Trip Report: Overview of Our December Trip to Europe – Lots of Mishaps and Bad Weather, But Still Good to Travel

A number of friends have asked for trip reports beyond mere hotel reports. Well here you go – this is an overview of our 2-week trip to Europe in December. Stay tuned for more posts providing further details of the trip.

Our two-week December European Adventure included visits to Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester and Amsterdam – 6 flights, a few trains and many Ubers.

Call it our December European Adventure. It all began with a good airfare from New York to Paris on AA/BA. The season was early December, and being Fearless Flyers, we said we didn’t mind that we were traveling off-season. After all, in all the years when Dave was a teacher, we always traveled during Thanksgiving. So what could be wrong?

Even though our flights were to and from Paris, we decided we didn’t really want to go to Paris (actually Dave decided that he didn’t really want to go to Paris) – – so we decided that we’d use this to jump off, or rather to fly off, to other locations. I had booked stays at Hyatt hotels in Dublin and Amsterdam, because I liked those cities, I’d heard good things about the hotels and I wanted to lock in certain rates prior to hotel category changes. Dave wanted to visit Liverpool, and in particular he wanted to meet a family he was friends with who live near Liverpool, and he also wanted to visit his sister who lives in Manchester, UK.

Easy to plan? Right? I somehow put all of the pieces together. It went like this:

• November 30 – BA flight from JFK to LHR, with less than two hour layover, for a December 1 flight from LHR to CDG.
• December 1 – Aer Lingus flight from CDG to Dublin.
• December 1-4 Hyatt Centric Dublin
• December 4 Aer Lingus flight from DUB to LPL John Lennon Airport (Liverpool)
• December 4-7 Radisson Red Liverpool
• December 7 Train from Liverpool to Manchester
• December 7-9 Hyatt Regency Manchester
• December 9 KLM flight from MAN-AMS
• December 9-13 Hyatt Regency Amsterdam
• December 13 – KLM flight from AMS to CDG
• December 13 – AA flight from CDG to JFK

Are you tired just reading this? Let’s throw some extra facts in. In December it is cold and rainy in all of the above locations. On top of this, it gets dark at 4 pm. So, when you see the above itinerary and dream of those long glorious days you experienced in Dublin or Amsterdam, know that by the end of the day of walking around these fair cities, it was cold and dark and usually wet. This is when Dave and I would look at one another and say WHAT WERE WE THINKING?

Yes, there were Christmas Markets, even one in view of our hotel room in Liverpool. But spiced wine in the rain just wasn’t calling to us.

Oh, talking about connections. Although British Airways assured us that we would have no problem connecting to our flight to Paris on arrival at Heathrow, of course that didn’t happen. Instead BA put us on a late afternoon flight direct to Dublin.

We planned to take a lot of public transportation during the trip, including transportation to and from airports. Instead, we ended up always taking Ubers, it was always too late (or too early) and we were exhausted from our delays (and it was already dark). At Amsterdam airport the train to the city wasn’t even running on the day we arrived from Manchester.

We love to travel, but decided that in the future we’d avoid traveling off-season, and we’d stay at each location a little longer. Yes, we’re ready for slow or at least slower travel.

So, let’s talk about the many good parts of this trip.

Since I am an Executive Platinum AA member (and therefor a One World Emerald member), we were checked in for our flight in a special, dedicated area. It was quite civilized.

We visited the wonderful Soho Lounge at JFK, and enjoyed the ambiance, the food and the drinks.

The flight from JFK to Heathrow in economy was fine.

As mentioned above, we were unable to make the connection at Heathrow to the flight to Paris. This was annoying but we passed our time waiting for the next flight (which was also delayed) at a BA Galleries Lounge. We were pretty tired and I didn’t take any photos.

By the time we arrived in Dublin and got to our hotel, it was later than planned. (Isn’t it always?)

Dave took a nap, and when he woke up at 8-something, we learned that most restaurants close early. We found a local pub that agreed to serve us soup and some charcuterie seated at the bar even though the kitchen had already closed.

We thoroughly enjoyed Dublin. It was Dave’s first visit. I’ve been to Ireland quite a few times, but I always enjoy the city and the people. The Irish are so warm and charming. Of course we went to Temple Bar and a few other pubs and walked a lot. I particularly enjoyed the street art.

We had a nice stay at the Hyatt Centric Dublin.

We stopped in at the T2 Lounge (Priority Pass) at the Dublin Airport before our flight to Liverpool.

The flight to Liverpool was in a small plane. The landing was a wee bit abrupt and Dave’s face turned the color of the Emerald Isle.

At Liverpool Airport, we were so excited to see John Lennon’s statue and the Yellow Submarine.

In Liverpool, we stayed at the Radisson Red. It was in a perfect location, across from St. George’s Hall, but, for many reasons, we were less than happy with the hotel.

Dave’s friends from Chester, UK picked us up one day at our hotel and we had a wonderful visit with them. We went to dinner in Chester, a beautiful, historical town.

Two of the daughters and the son together form a punk band called Yee Loi, and Dave enjoyed playing bass with them.

Of course, we loved visiting the Beatles Museum!

The train ride to Manchester was quick and easy.

It was a short walk from the subway station to the Hyatt Regency (which is also a Hyatt House). We loved the hotel and the staff there.

One day, we had lunch with Dave’s sister, and one evening we had dinner with Dave’s niece.

At Manchester Airport, we were told we could leave our items in our bags.

We visited the Escape Lounge (Priority Pass) at Manchester Airport, Terminal 2 before our flight to Amsterdam.

On arrival in Amsterdam, we planned to take the train right to Central Station. We bought the tickets, only to learn that the train was not running. Instead buses were available. It was a long walk outdoors (in the rain, of course) to the buses. It was mayhem out there. We came back to the terminal and then to the Sheraton across the street. After a long wait (and a little confusion as to where the Uber waiting area was) we finally got an Uber to our hotel.

We had a fabulous stay in Amsterdam. I’ve been there many times and actually even lived and studied there many years ago, so I still have some friends who I was happy to see. Everything about the Hyatt Regency Amsterdam was amazing. We were upgraded to their presidential suite and their lounge was phenomenal.

We walked all over Amsterdam, and met with some friends.

There were also a special light show exhibition at various locations around Amsterdam.

One day, we took a boat from Central Station to North Amsterdam and visited the STRAAT Museum (which I loved, loved, loved).

On December 13th, we were nervous about our connection so we got to Amsterdam airport way too early. We felt like we were the only people there.

Our 6 am flight left on time, and got us to CDG with enough time to visit another lounge prior to our departure home. But wait. Our KLM flight arrived at one terminal and our AA flight was out of another one. There was a shuttle that ran (very slowly) from the arrival terminal to the departure terminal. When we got to terminal 2B however, we learned that we had to exit the terminal and reenter (meaning going through security all over again) in order to access the Extime Lounge. It was a cluster fck, but we got there in time to relax a little before our flight home.

Our one (and only) business class flight was the AA nonstop flight home from CDG to JFK.

All in all, it was a great trip. But next time we’ll go when the weather is more favorable.