There was a storm indeed on our last day in Newfoundland: Leslie. For hours the whole island was without power and the University remained closed for the day. This is obviously nothing too extraordinary for the Newfoundlanders but it meant that my talk that was scheduled for the early afternoon was cancelled too, which I really regret.
Later, the sun came out and the wind died down and you wouldn’t believe that only shortly before, trees were felled by the storm and roofs taken off. In the evening we could board our plane to London which was rather endangered by the local airport strike than the weather.
The flight was amazing: It was the first time I took the direct route from St. John’s to London – actually we planned to take the same route in the opposite direction already going to Newfoundland but our connecting flight from Düsseldorf to London was delayed and we had to take the detour via Toronto in the end. The direct route covers a distance of about 3700 km and is scheduled for 5 hours, but actually takes only 4 and a half hours in the air. On the board computer where you can follow the flight with the indication of currently closest cities, St. John’s remained on the screen for a long time – until, when we crossed the Mid-atlantic Ridge after only about 2 hours, the readout switched to Killarney in Ireland. The flight was so short, it left me quite confused: I was used to 8 hour flights during which one sleeps, watches movies and dumps time. Here I merely slept and couldn’t finish my movie either…
To me, this was a special experience as it substantiated my thesis that the Old and New World are closer than it usually appears. 4,5 hours isn’t really a long distance flight – and yet it’s overseas.
PS: This post has no images as in all the turbulences of the last day in Newfoundland I have lost the little camera that I usually carry around…
