What's with glum northern Europeans?

I go to Spain just about every year. Southern Spain, which is kind of like the Florida of Europe. Lots of northern European and Brits also make the trip to the Costa del Sol also sometimes known as the Costa del Golf, it’s so popular with the swinging stick set. All well and good. Expect, well, northern Europeans are not the sunniest lot, defying the fact they are on the “sun coast.” I walk every day across a bridge to a commercial area and am constantly “running into” pedestrians walking the opposite direction. I knew immediately something was different. In North America, there would at least be attempts at smiles or in fact “Good mornings” or “Hellos.” Not so with most of my fellow walkers. They turn their heads away or down, and it looks like it would take a crowbar to break them into smiles. One time, on a beach bench, I sat for the longest time trying to decide to engage my fellow bench sitter in conversation. This individual never paid me notice, supposedly caught up in his book with occasional stares out to the sea. I screwed up my courage and engaged. Yes, he did speak, this Norwegian, and we eventually got a – halting – conversation going. Then last month, while walking out of parking garage, a passing motorist shouted out, “Hey, friendly Americans!” assuming we were. He was from Atlanta. Part of me wondered if his greeting reflected the glum responses of Europeans. I asked a good friend of mine, a German, why northerners were so reluctant to engage, at least in small talk. “They think small talk is bullshit,” he said. Yes, I said, “but if it wasn’t for small talk, I never would have met you in that bar in East Berlin so many years ago.”

You must hand it to European when it comes to being inventive. Their restaurants, coffee shops, stores, are often more creative than what we find in North America. And so too are their street hustlers! Driving out of Malaga last month and stopped for a red light, beggars dispensed with the tired and cliched squeegees common in North America, or simply holding out their hands for money. This pair entertained us as acrobats.

I have found a great website on Facebook that has video of what it’s like in the cockpit of passenger airliners during takeoffs and landings, Just Planes (photo). I spent lots of moments on the weekend watching them, flight crews in the moments just before landings and takeoffs. "Just amazing” I said over and over.

- Ron Stang, a frequent traveller, Windsor Ontario Canada

No show on first flight means return ticket also cancelled

Did you know that if you don’t take the first leg of your flight the airline will cancel the ENTIRE ticket? This is what happened to me last week. I had booked a return fare from Windsor to Malaga  Feb. 29 – April 5. That cost $1526.10 through Air Canada and a couple of European airlines. Then I changed travel plans. I had an opportunity to go to Israel on a Solidarity Mission in the wake of the Oct. 7 atrocities, something I couldn’t pass up. That meant leaving Feb. 16. In Israel I booked a separate ticket from Tel Aviv to Malaga so I’d arrive in Spain on the start date of my vacation rental. My plan was to return to Canada, on the original flight return date of April 5, using the second leg of the round trip Windsor-Malaga ticket. When I arrived at the connecting Air Canada check-in counter in Dublin, nothing doing. The staff couldn't find my booking. I showed my original confirmation through Booking.com. They had nothing in their records. They sympathized and were puzzled. They finally phoned corporate and asked about the booking and whether they could retrieve it. No. The explanation: if you don’t show up for your original flight the entire ticket, including return leg, is cancelled. Staff told me I could book a fresh ticket online on the same flight right there in the airport. I sat down, pulled out my phone, went to the Air Canada website (Booking.com didn’t seem to offer the original flight and led me to later bookings some for as much as $4000+). Air Canada, however, had that same flight, leaving in a few hours (luckily it had been delayed). There was still room on the plane, paramount since my (disabled) partner was also on the flight, booked under a separate ticket; we even got the same seats. But I was out more than $1000 when luggage was added. I couldn’t believe this and, upon arriving home, immediately contacted well known Gabor Lukacs, founder of Halifax-based Air Passenger Rights. He responded quickly, as he usually does, this time in less than an hour. “Unfortunately, I do not see a breach of contract here," he said. "I do recall AC's tariff expressly stating that if you are a no-show, then they can cancel your subsequent segments.” I also took it up with Air Canada only to read that I should dispute this with my booking agent. I called Booking.com and the agent reiterated what Lukacs had said, indicating that not taking the first leg results in cancellation of the second, as per the reservation’s fine print.

Upon the Air Canada flight arriving in Toronto – and before the final jaunt to Windsor – my partner and I had reason to stay in the aircraft after all the other passengers had left. My partner is disabled so we always leave the aircraft last (we also board among the first). Not a problem, as we were waiting for a narrow-aisle wheelchair. Several of the flight attendants came to shoot the breeze. Meanwhile, a squad of airplane cleaners came on board. There were at least a couple of dozen, their jobs to thoroughly vacuum and gather trash from the flight (photo), making fresh for the plane’s next departure in a few hours. This plane was heading back across the pond to Vienna. They were like whirling dervishes quickly cleaning the cabin. I asked a couple if there were typical flights that generated the most garbage and got varying answers, including Tokyo and London, though London (UK) came up the most!

- Ron Stang, a frequent traveller, Windsor Ontario Canada