The return trip from Zurich was in the morning and I was at the airport very early, so I decided to check out their observation deck that I read about on airport's website. I thought it would be some high structure away from all action. 2 Swiss Franks got me admission and having gone through security check, I was soon walking towards the deck. And walking… and walking some more, seeing some funny contraptions along the way.
After about a mile (on the top of one of the levels, so on a roof essentially), I came to the deck – which was almost right next to one of the runways. With the mountains in the background! I really missed my semi-professional camera and long lenses, but alas, with 3 overweight bags full of scuba gear, all I could pack was my little travel camera, Canon G9. The runway adjacent to the deck was used for landings and it was neat to see different names on the airplanes, compared to the familiar North American ones. They also had the radio transmitting the talk from the tower, so for a while I was back in aviation photography nirvana listening to conversations and shooting airplanes. Too soon it was time to leave least I’d be shooting my own airplane departing without me.
The weather was nice with little puffy clouds and as we climbed and turned, i could see the airport from my window.
We then flew over Zurich and Lake Zurich and headed towards the mountains. Soon afterwards, the sun was too bright to shoot anything.
Coming near Toronto, i was puzzled to see a dusty red layer immediately below the clouds. As soon as we went into that layer on descent, i realized, it must have been smog as the visibility below clouds was terrible. But it did not matter - i was home. This time for longer than a few days.
