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After a brief stay with a friend in Cologne, it's time for an international student to hop to his "final" destination: Berlin.

Originally published in January 2005.

flight to berlin, part 2
by Sergio Ortega

small hop, small plane,
all at a small price!

fter a nice week-end with my friend Laura and her family in the Cologne area, it was time to reach the next stop, where I would stay for a good two months: Berlin! I could have gotten there by train, but I figured: I can afford an airline ticket if I buy it on a discount airline: Germanwings. 39 EUR one-way to Berlin, all taxes included. Pretty affordable. But, I could have paid 19 EUR had I booked earlier.

Early at first...
The date is July 1st, 2003, Canada Day... in Germany. I was at the Cologne-Bonn airport a little bit too early so I had to wait to check-in. The counter for my flight opened at 3:50 PM, exactly two hours before the scheduled departure time. Meanwhile, all I had left to do was admire the beautiful airport, which includes big windows looking at the tarmac right behind the check-in counters.

Germanwings has no printed tickets. You simply give your written confirmation from the Internet and provide a photo ID. When the counter finaly opened, I checked my bag and was given boarding pass number 001. Now, this was a plastified boarding pass, featuring only the origin and destination cities, and some legal mumbo-jumbo. I suppose this means they re-use them.

After doing some shopping, finishing to write my postcards and having a glass of Evian (4.50 CAD!), I proceeded to the security checkpoint. While scanning my carry-on bag, a security agent was concerned at some round-shaped object clearly appearing. I had to open it, and completely empty it. They thought they would find some camera lenses, but in the end there was nothing interesting for them, I guess.

...and then, late!

The plane arrived at our gate, C5, at 5:35 PM. It was D-AIPH, an Airbus A320-200, a logojet in the colors of the Cologne-Bonn Airport. Now, this isn't Southwest Airlines, so we didn't do any quick turn-around. We actually started boarding at 6:05 PM, 15 minutes after our scheduled departure time. People were very frustrated while waiting. One could have said that this corresponded to the German stereotype about the importance of timeliness, more than anything.

Germanwings assigns no seats. Since my boarding card was numbered 001, I was one of the first to board. At first, I wanted to sit next to an emergency exit, but a flight attendant approached me, in German, asking me something about knowing how to use it. She understood German wasn't my first language (but my fourth), so she repeated her question. I ended up sitting near the exit, but not right next to it, in seat 11A, by the wing. It wasn't any different than the seat I wanted to take earlier: it was a comfy leather seat with lots of legroom, compared to "Air Crampsat."

At 6:11 PM, an English announcement quickly said: "Boarding complete". We started pushback about 6 minutes later with the usual greeting in German and in English, as well as the safety demonstration. Contrary to the rest of the fleet (i.e. A319), this aircraft had no video screen, so the demonstration was done live. On the Deutsche Bahn (the German train company), most of the time, the announcements are only in German. So, I was pleased to hear instructions in a language I speak fluently.

Undercover?
As we taxied to runway 14L for take-off, a businessman seated next to me saw me writing down all the details including the runway pattern and asked me, in English, if I was a pilot. I replied that I am just an aviation enthusiast and only fly on the computer! We chatted briefly during the flight. My father now thinks he might be an undercover agent, wondering if I was some kind of terrorist!

Callsign: Germanwings GWI18
Equipment: A320
Registration/Cn: D-AIPH (086)
Itinerary: EDDB/EDBL

At about 6:25 PM, we started the take-off roll. I was dissapointed at all the water that had accumulated on the window due to the rain earlier in the day, but at 150 knots, as the plane raced down the runway, the water was gone! The seat belt sign turned off in the middle of the flight, shortly after the flight attendants passed around the cabin with the trolley, selling drinks, meals and some other goodies. Prices were reasonable.

I bought a "Happy snack" which consists of a baguette sandwich (I picked gouda, lettuce, eggs and mayo on country bread), a Punica fruit juice (orange) and a Mars chocolate bar of regular size, the kind they sell in convenience stores, not the tiny bite-sized ones. All for only 5 EUR. The sandwich was fresh and tasted great! Once again, I took a picture of my snack, to eventually send it to AirlineMeals.net

, but it was too blurry to even be put on any website.

At 6:53 PM, the Captain talked to us over the P.A. He announced in German and in English that we were overflying the city of Hanover. He then formally apologized for our late departure, which was caused by the aircraft arriving late from "Greek" (sic). I guess he meant Greece. He said he would try to make up for the delay by maintaining a good speed. I hope the many people in the hurry on the plane were reassured by our captain's words.

Bumpy
We started our VERY BUMPY descent into Berlin. I am not scared by turbulence usually, but this time, I was grasping the armrests. I was taking deep breaths and closing my eyes. "It's going to be over soon", I thought. I looked at the businessman, who looked extremely calm. Once we finished crossing the layer of thick grey clouds, out the window, I could finally see the city. But, there was nothing I could recognize. The few landmarks I knew of Berlin back then, like the Television Tower (Fernsehturm) or the Parliament (Reichstag) were not there. But I kept thinking: "Okay. This is where I'm going to live for the next two months. Better start learning!"

We touched down at 7:12 PM on runway 26R at Tegel Airport. To my left, I could see several military planes, presumably from the United States. We stopped at the gate about 5 minutes later, and very quickly, airstairs were connected to the two doors on the starboard side. We got onto buses which took us to the airport in less than 2 minutes. 10 minutes after parking at the gate, I was already outside the terminal, with my bag and my monthly transportation pass, waiting for my bus to take me downtown. About half of the passengers had only carry-on luggage. This is by far the quickest I have been able to leave a terminal with my bag in hand.

Berlin, here I am!

This is part of a series of 3 articles on a trip from Montreal to Europe and back. Click on the numbers below for easy navigation.

All A320 photos: from Airliners.Net:

Parked A320: photo by Sven Pipjorke.

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