Letters to the Travel Editor
Recline incline tip
I share Jarrod Gilbert’s dismay about these reclining seats [Travel, July 30], especially when you are inflicted with a seat in your lap on a 17-hour flight. I just do not understand why airlines, when ordering a new range of planes, do not ask the manufacturers to at least limit the extent to which seats can be reclined. Surely they know that this matter is a source of extreme irritation with most passengers.
However, since the reclining seats are here to stay I have a good tip that has worked for me: while passengers are still embarking I very politely ask the persons in front of me whether they would, when reclining their seats later on in the flight, please limit it to about halfway instead of to the full extent. That way we both win and so far this tactic has worked.
Nicky Sinden’s [‘My Holiday’, July 30] reply to the question “What is the best thing you’ve brought back from holiday? “My husband . . . ” was absolutely hilarious.
Regards,
Johan Slabbert
Light relief
[Re: Packing light, ‘Letters’, Travel, August 6] I once tried lifting a 20kg suitcase and couldn’t believe that people actually travel with that weight all the time. How do they manage to get it up the steps of European trains unaided, or up stairs in the Paris Metro or even steeper stairs in small hotels without lifts? Maybe they use taxis and stay in big hotels?
It saves a lot of angst, pulled muscles and money on taxis if you can actually carry your bag when necessary and lift it up on to luggage racks or shelves on the trains. With a small backpack, a larger bag or wheeled suitcase should be adequate for women travelling on their own. My suitcase starts off weighing 9kg maximum for a trip of several weeks, and I always have a free hand.
Pamela Russell, Orakei
Ypres tour experts
In June, this year my wife and I visited Ypres to tour World War I sites where my father had fought at Passchendaele and Bellevue Spur. We spent weeks researching how best to get around the places we wanted to see in Ypres and finally settled on a company called Flanders Battlefield Tours (ypres-fbt.com). They take bespoke tours around the Western Front, visiting all the memorials and hard-to-find places. The tour comprised our guide, Jacques, and my wife and me. Beforehand we had sent the tour company a citation my father received at Bellevue Spur and they researched not only my father’s war records, but in the process discovered my father’s brother, who had died and was buried in Ypres. During the tour we visited my uncle’s grave and we believe we were the first family to visit him in more than 100 years, thanks to Jacques’ research.
Flanders Battlefield Tours gave us an amazing full-day tour. It was well researched, respectful and relevant. Jacques, our guide, was a walking encyclopaedia on World War I matters, and knew the full history of New Zealand’s involvement on the Western Front.
If you are considering visiting Ypres and honouring those who fought there, we could not recommend this tour company highly enough. Mac Grant
East Tamaki Heights