Leaving Sweden in the Snow

I left yesterday morning on a business trip from Uppsala Sweden to Gibraltar. We finally got some snow in Sweden, which is actually the first time this winter. The roads to the airport were not plowed at all, it is not too surprising since I left the house at 5am.

I was shocked to learn that no flights were cancelled or delayed. I was expecting some delays. As I was waiting to board the flight, they were clearing the snow away from the runway. The interesting part about this, since normally it would not be that interesting watching someone clear away snow, is that they actually moved all the snow away in trucks. It was not good for plans to go over “large” piles of snow.

The flight was to leave at 7:05 in the morning, which means I had to get up way too early in the morning to get to the airport. I was a little surprised when they had us board the plane actually earlier then what we would normally board if the weather was nice. I would not have been. We sat on the gate for almost 2 hours. First they had to de-ice the plane. That is expectable and not overly surprising. That took about an hour. So then we were all ready to go.

The problem occurred when the car that was to push us off the gate did not have snow tires on. So the wheels just spun around in circles. What I do not understand is why, in Stockholm of all places (if it was a freak storm in Spain, that would be a little different), the vehicles do not have proper tires. You would think that it would be kind of important, but apparently not. So there we sat, another hour on the plane waiting for a vehicle to push the vehicle that was to push the plan (confusing?).

In the end, we arrived with out any problems and that is the most important part, even if it was 2 hours late. It is just amazing to me. Swedes seem to be in shock when it actually snows in Sweden. It is almost as bad as when the English are shocked when it rains.