We left relatively on time, at around 19h30, and the flight was more or less smooth.
Somehow, again, my veggie order was forgotten – but they had yummy pasta, so I was happy (the veggie pasta is often way better than the vegetarian meal, which often is chickpeas….) and the crew was really great.
Anyway, it was my very first flight on a new Lufthansa 747-8I, the follow-up model to the old 747-400, that most airlines decommission.
I had a seat in the back, so behind the engines, and it was loud… I wonder when Boeing will build its first silent plane…
All in all the flight was ok, and I even slept for big parts, along the Brazilian coast, and over the ocean, and all over Western Africa and the Sahara desert.
With one exception: one big jolt in the middle of the ocean, and a big detour we flew to avoid a thunderstorm, just in the region where unfortunate AF447 from Rio to Paris met its fate in 2009.
So of course, then I was wide awake and grabbing the armrests as if that alone could pull the plane up…
In case you wonder, I didn’t get emotional, not in the taxi, not at take-off…
It was only when we crossed the Alps and we flew right on top of my home town, and I took some pictures of the mountains and Lake Constance, mostly under clouds.
It’s funny, as a kid I always used to stare up to those planes, flying over our region, and some of them heading to land in close-by Zurich.
I’m heading home.