Sorry for my English, but I will try my best:
My first flight with germanwings:
CGN-FCO
Friday, 05.09.2003
Flight: 4U 882
Plane: Airbus A319-100
Departure CGN: 09:45
Arrival FCO: 11:45
With a group of five people from our parish and our priest we went to the airport of Cologne at half past six in the morning. We arrived about 15 minutes before the check-in began, but we had to change a booking (two persons had to stay home). So we checked in a bit later an had the boarding passes with numbers 28 to 33. So three of us were allowed to get in the plane first, the others had to wait. Who does not know germanwings, I will tell: You cannot reserve a seat there! To avoid chaos while boarding, you may to get in the plane in the order you checked in. At first numbers 1 to 30, then 31 to 60 and so on (but then the order does not matter, for example number 25 is allowed to go earlier than number 5). The three people who boarded first (me too) blocked a row for the three others. We took 4 D-E-F and 5 D-E-F. But before boarding you have to wait............! Because of that the shops at Cologne are not very interesting, we went through the security check to our Gate C03. Outside we saw a Eurowings ATR-42 to NUE, some dba and a TU-154 of Bulgarian Air Charter. Around eight o` clock „our“ Airbus arrived from DRS, his first trip of this day. Boarding started around 09:15. I took place 4D, because my legs are long and I didn`t know the space between the seats before. But I could take a good look out of the window also. The plane was 100% full of passengers. The steward welcomed us very friendly and they had to hurry with the security advice, because we used the runway 14L which begins very close to the C-gates. It was funny when the steward said: “The Airbus 320 has eight emergency exits!” The captain answers from the cockpit: “This is a 319, it has six only!” We had to wait because a 737 of dba departures before our Airbus. But then we rolled on the runway and the captain accelerated with full speed immediately. One member of our group was a bit afraid (not me! ). We reached our height of about 11.000m very fast and had with a cloudless sky a beautyful view over the German low mountains of Westerwald, Eifel and Hunsrück, later over Frankfurt airport and the alps. The steward was funny again when he asked his colleague for a packet of Haribo via loudspeaker.
At the Innsbruck area there were violent turbulences and the plane sudden drops, some passengers became very poor. The fasten-seatbelt-signs went out at the Lago di Garda area. After we had a view on Venezia, we left our height at the Toscana area, and began with the approach to Rome-FCO.
It was a very, very soft landing on 16L. We were on time: 30 minutes earlier than scheduled! The plane parked on the apron next to Cathay Pacific 747-400 “Asias world city”. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take a picture, because an Italian policeman became furious. Being on the bus to the terminal, we got a first idea of the Italian way of driving. Then we had to wait and tremble: Would we get all luggage? At our luggage reclaim there came five different flights at the same time! But: We got all, and had to walk a very long way to the railway station. We had a nice week at Rome, so the return flight follows:
FCO-CGN
Friday, 12.09.2003
Flight: 4U 883
Plane: Airbus A319-100
Dep. FCO: 12:30
Arr. CGN: 14:30
On Thursday we got the news, that the public transport wanted to strike exactly on the morning we travelled home! Our question was: How do we reach the airport? The woman at the reception had a friend with a van, so that he took us to the airport. When we reached FCO, check-in had already started. At Rome, the boarding pass number does not matter, because you have always to take the bus. First highlight: The luggage-belt was out of order, so that we had to deposit our luggage at some closed counters also. At the security check there were a lot of people, and I had to open my bag under control of a sullen policeman. I had so much inside, that they were not able to see it on the x-ray. Our exit was B18, but the waiting area was for five exits. We visited the shops and watched the boarding of a Finnair-flight to Helsinki (some people came at the last minute, and the steward was a bit hysterical!). Outside you could see some Alitalia and a SN Brussels 319. Then we got our call and took the bus to the plane. We used the back door and took 22 A-B-C and 23 A-B-C. There were not so much passengers (70%), so I took seat 21A later. I had enough space for my legs there.....! We had to wait very long until take off, and had a look on Alitalia, a Finnair MD-80 (see above) and a Tristar from American Trans Air. Definitely, we had 30 minutes delay. The steward was very, very sorry. After the takeoff on runway 25 we saw the Mediterranean Sea and changed our direction straight to the North, parallel to the Italian coast on the right and Corsica on the left. You could also see Croatia and the Adria, it was a nice blue sky. We passed Milano, Malpensa, the Lago Maggiore and the Gotthard. At the area of Zurich the clouds came. Around Frankfurt I recognized a Lufthansa 747 below us, approaching to FRA. The landing approach to Cologne was nice, because the sky was full of clouds. It was a very soft landing on the 32R. We parked at C03 again. There the next passengers were waiting for their flight with “our” plane to Zurich. The luggage came together with this of a 4U-flight from Edinburgh – in spite of the problem at the Rome counter, it was complete! Since this journey I love germanwings.
