Berlin September 2008: Arriving in Berlin-Tegel, Germany (TXL) from London-Heathrow (LHR)

06SEP08 Berlin-Tegel International, Berlin Germany (TXL)

We landed on the far runway at about 1:40p or so. It was not until 1:51p that we made it to the gate. It was cool to see plane spotters on the roof of the terminal.

I got my stuff together and made my way off the plane. As I exited, an agent asked me my name and I advised I was me. I thought it strange that there were about three security officers there as well. He said that they noticed that I was taking pictures back in Heathrow and wondered why I was doing that. I was pretty scared as this was a scary situation.

I told them that I am an airplane enthusiast and I take pictures of airplanes for my Web site. After some talk in German, they said it was fine. Quite odd as this had not happened before. My thought is that earlier when the flight attendant asked me if I was with the film crew that was onboard and I said no, he alerted the security folks. Quite weird I thought.

Outside at Immigration, they did take a little longer than usual to check out my passport. Basically, the guy checked every page thoroughly and then I was free to go.
Once outside, I contacted my friends and made my way to meet them.