I can not express how impressed I was with the staff at the Hilton Sofia Bulgaria, never have I been to a hotel that every member of staff stood out as special. I think the staff follows the lead of the General Manager of this hotel, Mr. Jacques Brune. He welcomed me at check in as a Diamond member, he walked by the Executive lounge and spotted me in the lounge he stopped in for a chat. It was clear that Mr. Brune has pride in his hotel and staff. I did find this very interesting article ...

The LOT Polish airlines B767 that “crash” landed in Warsaw yesterday, skid down the runway on its belly, coming to a stop at the intersection of both the runways in Warsaw closing the airport for more than 24 hours.

UPDATE

- Warsaw airport is now open.

- I had a polish friend provide a translation of ATC:
[Ground]: tower, LOT16?
[LO16]: LOT16
[Ground]: LOT16, ground wind 104knots, for your information on the short straight we will turn off ...

Hilton has two hotels in Mainz Germany, and the Hilton Mainz on the banks of the Rhine River is just about done a Multi-Million Euro refurbishment. The other Hilton in the City “The Hilton Mainz City” was renovated about 5 years ago. The changes are very dramatic! Here is a before and after of the main lobby:

check out more photos below and here!

I had the pleasure of staying in a brand new Jr. Suite at the Hilton Mainz. I was pleasantly ...

Winter time is coming, why not be crazy and go to the northern most commercial airport in the world. (LYR) Svalbard Airport, Longyear. In 2008, the airport had 138,934 passengers, up 7.4% from 2007.  SAS Scandinavian Airlines daily flights to Tromsø and Oslo on mainland Norway.  Last year in February I decided to use my  miles to get a within Europe reward ticket for 20,000 miles (now would be 25,000) to fly up to the top of the world. This was the best miles I have ever ...