Round The World and other travels

Boarding was by separate jetties and as I stepped aboard at the front door, I was greeted with a friendly "Grüß Gott!", underlining the fact that this was a flight to Southern Germany. I passed through the impressive looking First Class cabin and took my seat in the front row of the little two-row Business Class cabin situated directly behind the First cabin. With only two rows of 2+2+2  seats, it seemed very civilised indeed. I noted the absence of overhead lockers in the centre, which created an open feel at the obvious expense of reduced storage space. I also noted with approval the spotless condition of the cabin and the generous little cubby holes cut into the bulkhead at foot level, giving good stretching space and some extra storage space as well.

Boarding was completed nice and early at 0725. It came as a surprise because, with two jetties in use, I'd hardly seen anyone at all! Welcome drinks were served, the choice being orange juice, water or an unusual lemon and mint drink. Curiosity made me try the latter and very nice and refreshing it was too. The Captain announced the flight time as 5hrs 55mins.

We pushed back five minutes ahead of schedule, made our way out to Runway 12R and were airborne just before 8 o'clock. Menus and hot towels were distributed about 25 minutes after take-off, a very light breakfast was served and, somewhat to my surprise, we went into what might be termed 'night flight' mode. It wasn't a bad idea, given the early time of departure and time difference - the main meal would be served later in the flight. Our route took us up the Gulf until we were close to Qatar, at which point we turned right and headed into Iranian airspace. I snoozed for a while as we cruised at 38,000ft and later on accepted the offer of a couple of glasses of apple juice as the cabin crew made their rounds.

We crossed Turkey and the Black Sea and the lights came on as we approached the Romanian coast. With not much more than two hours left to run, at last it was lunchtime!

There was another round of hot towels, presumably to get people wakened up. I helped by opening my window shades within two seconds of the lights going on - it was a day flight, after all! Lunch was pleasant enough, but my one criticism would be that perhaps they left it a little late. In complete contrast to my previous FRA-DXB flight, it wasn't a very leisurely affair at all. No doubt the crew were trying to maximise sleeping time, which is all very well, except that this was meant to be a day flight.

The weather at Munich was announced as raining hard and a mere 9C - yuck! We touched down rather solidly at 1146 local time and were on-stand six minutes later. To my amazement, I realised that for me it had been a Champagne-free flight