wanderlusty

Lounge Shower Review: SAS Lounge at CPH

By jonk On May 19, 2013 · Add Comment · In Shower Review

ease of access and location: based on first impressions, this lounge is noice. big and airy and lots of space and not very crowded (at least on a Sunday morning). it’s a bit hard to find, though, as the airport signage really is lacking. if i’m not mistaken, it’s around where the C gates start, but don’t quote me on that. in any case, there are lots of shower rooms available and all you have to do is exchange your boarding pass for a key at the front desk. showers are located straight back through the hallway past the main seating area; make two rights.

and this is when my anticipation quickly faded. IT LOOKS LIKE A GYM SHOWER. how can this lounge, full of Scandinavian design, have showers that look like this? adequate room, but i would imagine that with a rollaboard this could get quite cramped.

the goods: one smaller towel and one larger towel hanging on the wall, kind of rough (they clearly skimp on the fabric softener, but at least they were sort of thick). three boxes, one containing a shaving kit, another with cotton swabs and cotton pads, and the last with a toothbrush kit. (speaking of which, i should have nabbed for use after my upcoming long-haul. oh well.) there were one and a half small bottles of lotion. not sure why they didn’t just throw away the used bottle. i mean, this isn’t Latvia (sorry, i had to).

shower: ridiculously good water pressure and hot water. i normally run showers at full blast but this one i had to turn down to half volume. there is a soap/shampoo dispenser — adequate, but nothing special. the bad part is that it totally feels like a gym shower — so utilitarian, especially that shower head! the worst part is that the door does not close flush (ha! flush!), so lots of water ends up outside. hint: don’t put the smaller towel down until after you’re out of the shower, or it’ll be wet and blech.

cleanliness and state of facilities: maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was the disappointment that it didn’t match up to the quality of the rest of the lounge, or maybe it just was meh — i was not impressed. it seemed clean enough (no odd smells or stains), but why did they leave half a bottle of lotion? and it would behoove them to just replace that shower door with a curtain — easier to maintain and less water spillage. on the bright side, it was surprisingly well-ventilated for such a small room.

overall rating: 2.5 out of 5. yes, a let-down for a European hub airport. i don’t know the financial state of SAS (i hear it’s not that rosy), but if they have a couple extra million kronor lying around, it wouldn’t hurt to give these showers a little face lift. actually, i think it’d be simple: replace the door with a shower curtain, replace the recessed fluorescent lighting fixture with a little something from IKEA, add some light-colored wood and you’d be well on your way. to make it even better, full-on amenity kit and combine two shower rooms into one, but that’s probably stretching it. i did appreciate, though, that they at least had the toothbrush and shaving sets.

Lounge Shower Review: Schengen Business Lounge at RIX

By jonk On May 17, 2013 · 1 Comment · In Shower Review

ease of access and location: this is a small lounge that i think is used by pretty much every airline, and there is just one shower, so i would imagine there could be a line at times, but thinking about it, i don’t know how many passengers would want to take a shower since we’re on the Schengen side and there aren’t too many long-haul flights people need to recover from. maybe evening rush hour commuters? anyways, it’s pretty much self-serve, although the front desk attendant had to direct me to it (and then turn the light on because i couldn’t find the switch). there’s a hallway to the right immediately after you pass the front desk, and it’s the room on the end of the hall on your right (once you go into that right-hand-side-hallway. all right?)

SO MUCH SPACE! and you know how i value space, although thanks to strict carry-on rules over here i didn’t have my regular rollaboard with me, so i feel bad it was kind of wasted on me this time.

there is a separate toilet/sink/hair dryer room to the left.

the goods: stacks of towels (two small, one large towel in each). there are baskets with razors, hair conditioner, and shower gel. “Relax Refresh Revive” brand, which also happened to be the brand that was used in my airbnb. nothing fancy, but they get the job done. i wouldn’t have minded a toothbrush/toothpaste set, but beggars can’t be choosers.

shower: good water pressure and temperature range (it can get quite hot). shower head handle slightly leaky, but at least it didn’t squirt in your face or anything. handle left = hot, handle right = cold (you never know with these things!). note that the Dove soap thingy was empty, and looks like it has been for a while.

cleanliness and state of facilities: so yeah. i’m kind of conflicted. it’s a newish lounge and the shower and room itself were clean, but there are certain things that made me wonder. like the trash wasn’t emptied (not like it was overflowing, either, but still), and there were old toiletries left in the shower (the pictures above were taken right when i got in). maybe it’s part of a reduce/reuse/recycle campaign, but it was odd. that said, i’m ghetteaux so i used the old shower gel. i mean, soap is soap, right? O_O

overall rating: 2.5 out of 5. i was going to make it a 3 because of the abundance of space, but that would put it on par with other showers that seemed to be a little nicer. it for sure would have been a 3 if they fixed the Dove situation (take that shit out if you’re not going to maintain it) and cleared out the old toiletries and emptied the trash. either way, i’m just glad they have the option for Schengen flights here.

My First Regus

By jonk On May 16, 2013 · Add Comment · In Posts

the wifi at the airbnb that i’m staying at here in Riga has been flaky (to be generous) so i’ve had to explore other options to stay connected to work on this workation. thanks to foursquare, i found a great cafe a couple blocks away but i feel a bit weird staying there for more than a couple hours at a time. i spent two evenings there this week when it seems like the apartment’s internet connection is at its worst (and when it’s prime working hours on the US East Coast, of course…). the other option i’ve been meaning to try is Regus, but they are only open until 5:30, which doesn’t help me when i need it most, although i had to work all day (and will work my normal nighttime workation hours as well) today so it gave me the perfect excuse to check it out. the Riga Regus (ha) is conveniently located a short walk from the Old City and a handful of blocks from the airbnb.

i don’t remember how i got my Regus Businessworld membership, but as i recall it was a free perk related to a loyalty program or a credit card. i signed up nearly a year ago and was sold on the fact that it gives you “Unlimited, walk-in access to any of our 1200 global business lounges and cafés, with complimentary internet and refreshments.” i figured i’d never know when i would need such a temporary working space so i joined, though i never carried my card around until this trip.

so, i walked on in. couldn’t have been any easier. like an airport lounge, you show them your card, they swipe it (in my case, several times, then key the number in; probably because my card has been sitting in the “i’ll never use this” stack at home for a while), and let you in. i got a tour of the place because it was my first time (other than what’s shown below, it’s pretty much mostly closed doors leading to what i assume are private workspaces, office equipment, and several very clean bathrooms). the facility seemed new, or at least newly renovated and everything was in great shape. it didn’t seem that busy, maybe two or three other users besides me, and they were in other parts of the floor, so i felt like i had the whole place to myself.

Regus Gold Card

From the sign it looks like these companies use Regus as their office space provider (since I didn’t see any other offices on the floor, but I didn’t really look). You have to get buzzed in using the keypad to the left of the door.

Reception (they were out doing something when I took this picture, waiting to return my key)

Coffee and tea at your disposal (there is also a vending machine for sodas)

To access restricted areas of the floor (pretty much everywhere), this is the key they give you. I’ve never seen anything like it — you hold this small puck near a door lock, press the button, and voilà, you hear a click and it’s unlocked.

This particular Regus doesn’t have a business lounge (which I assume is sort of like an airport lounge), which is what Gold members have access to, so they put me into a meeting room. All to myself. The blue bottles of water expired last year — they were supposed to be sparkling but were flat. Blech. (The red bottles of still water were fine.)

Meeting room. Wifi was, for the most part, pretty good. Great speeds as long as it held up. There was also a ceiling-mounted projector and a Polycom videoconferencing system that I wanted to play with, but I probably would have gotten trouble if i touched it — not like I have anyone to talk to anyways.

Instawalk: Riga’s Amazing Art Nouveau Architecture

By jonk On May 15, 2013 · Add Comment · In Instawalk

i’d always heard that Riga was famous for its permeating Art Nouveau, but i certainly did not expect it to be everywhere. i found a list of highlights, although i think it’s quite subjective because there is (almost) literally an exemplar on every corner.

i organized that list into a Google Map that starts in the east and circles counterclockwise, since that worked best due to where my airbnb is located, but of course you could start anywhere (click the “View Larger Map” link below and drag and drop the addresses on the left to reorder). places F through J are located in the old town.

View Larger Map

it seems that the Art Nouveau as expressed here is different from the more traditional (at least in my eyes) Mucha-esque found in Prague (less vines and women), and in general you see fewer whirls and perhaps even designs that hint at Art Deco to come.