Welcome to the first installment of another series on our travel adventures. We began planning for this trip before we even spent our first day in Italy in 2024. You can find the first installment of our adventures in Italy by clicking here. We typically plan our trips this way. Once one trip is finalized, we'll start pre-planning the next adventure. Not only does this give us something to look forward to, it allows us maximum flexibility to choose what we want to do, how we want to do it and when we want to do it.
Schloss Lieser
As I mentioned earlier, we had pretty much finished planning our Italy trip when we decided upon our next destination. Both Cindy and I enjoy the sweet white wines of Germany, specifically the Mosel Rieslings. My absolute favorite is an Auslese. For many years, decades even, I've wanted to visit the Mosel Valley to see where the grapes are grown and the wines are made. We decided this would be our next adventure: Visiting the Mosel Valley and experiencing everything in the heart of the German wine country.
As a reminder, any links in blue will open in a new window. You won't lose your place here. Clicking on a photo will display a larger version of it.
When it comes to travel, we use only one travel agent: William Luke. I first met Will when he was a Personal Vacation Planner for Carnival Cruise Line. Once he left Carnival to open his own travel planning business, Cindy and I naturally started using him for all of our travel needs. He provides concierge-level service and seems to always be available. When I'm on the phone with him, he makes me feel like we're his only client, and will stay on the line until all of our questions are answered. There is no rush on his part to just conclude the business at hand and move on to the next client.
Just how dedicated is Will to helping us out? We sent him an email late on a Sunday evening to begin very preliminary planning for Germany. We expressed that we wanted to stay in the heart of the Mosel Valley, but we were NOT making any solid plans just yet. "This is just for our information only. Please take your time with this, as we won't make any decisions any time soon." The very next morning, we had a huge list of detailed information on several hotels where we wanted to stay. See what I mean about concierge-level service? We made it clear we were just "info gathering" and Will sent us plenty of information to look at. Thank you, Will!
Fast forward to 2025, and we are now planning our trip in earnest. With Will's help, we selected Schloss Lieser as our first hotel to begin our trip. We specifically booked a "vineyard view" room and they delivered in spades. More on that it a bit, though.
Our original plan was to fly into Frankfurt, then take a commuter flight to Salzburg, Austria to experience a night of Mozart's music and explore Salzburg. After a hard look, though, we realized this would take two days of travel out of our time there, so we scratched that idea and decided to head straight into the Mosel Valley for the first few days. Looking at the map, we discovered just how close to Luxembourg and Belgium we were.
The lightbulb came on in my head and now Bastogne was a destination to explore. Cindy studied the train system extensively, and we realized that this would be our primary mode of transportation in Germany. We finalized our itinerary, had Will book our hotels, and searched for the best flights.
Itinerary
Day 1: Arrival into Frankfurt, then train to Lieser
Day 2 (our first full day): Wine tasting, exploring Bernkastel-Kues
Day 3: Day trip to Cologne
Day 4: Wine tasting and exploring Bernkastel-Kues
Day 5: Depart Lieser for Bastogne via train and bus
Day 6: Explore Bastogne and depart for Luxembourg
Day 7: Depart Luxembourg for Traben-Trarbach
Day 8: Depart Traben-Trarbach for Frankfurt
Day 9: Day trip to Fulda/Point Alpha
Day 10: Depart Frankfurt for home
On the surface, it looks like a full speed ahead itinerary, but we did build in some slack time as well, as you'll read later. As with any plans, we hit a few snags along the way, but managed to adapt, improvise and overcome. Besides, those "snags" usually make for good memories later.
Cindy and I try to use points for travel when we can, instead of paying cash. This might limit some of our options, but overall it does save a lot of money and we still have many options to choose from. Optimally, we wanted a direct flight from Houston to Frankfurt, but based on our actual travel dates, we ended up booking KLM from Houston (IAH) to Amsterdam (AMS) then onto Frankfurt (FRA) with KLM's regional carrier Cityhopper. We flew with Cityhopper from AMS to Venice (VCE) on our Italy trip in 2024, so we were already familiar with them.
Our travel day finally arrived after more than a year of detailed planning and we were ready to go. A co-worker drove us to IAH from our house so we wouldn't have to pay for parking. He'd also pick us up on our return.
IAH - AMS
KL662
PH-BQM (777-206ER)
dep IAH rwy 15L, arv AMS rwy 18R
Of all the trips we've flown internationally, this was the first time flying on a B-777 for either of us. Fun fact: the GE-90 engines on a B-777 are about the same diameter as the fuselage of a B-737. Wow!
A quick general note about our air travel preferences. To avoid confusion, I call the seats we select "business lite." Different airlines call these seats by different names, such as Premium Select, Premium Economy, Premium, etc. Rather than using the specific marketing term for each segment, we just call it "business lite." The seats are a little wider than standard economy and usually follow a 2-4-2 configuration, or something similar. There's a bit more legroom and most of these seats have an extendable footrest. While not quite the luxury of Business Class, it works just fine for us. We pick the window and adjoining seat, which means it's just Cindy and me. Perfect! Most of the time, Business Lite also gives us priority check-in and better meals, too.
We planned to get to IAH a few hours early to allow time for international check-in, baggage drop, and the never-ending threat of bad Houston traffic. With TSA Pre-check through Global Entry, we breezed through baggage drop and security with minimal waiting....about 25 minutes total from drop off to walking into the lounge. Thankfully, we had access to the KLM Crown Lounge through one of our cards, so we were able to relax, keep our phones fully charged, and enjoy complimentary food and drinks before our flight. In all, we spent about two hours in the lounge before making our way to the gate.
I love to take photos of our aircraft from the gate, but due to the way it was oriented, I couldn't get a clear shot of it. No worries, there will be plenty of other photo ops.
Boarding was fast and efficient, and we got settled quickly. As is our custom, we purchased some Lindt and Dove chocolates as a thank-you for our cabin crew. We like to do this with each international flight we take. Flight Attendants have a tough job, so if this gesture makes even a little difference (it did!), then our goal was accomplished.
View from our seats
Obligatory boarding selfie (OBS)
Yep, this is a Newman tradition: We have to take an "OBS" because....
Well, because!
We're traveling and having fun. We need to capture these fun times for memories.
With no scale, it's hard to appreciate just how massive the 777 is. It's huge! We pushed back right on time and taxied to 15L for departure. The acceleration was both rapid and smooth. The one minor downside to this aircraft was the lack of overhead gasper vents. These are those swiveling, adjustable air vents found on most passenger aircraft. Throughout the flight, this made the cabin feel stuffy, at least to me.
Climbing out of IAH
Our route took us northeast out of Houston then a more easterly course as we approached the New England area. Our amenity kits included the standard sleeping mask, ear plugs and a toothbrush, as well as a menu for our meal selections.
Dinner
Drinks
For the vast majority of my international flights, most of them tended to depart in the early evening or even at night. Our flight to AMS, though, left just after 3 pm. I mention this only to illustrate that when trying to get some sleep on the flight to mitigate the jet lag, leaving in the early afternoon made it difficult for me to take a long nap. Well, it wasn't just the earlier departure. It was also the cabin temperature. I'm warm-natured in general, and with the lack of an appreciable airflow, the whole flight felt unduly warm to me.
Let's try the Negroni
It was....different. Not necessarily bad, but.....different. I offered Cindy a sip and the look on her face told me everything I needed to know. "Ugh, this tastes like cough syrup!" That's exactly how I describe Southern Comfort. Would I have another? Probably not. Was I happy to have tried it? Definitely. I've discovered some tasty cocktails by just....trying it.
Not long after our drinks were served, our meals arrived. Both of us selected the chicken in adobo. I debated back and forth between that and the beef, but ultimately the chicken won.
Time to eat
Real silverware with a cloth napkin made this feel like more of a restaurant meal than an inflight meal. Those peppers were tender and sweet, and the chicken wasn't dry as it tends to be with these types of meals. Overall, I'd order it again.
The sun cast a big glare through our window, so Cindy asked me to close the shade. No worries. I had a nice IFE (inflight entertainment) screen to occupy my attention. I started re-watching The Hail Mary Project, but eventually picked a suitable audiotrack to listen to while alternating the different map displays.
Are we there yet?
This was about the time I tried, I really tried, to take a nap. No joy, though. Between the warm cabin and it being just too early by my biological clock, I managed only a short, light nap. Better than nothing, I guess.
I mentioned earlier that the FAs seemed to appreciate our chocolate gift. At least six different Flight Attendants, including the Purser, dropped by our seats to thank us for the candy. Both Cindy and I were happy that they enjoyed a small treat.
About an hour out of AMS, our breakfast arrived. A cup of black coffee and this breakfast would help get us through the next several hours.
Breakfast menu
Those that know me know that I detest bananas. As in really, really despise them. Even as a baby I didn't like bananas. So, I gave Cindy my banana serving and she gave me her French Toast serving. Win-win all the way around.
One more meal
With breakfast done, and landing just a short time away, we got ready for the next part of the trip, a short flight to FRA then trains to Wittlich and a taxi ride to Schloss Lieser. It was, literally, "planes, trains and automobiles."
We arrived on 18R, just before sunrise. From previous experience, we weren't going to waste any time, other than a bathroom break, before passing through passport control. The last time we did that was our trip to Italy in 2024, and the lines there were enormous. We made the mistake last time of fooling around in the terminal before going through passport control and were stressed about missing our connecting flight. We did make it, but neither of us wanted to experience that stress again. Our bags were checked through to FRA, so we didn't have that extra hassle of baggage claim and re-clearing security.
With the new European Entry/Exit System (EES), everything is automated. That's great, when it works. We heard horror stories of chaos when the system crashed, so we planned for the worst and hoped for the best.
Turns out, it went pretty smoothly, at least for me. The hardest part was figuring out the proper orientation of my passport in the reader. Once that was done, it scanned my right four fingers and my initial processing into the Schengen was done. It sent me to "Route 2," which is one side of the room, yet Cindy was directed to "Route 1." I stood in line for maybe five minutes, scanned my passport and had my photo taken and that was it. Done!
It took Cindy about 25 minutes due to some technical issue or other, but it was still much faster than what we experienced in 2024. For those who want to collect passport stamps, this new system doesn't do that. Sorry folks, but those days are gone until something else comes along.
With passport control out of the way, we stopped for coffee and walked to our next terminal. Schiphol is huge, but this walk allowed us to stretch our legs and helped us wake up.
My next installment will cover the flight from AMS to FRA, the train ride to Wittlich, and the rest of our arrival day.
Have any of y'all experienced the new EES yet? What did you think about it? I'd love to see your thoughts in the comment section below.
Until next time.....
carpe cerevisi
I’d have picked the chicken too!!!!
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