One of the things I will be forever grateful for when it comes to air travel is the ease in which you can move from land to land in such a short time span.
I mentioned that I flew home on TAP Air Portugal, but did not lay out the whole itinerary.
After spending Saturday night in Tel Aviv, we departed Ben Gurion (TLV) Sunday afternoon to return to Basel (BSL) on easyJet. That airport sits over both Switzerland and France and you can choose which country you enter and walk between countries on the departures levels.
We entered the French side and proceeded by car just over the German border, where my wife’s parents live.
After a nice dinner and brisk walk, I took a nap before my overnight ICE train to Frankfurt Airport.
That train departed from Basel train station, which is just over the Swiss border. The train ride was pleasant and I soon found myself checking in for my TAP flight in Frankfurt and visiting my favorite Lufthansa Business Lounge for a great cup of coffee.
Yes, there were delays on my TAP Air Portugal flights, but I made it to Lisbon and was off and on an airplane again in under an hour.
We landed in Boston, late, and after collecting my checked bag I walked over to the United terminal where I soon boarded my 6.5-hour final journey to Los Angeles.
Despite the lack of lie-flat seating, I slept through most of the flight and was thankful for my upgrade had cleared.
Upon landing at LAX, I braved heavy traffic even at the late hour, arrived home, and quickly fell asleep in my own bed.
CONCLUSION
Sounds exhausting doesn’t it? And yet this is what I love so much about travel. In less than a 48 hour period I enjoyed lunch in Tel Aviv, dinner in Basel, breakfast in Frankfurt, lunch over the Atlantic, and dinner over the USA, arriving home after a 8,938 mile trip.
Last week on Monday/Tuesday I had Breakfast in Pakistan, lunch over Iran, dinner in the streets of Qatar, Breakfast in Paris, lunch over the Azores (in Business Class with my family thanks to 4 SWU’s), and dinner in a Centurion Lounge in Miami, with a midnight snack on my flight to Atlanta. My routing was Islamabad-Doha-Paris-Miami-Atlanta over 50 hours.
Late this week I have:
– Dinner in Chicago Sunday
– flying JAL biz connecting through Narita onwards to Bangkok
– 2 nights in Bangkok
– Connecting on to Colombo Sri Lanka.
“That airport sits over both Switzerland and France”
No, I believe the airport is 100% in France. But there is an agreement for it to be a bi-national airport.
I wonder if it was considered a german airport aswell being the aiport of Freiburg.
Airport is not 100% in France. There is a border wall on the arrivals level and a highway leading to Basel that is considered part of Switzerland.
Correct.
But the airport is 100% on French soil…
Wikipedia writes:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EuroAirport_Basel_Mulhouse_Freiburg#International_status
“The airport is located completely on French soil; however, it has a Swiss customs area connected to Basel by a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) long customs road, thus allowing air travelers access into Switzerland bypassing French customs clearance”
“Though the whole airport is on French soil and under French jurisdiction, the Swiss authorities have the authority to apply Swiss laws regarding customs, medical services and police work in the Swiss section, including the customs road connecting Basel with the airport.”
So yes it is like being in Switzerland with the border wall and the highway leading to Basel.
Geneva airport is also fully on swiss soil and the French sector can almost act like being in France.
I understand your point.
Geographically speaking, EuroAirport is completely located on French territory (though much closer to Basel than Mulhouse). But its status is defined by a bilateral convention established between France and Switzerland (drafted in 1946, ratified in 1949). At the time, the French agreed to provide the land and the Swiss to cover the costs of building the airport. As a matter of consequence, there is a Swiss customs area connected to Basel by customs road, which, technically, belong to the Basel-Stadt canton and Switzerland. The airport is operated jointly by the two countries (and german participation, since the airport serves also Freiburg, consists in the involvement of 2 advisors to the board).
Used to love this airport back in the ’90s. That was the golden era of Swissair and Crossair, the airport was really booming. I think it has declined a lot in the 21st century… but it still remains a useful gateway to a a very interesting and beautiful greater region (Alsace, Basel, Freiburg am Breisgau and the Black Forest).
Some years ago, I read of a case of a businessman, who had a two days off from work. He decided to take a 25,000 round trip, around the world, utilizing various airlines and stopping at major cities around the globe. He never left the various airports that he stopped at, but after a number of changes on several different airlines, he made it back home, after about 36 hours. He stated “I’ll have to decide what I’ll do when I have some additional days off, next week”.
Everyone … please don’t book any connections @ Lisbon that are less than 3 hours … my checked bags are still somewhere between TAP and American from Monday– I think they may have hit ORD today … American (the last carrier on my weather diverted / delayed unintentional extended trek) have been super helpful in tracking them down though. Kudos to American.
@Matthew I hope you will do trip reports for all of these flights.
I will!