Europe After a Long Time (1)

I went to Europe for work for the first time in a while. It was my first long-haul flight since going to Iran with my mother in 2019, and my first time in Europe since a work trip to Venice in 2018.

The flight routes for the outbound and return trips were completely different

Since there are no direct flights from Japan to my destination this time, I chose Lufthansa and connected within Germany. I had heard that we couldn't fly over Russia now, so we would be taking a southern route, and I simply imagined that would be the path.
However.
To my surprise, the outbound and return routes were totally different, and they were actually quite interesting, so I was excited while watching the route map (laughs).

Outbound route

After taking off from Haneda, I was looking at the map and for some reason, the plane was heading north, and even flying toward the top right of the map.
Huh? Could it be crossing the American continent?
Just as I was thinking that, the word "Anchorage" appeared on the map.
In the old days, people used to stop over in Anchorage to get to Europe. I never actually flew that way back then, though.

Of course, this time we didn't go as far as Anchorage, but the route took us over the Bering Strait. And once we passed that, the plane headed into the Arctic Ocean!

We flew over the Arctic Ocean for quite a long time. However, the weather was good and the plane didn't shake much. We arrived in Munich safely.
Even though the departure was delayed by 30 minutes, the arrival was almost on time.

Return route

I thought the return trip would also be over the Arctic Ocean, but then the captain made an announcement while we were taxiing on the runway.
We would head toward Vienna, cross over Turkey, the countries of Central Asia, Beijing, and South Korea before reaching Japan.
That's what he said.
This was another really interesting-sounding route!!
While we were flying, Mount Ararat, the Caucasus Mountains, Baku, and other places appeared on the screen, and it was a route that really got my heart racing (laughs).
And this!!!
The Tian Shan Mountains!!!!

Wow, we're over the Tian Shan Mountains. So exciting!!
Unfortunately, it was a night flight, so I couldn't see them on the live camera. But personally, just knowing I was flying over them was enough for me (laughs).

Long-haul flight

It had been quite a while since my last long-haul flight, but paying for seat selection to get an aisle seat both ways, along with these flight routes, helped distract me quite a bit.
Still, it's a long way, isn't it.