Friday, April 06, 2007
Holidays and Stuff
So after an eventful few months, my family and I decamped for a holiday in Cyprus. We had arranged to stop with friends from church, who now live in Cyprus. It was a holiday we had all been looking forward to for ages, even though it was an early start, a 7am flight means getting to the airport for 4am!
It didn't work out that way however, a problem with the airport baggage handling system left the airport in chaos. Large queues of people shuffled forward very slowly, like some legion of the damned, and we realised very quickly that the chances of making our flight were slim. Suitcases having eventually being checked in, we went towards passport control, and were greeted by another enormous slow moving line of people. The new security arrangements, designed to stop people holding up planes with bottles of juice or baby paracetamol, slowed things down even more... After a long while and a quick sprint we made it onto the plane, just as our flight was being called. At last we were going to get away! Or not, in this case. There was another half an hour wait, as those people who were now unable to make their connection had their bags taken off. Two and a half hours late we finally left for Frankfurt, to make our connection for Cyprus.
It wouldn't be a good story if that was the end of the tale. Another large wait followed, as we had to rearrange our flight (as we had naturally missed our connection), as had a lot of other people. My mother used to say "there's always someone worse off than you" when my brother and I complained, and we always used to mutter under our breath "so what". In this case it was definitely true. Standing next to us was a Taiwanese lady, married to an Englishman, with two small children. The next flight to Taiwan was the next day, and she had to wait in Germany. As she wasn't a EU citizen she couldn't stay without a visa, and they were trying to obtain an emergency visa for her, which on a Saturday would not be easy.
After nearly four hours, we had the news that our flight was boarding. Frankfurt airport is HUGE, so after a sprint of nearly a mile we were away! To Athens, as there were no more direct flights that day. Athens is supposed to be a wonderful city, but Athens airport is like any other airport, but the weather was warmer. At Frankfurt we realised that we hadn't got our friends phone number, but I was able to email our friends and let them know, and after a call back to the UK to get their number was obtained, and the bad news communicated. Our friends still came to pick us up at the airport, even though it was nearly 11pm Cyprus time.
That was brilliant of them, and was the start of a great week. Some photos and more news next time........
It didn't work out that way however, a problem with the airport baggage handling system left the airport in chaos. Large queues of people shuffled forward very slowly, like some legion of the damned, and we realised very quickly that the chances of making our flight were slim. Suitcases having eventually being checked in, we went towards passport control, and were greeted by another enormous slow moving line of people. The new security arrangements, designed to stop people holding up planes with bottles of juice or baby paracetamol, slowed things down even more... After a long while and a quick sprint we made it onto the plane, just as our flight was being called. At last we were going to get away! Or not, in this case. There was another half an hour wait, as those people who were now unable to make their connection had their bags taken off. Two and a half hours late we finally left for Frankfurt, to make our connection for Cyprus.
It wouldn't be a good story if that was the end of the tale. Another large wait followed, as we had to rearrange our flight (as we had naturally missed our connection), as had a lot of other people. My mother used to say "there's always someone worse off than you" when my brother and I complained, and we always used to mutter under our breath "so what". In this case it was definitely true. Standing next to us was a Taiwanese lady, married to an Englishman, with two small children. The next flight to Taiwan was the next day, and she had to wait in Germany. As she wasn't a EU citizen she couldn't stay without a visa, and they were trying to obtain an emergency visa for her, which on a Saturday would not be easy.
After nearly four hours, we had the news that our flight was boarding. Frankfurt airport is HUGE, so after a sprint of nearly a mile we were away! To Athens, as there were no more direct flights that day. Athens is supposed to be a wonderful city, but Athens airport is like any other airport, but the weather was warmer. At Frankfurt we realised that we hadn't got our friends phone number, but I was able to email our friends and let them know, and after a call back to the UK to get their number was obtained, and the bad news communicated. Our friends still came to pick us up at the airport, even though it was nearly 11pm Cyprus time.
That was brilliant of them, and was the start of a great week. Some photos and more news next time........
Labels: Airports, Cypus, Holiday
# posted by Mark @ 10:22 AM 
