At least I made it into the Austrian Lounge. In my opinion too small.

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When I would need to do a ranking. Winner is ZRH and last VIE. BER a liitle bit before FRA.

So that went down the drain. Flight cancelled and no info when I get home. I take the train to city and go into a Hotel. I do it by my own. Nothing to do at the Airport. Just chaos and they shutdown everything.
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To get to Zurich tomorrow doesn't look good. All flights sold out all day long. Will be fun to get me rebooked.

Was that Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt? I remember it from around 1988 or so. There was also a rail crossing point near there that we visited on my 3 day border patrol; a small group of us toured in Land Rovers along the west German side. We all wore just camouflage kit with no rank insignia (or unit badges for the Army personnel), we also did not wear any head gear at all. This was so that the East German Border Guards or the Russian Army personnel could not identify which branch of the British Military we were from. It was a surreal experience.

We went to one town that had been cut in half by the border. On the western side; nothing, the town had been demolished; on the eastern side, the town just continued living as if nothing had happened. There was the big fence with all the anti-personnel devices to stop people climbing over, security lighting and a gate in the fence where Border Guards could come through the fence. Around the gate it was all sand which was brushed smooth once the Border Guards returned to their side so that they would know if anyone had traversed the sand without permission.

Two years ago, I toured the area in my aircraft and I flew over Helmstedt, the old checkpoint on the autobahn and found the rail crossing point. There is also still a section of wall visible away to the south near a town (I don’t know the name) and it possible in places to see where the border once ran as it is a different colour from the surrounding area.

So this trip get extended by another day. I made it into the city.

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Just out of the station there is a Novotel and here I do stay for the night.

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Still no information about my next flight tomorrow. Maybe I take the train to Zurich.

One of tve reason for the Swiss flight cancellation might be the night fly restriction. When the flight leaves too late it wouldn't be alllwed to land. I still smell a lot of compensation towards me.

I had a similar experience flying out of BER, security took ages I found. Although it didn't appear as though anything went to secondary in my case.

duty of care (hotel, food, drinks) should be payable by the airline. keep all receipts!

Zicherie-Böckwitz?

Good morning from Vienna

This night I slept not so good. It took ages to get the confirmation to be rebooked. Now I would fly out this evening via Venice to Zurich. 40 min transfer in Venice. A little tight in my opinion.

Second option would be take the next railjet to Zurich. I would be four hours earlier at home.

And still no information aboit hotel etc. That I expected.

Oof, that’s annoying. But at least a trouble free hotel room for the night.

Maybe better availability to GVA today if they will let you?

good luck with the EC261 battle - weather didn’t seem that bad yesterday but all of Central Europe was in chaos mode.

That's what I'm doing.

Decision made. I take the train home. I used the Swiss chat to see different options. There is nothing left than what I'm bookrd into it.

So let's see how the trsin journey goes. I will need to chat again that they cancel my booking.

i was checking different options but the pile of rebooked passengers is to high. It would need a widebody aircraft to bring everyone back. There were thunderstorms but only lasted for a couple of minutes.

After the chat with Swiss I headed directly to the railway station which is across the street. There is a ticket office. They sold me a ticket without seat reservartion. Their system is broken since two days. I decided to go for first class as the chaos in second would go crazy. It is like Cross Country Rail in UK. AftercI had my ticket time for breakfast.

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Just to keep the wolf out

Befor I board the train time for food and drinks. Billa had open. Then time to wait for the platform.

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track 8 was announced

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Hop on the train. It was empty at that time.

At the end i grabed the last seat without reservation. Train is full in 1st class and a lot of people towards Zurich

In 7 hours I should be in Switzerland.

I still need to call to Vienna that they send my luggage to me. They cannot do it over the chat.

I think I flew over these towns a couple of years ago; there appeared to be a section of border fortifications and a watch tower still standing.

No idea what the town was called that we visited but it had been cut in half and the west German side ceased to exist, only the side on the east of the border remained. At least, that’s how I remember it.

If available, they should.......

Quote from a lawyer (google translate) "From the pre-coronavirus era, I remember a case against Eurowings in which an aircraft was cancelled for a domestic German flight due to technical issues. The technical defect was due to extraordinary circumstances. But the story went even further: I was able to prove that at the time of the trip, several aircraft from Eurowings' long-haul fleet were grounded unused. The standard witness usually called by Eurowings was surprisingly honest about this in court, saying something like, "It's not worth it."
Airlines with a large fleet, in particular, will have to make considerable efforts in court to demonstrate that transport was not just "impractical" but simply impossible."