Crossing the Pond

   At JFK I got through security with about 3 hours to spare before boarding. Seems my flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the aircraft from Germany. So I wandered over to American Airlines' Admiral's Club.  Couldn't talk my way in for free so I anteed up the day pass rate and went in.  Since they gave me three drink vouchers I figured it wasn't a bad deal.  File away for future travel.  Spent a few hours.  In any case it was definitely worth it to have a nice comfortable place to hang out, with snacks, free WiFi, beverages and clean bathrooms.  This was all reinforced when I had to leave for my departure gate and saw that crowd of folks with no place to even sit down!

   Our departure ended up being an hour and a half late.  Obviously I was concerned about making the connection at Dusseldorf for the Berlin flight. But with the jet stream whipping along at a brisk pace and the boys in the cockpit putting the "pedal to the metal" or "balls to the walls" as we used to say back when I was flying for Uncle Sam's No Frills Airlines, we amazingly arrived on our original schedule.  Saw something strange during dinner. The water in my plastic glass had a standing wave on the surface that consisted of a series of concentric circles. I assume this was caused by the slight high frequency vibration you could feel in the aircraft (could this be a high speed buzz from approaching Mach one?). Initially I assumed the waves would be propagating outward from the center (see adjacent pic), but the little bits of ice in the glass were moving from the edge to the center so it would appear the waves were traveling in that direction. Anybody got any theories on this?
   My impression of Air Berlin: aircraft was a nice new Airbus but this was definitely economy class. No individual video screens or choice of entertainment.  Seating was pretty tight with no excess leg room.  They did give complimentary beverages (including wine, beer and mixed drinks) and snacks.  Meals were typical airline fare. Always amazed at how full I feel after eating one of those meals of what appears to be tiny portions.  Must be some concentrated calories packed in there.
   At Dusseldorf I made it through passport control and security very quickly, although something on my person set off the alarm and I had the old wiz wand and pat down treatment.  Of course I got in the wrong line. No pretty fraulein here!  On arriving at the departure gate we were informed that our flight was delayed because they couldn't find part of the crew.  Did they think to check the bars? First place we'd look back home!Well, so much for the legendary German timeliness and efficiency.  But can you believe the smoking lounge?  This is the height of efficiency.  Smokers can really speed things up here. Not only are they isolated from non-smokers, but they are in a totally enclosed space with other smokers!  So they are not only "enjoying" their own smoking but get to suck in the second hand smoke of others!!
   Well, we finally get to Berlin Tegel airport and miraculously my luggage made it too. So hopping on the bus to Berlin Hauptbahnhof for a mere 2,30 Euros I was on my way to the train station.  Being a little nervous about not knowing where to get off the bus I whipped out the trusty iPhone and fired up the mapping app.  Sure enough it showed our location and how far it was to the train station.  Then I sent Mona (the teacher in charge of the student group) a text and arranged to meet them at 17:30 (5:30 PM for you civilians) as our train departs the station at 18:12 for Vienna. They were on a boat tour at the time.