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After two weeks of touring in Europe, it's time to go home, from Lyons to Montreal

Originally published in January 2005.

flight to berlin, part 3
by Sergio Ortega

after 2 1/2 months in Europe,
it's time to relax and go home

he date is September 13, 2003. The two-and-a-half-month European adventure is over. After a two-month stay in Berlin for studies (including daytrips to Oranienburg, Dresden and Potsdam), I hopped through several cities: Hamburg, Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Zurich, Luzern, Milan, Turin, and finally Lyons. I planned my last stop to be a place where Air Transat flies from, non-stop to Mirabel, and when booking my airline ticket, I figured it would be my first open jaw. So, at the end of this journey, it's time to go home.

Saint-Exupéry

I left my hotel at about 4:50 AM. Two weeks earlier, I had cargo'ed my bulky suitcase from Berlin to Montréal. So, I was walking with my big trusty backpack to the Perrache train station, from where I would take the Satobus to Lyons' Saint-Exupéry Airport (formerly Satolas, hence the name of the bus service). The streets were desert and except for the occasional hum of a car passing a couple of blocks away, there was this eerie feeling of being all by myself. Once at the station, I looked at my watch: 4:59 AM! Maybe I have time to catch the first bus. I was looking to take the 5:20 AM bus earlier! I got to the bus just as the driver was about to leave.

The ride to Saint-Exupéry took less than an hour, and I was amazed how, at every stop, we kept boarding more and more passengers. The bus was nearly full when we finally reached the futuristic-looking terminal. Outside, it was cold and cloudy and inside, very quiet, except for the few passengers checking in for flights leaving this early, i.e. me! In front of the check-in counter for Air Transat flight TS177, non-stop to Montréal's Mirabel Airport, there was a table with two security agents performing what seemed like a basic security check. Nothing unusual: I had seen it before in Europe.

Questions, questions, questions...
When it was my turn, the agent looked at my passport with a lot more attention than she had been doing for others before me. I think she might have suspected something: naturalized Canadian, entered the Schengen territory in Germany 2 1/2 months ago, and only has a big backpack as luggage. She asked me several questions: where I was born, how long I had been living in Canada, what was the purpose of a previous trip to Germany. Of course, she asked me the purpose of THIS trip. I told her it was for studies and she wanted to see proof of it. Fortunately, I still had my university invoice with me, where it said that I was attending classes in Berlin. The moment she saw that, she smiled and said I could keep moving to the check-in counter, and wished me a safe and happy flight.

At 6:15 AM, I was all checked in and had my boarding pass in hand. Aviapartners

was the handling partner of Air Transat in Lyons, obviously, as all the documents beared their logotype: baggage tag, baggage stub, boarding pass. I decided to spend my last Euros in hand in a very light but expensive breakfast, where I ended up chatting with the people at the table next to me: a young French national on his way to Australia to perfect his English, and a London girl of Russian descent, on her way to Modane to see a friend.

Callsign: Transat TSC177
Equipment: H/A313
Reg/Fin/Cn: C-GPAT/303 (597)
Itinerary: LFLL/CYMX

The boarding time on my pass was 8 AM, with an expected departure time of 9 AM. I passed the security checkpoint as well as the French immigration desk. The agent who stamped my passport looked extremely serious and didn't say a word. At the other desk, however, a Quebecer woman immediately played it friendly: "Bonjour, mon cher Monsieur!" ("Good morning, my dear man!") The agent smiled and played the game: "I'm going to start calling you "cousin" then! You're from Canada, I see. Do you dance on country music?"

We're late
When I got to the departure lounge, many passengers were waiting already. Most of them were Canadians, many of them travelling with an organized group. At around 8:20, the gate agent announced that due to a late arrival of the aircraft, boarding would be delayed by approximately 30 minutes. This caused many passengers to frown and sigh in despair. The young lady next to me said, very angry: "Why the f... do they make us come to the gate 1 hour before if it is to make us wait longer?"

Boarding finally started at 9:00, and ended about 25 minutes later. Oddly enough, after "pre-boarding" the elderly and the parents with small children, they called the passengers seated at the FRONT of the economy class section. And THEN, the middle, and finally the back. Isn't it the opposite usually, starting from the back of the plane? It took me a while to get to the back, with seat assignment 27A, because of everyone trying to get to their seats at the front section of the plane. As I waited to reach my seat, I asked a nearby flight attendant what was the registration of the plane. He said he thought it was "FAT" (C-GFAT), which would be the plane I had flown on earlier, but was unsure. He actually called the flight deck to ask, and said: "My mistake, it's PAT" (C-GPAT). How nice of him!

Once seated, with my tiny daypack under the seat in front of me, I thought to myself: "THIS is how I should always travel now: light!" I suddenly realized that... this was it. I'm out of Europe. I'm going home. And for the first time ever, I'm not excited, or nervous, or extremely happy. I'm just completely relaxed. No butterflies in my stomach. No goosebumps. No tapping on the feet. I was just... feeling fine!

A310 on take-off - (c) Konstantin von Wedelstaedt

When the doors closed, and the first greeting announcements were made ("our flight time will be 7 hours 25 minutes, at a cruising altitude of 33,000 feet...") I realized there would be no one sitting next to me. It's bad news because I still don't get to talk to a seatmate. Okay, talking to the seatmate on the Germanwings flight wasn't really talking. It was small talk! We started pushback at 9:24 and took off from runway 36L at 9:37. Just a few seconds later, in this poor weather, we were already in the clouds.

During the ascent, a flight attendant announced over the P.A. that the two movies shown today would be The Italian Job, and X-Men II. Hum, two action movies on the same flight. At 10,000 feet, the seat belt sign went off and shortly afterwards, the flight attendants started distributing the Canadian Customs declarations, along with a yellow form about SARS. And then the movie started.

Much, much better!
I noticed that Air Transat's inflight service DID improve a bit, compared to my previous trips with them. Just before the P.A. announcement regarding the upcoming meal service, the movie was switched off, so that the soundtrack would not be interrupted. It IS unpleasant when you are watching and all of a sudden, you miss the sound of the movie for about a minute or so because of an announcement. In my case... I wasn't watching!

It is about 11 AM in Lyon. I was expecting a breakfast, as I woke up very early to get to the airport. But instead, we had some kind of penne with a chunky tomato sauce topped with cheese, a cabbage salad, and the usual chocolate cake. The pasta was soggy and would have made any Italian frown because they were very far from being al dente. Immediately afterwards, the flight attendants passed with a new set of trolleys to serve the drinks. I asked for ice after my drink was served, so the flight attendant came back with ice... a WHOLE GLASS of ice. It was not that bad, I used the ice for the small cup of spring water that came with my tray. And then the coffee or tea. Unlike the previous trips, the flight attendants cleared the trays very quickly, 20 to 25 minutes after serving them (unlike 40 to 50 in the past).

At around 12 noon, Central Europe Time, we were flying just south of Iceland and I decided to take a nap. When I woke up, the second movie started, and the flight attendants were passing around the cabin, offering water. Shortly afterwards, the movie was once again switched off, to announce the duty free shop. Unfortunately for us, aviation fans, Air Transat's inflight duty free shop is now managed by a third-party company, DFASS (Duty Free Air Ship and Supply). It's a trend in the industry and means that there are no more articles in Air Transat's colors like model aircraft, airplane pins, pens, or Aeroclocks.

Now, about 5 1/2 hours into the flight (9 AM in Montreal), the second movie was long finished, and we were shown the same set of programs from the last flight, but different episodes: Friends, Fashion TV and Just For Laughs: the Gags. In the latter, I thought for a moment I recognized a former classmate from Berlin. (Turns out it wasn't her!) The flight attendants passed one more time for drinks, and shortly afterwards, the snack service was announced, along with an announcement mentioning that "We are 1 hour 35 minutes away from Mirabel". In my box, I had a small sandwich with cold cuts and cheese, orange juice, and a bite-sized "Mars" chocolate bar. Coffee or tea again... The flight attendants in my area, a man and a woman, already looked tired and frown easily.

After the entertainment program was finished and the central screens switched back to the moving map, the Captain finally spoke to us over the P.A., announcing our position, ETA, and weather at Mirabel: sunny, and 14°C. He did not give his name. Then... a "customer satisfaction survey". The announcement made it sound like a survey on the quality of service aboard the plane, but it was instead a survey on Air Transat Holidays... Shortly before starting the descent, the flight attendants passed candy around. I was turning around to see if I was the only one having a very hard time opening the wrapping (because of the sealing), and the answer was no...

Mirabel, one last time
20 minutes before touchdown, the seat belt sign turned on, then in a flash, the landing gear was down and locked, the landscape scrolled through and all I could see were farmlands. The weather was very beautiful. Warm and sunny. The plane was flying so smoothly, and it was so different from the two approaches I had before. At 11 AM, local time, we touched down on runway 24, neither smoothly nor bumpy, and the passengers started applauding immediately. And then, the plane seemed to take forever to slow down. We were still rolling fast and I started seeing the "touchdown" markers of runway 6. This is when I had this stupid thought of a TACA Boeing 767 amateur video, where the cabin starts applauding... and then the plane ends up crashing past the runway. Of course, we turned off the runway, but almost at the very end of it.

It was 11:05 AM when the plane finally reached the gate. It took me 10 minutes to reach the front door of the plane. The flight attendants almost did not say goodbye, I was the one who said "Bye" first... Just a short walk later, I crossed the small passage separating the gate area from the terminal. I immediately thought: "Okay. My parents can see me now. Don't look up... don't look up... don't look up. Oh, what the heck!" This is what I loved about this airport. There was a mezzanine from which one could look over the immigration counters and, directly behind those, the baggage carrousels. And my family was there. Waving at me... and immediately calling me on my cell phone. Their first reaction: "WOW! You lost weight!" Immigration control was a breeze, because we had all the immigration agents for ourselves.

As I got my bag and was just about to cross the door leading me to the public area, I thought: "This is it. The end of my trip." And probably the last time I arrive at this beautiful airport which wasn't given a chance: Mirabel.

Editor's note: On March 6, 2005, the same A310 I flew on around a year and a half before (C-GPAT) lost the rudder while flying from Varadero to Quebec City as flight TS961

. Even with extensive damage, the plane made a safe landing back to Cuba.

This concludes "Flight to Berlin: Flughafen 2". The next flight story is simply called "Flight to Washington".

All photos: from Airliners.Net:

Terminal: photo by Philippe Gindrat.

A310 on take-off: photo by Konstantin von Wedelstaedt.

A310 turning: photo by Kevin Wachter.

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