I have just returned from a terrific holiday in Rotterdam, and part of the experience, was the first time I have ever been inside, and flown aboard, an aircraft! I am in my mid thirties, and have been abroard several times. But until just a little over a week ago, I have never been inside an aircraft.
When travelling abroard on family holidays, we always travelled on a ferry. Be it to France, Jersey, or the Netherlands, we went by ferry. I have also been on three cruise holidays, once with family to Norway, and twice solo, to countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Spain. After spending a couple of days in Rotterdam on my last cruise, I thought it might be nice to explore more of the city, and so decided to spend more time in Rotterdam, along with a friend, for my holiday this year. But it did mean doing one thing I have never done before, Fly.
I have visited airports before. When I was younger, my Dad flew out to places on visits, and so got to see airplanes, and experience airports. In my late teens, I took an interest in aircraft, whilst watching a documentary series, about the Airbus A380, and so I visited a couple of airports to look at planes and take pictures. But going through check-in, security, boarding, take-off, landing, immigration, baggage collection…all that was new to me, and I was in a real panic about it.
I had no idea how it all worked, and when I tried looking online to find a step by step guide as to what happens, for first time flyers: all I found were reaction videos of first time flyers. Pretty much the only video that could be considred helpful, towards the process for first time flyers, was Jeremy Clarkson‘s Airport Rant from an episode of The Grand Tour. So it was a good thing thing then, that my friend Matt had flown before.
We were flying from Manchester Airport, and stayed at The Clayton the night before. We got a shuttle bus from the hotel to Terminal 1, and some directions as to how to get to the EasyJet check-in desk. So began the process. Check-in was almost like a breeze, as I had largely followed the rules when it came to bagging, where as Matt needed to re-pack his laptop into his cabin bag. Then came a very long walk to security, where we lined up, and emptied our bags. Before going on this trip, I decided not to take my Nintendo Switch, as I didn’t know the rules about taking devices, and was worried about it not being let in. But then I saw someone taking theirs, so I know better for next time. But I was though taking another device, which I was seriously worried about.
My CPAP machine. I have Sleep Apnea, and without the thing, I can’t sleep. So I have to take it with me wherever I go, even if it’s just for one night. So, I paid for an extra cabin bag, to make sure I could take it on the plane, and it said as much on the boarding pass. But that didn’t stop me worrying. But it turns out I needn’t worried. It went through fine, unlike my other bag. The other bag was selected for an additional search, as I packed my gels wrong. Toothpaste, Bonjela, and Skin Care Cream. But then that was put in a palstic bag, and we were through, to Duty Free.
I was super excited to experience Duty-Free. There were a few shops, which had many different things in (mostly perfume and alcohol), such as large bars, and bags of chocolate. So we had a browse, before going for a hot chocolate. Then, when it became clear we had to get to the gate, we headed off, and discovered there were a whole load more shops, and restaurants, hidden beyond the big duty free shop. So we missed out on the opportunity of more browsing. but now was the big moment: Flying!
Boarding the plane in hindsight feels like a doddle. The gate opens, we board, and we navigate a thinly built cylinder of metal, looking for our seat, putting our bags away, and then sitting down. We then spent time amusing ourselves trying to understand the safety brochure, whilst waiting for the plane to get moving. It took some time though, about 40 minutes in total, as there were repoirts of bad weather in Schiphol (despite the fact that Rotterdam does have it’s own airport, there was no direct flight from Manchester, so we had to fly to Schiphol). But eventually, the thing started to move, and we watched the safety demonstration.
Taxi-ing was interesting, as the engines turned on, producing the sound of alien space-craft in a 1950’s science fiction movie. It was like there was someone in the hold with a theremin, waving their hand to make the noise. The thing is, taking over half-an-hour to start taxing helped, as I began to relax. But when it began to move, the panic returned, as again, I had never done this before!
When we lined up on the runway, the big shock was the suden increase in speed. I didn’t know what to expect, as when you see videos of planes taking off, they seem to be at a constant speed, but in my chair, this sudden burst of increasing speed gripped me into my seat. And it continued, and soon we were in the air. I could see the front of the cabin higher up than I was, showing an incline, and then I did something stupid: I looked out of the window. In no-time we were high up in the air, higher than I have ever been. I have never seen Manchester from that angle before. It was a huge shock to the system, but shortly after, I began to relax again, and saw how beautiful Manchester looked from that angle. Before I knew it, we were above the clouds, and my ears were trying to adjust to the pressure change.
From then on, the flight was fine. I had some Haribo Tangfastics, I had a J2O, I listened to Infinite Dreams. It was great! The descent though was troublesome due to the weather, but the landing was very quick, it just sort of happened. But we landed in the rain and got soaked, as Schiphol didn’t have tunnels. Immigration took a while, but soon enough, our holiday could begin.
The flight back was a little different to the first, well a whole lot different, but that’s a story for another time!
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