Flying – From Dresden to Leh

14 + 15. September 2024

 

 

Somehow I have the impression that the flights and journeys are becoming more and more ‘exciting’ for me. And so it gets its own post here too. The situation was: heavy rainfall in Saxony and Bavaria. And I was flying via Munich. In addition, a bridge in Dresden had collapsed and the tram didn’t run to the airport as usual. I thought back and forth and forth and back – and then decided to take a taxi. I’d never travelled to the airport by taxi in Germany before. Fortunately, it’s not that far away in Dresden, so it was affordable.

 

First problem: Antiquated as I sometimes am, I just wanted to call it by phone. Everything was overloaded, I could try again later. It was pretty wet outside and time was running out. I was getting a bit nervous. Then I installed the taxi app on my mobile phone – and it was super quick! 4 minutes later, one was at the door. I had a nice chat with the driver, who, like me, raved about the many beautiful old buildings in Dresden.

 

I was amazed at the airport. Almost everything was closed. I was much too early with 2 hours before departure. The airport is mini. In no time at all you’re everywhere. It was raining outside, but not that scary.

 

 

Not only is the airport mini, so is the plane. And you simply walked from the building to the aircraft (and had to queue in the rain).

 

 

I got the message that the plane was 2 hours late in Munich. And a meal voucher. And then even more delay. And then a meal voucher and check-in at almost the same time. Which is why the 3 restaurants where you could buy something had long queues in no time. Then we sat on the plane and the pilot or steward or whoever explained that it was because there was a plane there or next to it and needed a tug to get out so that this plane could get into the holding position, but the tug was probably alone and overloaded and was late. And then the gangways were docked the wrong way round. And undocked again. And now we could have actually flown off if they hadn’t realised that someone didn’t have a proper visa and they had to fish out their luggage first. This was actually a quick success – but there was now another tug problem because you couldn’t move without it and it was still overloaded. It was raining and I think more problems were explained, but I’ve forgotten them again.

 

 

On the Dresden flight, a stewardess spoke to me enthusiastically about the St Pauli shirt – she was from Hamburg. In Munich, the passport control officer spoke to me enthusiastically – he had learnt to ski in Ruhpolding. For Delhi, I was a little worried about the time and changing terminals.

 

But I was lucky and the terminal changed again to a closer one. And I got through immigration quickly with my 5-year visa, there are now extra counters for these, but my luggage arrived late. But it came. Then it was a bit uneventful and then I was on the plane to Leh. I had managed to get a window seat for a little extra money, but it almost didn’t matter. I wanted to see mountains, but there were clouds all over the place. It looked impressive, but no mountains.

 

 

They only came at the very end with a bit of early morning sun. It was a bit of a bumpy flight and I’m glad I organised the way back differently.

 

 

This time my rucksack arrived almost first, I was out very early, was greeted by 2 people I know who were waiting for someone else, took a taxi to the hotel and probably woke up the poor receptionist. Or rather, the other helpers had to wake him up and then he came shuffling up too. I’m very lucky to have been given a hotel room as a gift, which is very nice because it’s on the 3rd floor, big, great bed, etc. I immediately took a photo of the view and asked myself when I had last seen green trees in Ladakh. I had only been there in winter for the last few years.

 

 

Temperatures are fine, fewer people and traffic than expected. The plane was full of Indians and there are already a lot of them here – not just on holiday but also working. But there aren’t enough holidaymakers to fill these huge numbers of hotel rooms. It’s very exciting to see it all now in late summer.

 

I slept a bit and then met people and experienced a little something and tomorrow I’ll continue and that will be in the next blog post.