The Renaissance Hotel in Cologne

Christoph Steinbeck — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 12:48:33 +0000

I’m staying for two nights at the Renaissance Hotel in Cologne, Germany. The place is perfectly located just a few steps away from Friesenplatz, since I had some business to do at the University. The Renaissance Hotels belong to the Marriott empire. One thing that struck me with this particular stay was the extremely well trained or well selected staff. Whatever request you had was answered in a “no-problem” kind of way. Small issues where solved immediately and where a solution could not be found, good alternatives where proposed. The whole hotel was in very good shape (no run-down looking corners, etc) and the room well designed, quiet as requested and cosy. Breakfast buffet offered rich choice. The only minus was that my laundry, dropped off before 8:30 am at the reception, got lost and was not ready the same days, as promised in their guide, and neither the next morning. In compensation for this mistake, they offered me to waive my wireless bill of 24 Euro and a late check-out (with out the need for any fuzz on my side) which I of course happily accepted.

I can whole-heartedly recommend this hotel and will go there again when in Cologne next time.

The Giraffe Juice Bar at Stansted Airport

Christoph Steinbeck — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:40:35 +0000

If you fly out of Stansted Airport with RyanAir about once a week, like I do, you need to come up with certain rituals to stay mentally sane. One of my rituals at Stansted is having a Tropicana Juice with an additional piece of Ginger at the Giraffe Juice and Coffee Bar in the RyanAir terminal. The Tuna melt is another one.

This Giraffe Juice and Coffee bar is run by some really nice girls, who are always friendly and helpful, even when its the end of a long buisiness day, which is when I typically go there.

The Bar features a great variety of freshly prepared food – the fresh juices like my favorite Tropicana are made on the fly with one of those large juicers. The coffee is excellent.Since they always give me a feeling of home when I’m there, I should probably not give them a positive review because they do not seem to lack business, but good stuff should be honored.

SteinBlog » Flying

The Renaissance Hotel in Cologne

The Giraffe Juice Bar at Stansted Airport