered me a $59 rate including taxes and allowed me to check in at 10AM. I took a shower and slept for two hours before preparing for my journey home. I thought about going to the Mall of America again or raid the Walmart next door for cheap DVDs and candy but decided to skip those options.

As mentioned before I was crazy enough to spend the better part of three days on planes zipping across the continental United States. The only purpose of the trip being to collect frequent flyer miles. As First Class earns triple miles it was only reasonable to do this in style.



The first day I left my hotel in the Minneapolis airport area at 5:30AM and was in the United Red Carpet Club lounge at the airport well before the scheduled flight to Charlotte. On board a few drinks were served along with a few snacks from the snack basket ... that's what they call a First Class breakfast at US Airways.



In Charlotte we were delayed on the ground due to a mechanical problem. A cover on one of the exit doors in Economy Class was missing. They could not find a spare part in Charlotte. Luckily a passenger found the cover underneath a seat and we were off to Phoenix with a delay of about two hours. This meant that lots of people would miss their connection - as would I. At the last minute a gate agent gave a stack of boarding passes to one of the flight attendants. During flight the flight attendant distributed those roughly thirty passes to passengers who have been rebooked. I did not not receive anything.

Lunch was served during the flight and I went with the chicken salad option. Basically it is a salad topped with a huge chuck chicken with a bit of BBQ sauce. As a personal touch the flight agent emptied a bag of the US Airways snack mix over the salad. Adding a bit of crunch it wasn't bad but then I wonder what happens to people with allergies to nuts.





Once we arrived in Phoenix I went to the transfer center to sort out my connecting flight issue. My flight already left and they proposed to rebook me on two Southwest flights via Las Vegas to bring me to Spokane at around 10PM. My original routing via Seattle wouldn't have brought me there faster but then I'd also have a 5+ hour connection in Seattle which would have allowed me to revisit the Pike Market. Adding Southwest to my ticket with a 45 minute connection in Las Vegas wasn't something I was looking for. I already feared that US Airways would act up when it comes to rebooking situations on my United Airlines tickets so adding another low cost carrier to the mix surely won't make it easier. I told the agent that I have to intentions of ever arriving in Spokane as I am on a mileage run. She well understood the situation and rebooked me on a direct flight to Denver. I'd miss out on my Phoenix-Seattle-Spokane-Denver flights but could pick up the mileage run in Denver the next day. It would also allow me to get some sleep in Denver. I was hoping US Airways would issue a hotel voucher right ahead but the Phoenix agent was not allowed to do that for Denver. In Denver I could not find an agent at 11PM and thus decided to take matters into my own hands. I called various hotels inquiring about the United Airlines distress rates and found the Crowne Plaza (great hotel!) at $54 (which I'll get back from someone).

In Phoenix I was lucky (if you want to call that) to experience the earthquake that hit the Baha California region. It was barely an earthquake that far away but at least something to talk about for the next few hours.

Well rested I arrived in Denver the next morning for my flight to Tampa, Florida. The moment I entered the First Class cabin the flight attendant Connie greeted me and offered a drink pre-departure. This would become the best flight on the trip. Before lunch Connie came by thanking me and my seat mate for our business. She greeted us with our names (and remembered them throughout the flight!) and asked for our meal choice to make sure that we as important 100K (United Gold Status) and Star Alliance Gold (me as Lufthansa Senator) members would get our first choice.



The salad is one of the most common staples on United flights I believe. I'd consider it healthy and quality-wise it's quite OK. It could be a bit more pink inside, though. Upon arrival in Tampa I was hoping that Connie would also be the flight attendant for the next flight but she wasn't. The flight to Chicago couldn't be more disappointing. The flight attendant did his job but that was about it.

Just like on every long United flight a bowl of hot nuts was distributed along with a first round of drinks. My usual choice was a Diet Coke with a slice of lime. In this case I didn't get ice nor a lime.



For dinner (yes, the flights were planned so that I'd get a maximum number of meals) I again had the option of a steak salad which I declined in favor of horrible cheese tortellini.



My last flight would take me from Chicago to Minneapolis - usually a 50 minute hop. The moment we were about to push back from the gate lightning struck the terminal building and all working personnel was ordered inside to sit out a thunderstorm that was unfolding above the Chicago airport. United planes have a nice feature which allows passengers to listen in to the communication between the aircraft and Air Traffic Controllers (ATC). Over that channel 9 it soon became obvious that the airport came to a halt. We sat on the tarmac for about an hour before we were pushed back. I could see lots of planes passing us. Every one of them basically means another two minute delay while lining up for take-off. The female pilot asked ATC if she could take another runway to get around a bit of weather. She was allowed to do so and turned around on a taxiway and probably saving us 15 minutes or more.
Throughout the flight we experiences some mild turbulences and had a nice lightning show going on outside. Soon we arrived in Minneapolis and I called the courtesy shuttle to my hotel where I'd spend the next four to five hours before heading out for the next set of flights.

I had my last day on the old job the day before and checked in for my flights on Lufthansa to Frankfurt and connecting to an overbooked United flight to Chicago. I quickly grabbed an exit row seat and followed the online check-in process throughout the day. When the opportunity came I gave up my seat by canceling my check-in. With all seats assigned what should United do to a Star Alliance Gold member? Sure, if somebody is a no show I might end up with a bad Economy middle seat but I was willing to gamble. I arrived at the gate asking for a seat assignment and simply received a departure management card. When boarding started I was called to swap that card for my Business Class seat.

I ended up in a middle seat between to Americans. On the ground I enjoyed some champagne but wasn't satisfied with the quality. I'm not sure that was champagne but could have well been a sparkling wine. United lists a Gloria Ferrer Blanc de Noirs NV Carneros sparkling wine in the handed out menu.




Shortly after take-off a quick stuffing breakfast service was offered. My pancakes were missing maple syrup, though. The entire service including a second coffee run was done within 90 minutes after take-off.



Other breakfast choices were a Swiss cheese omelette with tomato garlic sauce or a chilled deli plate with gruyere cheese (smoked salmon, honey ham, salami, asparagus, egg wedge). My seat neighbors went with those options and both were happy with it although I'd favor the deli plate after I've eaten the pancakes.

The 777 IFE was old and to make things worse had movies loaded that were not listed in the IFE magazine. I got a few hours of real sleep before waking up to a drink service with hot nuts. For lunch I got my first choice: cod topped with a honey ginger sauce and herbed rice and creamed spinach as a side. The spinach was a bit too creamy for my taste. Most passengers went with the filet mignon. At first I was surprised to find my cutlery deep-chilled. Unfortunately the salad was partly frozen with ice crystals on the cucumbers. Appetizer and bun were OK but nothing outstanding for a Business Class product.









The dessert should have been a cheese plate or a passion fruit white chocolate mousse cake. What was shown in the aisle was either some partly pre-packaged cheese or ice cream. The presentation of the ice cream was sub-par and I wonder what happened to the chocolate mousse cake.



Arrival into ORD was a few minutes late but I made up a lot of time on the ground. There was no line for immigration. I made it to the luggage belt only to see that my bag was the first one there. Gate to curbside in less than 15 minutes. Wow! At the Park Hyatt I had my keys within another two minutes but did not score an upgrade there. I won't be spending much time in the room anyway. Outside temperatures were in the low 70ties with a bright sun - just a perfect day.

My travels took me to Chicago. Again? you might ask but Chicago is still an amazing city and there are new areas to explore every single time. For this trip I used a couple of vouchers to bring the total cost down quite a bit. Last year I earned a free night in any Hyatt property voucher and decided to use it for a night at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. With all the relocating and new job things happening I couldn't see myself going to Tokyo any time soon so I decided to get a free night at the Park Hyatt Chicago instead.

I've been staying at a couple of fancy hotels but most of the time I don't spend too much money on them. Certainly not the $350-$450 the Hyatt was asking for. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect but the room itself was a pleasant surprise.



I made it Chicago quite early in the day but thanks to the time zones I was already hungry. Luckily The Rosebud (on Rush) was right around the corner from the Park Hyatt. The place received amazing ratings and with a $5 lunch burger special I could not resist. Heck, I just left home this morning and was in sunny Chicago right in time for lunch - amazing.



The burger was very good. Throughout my trip I would plan small and big diversions simply to try more burgers that were rated exceptionally well by friends and various websites.

Next up - and honestly the only thing on my map for the day - was a long stroll down the Magnificent Mile towards the Chicago River and to the Cloud Gate. Since the Magnificent Mile is lined with interesting shopping venues it took me quite some time to reach Wacker Dr and the river. The Apple store didn't really grab my attention yet but the Garmin store next door was great. They had the whole lineup of Garmin GPS devices to play around with including the huge backup devices used in private planes.







From the Chicago river I walked south into the Loop area where the elevated metro provided for the stereotypical Chicago feeling. I did some shopping at Macy's and continued to the Cloud Gate.



From the Cloud Gate I walked all the way back to the hotel stopping at Walgreens on the way for some snacks and drinks. Had I known that there is a M Burger right around the corner I would have gotten myself a burger.

Last week I've visited the Mall of America, not only to pick up an Apple iPad for a friend but also to do a little shopping. Besides its size the mall is best known for the Nickelodeon theme park inside. The mall is the second largest in terms of retail space but thanks to the theme park the largest in terms of enclosed area.



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Lufthansa published a press announcement with route information for the first Lufthansa Airbus A380. While the announcement is rather unspecific about the dates and people are wondering about the Linz stop other folks over at the MUC Forum have better information.

Take this with the usual precautions but you might be able to spot the LH A380 at some rather unusual airports:

02.06.2010 FRA 06:45 STR 07:25
02.06.2010 STR 08:40 ZRH 09:20
02.06.2010 ZRH 10:20 VIE 11:35
02.06.2010 VIE 12:35 DRS 13:30
02.06.2010 DRS 14:30 NUE 15:15
02.06.2010 NUE 16:15 MUC 16:55
02.06.2010 MUC 21:15 FRA 22:25

03.06.2010 FRA 07:00 TXL 08:05
03.06.2010 TXL 09:15 HAJ 10:00
03.06.2010 HAJ 11:05 HAM 11:45
03.06.2010 HAM 12:55 BRE 13:35
03.06.2010 BRE 14:45 DUS 15:30
03.06.2010 DUS 16:40 CGN 17:10
03.06.2010 CGN 21:35 FRA 22:15

As written last year I've booked a few Ryanair flights. I did not go on the first trip on February due to weather and time constraints. After all I've lost less than 3 Euro to Ryanair so nothing to complain about. What remained was a trip that would take me from Bremen first thing in the morning to Rygge near Oslo, Norway, connecting to Stansted. After a few hours in the UK I'll take a final flight home to Bremen.



I drove to Bremen Friday evening and stayed at the Mercure Hanseatic hotel right next to the airport. I had a voucher for the hotel so I couldn't care less. It is a 15 minute walk from the airport and has a sauna. I don't have a TV at home so sauna plus some TV sounded like a good way to spend an evening. Unfortunately a friend of mine did not have time to meet in Bremen. When I arrived I immediately noticed the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans. How am I supposed to sleep with a Melitta coffee factory roasting beans next door? In addition the sauna was turned off.

Saturday morning I left for Terminal E of Bremen airport. It is an old Deutsche Post mail sorting facility turned into the Ryanair low cost terminal. There were two more flights leaving shortly before mine thus I had to squeeze through security with hundreds of people. I made it to second place in the other Q (queue), the line for passengers who did not buy the privilege of boarding first. While this guaranteed me a window seat it also meant that I had to wait for 30 minutes in line. During that time I could see four late passengers being late for their flights to London and Memmingen. I assume they have to pay a new ticket an fly out the next day. There's a reason to love legacy carriers.

The flight was uneventful and soon I saw down on snowy Norway with frozen lakes. We touched down in Rygge on time. I feared the connection would be a bit on the short side but was reassured that everything is already when I saw the inbound flight from London was on time. By backup plan was to improvise a day/night in Oslo and fly back to Bremen the next day out of Torp. Torp is another Ryanair base in the Oslo area and still had tickets for less than 50 Euro. Rygge sports two duty free stores, two kiosks and a small restaurant as well as free wireless LAN. My connecting flight just arrived when boarding started. Passengers had then wait in the stairwell leading down to the tarmac before being allowed to board in a mad rush. Yet another boring flight with frequent announcements and personnel running up and down the aisles followed. Ryanair sure makes sure you have enough opportunities to buy drinks, food, duty free items or the ticket to get you into town.

In Stansted I did not dare to make a run for London but instead bought a train ticket for some five pounds that would get me to a nearby town called Bishop's Stortford. Bishop's Stortford is the quintessential British town with pubs, fish and chips outlets, British chain stores and too way many barber shops. I was missing a good Indian restaurant, though.






After slightly less than two hours in town I boarded a train back to the airport. It was only after I passed security that I figured I was allowed to use the fast track line thanks to the Priority Pass that I have. Getting through security is a major issue when you are in line with endless supplies of unexperienced Ryanair travelers. In duty free I found myself a nice bottle of Ron Zacapa XO (the top of the line 25 year old rum) and wandered to the Ryanair gates looking for the brand new No 1 Lounge. Ryanair and expensive lounges don't mix thus I wasn't too surprised to see that I am the only guest.

Right on time I left for the gate to start boarding in the middle of those crazy folks who fly Ryanair. In the end I got an aisle seat upfront which meant that the flight attendants ran into me a dozen times each throughout the flight.

To sum it up Ryanair got me to my destinations on time. One cannot expect service on board or on the tarmac and neither are they delivering it (for free). I was relieved to see that they did not try to scam more money out of me and that the flights were on time. The Ryanair concept does work - just not for me. I do prefer service, I do prefer the security that my airline would do anything for me to make it to my destination even if that means booking me on another airline. I am sure Ryanair would charge me instead of sending a personal assistant to the gate to help me.

Just in time for the 77th IETF meeting in Anaheim Skype released the second version of the SILK Speech Codec draft. The draft contains roughly 25 pages of well-versed documentation of state-of-the-art audio encoding and related problems. The remainder is a reference implementation source code. Dan summed up lots of information on his Speaking of Standards blog. I've attended the IETF 75 meeting where part of the discussion was whether the IETF would be the correct body to decide what codec should most likely dominate the VoIP market in the near future. After all everybody wants to have that HD audio sticker on his box some way or the other.

During the Stockholm IETF The Xiph.org folks also had time to present CELT, a strong contender for the position of that codec. See for yourself on the Codec Matrix. I do love the small packetization size. While it may be a nightmare for devices to push lots of small packets we all gain lower latency, esp. when the call traverses multiple Back-to-Back User-Agents (B2BUAs), Session Border Controllers (SBCs) and the like.