It's an hour to the airport, but I got on far enough away from
downtown so there was room for me and my rollaboard on the BART.
Aside from groaning and clanking and lurching periodically, the
train was okay and got me there with time to spare.

UA 194 SFO MUC 1355 1005 789 21C

The security line was long but went rapidly, so I had time for
a brownie and a couple glasses of Camelot Pinot Noir, a mild
poison that I'm getting used to.

I was #1 on the upgrade list for one seat ... then #2 for
one seat, then #3 for two seats. How the heck did that happen.
And to think I'd paid over a 100% premium for the privilege
of using my "free" upgrade certificate. At some point, someone
came and sat in the window and confirmed that I had indeed
been #1 for 0 seats, with herself a couple places behind me. We
commiserated a bit, and then she popped an Ambien and conked out.
As we're both 1Ks, the middle seta stayed empty, so actually I
had a fair amount of space. I'm considering buying the middle
seat on my next international flight - it's cheaper and has a
guaranteed okay result.

Service was good for coach, the staff pretty cheery, especially
one quite gorgeous brunette who was friendly and chatty.

My finger started to bleed on the plane. I didn't say anything.

Lunch: Miller Lite or Stella. I had the latter.

There was a salad of frisee and very hard barley (I broke yet
another chunk of tooth off on it) with apple pie spices and
black and white raisins and apple cubes. Not horrible.

A cello-wrapped roll, which I didn't bother with.

Main choices were penne with mozzarella and red sauce,
vegetable stir-fry, and General Tso's chicken. I had this last,
and it wasn't deadly - heavily breaded tenderized white chicken
in a sauce of okay sauce and a fair amount of okay Sriracha,
which made the dish quite spicy; the sides were actually decent
rice and overcooked but okay broccoli-carrot medley.

MacAndrew Chardonnay (Southeast Australia, I think) was
palatable in the cheap white wine way - good if really really
cold; it went well with the Tso and with the spicy and not bad
though made with unripe fruit Villa dolce mango sorbet. Plus
it was free-flow, not that I wanted much of it.

As we had nobody in the middle, we had an extra blanket and
pillow. I took the blanket, she the pillow, and I think I
got a better deal, as I made a tent over my head and got some
shuteye.

Breakfast: pancakes or omelet. I was curious about the
pancakes but decided to go healthy and had the omelet, a
rather resilient spiral-rolled thing filled with a salty
unidentifiable goop. A dried-out chicken sausage and some
okay but salty roast potato chunks. Chobani smooth peach yogurt,
yuck, and a blueberry Greek yogurt cake, too sweet and too salty
at the same time. A really nice fruit cup - excellent pineapple
and plump sweet red grapes. A lot of food.

We landed half an hour early, and automated passport control
worked like a charm (it doesn't work well for me in the US),
and by scheduled arrival I was in the Lufthansa lounge enjoying
the imaginatively named La Vigne, a decent Chardonnay-Viognier
from Canet. Food somehow didn't appeal, but we'll see what they
put out for lunch.

P.S. They had tomato soup, penne all'arrabbiata, Munchner Leberkase,
and Konigsberger Klopse mit Reis. I had a serving of the last -
okay if a little rubbery meatballs in caper cream sauce with not too
much rat in it; the rice was pebbly Uncle Ben's. I was tempted to try
the Leberkase, but I'd not liked it when I'd had it at Augustiner,
and the chance I'd like it better here was slim and none. Leberkase
translates as liver cheese, but it's neither, but rather a kind of
baked baloney.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
* Origin: Fido Since 1991 | QWK by Web | BBS.DOCSPLACE.ORG (1:123/140)