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On Friday 29th May, I and my fellow “Berliners” assembled at school at 7:30am to catch the bus to Manchester Airport. Our first disaster was about to occur. The bus was only 1hour late and Dr. Dunlop, our leader, was getting stressed. Luckily the journey to the airport only took 45 minutes up the M6 and M56 and we were still on time for check in.
Upon arrival at the airport I was only able to see an Air Transat A310 and a couple of Thomas Cook 757s. We found the Air Berlin check-in desks in Terminal 1 and there was only a short waiting time before Dr. Dunlop was able to check us in. As there were about 45 of us in the tour party, it would take a bit of time to check us in. Dr. Dunlop was able to check in and then the boarding card printer broke!! After about an hour of waiting we all were checked but Air Berlin had also managed to get 2 members of our parties names wrong on the computer system. The time was 11:20- the flight was already boarding and was scheduled to depart at 11:35!! Luckily I navigated my little group through the airport via WH Smiths to buy a Flightcheck magazine. The aircraft was departing from gate 28 on pier C and was quite a long walk from the scanning and customs section. It was a mad dash through but I managed to see a couple of BMI baby 737s, a US Airways A330 and a BMI A330 (this was the last time I saw the Washington service operated by an A330- pity it was G-WWBD the horrible Star Alliance one!!). Anyway we all managed to board about 11:35-departure time.
Our Air Berlin aircraft was a Boeing 737-700 (D-ABAB) operating flight AB8263 to Berlin Tegel. After careful negotiations with other members of the party I managed to get a window seat. I sat in 14A-in the same row as Lozz and Ali. Push back occurred at 11:40 and we began to move at 11:44. We passed a Travel City Direct B747 and a Hellas Jet A320 whilst the usual safety announcements were taking place. We crossed runway 24R at about 11:48 and waited at the end of runway 24L for our departure. A BA Embrear 145 and an American Airlines B767 were following us. The pilot then trusted the engines and take off occurred at 11:50am. Luckily one of our JP photographers managed to capture our aircraft.
After take off we made about three sharp right turns. It was too cloudy to see the ground but the Air Berlin cabin felt pleasant. Air Berlin’s In Flight entertainment began on overhead screens- nothing to write home about. Basically they charged € 1.50 for headsets when the only programmes were Mr.Bean, Pluto and something about the Blue Man Group. Air Berlin have only one food & drink service. One person hands out the sandwiches, the other pours drinks after. At this point came the “sandwich incident”. Timewell, who was also on our tour, was asked by the air hostess whether he wanted a salami or cheese sandwich. He said ham 3 times. In the end he was given salami. Timewell believed it was a witty chat up line. Anyway the captain began to talk to us - apologising for the delay and telling us we were flying at 35,000 feet and our flight time would be 1hr 25 meaning we would arrive at Tegel early. Anyway we began to descend and landed on runway 08L at 14:12 local time. Tegel airport was the most interesting airport ive every been to. As soon as you walk up the air bridge, you go through passport control and collect your bags -and you can still see the planes. Here I saw another Air Berlin 737, Lufthansa, Germania and Atlas Jet. Air Berlin managed to lose 2 of our tour groups’ bags - one showed up but the other has never been seen since Manchester.
Here we met our tour guide Dave “two stops” Stewart and went to the centre of Berlin and had a little walk around. We also visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the Olympic Stadium, the Berlin War Cemetery, Wannsee house where the “final solution“ took place, the Berlin wall museum, Checkpoint Charlie, Alexanderplatz, Postdammerplatz, Sanncussi Palaces, the Jewish museum, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Unter den Linden and a German school. Dr. Dunlop did karaoke at the hotel and Timewell made friends with a 13 year old. It was really hot in Berlin- second hottest on one day in the world behind Bangkok!
On Tuesday our tour group went shopping at Ka-de-We, the German department store. We then returned to our hotel to say goodbye to big Dave “two stops” Stewart and got on a coach bound for Hamburg Airport as there are no Manchester services from Tegel on a Tuesday. The 3hr 30 minute coach ride wasn’t uneventful at all!! We arrived at the airport but the coach driver parked at the furthest place away from terminal 1 so we had to walk under this undercover concourse. We managed to get as far as terminal 3 but building work blocked the remainder of our route. This mean walking in the pouring rain to Air Berlins terminal. Here we had check in problems. Everybody had their bags x- rayed before checking in. Then another hour waiting to check in commenced with 45 people squeezed into a small queue. We apparently hadn’t got any tickets and some were being printed for us. Dr. Dunlop’s hair was going even more silver at this point!!
Hamburg terminal 1was dull and could do with a bit of a refurbishment. Whilst waiting to board our plane there were interesting movements outside with fly dba, CSA, Lufthansa, Hapag Lloyd and Swiss. Boarding commenced at around 18:30 for Air Berlin flight AB8264 to Manchester aboard a great Fokker 100 (D-AGPE). I sat in 18F(another window seat) with a guy called Fuller and Tilly. Holly, Timewell and Ben were behind me. Pushback occurred at 18:45 and we arrived at the threshold of the runway at 18:52. The Pilot then came over the speaker and just said “takeoff”, which Timewell copied throughout the flight. This was the first time I had ever flown on a Fokker 100 and I did like the aircraft. Luckily there was no in flight entertainment. From my seat I could see the engine rotating!! Whilst cruising at 32,000 feet, our route took us over the bulb fields in Holland and over the North Sea before crossing into UK territory over Spurn Head and the Humber estuary before crossing over the Peak District before landing on Manchester’s runway 24R at 19:11 local time. This was the only time I played Uno at 32,000ft!! Luckily for Timewell his ham sandwich was available on this flight. The pilot kept thrusting the engines every so often and the turning down the power which was worrying some people. Lozz slept through the whole flight despite a patch of turbulence. After landing at MAN, seen Concorde at the Aviation Viewing Park made me feel glad to be back. Manchester at 19:15 was uneventful, Thomas Cook 757s, Air Southwest, Flyjet, some BAs just to name few. Our Fokker pulled onto gate 4 on pier B and we had to walk across the tarmac before entering the building- the first time I had done this at Manchester for a long time. We cleared customs and collected the baggage with some ease and boarded our bus back to school- at least Emirates and Malaysian could be seen!!
Hopefully you havent fell asleep at this point!!
Squeaky
Upon arrival at the airport I was only able to see an Air Transat A310 and a couple of Thomas Cook 757s. We found the Air Berlin check-in desks in Terminal 1 and there was only a short waiting time before Dr. Dunlop was able to check us in. As there were about 45 of us in the tour party, it would take a bit of time to check us in. Dr. Dunlop was able to check in and then the boarding card printer broke!! After about an hour of waiting we all were checked but Air Berlin had also managed to get 2 members of our parties names wrong on the computer system. The time was 11:20- the flight was already boarding and was scheduled to depart at 11:35!! Luckily I navigated my little group through the airport via WH Smiths to buy a Flightcheck magazine. The aircraft was departing from gate 28 on pier C and was quite a long walk from the scanning and customs section. It was a mad dash through but I managed to see a couple of BMI baby 737s, a US Airways A330 and a BMI A330 (this was the last time I saw the Washington service operated by an A330- pity it was G-WWBD the horrible Star Alliance one!!). Anyway we all managed to board about 11:35-departure time.
Our Air Berlin aircraft was a Boeing 737-700 (D-ABAB) operating flight AB8263 to Berlin Tegel. After careful negotiations with other members of the party I managed to get a window seat. I sat in 14A-in the same row as Lozz and Ali. Push back occurred at 11:40 and we began to move at 11:44. We passed a Travel City Direct B747 and a Hellas Jet A320 whilst the usual safety announcements were taking place. We crossed runway 24R at about 11:48 and waited at the end of runway 24L for our departure. A BA Embrear 145 and an American Airlines B767 were following us. The pilot then trusted the engines and take off occurred at 11:50am. Luckily one of our JP photographers managed to capture our aircraft.
Here we met our tour guide Dave “two stops” Stewart and went to the centre of Berlin and had a little walk around. We also visited Sachsenhausen concentration camp, the Olympic Stadium, the Berlin War Cemetery, Wannsee house where the “final solution“ took place, the Berlin wall museum, Checkpoint Charlie, Alexanderplatz, Postdammerplatz, Sanncussi Palaces, the Jewish museum, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Unter den Linden and a German school. Dr. Dunlop did karaoke at the hotel and Timewell made friends with a 13 year old. It was really hot in Berlin- second hottest on one day in the world behind Bangkok!
On Tuesday our tour group went shopping at Ka-de-We, the German department store. We then returned to our hotel to say goodbye to big Dave “two stops” Stewart and got on a coach bound for Hamburg Airport as there are no Manchester services from Tegel on a Tuesday. The 3hr 30 minute coach ride wasn’t uneventful at all!! We arrived at the airport but the coach driver parked at the furthest place away from terminal 1 so we had to walk under this undercover concourse. We managed to get as far as terminal 3 but building work blocked the remainder of our route. This mean walking in the pouring rain to Air Berlins terminal. Here we had check in problems. Everybody had their bags x- rayed before checking in. Then another hour waiting to check in commenced with 45 people squeezed into a small queue. We apparently hadn’t got any tickets and some were being printed for us. Dr. Dunlop’s hair was going even more silver at this point!!
Hamburg terminal 1was dull and could do with a bit of a refurbishment. Whilst waiting to board our plane there were interesting movements outside with fly dba, CSA, Lufthansa, Hapag Lloyd and Swiss. Boarding commenced at around 18:30 for Air Berlin flight AB8264 to Manchester aboard a great Fokker 100 (D-AGPE). I sat in 18F(another window seat) with a guy called Fuller and Tilly. Holly, Timewell and Ben were behind me. Pushback occurred at 18:45 and we arrived at the threshold of the runway at 18:52. The Pilot then came over the speaker and just said “takeoff”, which Timewell copied throughout the flight. This was the first time I had ever flown on a Fokker 100 and I did like the aircraft. Luckily there was no in flight entertainment. From my seat I could see the engine rotating!! Whilst cruising at 32,000 feet, our route took us over the bulb fields in Holland and over the North Sea before crossing into UK territory over Spurn Head and the Humber estuary before crossing over the Peak District before landing on Manchester’s runway 24R at 19:11 local time. This was the only time I played Uno at 32,000ft!! Luckily for Timewell his ham sandwich was available on this flight. The pilot kept thrusting the engines every so often and the turning down the power which was worrying some people. Lozz slept through the whole flight despite a patch of turbulence. After landing at MAN, seen Concorde at the Aviation Viewing Park made me feel glad to be back. Manchester at 19:15 was uneventful, Thomas Cook 757s, Air Southwest, Flyjet, some BAs just to name few. Our Fokker pulled onto gate 4 on pier B and we had to walk across the tarmac before entering the building- the first time I had done this at Manchester for a long time. We cleared customs and collected the baggage with some ease and boarded our bus back to school- at least Emirates and Malaysian could be seen!!
Hopefully you havent fell asleep at this point!!
Squeaky
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