Text 14363, 65 rader
Skriven 2011-08-05 22:54:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: june trip 708
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In the morning, the executive lounge was unstaffed and
foodless, despite it being breakfasttime, actually a bit
late for breakfasttime. The radio was still blaring. I
thought of going into the pantry to see if the attendant
had been murdered or something but instead went downstairs
to the restaurant for the standard Hilton buffet breakfast.
I'd say that here it's better than average, the meats not
disgustingly overcooked or overgreasy, the eggs doing a
good facsimile of real ones (and one can get eggs cooked to
order on request). Average pastries. The fruit a mixed bag,
with melon of varying kinds of ripeness and pineapple
sadly almost turned to mush. A local dish I've not seen
before and don't care if I ever do again - Karelian pastry,
a tough envelope wrapped around a starchy (potato?) filling
- you eat this with egg butter, which is chopped hard-boiled
eggs mixed with butter (or in this case, oleo). Smoked fish
and cold cuts of varying quality. Muesli and yogurt for the
weird. Green salad for the very weird. I ate fairly well,
as there were enough savories to amuse me, despite the
smoked salmon having a whiff of ammonia about it.

--

The main draw of the airport hotel is of course the
convenience factor; but we had a good stay there. By the
way, I read that there is another airport hotel, apparently
under the runway; maybe I'll check it out sometime, as it
sounds neat in a sort of kinky way.

0612 KF 555 HEL LHR 1545 1655 717 4CD

Checkin was a mere formality, and we had plenty of time for
more cold cuts and dairy snacks, this time accompanied with
beer and wine, at the SAS lounge - Blue 1 being a subsidiary
of SAS.

On tap:

Invenio (Chile) Cabernet Sauvignon - slightly peppery, woody
taste, thin body, pineapply; I wouldn't have thought it a
Cab, but what do I know;

Invenio (South Africa) Chenin Blanc - rather weak, Thompsony
taste. Good acid, quenching; can't say much more for it;

Lapin Kulta - this was the first one I had on this trip:
five years ago it was the dominant beer - now it seems to
be a niche product, and I hear they even closed the brewery
in Lapland and now farm it out to someplace else. It now
tastes like Carlsberg, only with less bite.

When we peeled ourselves away from the free beverages and
wi-fi, there was a sizable line for boarding. But as we'd
again checked bags, that wasn't a concern. Our seats were
a bit forward from our outbound ones but no more comfy.

A bumpy gray flight, and due to holding and low ceilings, we
landed half an hour late in drizzle, the announcement having
been made in several languages that we would be landing
early. Why do airlines do this? Why do you build me up,
build me up, buttercup baby, then you let me down?

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