The hospitality industry is a tough (self-inflicted) taskmaster, especially when you have a ‘boss’ as tough as I have, 24/7 duty being the norm!

A gathering of the von Ulmenstein family in Ulm, to explore the origin of our family name and title granted by the then Kaiser Karl the Sixth more than 300 years ago, was the impetus for the journey, to which I have added additional legs. It is my first holiday in seven years!

Traveling has changed in the past seven years, when it seemed easier to book and take off to a foreign destination. I learnt a lot about travel tools and procedures:

1.  Airline choice and booking: it did not seem right to approach Flight Centre in the Gardens Centre about finding the most direct and cost-effective way to get from Cape Town to Munich, the closest airport to Ulm. Should I have not booked my tickets online, I wondered, but checked the Internet, to get an idea of prices.  I had also received an email from SAA, advertising a good-sounding deal between Cape Town (via Johannesburg) to Munich. I had great trepidation about flying SAA, writing about the financial problems of the airline on this blog regularly. I comforted myself about the safety record it has. I had little desire to fly with Qatar Airways or Emirates, and have a long wait at Doha or Dubai. My flight routing meant a 3 hour wait at OR Thambo, which was not half as bad as I thought, except that the directions to the check-in section were not clear; wifi by AlwaysOn ironically is only on for half an hour before one has to pay (compared to 24 hours free wifi at Munich Airport!); and the gate for our flight having changed three times without an announcement, meaning that some of the passengers may have missed their flights, as the gates were at opposite ends of the airport! I learnt what a difference the flight dates make to the price, and seemed to know better than the travel agent as to more cost-effective dates. I expected the travel agent to have done better homework.

2.  Tickets no longer look like tickets with carbon copies, and the flight itinerary with an e-ticket number was all one had to take along. I was advised that SAA charges a cancellation fee now. A moment of panic was getting the permanent residency paperwork checked, costing me a quick visit to the Department of Home Affairs to check on the procedure. The Department no longer stamps the Permanent Residence details into the passport. One has to take the original letter confirming Permanent Residence with one, so that one can get back into the country!

3.   There is no talk of ‘forex’ anymore, a cash passport credit card loaded with foreign currency of one’s choice being the safest way to travel. It was a most frustrating process to do this at ABSA Sea Point, the elderly teller handling the travel money being hard of hearing, especially given the glass barrier between us. Explanation of how the ‘passport’ works was extremely scant. I was astounded at the commission charges the bank took for providing the service.

4.  Only because I asked the travel agent about travel insurance, did I learn that most bank credit cards have travel insurance cover automatically. I called the ABSA outsourced travel insurance call centre, which turned out to be the most frustrating of all arrangements I had to make for the trip. I spoke to three persons, each one taking my details from scratch. There was reference to an ’embassy letter’, which I had no clue about! It turned out that it was a summary of all the cover one receives in case of an accident or loss of luggage. No, they could not fax this to me, I was told, they could only e-mail! It turned out that they did not want to fax the 38 page document. I wondered if they expected me to travel with this document, and I had to get ABSA to print it for me in the branch.

5.  Roaming seemed clearer in the past, from what I remember, and Vodacom staff at the V & A Waterfront seemed uncertain about what one should do. I was told to come back when I visited them a few days before flying, as I would not be able to receive calls from the time the roaming is activated. When I went back I was advised to not go for general roaming, and only use Sms-roaming. I activated this just before leaving OR Thambo. Data costs are horrific overseas, so the data button was de-activated, making it very restrictive to the use of What’s App and other Apps on one’s phone without wifi. Wifi is only available in accommodation establishments, and generally not in restaurants and coffee shops in Germany.

6.  I registered for Uber, and its 4-minute promised timing being spot on to take me to the airport. It was scary not booking a taxi 24 hours in advance!

7.   I must admit that I had only heard the worst about the SAA staff, and was apprehensive about the expected service levels, or lack of. I could not believe how friendly they were on the flight to Johannesburg, and to Munich.

8.   I joked about the ‘chicken or beef’ food offer we were expecting to receive, and here it was clear to see where SAA is saving costs! Juice is offered first and foremost, Liquifruit mixed berry, orange and mango, and apple juice being available on the short flight.  Juice is poured in minute plastic cups not higher than 3 cm!  Water was available too in bottles. Our lunch choice for the local leg was a most unhealthy Bakers mini Tennis Biscuits, and cranberry and yoghurt drops, a weird combination, and even odder lunch replacement! Our night flight dinner choice was…chicken (smelly curry) or beef or vegetarian, the latter becoming popular and looked the best of all.  Metal cutlery was offered, no longer seen as weapons of mass destruction. Each of the options came with a salad heavily laden with red onions, the resultant emissions being disastrous in a closed aircraft! One would have thought that SAA has consultant chefs who will design menus without curry, beans, or onions! We had no apple juice available on the Munich flight, and we were not proactively offered wines, and not given a wine list or menu as one used to receive in the past.

9.  I was struck by the very friendly co-passengers, and their spontaneity in chatting, becoming friends during the flights or in the long Home Affairs queue at OR Thambo. If one had any fear of flying, it was quickly forgotten with all the chatting. Our Captains du Plessis and Black on the two flights were friendly, and took away any concerns with their announcements.

10.  Sleeping is always uncomfortable, and despite having a seat open next to me, it was almost impossible to sleep on the night flight. Breakfast included a flavored Faircape granadilla yoghurt, the adjective describing the lack of real fruit. The Continental breakfast offered slices of cheese, cold meats, as well as strawberry jam, with only one roll!

The hardest challenge in traveling is keeping up the blog. I will do my best to keep writing, and will share some of my travel impressions, interspersed with regular stories. I am traveling with my iPad, always having blogged on my laptop. I am technically challenged in some aspects of blogging on the iPad, but hope to overcome them as I travel!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Tel (021) 433-2100, Twitter:@WhaleCottage Facebook: click here