A fortunate misfortune

Flight EK005 took off from Dubai International Airport at 4:30 pm (local time), a 300plus passenger boeing-777 flight, with all intentions of making it to LHR by nightfall. But someone somewhere must have had other plans. And so when the plane touched down in Hamburg at 8:00 pm in the middle of all that snow and an outside temperature of -9oC I cursed my fate for letting me being caught up in all this. They speak of it as the worst snow in a hundred years. And I did not, from the moment I came down the aircraft, feel that it was going to be amusing. The Germans were hospitable enough to take us in but we still had to go through a very rigorous administration process that took up 4 hours. They initiated some kind of paper visa with 48hr validity. Then there was talk of us being put up in the Marriott for the night. This brightened people up a bit. The next flight would be for 3:45pm the next day. Sad as it is the person in front of me in the queue was the last to be booked into Marriott. I and all who followed were put up in a smaller but neat motel. Once there I had a hot bath and fell asleep.


In the morning when we were having breakfast news spread that snow had made it impossible for Heathrow to operate and that the flight would have to be further delayed. As if things were not already bad! I refused to be stuck in the motel with German TV and no laptop charge. The motel lobby had some 30 people gathered for breakfast. Soon people began clustering into groups, based on colour and culture. After lunch our little group moved out in a cab to see the city. The cab driver was an Iranian and luckily one of us spoke Parsi and we convinced him to take as around the city for 10€ per person. It was a nice little trip in the glum streets of west Germany. The large bare iron and burnt brick structures seemed to bear visages of the past, from the time of the World Wars. I had never seen so much snow and it was delightful. We stopped by the neat little houses and took snaps.



Then we drove down a once-lush-now-bare-and-white boulevard to a lake that had been completely frozen. The famous Alster was now like a huge ice rink and little Christmas carnivals had sprung up on its banks. There was this huge Christmas tree that stood in the middle of the lake, sparkling in all its glory. We drove round the big lake and saw the monstrous train stations of Hamburg. These structures seemed so solid that nothing but nukes would dent them. German engineering!


Thrilled and shivering we came back to our hotel in the evening. The night buffet was more tempting than the lunch had been. We had a small chat after dinner and then we slept. Good news was in store as we woke up the next morning and we left Hamburg airport at 11:30am bound for Birmingham. Yes, Heathrow was still closed. We had coaches that took us from Birmingham to LHR and finally when I got to my apartment it was 7:00pm Monday. I had left home on Saturday 7:00am from Kolkata and that made it a total of 2 days and 18 hrs of flight time! But I am glad that all this happened. Made some great friends and saw a city that would normally be out of my itinerary.
After all,
“Whatever is, is best!”
~Ella Wheeler Wilcox