Flight plan

While Berlin’s Tegel airport does not positively impress, there is nothing like navigating Paris’ Charles De Galle on your way back to the District They Call Columbia to remind you what a Mickey Mouse airport Dulles is. Even with the recent expansion to IAD and the elimination of a lot of those dopy transportation modules that used to ferry you out to the gates or back from the actual aircraft, the comparison is vivid.

Here’s what I mean. CDG is the only place I’ve seen the Airbus 380 where it doesn’t absolutely dwarf everything else around it. At CDG, it looks like just another aircraft:

That’s probably because it is one freakin’ huge airport. This is just a chunk of the interior of Terminal 2E:

I did love the design, even if Air France might do a better job of managing the boarding process.

Terminal 2F was like being in an anthill after someone stirred it with a stick, both times I was passing through it. But it also had some beautiful design:

But even with all this massive space, they’ve also looked after the details:

Won’t find any of that around Dulles. Or Tegel.