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Old September 12th, 2013, 03:24 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Gregory Morrow[_204_]
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Posts: 17
Default on the subject of airports..

Martin wrote:

On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 22:00:36 +0200, Tom P wrote:



On 11.09.2013 14:11, Martin wrote:


On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:59:32 +0200, Giovanni Drogo


wrote:




On Wed, 11 Sep 2013, Tom P wrote:




which reminds me of what happened to me some years back. I leave the


house one morning, walk over to the car in the driveway and this


police car...




not about airports, but still travel ... did I never tell this story ?




In the '80s I used to travel a lot Italy to Germany and vv. using night


trains (sleepers, I usually booked a T3 but was almost always alone).


Normally there were no border checks, but once in or around Basel I was


waken up by a couple of German police (and older and a younger one) who


were doing luggage inspection.




I had in my luggage a chestnut cake my mother did (you boil chestnuts,


pass them, mix with a bit of butter, cocoa or chocolate and a bit of


cognac or rhum) ... in the form of a ball of a light brown paste wrapped


in aluminium foil :-)




They wanted to know (very politely) what is was, and I said it was a


Kastanienkuche. The older one wanted to know how was it named (!) in


Italian. I said it had no specific names. He insisted on knowing a


"generic" name, so I said "dolce di castagne". Then, addressing the


younger colleague, he smiled and said "it is as I told you". Then they


wished me good night and left.




In the 1970s I was in a car that drove from Germany into Austria


without any border control. In Austria one of the other three


passengers found he had forgotten his passport in a hotel in Germany.


Returning to Germany there was a control. The driver a German gave


three passports, including his own and his driving license to the


German policeman/border guard. After scrutinising the driving licence


and the passports, he started to wave us on and then stopped us. He


told the driver that he had to wear his spectacles, when driving. The


controller turned to his young colleague and told him that it was


meticulous work like this that had got him early promotion.


first




Back in the 90s I had the illustrious job of flying to Vladivostok as


a computer specialist. At the time, Vladivostok was still a military


security area, and I needed a special permit as foreigner to enter the


city. Our customer wanted to treat us to a high quality lunch, but the


only place with any good food was the KGB headquarters. The solution was


to smuggle me into the building - we went in a large group, and I had to


"borrow" a passport from a Russian who wasn't going along. We gathered


all the passports together, the guard counted the passports, counted the


heads, and let us all in as a group. Needless to say, I had to keep my


mouth shut.




I hope the meal was good. :-)



When Khrushchev was touring San Francisco on his 1959 US tour a reporter asked, "How many subs do you have?.

"I'd tell you the strength of our submarine fleet but you would only say I was bragging. Don't worry, we now use our submarines to catch herring."

"Is your herring fleet concentrated in Vladivostok?", asked the reporter.

"Herrings are not pigs",K. replied,"You can't breed them where you want to. You have to catch them where they are...".

--
Best
Greg