I missed the game at Newcastle, which is my favourite domestic away game, as I was away at a conference in Tunbridge Wells
I’d had a number of dry days since the Watford game so was pleased to encounter a very tasty non alcoholic beer , Hofmeister Bearly Zero, at Charlotte’s wine bar in Tunbridge Wells,Kent,England. Like most non/low alcohol beers it does have the tiniest trace of alcohol, 0.5%. I’m not sure why that tiny bit of alcohol makes them so much more crisp and flavourful, and yes it was sold in bottles.
On to a curry, at Essence which really makes an effort to add western presentation ideas to South Asian cuisine. I had the Nalli Nihari, which I’ve actually had on the famous Burns Road in Karachi, Pakistan. Here is was more like a steak with curry gravy and bone marrow, still very tasty and in keeping with staying dry until the next footy trip started I had a glass of salty lassi (yoghurt drink) to wash it down.
Obviously I’ve also taken pics of my fellow diners’ dishes and shared starters. Some of you on social media when I post galleries like this ask me if I ate all of this myself. Someone please tell me why such daft questions are asked.
Up early the next day to deal with web payments for the shop in my website and then off to Tunbridge Wells station with it’s dramatic tunnel
Trains from Tunbridge Wells terminate at Charing Cross, one of many London Terminal stations. Funnily enough, pre channel tunnel I’d use this station and London Victoria a lot for “boat trains” to Dover for ferries to France and Belgium.
A quick tube to Paddington to take the Heathrow Express and a pit stop at The Bear, which serves a wonderful pint of London Black (30 odd taps there)
Austrian Airlines to Vienna
While there are many eye watering low fares in low cost airlines these days, once you add baggage ( I have to travel with hold baggage) and a reserved seat , it usually better to go scheduled, here to the point that flying business class was only £65 more expensive. Sure for some that’s too much but given the fast check in fast track security , lounge and better seating and in flight catering, it was an easy call for me
The star alliance airlines of which Austrian is a member have multiple lounges but I hard to work and went to the nearest, the Lufthansa lounge. it’s ok and functional at Heathrow T2 but the Singapore Canada and United are better bets, though a 10-15 mins walk each way from the gates used by Lufthansa Swiss and Austrian.
On Board, the food and drink was pretty good , with a surprisingly good full bodied Austrian red. In terms of seating I had enough space for a 2 hr flight though we’re only talking about the middle seat being blocked off as the difference between the economy seating and the business , although you can bring more hand baggage on Board
Bratislava
The arrivals process in Vienna is pretty simple and the busses to Bratislava are very well signposted as you leave the arrivals area, just behind the costa coffee stall. 11.5 € and a 40 minute drive. However this is where the journey became much more complicated. I was unaware that the second stop that was in fact 600m from my accommodation was actually near the old town. I didn’t know where I was going and English was a but thin on the ground so I waited to get off where most did , which was the main bus station. There is actually a shopping mall on top of the bus station so finding an exit where I intended to go and see if UBER or anything else could be ordered.
I struggled around for a while and eventually found an information point and was directed to a taxi stand , where there were 2 taxis standing with lights on.
little did I realise that myself and a lot of City fans were being fleeced by these “official taxis ” the meter started at 10€ and went up in increments of 10€ and despite the google map distance saying 3 km , the driver managed to clock up 5km and a €50 meter fare for something that should have been less than 10. of course a card payment was refused and when I could only find 45€ of cash in my wallet, the driver went ballistic . If you’re going as a fan of a team playing there please be careful, and if you’re a local , please shop these rogues, it’s much easier than for us to do so when we don’t know what’s going on and want to just get to our accommodation
A few pounds later I got to my accommodation, VIP apartments in the old town , I guessed about where to stay and it was a great choice. big room kitchenette , and aircon/heating all year round and I like a cool room. most importantly a great location and given my adaptor went missing, that they had one at reception so I could use my UK multiplugs
Plenty of City fans had actually travelled over on the Sunday , but also on the Monday. Had a great match chat and beers with familiar faces as is often the case when the allocation is small (1100 here) and of course a pre match sing along
Match Day
Having opened this website and webshop, getting the payments sorted involved the most complicated amount of jumping through hoops. That took up my morning and most of the afternoon, but at 1700h I started filming. At first in the bar street where most of the City fans had congregated.
As usual for my Youtube Vlogs, I film a food segment and I selected after some research and menu selection, Dolnozemska restaurant and was pleased to see some fellow blues outside drinking beer and having tried the food there at the recommendation of the local police no less.
Of course I went way over board , having a beef tartare to start with which seemed to appear on a lot of local menus , which is great as I like all things raw!. I then had stuffed cabbage with smoked sausage and sour cream. I did though order Slovak wine which I’d never tried before and had a great bottle costing me €65 and most of the bill , I didn’t quite finish it but It went down a treat.
Suitably well fed I went to the Pheasant pub for a pint of quite a malty local lager to discuss the team news before panicking and taking a taxi to the ground. As it happened there was no traffic at all and I arrived at 2020H I really was gobsmacked.
The security check was fast and efficient, we were able to buy beer (from a slow serving small hatch) and take it to our seats/standing places
The home fans who had last played in Europe’s premier competition in 1975 with a 1-0 win against Derby County, put on quite a display but the match was quite one sided with City winning 4-0 in some comfort
Unfortunately a small away section with a steep stand and a lower tier cut off from where we were with very aggressive tight netting which was too close to the away fans led to a terrible view. But where they did excel was in putting us onto busses very swiftly after the final whistle ,I was back in the old town 20-25 minutes after the final whistle. that’s the best I’ve ever experienced at a Euro away.
The day after and return to Britain
I spent most of the next day dealing with business matters and editing the match day vlog , that’s normal and it’s a bit of a washout and I missed the exciting Wednesday games. I had a great eggs Benedict on Thursday morning and then couldn’t be bothered with the bus and paid €70 for an uber directly to Vienna airport, got to the check in 3 and a half hours before departure and so of course gave the Austrian Airlines business class lounge in Vienna a run for its money.
As for the flight itself, seating reasonable for intra Europe, food pretty good and it seems its a strong point for Austrian , stick to the heavy red wines ia my advice. No in flight wifi but for the price it was decent and we landed a little early at the Cockney Airshed (London Heathrow), yes Austrian do fly to the PRM (People’s Republic of Manchester ) but only at 630 am
British Rail take me home
From this point I needed to get back to Manchester but getting away from T2 isn’t straightforward and I needed to take the Heathrow express as the other options were running a bit slowly, and I managed to stop at the Lore of the Land for some London Black porter.
And another pitstop at the Euston tap, time to use the half of my return ticket left over and glide back.
Tilting Ale from the Red Willow Brewery in Macclesfield is an excellent in train ale, I arrived just before one, and of course Muttonistas I settled down immediately to post this vlog.
Job Done by City and while I can’t bring you the Fulham game at the weekend, I’m off to Galicia , north west Spain next week and I’ll bring you a full report.
Bye for now Muttonistas!
