DUB-FRA-DUB 11OCT 2005

Good evening everybody.
This report is about my first ever trip to Germany a country which Ive always wanted to visit and despite only seeing a tiny fraction of it during my day trip my appetite is as wet as it ever was to see some of major cities like Berlin, Munish and Hamburg and with Aer Lingus no operating to all these cities its never been so easy or cheap.

Anyway I booked this trip about 2 weeks before after I got my monthly baggage tracing roster. I saw I had 2 day off the 11th and 12th with a early finish on the 10th so a perfect oppourtunity to visit Frankfurt. The fare was an impressive €82 so there was no excuse not to go.

Hoever unlike flying to the UK flying to the continenet meens a very very early start and this morning it was 4am.

My ticket had been printed the night before and everything was ready. I jumped into my little car and headed for the staff car park with is free but quite a distance from the terminal which meens a lenghty walk.

Eventually I arrived and checked in using thr fast pass machine which is so so simple. I assigned myslef 12F an exit row and was assigned 2C for the way home an aisle seat unfortunatley.

I was starving so had a nice Irish breakfast and then headed down stairs to see my freinds at check in. I wasnt to busy with just the LOT, Czech and Malev open as well as a Futura with 1 person booked 😮 A good freind of mine who I worked with for a few weeks at check in was back at work after unfortunate events in his world the week before which meant he had to come home from Dallas where he had been sent to do AA training. Anyway he was working on the LOT to WAW this morning so I wandered down with them as I would be boarding from the same area. We all headed for staff secuirity but as I was a passenger this morning I was told to go to normal secuirity which luckily had no queue.

I chatted away with the LOT boarding staff for a while. They had a load of apprk 40 with 42 seats so quite good. I said goodbye and headed to A9 where EI-CVC was waiting. EI dominated this area this morning with flights to MAN, BHX, SXF and Naples also boarding.

I got into a bit of panic when I thought I had lost my boarding cards but soon found them. Boarding started slighlty late. Passengers in rows 15-29 were claaed first and then te rest which included me. I took my seat in 12F. It wasnt a full load so 12BCD and E all remained free with another man sitting in 12A.
Doors were closed and te captain made a brief announcement and the safety demo started made in both English and German. Engines were started, flaps set and ewe headed for runway 28 on this wet and dull morning. 4 other EI A320s departed before us aswell as a AF/WX 146. We lined up and powered down god how I love that feeling. We took to the sky and Dublin was lit up below and rush had well and truly began. We made a left turn and climed to 37000 feet. It was very cloudy for the beginning of this mornings flight but it cleared over the north sea towards The Netherlands.

The Inflight service was started and did quite well with coffee,tea etc but I got a bottle of water to stop my head exploding when we came into land which luckily didnt happen on this trip. The flight was quite enjoyable with only some very very light turbulence. From playing flight sim I was sort of able to work out where we were.
Ive loved studying map etc of Europe over the last few years but with only a trip to France when I was 5 a dew trips to Spain Ive never been to Europe. I was brillaint to get a great view of The Netherlands and later on Germany. We began our decent and could see how industriallised this place was with huge clouds of somke rising from factory chimmneys. I got a great aerial view of Dusseldorf. We contined to descent but as we got closer to Frankfurt it was obvious how misty it was. We came traight in with no holding and flaps were set and a great view of a Lufthansa A340-600 with those huge engines. We got lower and lower and it wasnt until I heard the gear going down that I reliased we were nearly on terra firma but eventually cars and trucks could be seen belown and we landed on runway 07R. Quite a nice landing with not much reversers or breaks. We exited the runway and made our way along the taxiway bwtween the 2 parralell runways and parked on one of the remote stands opposite terminal 2 which had some nice traffic around it including MH 777,DL777 and 767 X2,EK A340 and NWA A330 which glissened in the sunshine. We wre bussed to the terminal and I reliased just how big of dumps LHR and DUB are. This place is unbelivable. Its clean,spacious and uncrowded.

We passed through passport control and I headed away to find the spectators terrace but in the meen time passing bags which had come off our flight :confused: we had only come on block 10 minutes ago. I now work in the baggage reclaim hall in DUB and am sick of passengers complaining about how long it takes for bags to be delivered. I wish and hope our new terminal is half as good as this. Anyway after a few minutes (1 hour) of searching I found the terrace and paid my €3 entry. Its a bit of a walk from the entry point to where you can see the planes but its worth every step. A United 777 was being prepard and I was stunned at how close I was.

This terrace is great it has toilet facilites and a pretty basic cafe but beats a muck hill and chip van anyday.

I spent the next few hours watching the megamachins taxing passed. Anyway i hope that was OK for yous and will post the return secotr and pictures later.