Stranded!

I should be at home now, sipping coffee and writing about my 4 day visit to Berlin with my eldest son. Instead I am writing this from Berlin as I am one of the millions of people affected by the closure of European airspace.

On Saturday morning I hugged my son farewell at the Hauptbahnhopft and waved him off as his train left for Hanover. When away from home a rarely bother with newspapers or even TV news, so I was blissfully unaware that a big volcano in Iceland was about to spoil my day.

It was still early but I decided to spend a few leisurely hours out at the airport before flying home. The first problem came when I discovered there was no U-Bahn service out the airport. I got as far as I could then waited for a tube train that would never come. I saw 2 other blokes on the platform who appeared to be having the same problem. Bob and Frank, were in Berlin with their wives and were making their way to the airport. Their lack of both luggage and wives did seem a bit odd.

Eventually we found a bus that would take us the remainder of the journey.

'Is your plane flying then?' said Bob in a Scouse accent.

'I hope so,' I said laughing.

'Don't you know what's happened?' Bob went on and then continued to tell me how a cloud of volcanic ash had grounded all planes over Britain for the last 3 days.

We made our way to the airport at Shonefeld expecting information and help from Easyjet. Bob, Frank and their wives were booked on the same flight as me.

On arrival at the airport every flight on the departures list was cancelled. There was an Easyjet information desk but the besieged staff had abandoned their posts days ago, leaving only a phone number to ring. There were people tapping away wildly at the computers used by the staff who book you in and weigh your luggage. It soon became apparent that these were not staff, but travellers like me, desperate for information. The lunatics had taken over the asylum.

There was nothing to do but join them. The Easyjet website very kindly invited me to log in and change my flight. Great, now we're in business. Except it wouldn't recognise my details and asked for a password I don't recall creating. Frank and Bob had the same problem.

Rumours began to circulate of vouchers being available for hotels and some people were making headway by talking to someone at Easyjet on the 2 phones left unattended at the service desk. After a long queue Frank got through to a real person and accepted new flights. He passed the phone to me and I quickly explained that I wanted the same. I got the last seat available on a flight back to Liverpool.

That flight is not until Thursday.

The man on the phone said I should book into a hotel and keep the receipt. Unwilling to return to central Berlin I made my way to the nearest chain hotel and booked in. When I arrived the cost was 79 euros for the night. I took a short walk that confirmed my suspicion that I was in the middle of nowhere and when I returned I noticed the hotel price had risen by 10 euros.

When I awoke this morning it was clear that nothing had changed overnight and I should abandon any hope of getting home soon. I don't trust Easyjet to reimburse my stay at the hotel and after all of this they may not even exist. I checked out of the hotel and made my way back to Berlin city centre.

I believe it is traditional in my situation to try to escape to Switzerland. But I won't fare any better there. I could strike out west and head for a ferry from either Belgium or Holland. Even if I do that my car is still in Liverpool.

Arriving back at the Hauptbahnhopft any ideas of escape were finally crushed. The station was a sea of tourists and huge queues for the ticket offices. It's not chaos as Germany doesn't do chaos. Dejected people were sitting around talking into mobile phones, all having conversations about escape. Stepping outside the station into the bright sunshine the TV crews were at work recording this human drama.

I am one of the lucky ones. The world will not end if this particular gapper is a few days late getting home. So I made my way back the youth hostel and booked myself back in. I put my washing in the machine and settled down for a few more days in Berlin.

I may get home on Thursday or I may not. I miss my son. Apart from anything else I have relied on his grasp of German to get by. But I do know how to order beer in German and if you're going to be stranded somewhere then it might as well be a place where the beer is some of the best in the world.

Prost!