Heading off to Hamburg Airport
Back to Innovation, Back to Hamburg
Let us head to the airport. And yes, I’m going to cheat. I’m allowed. It was a long week.
A note from the editor – yes, we’re running late on this… it’s been busy in the real world…
In this trip report:
- Back to the industry
- Sunday adventures to Heathrow featuring FlixBus
- British Airways Galleries – Club South Lounge
- BA974 London Heathrow to Hamburg Airport
- Into Germany, IBIS Budget, Saint Pauli
- When cables go walkies (A trip to Saturn)
- Sights of Aircraft Interiors Expo 2023 (What you might have missed)
- Back to Hamburg Airport
- Hamburg Airport Lounge
- BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow
- The joke of Heathrow Luggage delivery and the ride home
- Innovation continues
Time to Head back to Hamburg Airport
With Aircraft Interiors Expo at an end, there becomes a choice – do I head to train, or do I head for a cab and let someone else do the dirty work?
Firstly I need to get out of the Messe, then my bag…
Bookmarked. I should get the hotel sorted this year for a change… although that involves budget planning.
At the beginning of the trip, I was planning to take the train… but my energy levels were sapped at the end of this. Call it doing a lot of steps around the Messe, along with a stick to bully my way through, it was… tough to put it mildly.
I gave in and hailed a Freenow to get me to the airport. Trust me, given the choice of standing on the S-Bahn to the airport, or sitting back and being in my own world… I would take the taxi and suck up the cost.
And at €33, it was a luxury I was happy to spend at this point. Even if the S-Bhan ticket was only €3.40.
Exhaustion makes decisions a lot easier sometimes.
The driver made good time from the Messenhallen to the Airport… to be honest, my mind was elsewhere as I wasn’t paying attention to the map… or much else.
That’s all I remember of the journey. Apart from going around in circles around the Messe.
I guess that a lot of other things were working through my mind at that point, rather than aviation, writing or anything.
Danke FreeNow. It’s just about as easy to use as Uber. Well, almost. It means I don’t have to reach for cash or a credit card.
I was dropped off outside the terminal building and made my way in.
Notthis entrance
Get ready for security…
There was the traditional re-packing of my luggage at this point – as I didn’t want to play “stand at the security queue whilst armed police look on interest” later on.
And I wanted to make sure my keys were in the right bag this time. Especially after last year’s self-induced panic, which has led to enough AirTags to sink a ship.
It’s a chance to consolidate anything I collected (be it paperwork, water bottles, gifts and such), then zip up the bags so they’re ready for check-in.
I also took the chance to visit Edeka on the ground floor of Hamburg Airport before departing. Two things caught my eye…
Hmm. Gummi sweet bouquets. I can get behind this.
I thought German spices were only Salt, Pepper, Paprika and Maggi on a good day. This is beyond my wildest dreams…
With that done, I headed back upstairs to departures and queued up for check-in. Three people were heading the process, with two for Eurotraveller, and one for Club Europe.
Must be the end of a trade show.
There was some delay checking in, as some standby passengers were trying to get seats for the flight back – I think they made it – but they’re taking a chance on the last flight home on a trade show shuttle…
With the bag checked in, I headed to Fast-Track Security. Thankfully, the boarding pass scanners were working quickly, with only a short queue to be seen.
Fast Lane – And Biometric Lane too.
From what I eyeballed, normal security was behaving well, with people moving at a reasonable pace. The fast track was lovely and quick, thankfully.
One of my bags was unsurprisingly pulled over when scanned, with a visual inspection of it conducted. With the agents happy I wasn’t going to end the world, I was let on my way.
Quiet Security lanes
To the gates!
With that, I headed through to the public area and got ripped off at Duty-Free on getting a snow globe. I see that had been costed down with the little amount of snow in it.
Sigh.
I headed to the lounge – because at this point, putting my feet up was a key consideration – as well as getting out of work clothes. There are three main lounges at Hamburg Airport – A Lufthansa Lounge, an Emirates Lounge and a shared-use lounge. I would be using the Shared Use Lounge.
Let’s head upstairs
Next: The Hamburg Airport lounge and a broken soup machine.
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