Homecoming

4:15 AM the alarm rings. That can ruin the entire vacation. But it has to be done. The flight is at 9:00 AM, be there 2 hours early, an hour to get there, and plan 30 minutes for the rental car return. And of course, have breakfast first.

Everything is going smoothly. 

By 7:15 AM we are standing in an endless line of people all wanting to check in their luggage. We spend a good hour pushing our suitcase a little further each time. After the 2nd passport and boarding pass check (once at check-in and once at the passport control point), we go to the security screening. Here, a third passport and boarding pass check occurs. And as it should be, Schahaatz has to unpack again. After everything in the backpack is out, the security officer finds the corkscrew in a really unnoticeable pocket. Unfortunately, it must stay here and may serve the security officer.

We reach the gate just in time for boarding (fourth passport and boarding pass check).

This time we've gambled again and booked one window and one aisle seat - and once again it worked out - 3 seats for the two of us or 6 seats for the four of us.

The 12-hour flight was bearable. After 4.5 films (Beauty and the Beast, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., another film with Liam Neeson, and the second half of The Incredibles) and an hour of Solitaire, the flight was already over, and Captain Jens landed the plane safely in Paris. All four of us are relieved to be back on European soil. The current situation in the Middle East is unstable, and then the flight path over Somalia, past Yemen, and over Egypt, where there is also constant unrest, and one does not know who sympathizes with whom and perhaps not only attacks ships but also brings planes down from the sky.

But everything went well, just a few turbulences, otherwise a calm flight.

Now we have 2.5 hours of transit time in Paris, then it’s off to Hanover for us and for Ira and Micha to Munich.

After arriving in Paris, the first thing we have to do is - passport control. As if one could change identity between entry and exit - unless you might be named Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible) or James Bond. Well, what must be done must be done. Oh, a water dispenser, we can fill our bottles there. Not even 2 minutes walking towards the departure gate, we stand in front of the next checkpoint - security check - no carrying liquids over 100ml. Good thing our bottles are just full. Drinking is fine, but so much at once and the subsequent constant trips to the restroom is also annoying.

Next passport and boarding pass check. But we are lucky, during the flight, no one smuggled anything into our hand luggage, and we can pass the security check without unpacking.

We indulge in one last champagne for the great vacation, then our paths diverge.

Ira and Micha walk 5 minutes to the departure gate, while we first have to take a 10-minute bus ride

and 15 minutes on foot to then receive the information that our departure is delayed. How much, there is some disagreement between the airport display, the Air France app, and the Air France email, something between 20 minutes and 3 hours. 

But with only a 30-minute delay (and another passport and boarding pass check), we take off in Paris and 

land after 1.5 hours in Hanover, in an outside parking space. We haven’t experienced that yet. But they actually found a bus and stair driver at this late hour, it is now 23:10.

It’s nice to be home again.