I´m already at home! :D But I should say I was having a good time in Germany… but you see, with the uncertainty of whether yes or no and for how long have to wait plus bothering people in their normal working life if I had to go to the airport, as well as being aware that we talk about an event with negative consequences quite an impact in many sectors, it wasn´t the best for enjoying a few extra days in Germany.
I got a seat at Iberia´s flight of 19.10 from Dusseldorf. I was in Dortmund and going to Dusseldorf Airport with time enough for doing the check in (check in online wasn´t available), cross the control and be on time at the respective door meant to leave the place I was no later than at 15.30.
I´d call several times to Iberia but they insisted that they really can´t give me warranties, that the first flight of the day was cancelled, the second one was delayed 2 hours, but it was due the plain going out from Madrid was delayed. The last time I´d called I explained my situation to the girl at the phone (btw: of all who attended the phone these days just had a nasty girl, everyone else, very kind and giving their best for giving me the best possible recommendations) checked and told me that actually the best for knowing if, from Iberia´s part, the flight would be ok or not, would be to check around 16.00 if the flight going from Madrid to Dusseldorf went on time, but anyway due the ashes problem, could be the airport the one that closes. For me to wait half of hour for knowing almost for sure if all was ok with the flight could meant to not to be on time and actually would be a terrible joke to lose the flight!
I decided to take the risk of going. I went by train because, I insist, it wasn´t a nice plan to bother a friend and not to fly finally. I also had already decided to follow my own recommendation and if the case was that this flight didn´t gone, to ask for a new seat in a weekend flight. I had the good luck of find an ICE train that goes straight to the airport (well, straight in this case means without having to move to another train, but this train does several stops in different cities).
Luckily I decided to go with more time, because since it was the first time I went by train to the airport, which had not foreseen is that from where I left the train to the respective terminal had to take the Sky train, something that actually I would have liked, of course, but I had the bad luck that was out of service and then had to go on normal bus, which found a stretch of traffic and this took a while to get to the terminal, besides that passed first to the parking. So, if I would go just in time, in a normal day that would cost me to be at the airport once the flight would be closed.
Other interesting place at the airport that I didn´t knew even after being there at least 5 times, is that in the part where you leave the train there is an observatory where you can see a panoramic view of the airport and departure and arrival of aircraft. Entry costs 2.50 Euros. And yes, I really was tempted about going to the observatory even just 10 minutes, but I didn´t want to risk.
Finally, I arrived at the terminal and was surprised to see the airport near empty. Even the queues at the counters of Iberia, with people, but far less than I expected. I could say that we were just the ones going to take some airplane. On the screen you could see that in general everything was normal, except for some Lufthansa flights canceled. Yes, I also was tempted about taking videos of the terminal near empty, but still believed that I will find crowdy lines at the control point, it wasn´t possible for me to give a look to it before going because it was one that is upstairs in Terminal B.
Once at the control point… it was empty! Well, I passed it and started to walk looking for the gate of my flight… it was like a ghost airport! See it by your own!
There were some plains taking off and arriving, but not so many actually.
In general the atmosphere was extremely rare.
I gave a look at different stores (I was with enough time to), I can say that in most stores I was the only one that entered. Took the opportunity to chat a bit with the staff of some shops and ask them how they had experienced the situation, they told me that in the preceding days they had been told not to go. I insisted on at least if they had been told to be aware to see if they had to go in the afternoon or something, they said no, that it was not going the whole day and until further notice. This puzzled me much, because in some way meant or that they knew the airport would not open the whole day (even if they were saying on the news that would open at 2 am, then at 2 pm, then at 6 pm ...) or even it it get open, passengers were not going to be able to eat and/or a drink at the airport and they haven´t reported that.
In the corridor I had the feeling that we were not many passengers, but when the plane was already in flight I got up to see the occupation of it ... there were many empty seats! I noted a few in this photo, but there were more.
I must say that I expected some comment from the captain at the microphone ... something like "Iberia laments the setbacks for the problem caused by volcano Eyjafjall ashes..." but no, not a word of this.
We arrived at Barajas, and yes, the T4 was quite empty. I mentioned it to the taxi driver and he agreed with me that there were few people.
About Dusseldorf I thought it was due being the first day semi normal and maybe just few people wanted to risk to do a booking without knowing for sure if they will really be able to fly, but about the T4 I really don´t know what to say.
I really hope the airports go back to real normal life asap and that someone gives economic help to those who had to pay expenses not foreseen due this situation.
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