After just returning from a series of eye clinics in Albania, I will share a few thoughts on the sights seen outside the window from over 34,000 feet as I made my way back on a long transatlantic sojourn. This was the second set of clinics I have worked in Albania.

My transatlantic journey began too early at a crowded Nënë Tereza Airport just to the northwest of Tirana.  The first of three flights involved in my return to Oregon was scheduled for 0600.  Another colleague was flying to Rome at 0530, so we shared a cab. We left our hotel out in the western Albanian countryside near Durrës at 0330.  This coming after our last day of clinics. In an unheated building, we saw over 700 patients in Kukës, Albania, three hours north of where we were staying close to the border with Kosovo.

PREPARATION

The general lack of sleep and the number of patients finally caught up with me. It tends to on many of these trips. The cold temperatures involved in the last day conspired with the other factors. Luckily not Covid, but a normal cold was on its way.  During the return van trip from Kukës my throat swelled creating nervous tension for the next day’s long trip.

Medicine and three hours of sleep seemed to mollify conditions somewhat the next morning.  The two of us both experienced in long-distance travel, each had Priority Pass cards. These allowed us a quick breakfast in a Business Lounge away from the chaos of a full airport lobby below.  Our taxi driver told us on the trip over it was good to be flying early. Many of the roads to the airport would be closed later. The French president Macron was due to fly into Albania later in the day.

TAKE OFF

boarding process

We both boarded our respective flights.  Mother Teresa Airport is relatively small as far as international airports in European countries go, but so is Albania.  Passengers deplane directly onto the tarmac and walk into the terminal.  To board flights, everyone gets on a bus. Then, a short ride to the planes lined up on the north side of the terminal.  When you get on a bus, all semblance of boarding by group, whether it is by first class, business class, Worldwide Mileage plan or whatever. It is all thrown out the window.

First on the bus means first to seat on the plane.  In the world of increasing costs to fly, this is an important factor because airlines like to charges for bags you check.  The fight is for space in the overhead spaces.  Not always can one use the bin directly over your seat since someone else has beaten you.  That would prove to be a big problem for the person sitting directly behind me.  He chose a bin several seats in front thinking of picking up the bag as he got off the plane.  That hope would founder terribly when we reached our destination in Frankfurt.

onwards to germany

Everyone seated, the Lufthansa plane – a first leg of my transatlantic journey – departed on time, just as the mullahs must have begun the first call to prayer with the first rays of sunshine beginning to peer over the mountains to the east.  Departing to the south, the plane made a sharp turn to the north. We flew directly over our hotel with the lights of the port city of Durrës gleaming to the left.

I had a window seat on each of the three flights – one of which being the transatlantic part of the long journey – this day.  I enjoy seeing the world as we whiz over it.  Sights seen introduce new learning possibilities.  Being fairly short at 5 foot 7 inches, the need for the aisle is not as essential.  Lack of sleep and a thick layer of clouds below allowed me to drift off into slumberas the plane rushed northward to its German homebase.

ALPINE GLORY

mountains worthy of a flag

Suddenly I awakened to early morning sunlight glistening off what I recognized as the Karawanke of Slovenia.  In the several flights I have taken over the Alps, the weather has never relented for me to take in the majesty of the mountain magnificence.  This early morning finally became the exception.

I have hiked in various mountain ranges of Slovenia on three different occasions, usually spending most of my time in the Julian Alps.  But I have also wandered up into the Karawanke and atop Grintovec further east in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps.  Sure enough, the morning sunlight lit up the early winter snows on Grintovec.

There in front of the window, the sharp peak of Kepa – Mittagskogel in German – shined on the west end of the Karawanke.  And far below lie the snowy fields of Zgornja Radovna and the three valleys coming down to the east off the massive peak of Triglav, Slovenia’s tallest peak. Sure enough, the peak itself soon showed its rugged top gleaming in the early morning rays.

land of edlewiess

Then it was on past Austria’s highest peak, the Großglockner.  To the north, the mountain walls of the Dachstein and the Steinernes Meer also visible in the early frosty morning.

Next, the cold waters of the Eissee dark against the snows of the Hohe Tauern, capped by the Großvenediger just to the north.

Finally, the steep snowclad walls of the Karwendelgeberge showed themselves, Innsbruck lying far below hidden by clouds which covered the landscape for the most part of the journey into Frankfurt.

TEUTONIC INTERLUDE

Dropping through the clouds, the skyscrapers of the financial center of Frankfurt lit up an otherwise dreary, rainy December morning. Suddenly we met the counterpart to Nënë Tereza Airport in the huge central airport of Europe, Frankfurt International.

SCENES PREVIOUSLY NOTED

Ahh, Frankfurt.  Here I first landed in late October 1982, my first international and first transatlantic flight.  I remember the red tile roofs we flew over on our final approach.  The airport then was divided – much like the airport in Portland – between the large civilian airport on the north and a military airport on the south.  At that time, Rhein-Main Airforce Base took up the grounds of the south side of the runways here at Frankfurt.  It was to Rhein-Main where I disembarked from my nice seat in the upper lounge of the TWA 747 coming over from St Louis.  In those times, it was not uncommon for your transatlantic flight to be delayed because of war games over the North Sea.

Luggage, all intertwined with lookalike duffel bags, came out together after the long transatlantic flight.  Good luck finding your name and bag.  My assignment originally was a health clinic in Hanau – about five miles to the east of the airport.  However, upon landing, I was informed by a first lieutenant and a first sergeant, my new assignment was thirty miles to the east in a town called Bad Kreuznach.  The change in assignments resulted from a long and interesting story which took me a while to piece together.  All in all, Bad Kreuznach – “BK” to Americans – turned out to be a very nice place to experience and learn about Germany from.

RENEWAL

The airport has grown quite a bit since 1982.  Americans are gone now from the south side. The airbase turned over to low-cost housing from what I was told, though today it appears to be the site for another terminal with mostly African country planes parked nearby.

Air traffic has increased dramatically, as well.  The design of the airport has suffered in the intervening years.  Unlike some of the busy airports in the US, Frankfurt International does not have the opportunity of open space.  Traffic increases and political regulations change – increased security for flights to the US; Schengen versus non-Schengen flights – make connecting flights difficult to reach for passengers and bags.

INBOUND EXPERIENCES

There are only so many gates planes can use.  My transatlantic flight in from Seattle on this trip saw us on a Lufthansa A 340-300.  Instead of a gate to come into to, we disembarked onto the tarmac and then into a bus.  From the rear of an A340-300, it takes a while in the best of circumstances.  The hour and a half I had to catch my next flight to Tirana looked to be in jeopardy as I waited for people to get off the plane ahead of me.

Reaching the terminal on the bus, I then had to go upstairs, downstairs all in order to catch another bus to another terminal.  Walking rather quickly, I reached my gate just as my last flight to Tirana was boarding. 

Of course, boarding the plane meant another bus to take us to the far west reaches of the airport not far from where the inbound transatlantic flight from Seattle had landed.  If one was new to the airport, it is easy to see how flights can be missed with all the wandering about needed to be done, especially if new to international travel.  I made it, but when I got to Tirana, of course, my bag did not, showing up nine hours later requiring another drive out to the airport.

A great quote comes from the flyertalk website: “Just follow the signs. Don’t think. Don’t apply logic. Just follow the sign. You will get to your destination. You might have to go through security 2-3 times, customs, passport control, tunnels, escalators, elevators, stairs and you feel that you have just walked to your final destination. But under no circumstances try to make sense of it. You will only get lost.”

GLOBAL ENTRY WON’T HELP YOU HERE

On this day, our incoming flight from Tirana appeared to actually be arriving at a gate.  We might not have to get off on the tarmac?  Well, the gate was for Schengen traffic – planes flying back and forth between EU countries.  Albania is not a member of the European Union – one of the reasons for president Macron’s visit.  That meant instead of a jetway docking with the forward doors to the plane, we needed to descend onto the tarmac to catch a bus.  And we had to exit through the rear door.  Here came the problem for the poor fellow sitting behind me.

People all jumped up into the aisle as soon as we landed.  If you were sitting in a window seat, good luck.  In many countries, row by row departure is not a feature of travel.  It is simply a matter of being first.  Everyone was in the aisle and there was no way the fellow behind could get forward to grab his bag.  Plus, it seemed to take forever for people to realize they needed to exit through the rear of the cabin.

Finally, after about thirty minutes, the fellow gave up realizing he could not buck ahead to reach his bag.  He got up and joined the slow stream of passengers making their way rearward.  Reaching the exit, he described his problem to the flight attendant saying he only had an hour to make his connecting flight to New York.  She shrugged her shoulders and pointed at the solid stream of passengers saying, “What can I do?”

ANERICA BOUND

Disembarking to the tarmac, we got on a bus taking us to another terminal.  Here, since most of us were flying transatlantic to the US, we had to go through a new round of security.  Global Entry cards are no good here and the shoes and belts come off everyone.  Security behind, I made my way to my next flight.

For transatlantic flights to the US, the first thing you need to do is have ticket agents check your passports and possibly vaccination records.  They mark your boarding pass, and you then wait for the flight boarding.  Here, unlike in the US – even with Lufthansa – there are no groups beyond first and business class.  Everyone else just gets in a long line not obvious at first.  By the time it is obvious, the line is very long.

IF YOU CAN’T CHANGE YOUR FATE, CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE

Who you sit next to on a plane, especially a long flight like a transatlantic one, can make or break a flight.  I have had the pleasure of sitting next to many fascinating people.  Many are quiet, which is fine.  A few are obnoxious.  That is a problem on a long ten-hour transatlantic ride – one hour shorter going the other way. 

A somewhat large girl from Ankara was sitting in my seat with a couple of very large bags laid out on the floor and both seats.  She showed definite disappointment when I noted she was in my seat.  But she moved reluctantly to her seat on the aisle – this is another A 340-300 plane.

We talked briefly about Turkey, Ankara and Istanbul.  It seemed she was working in Bellevue, Washington and had been home to visit family in Ankara.  She proceeded to show me many pictures of food she had eaten at restaurant in Istanbul and of her at and atop the Galata Tower.  After hearing I was from Portland, she gave the opinion that Portland was a boring town. She then complained about the small size of the seats. This being accentuated by the fellow in the seat ahead of us. He already laid back his seat as far as he could.  She would quickly put on her eye mask and try to make up for lost sleep for the rest of the transatlantic flight.  Occasionally, she would push herself over into my seat which with her size was not what I desired at all.

TRANSATLANTIC

Seat fellow aside, a book and a window can make the time go by quickly.  Plus, the flight map worked on this transatlantic flight – it had not on my outward Lufthansa transatlantic flight from Seattle.  This way, with the window, I could gain an idea of what and where I was along the way.

We took off – it was still raining – to the west turning over the Rhine just south of Mainz.  A little further to the west and I would have gained a glance at Bad Kreuznach, but it was not to be recrossing the Rhine near Ingelheim as the plane made its way to the northwest on its great circle route.

Great Circle routes take the plane far into the north.  If you are going to the eastern US, your transatlantic flights flies over water much of the time. It will reach land in the area of Newfoundland or Labrador depending on how far west your American destination is.  The transatlantic route to Seattle took us almost as far north as Iceland.  Originally, our transatlantic flight plan showed a route over the North Sea, but probably because of air traffic in Amsterdam, we flew further west over the islands at the mouth of the Rhine River with the sands of the long Dutch coastline visible to the north. Looking carefully, even a couple of flights coming and going from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam being visible.

UNITED KINGDOM FROM 34,000 FEET

Onward over England we flew, coming in over East Anglia south of Norwich.  Flying just west of The Wash, the original Boston lie somewhere below hard to make out through the clouds.  Then it was up the middle of England passing over the cooling towers of the West Burton Power Stations with Gainsborough beyond.  The power station is scheduled to switch from coal to – after deactivation and demolition – become England’s first prototype fusion energy plant.

The Yorkshire Dales and Northern Penines were occasionally visible as the plane flew northwest into Scotland.  Ben Lui and Ben Cruachan both stood out with their early winter coats.  Then over Loch Linnhe making its cut separating the Highlands from southern Scotland.  Over the southern part of the island of Lismore, I noted the edge of Oban where I earlier made a ferry trip over to the island of Mull where the family clan originated.  A quick glance towards Loch Aline before normal Scottish conditions took hold below.  A brief view of the Outer Hebrides finished our Scottish tour as we headed out beginning the real transatlantic part of our journey high over an ocean covered in clouds.  Time to read.

GREENLANDIC GLORY

Our transatlantic flight was scheduled originally to cross over Iceland, but revised, we made our way further to the south.  My literary pleasures were interrupted as we made landfall over eastern Greenland.  Like the Alps, when flying over Greenland in the past, clouds usually block the view.  This time, glorious late afternoon sunshine bathed the rugged mountainous terrain indented with numerous fjords with hundreds of islets and icebergs all just offshore.  I am not positive as to the local time when we passed over the coast, but daylight looked to be coming to a quick end.

EASTERN MAGIC

Most of Greenland’s 56,000+ population live in small towns gathered along the western coastline.  Just to the south of where we crossed over the coast, the largest centers of people live in villages centered on islands just offshore.  This was the former center of the east Greenland County of Tunu until 2009 when it was amalgamated into the new municipality of Sermersooq – translation:  place of much ice.  This put the easterners into the same as the people of Nuuk, Greenland’s capital located across the ice cap on the west coast. Spread around – mostly viewed only from the other side of the plane – are six small communities of which only Tasiilaq has over a thousand people making it Greenland’s seventh largest.  The other communities gather together only one to slightly over two hundred.

Even though Tasiilaq is the municipality seat there is no airport here, only a helipad to connect to the area’s sole runway at Kulusuk – – population 241 – some 15 miles away.  That runway is an old runway developed in 1956 by the US Air Force to support a Distant Early Warning radar station.  The station closed back in 1991 while the runway provides the only outside contact with planes flying to Nuuk and Iceland.  Some thought has gone into closing the airport here since most of the population lives over in Tasiilaq – you get there on the one Air Greenland helicopter – but for now, this is East Greenland’s main entry point.

weather complications

Flying in Greenland is an adventure in of itself.  Weather is simply the problem whether fog – constant – or storms.  Here on the east coast is something called piteraqs which blow down the coast on occasion. 

Piteraqs are katabatic winds falling from higher elevations carrying higher density air – result of the extreme cold found over the ice sheets – due to gravity.  Katabatic winds are common in both Greenland and Antarctica due to the huge, elevated ice sheets.  The winds bring air temperatures dependent from the source region, here being the ice cap above to the west.  Katabatic winds can also bring warm air downhill which can become hot by the time sea level is reached. 

Examples of the warm katabatics include the Santa Ana winds of the fall in southern California or the Bora found along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia.  These winds are different from the Föhn of the Alps or the Chinooks of western North America which also roar downhill but are result from rain shadows – air moving up against a windward side of a mountain range deposits moisture on that side descending the leeward side warmer and drier.

icebergs, fjords and mountains

Flying over the coast, a large fjord to the north, the Kangertittivatsiaq, was in view in the shadows of the short day. Kangertittivatsiaq is not to be confused with the larger Kangertittivaq – Scoresby Fjord – Greenland’s largest fjord.  Soon after, we flew over the northern end of Greenland’s second largest fjord, the Sermilik. Some of its feeding glaciers tumbling out of the mountains from the ice cap seen beyond. 

In Danish times before Greenland gained some political autonomy, the whole region was known as Kong Christian IX Land. The area named after the long reigning Danish king who at the beginning of his rule lost Schleswig, Holstein and Lauenburg to combined German armies of Prussia and Austria-Hungary after the Second Schleswig War in 1864 – the first event leading to German unification under Prussia.

WORLD OF THE DEAD

Tumbling into one of the heads of the Sermilik Fjord is the gigantic Helheim Glacier. This is one of the larger glaciers coming off the ice cap.  Helheim is the Norwegian world of the Dead. The name seemed somewhat appropriate for the view out the window of the plane flying over 36,000 feet above. This glacier is one studied by NASA and others researching climate change effects on the ice cap. The ice cap rises up in the north and west to over 9,000 feet in about twenty miles.

For the next 300 miles, the plane crosses the Greenland ice cap.  Clouds and low sun obscure the scene for the most part.  A full moon peers in from the horizon to the north, for me, a totally unexpected direction. 

The plane’s map shows our transatlantic flight crossing Greenland’s west coast near Ilulissat, the third largest town in the country with 4,670 people.  The town lies on the east shore of Disko Bay at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The bay is fed by icebergs calving off the end of fast moving Jakobshavn Glacier.  Like Helheim, Jakobshavn is the site of studies of possible climate change effects.

NEW TERRITORIES

NUNAVUT – INUIT HOMELAND

Another 400 miles takes the transatlantic flight across the cloudy ice filled Baffin Bay where we cross over the icy mountains on Baffin Island just north of the community of Clyde River – Kanngiqtugaapik in the local language “nice little inlet”.  The plane has reached just above 70° north, the farthest we go today.  Now, a long descent begins back towards the sun lying in the southwest.  It is the beginning of a long night up here.

Weather obscures an otherwise featureless tundra below for the next hour or so as we cross the new Canadian territory of Nunavut.

some facts

Quick facts:  both Nunavut and Greenland cover over two million square kilometers of ground though some of that figure for Nunavut includes water – land is 1,939,113 square km; both have tiny populations – Greenland 57,792 Nunavut 39,589 – 8,284 live in the capital of Nunavut – Iqaluit – on the southern part of Baffin Island 21% of Nunavut’s total while 18,800 live in Nuuk, capital of Greenland 33% of the total.

More facts: Greenland has a significant amount of self-rule – foreign policy still is held by Denmark though Greenland, once part of the EU with Denmark has withdrawn over EU fishing quotas; Nunavut was created in 1999 out of the former much larger Northwest Territories – the new territory is about 85% Inuit; Western Greenlandic and Inuktitut languages are relatively similar with a lot of loan words from Danish in Greenland and English in Inuktitut – Nunavut’s official Inuit language; some of the most remote and largest national parks are found in the two regions – the world’s largest national park lies in northeastern Greenland encompassing 46% of the country with no services.

REVISED NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

Passing over a clouded Nunavut, the transatlantic plane moves into the revised region of the Northwest Territories. We fly across the southern shores of the Great Slave Lake.  This truly massive lake, Canada’s second largest, is fed by the Peace River. The Peace comes out of the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia.  The lake’s outlet is also the birthplace of the McKenzie River.

The McKenzie flows far to the northwest to ebb into the Arctic Ocean at about the 69°north latitude mark.  The entire watershed is North America’s second largest after the Mississippi covering ground in five Canadian provinces and territories – British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Yukon and Northwest Territories.  Well over two thirds of the McKenzie’s flow comes out of the Great Slave Lake.

slaves only to weather

Slave really has no relation to slavery.  The word comes from the name given to the local inhabitants – the Dene – by Native Americans to the south – the Cree.  Slave is used for Slave River, Lesser Slave River and both the Great and Lesser Slave Lakes.  There have been recent thoughts on changing the name to something less disparaging.  The lake is Canada’s second largest lake fully inside Canada after Great Bear Lake to the north. Both lakes feed into the McKenzie River.  Lakes Superior and Huron would rate as the two largest, but they are shared with the US.

While it is second largest, Great Slave Lake is the deepest lake not only in Canada but in North America – 2,014 feet/614 meters.  It is also tenth largest in the world by area.  On the north shore of the lake is Yellowknife, the capital of the Territories.

YESTERDAY AND TODAY

The Territories used to be much larger when the Canadian Federation came into being in 1870.  Alberta and Saskatchewan formed out of the Territories.  Large sections were added to the provinces of Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec, as well.  In addition to the more recent cleavage of Nunavut, the Yukon Territory also separated from the NWT. 

Like in Nunavut, most of the population is native peoples, here being termed First Nations by Canada.  Inuit peoples do make up about 11% of the population here as well as 87% of Nunavut.  There are eleven official languages in the province – three are Inuit languages, six First Nations tongues (Dené, Cree and four different Athabascan languages) plus English and French, though English is by far the most spoken – 78%.  Like in Greenland and Nunavut, Yellowknife makes up a large percentage of the territorial population – 20,340 out of a total 45,605 for the whole of the Territories – 45%.

WORLD’S BEST LICENSE PLATE

One noticeable thing seen occasionally in the States is the distinctive license plates of vehicles traveling south from the Arctic north.  Since 1970 – the centenary of the territory – the shape of the plate is that of a polar bear.

Heading south from Great Slave Lake, the many lakes of the taiga countryside of the Territories becomes obvious.  It is here that many of the geese who winter outside my house come up to in the summer.  One look out the window is enough to know why they come south.  Many are fairly shallow like the fairly large Buffalo Lake drained to the north by the Buffalo River.

ALBERTA IS CALLING ME

So goes the main refrain in the forgotten official provincial song of Alberta, the next province along the way. When frozen Margaret Lake comes into view, you know the plane is now crossing into the northern Alberta.  The lake lies in the heart of the vast Caribou Mountains Wildlife Provincial Park – largest protected area within the Alberta provincial system. It sits adjacent to the west of the large Wood Buffalo National Park.  The small airfield run by the Little Red River Cree Nation is visible at the end of the lake. The taiga begins to disappear as the plane reaches the Peace River.  A large tributary of the Slave, the Peace mixes in a few miles north where the Slave River originates. That river serves as the outlet for Lake Athabasca at itsthe west end.  Here, farms appear in large clusters north and south of the Peace. 

fur routes

This country is among the coldest in the country.  Below is the small hamlet of Fort Vermilion, the oldest European settlement in Alberta.  It began as a trading post in 1788 of the North West Company – the Canadian-run fur company from Montreal.  After the company merged with the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1821, it was run by the HBC.  The home of the Chief Factor – Old Bay House – remains as part of the Fort Vermilion National Historic Site.

Downstream a few miles lie Vermilion Falls. This is the sixth widest in the world. It is the largest waterfall lying entirely in Canada – Niagara is larger by flow but is shared with the US. It is visible from the other side of the airplane, but I am not going anywhere.

Making river transportation even more difficult are the Vermilion Rapids one- and three-quarter miles upstream.  During high-water, flat-bottomed boats can manage the falls – normally dropping 15-25 feet in height.  All other times, a five-mile portage trail on the south bank of the river must be taken.

LAST FRONTIER

All of the farming lands seen – covered in snow, of course – represent one of the last large homesteading migrations in North America.  3,500,000 federal acres were opened a bit at a time starting in 1912.  The chance for 160 acres for ten dollars brought people in from North America and Europe. 

It certainly is not the Willamette Valley. Horrible trails, mosquitoes, isolation and extreme winters lasting from November until May made life very difficult.  Many veterans returned to Canada after World War 1 taking up a Soldier Settlement quarter section.  The Soldier Settlement Act of 1917 and 1919 was similar to other Commonwealth country programs for returning veterans. Much of the initial areas settled were further upriver which the plane will get to next.  Here, near Fort Vermilion, the latter settlers came.

I had always wondered about why there was a road network on road maps of Alberta with small, isolated networks far to the north. Now I know why.

Mennonites and the

To the west around La Crete, Mennonites came in the 1930’s. Farms on the south side of the Peace River could only be reached by ferry or ice bridge at La Crete.  Supposedly, the Mennonite community here is the only one created north of the Knack Zoat line. Knack Zoat translates to sunflower seeds in Platdeutsch, the language used by most Mennonites. Temperatures here don’t allow sunflowers to grow, presumably, according to The Daily Bonnet, a self-described satirical Mennonite newsite.

After 1974, a bridge connected the south bank just west of Fort Vermilion. A highway then extended southwest to the La Crete area.  The road on the north side – Alberta Highway 58 – went west. This road connected with the McKenzie Highway. This, the main highway linking all of the Peace River area, as well as the Northwest Territories to southern Canada. Roads in the north of Canada are modern additions to a hard lifestyle.

Taiga forest return to the view with a slim section of farms centered around the town of Manning.  Then the town of Peace River signals the main region of Peace River farms. These farms extend west into northern British Columbia at Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.  To the south, in Alberta, Grande Prairie serves as a southern border. A boreal forest of 60+ miles separate the northern homesteads from the main Albertan farmlands just beginning outside of Edmonton. 

CASCADIA

And it is near here the clouds begin to mar the scene below.  Except for a brief view of Kamloops, late fall storms off the Pacific have rolled into the Rockies and Cascades.  Nothing but clouds until touchdown at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Clearing customs and immigration, I give my bag to the people at the connecting flight counter. Then I go to board my last flight, a short hop on Alaska Airlines – 35 minutes – to Portland.  It will take my bag several more days, however, to make the same journey.  The Lufthansa desk in Tirana used the right number for the Alaska flight. But they used the wrong letter code for the airline – APP instead of AS.  The short flight was quick.  Even with the ground covered with clouds, the Cascade volcanoes stuck out high above – Rainier, Adams and St Helens. 

All in all, the transatlantic flight offered up education into Arctic geography and history. Also, new insights into Canada, Greenland and the beauty of the Alps revealed in their wintry glory. Plenty of reasons to ask for a window seat.