airport fun

the joys and absurdities of inner-European air travel since early November 2006

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As you may or may not be aware, the EU has imposed a set of new hand luggage regulations which came into effect at all EU airports and in Norway, Switzerland and Iceland on 06 November 2006.

For those of you who don't have the time/patience or interest in reading the pdf document, here is a handy little graphical representation of the crucial part of the new regulations, concerning the carriage on board of liquids:

Now, leaving Cologne airport, m was well aware of the high abundance of such yellow posters that were blatantly posted all over the place in all forms and sizes (posters, flyers, leaflets - you name a printing format and chances are you can get a yellow hand luggage regulation advisory to match it!).

Nevertheless, m, who, though quite versed in the art of travelling is sometimes a bit dappy, completely unintentionally put the airport staff's patience to the test by remembering to remove her water bottle and shampoo/conditioner/shower gel from her hand luggage before checking, but not a few other crucial items....and (arguably worse still) did not place them in a see-through zip-lock bag. A good 10 minutes (and a fair few polite but firm words on the part of m) later, m was issued a long verbal explanation of what constitutes a liquid, a folded leaflet and a resealable plastic bag in which to transport...

a 75 ml tube of toothpaste

a 145 g tube of vegemite (had already been opened so was considered to fall within the 100 ml limit)

a 12 ml mascara and

one 6 ml lip gloss.

also noted as a "liquid" was a pomegranate which unfortunately did not fit into the same plastic bag and was therefore allowed to travel freely within m's hand luggage.

At this juncture, it is interesting to note that neither of the two hand creams (one in a tube, another in a jar), which m was also carrying in the same hand luggage, were ever considered as a cause for airport security staff concern. Nor was a 75ml jar of hair gel.

The long and the short of the story is that m and all her liquids and solids arrived well........except for the water bottle, which will probably never quite recover from the shock of travelling in t checked-in luggage along with the shoes, jeans and t-shirts!

afterthought....

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please note that while Cologne Airport will kindly provide you with bins in which to dispose of your liquids (and liquids only) prior to check-in, it upholds a strict no smoking policy for toddlers.