Flying

Here is a photo of me taken by Jutta at a recent ‘Ko-Gang’ meal. She has eye-sight problems but is still able to produce nice images. Thanks Jutta! Now for a comment about flying.

I have just returned from my local Travel Agents. I have always bought tickets there for they give a good service and are much quicker than I would be booking a flight on a computer at home. I asked about flights to England for a two week holiday covering the last 2 weeks of August. First I asked about direct flights from Berlin to Manchester. There are none! You can fly there but with 2 stops to change planes, and it would have cost €630-00. No thanks!

We next looked at flights to Leeds. KLM offers flights but with long stops of over 3 hours, and a flight change in Amsterdam. There and back costs €580,00. Also not cheap. Another problem is that I would have to arrive at Berlin airport at about 2.00am to deal with all the waiting, paperwork and checking that I have had corona jabs and getting a new certificate showing that I tested negative for the virus. It all takes time.

We agreed that I return to the agency on Monday and tell them to book the Leeds flight — or not! I’m going to think about it over the weekend and call my family to get their views. How different flying is now compared to the early 1970s when I traveled with BOAC and enjoyed the services they offered. A luxury compared with today.

Update: I decided not to fly to the UK. The deciding factor was an appontment with an Orthopädic practice and then with a Physiotherapeut. I have to start a 6 week period of treatment which includes the two weeks I was thinking of spending in the UK. Instead, I am thinking of having a short holiday on the Ost See.