Where's Matthew?

Air France Platinum Card

Air France have treated me pretty well this year. With the exception of one or two flights where they dropped the ball pretty badly, the flights have been on time, had good service, and have basically shattered my stereotypes of Air France. This week alone they have treated me to two upgrades, a nice surprise and a bit of a bonus for having to work between Christmas and New Years.

So I was delighted to see this morning that my Platinum status had been confirmed. But I was a little surprised to see this:

My Air France status screen. Check on the "Member since" date...

That's right. According to Air France, I have been flying with them for nearly 40 years. I wish I could say that I remembered the first flight, on New Years Eve, 1969, but sadly it is a distant memory...

The next few months should see a return to the spirit of “Where’s Matthew”, because it looks like I will be travelling constantly (and all over the world) with my next project. I just got back from an overnight trip to Bratislava (where I saw nothing more than the inside of the airport, hotel, and office due to a seriously-delayed flight). Next week I am headed to Budapest for a few days, then off to New York the following week. I am not sure what’s next after that, but the project spans 60 countries and we have committed to visiting the 20 biggest countries at the very least.

As project lead, I have some say in who goes where. It may come as no surprise that I am happy to put my hand up when the opportunity comes to travel to warm, sunny countries for a few days – even more so if I can manage to squeeze in a long weekend break. Now that I have my team onboard, we will hopefully have enough man-power than I can limit my trips to Eastern Europe in the middle of winter…

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a chance to relax over the holidays. Though I was forced to cancel part of my Christmas vacation to support urgent client requirements, we were able to sneak off for a four-day minibreak in Berlin, leaving Aude’s parents at our place in Paris to look after the cats. (Reports are that Daisy was somewhat horrible to look after, not friendly at all. Some things never change.)

Berlin Television Tower

Aude was in charge of the planning...

The bus depot was one of the highlights of the trip to Berlin. Had to take a photo to remember the moment!

A little gluhwein to warm up in the sub-freezing temperatures...

Inside the church

Francois & Gratiane

Lost again! We seemed to spend a lot of time looking at the map. Not much fun in the cold weather.

Holocaust memorial

The Berlin Wall

A line indicates where the Berlin Wall wall used to stand. It runs around the entire city.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie

Francois & Matthew enjoy a couple of well-earned beers after a day of sight-seeing.

A section of the Berlin Wall, covered in grafitti

Aude and Gratiane make their mark!!!

So off we went to Berlin to see the sights. We rented an apartment in the Northeast of the city which turned out to be a mixed blessing. The apartment itself was lovely, bigger than our apartment in Paris, but the 10-minute walk to the metro was a nightmare as the temperatures plunged to -10. Next time I go to Berlin, it will be in springtime.

We hit all the major sites – Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall – and managed to squeeze in a few museums as well. We walked around a lot of the city, but the layout of Berlin is not conducive to walking – the scale of the streets and buildings means that everything is too far apart to walk between.

Highlights of our trip included a ride all the way around the S-Bahn on the first night (when our plan to go find a nice spot for a drink went wrong!), misunderstanding the bus driver when he ordered us all off the bus and ending up in the bus depot, freezing every time we went outside, and eating a lot of cabbage. I think I ate cabbage at least twice a day for the entire trip. You did not want the seat next to me on the plane home.