Travelling by charter plane (or how to avoid Ryanair)

The OAE had a fantastic experience earlier this week travelling on our very own charter plane to Germany for a performance in Baden-Baden.  Baden-Baden’s closest airport is Karlsruhe (about 20 mins away), which is served by Ryanair from Stansted twice a day – which would mean either leaving Stansted at 7am (eeek – a 5am check-in) or 7pm (whoops, we’ll miss the concert), also we all know what orchestras feel about travelling on Ryanair with their notorious baggage rules and restrictions… So, erm not a practical option.  Other options would have been to fly to Frankfurt then endure a 2 hour drive, or perhaps Stuttgart or Strasbourg (both at least 1 hourr away) and not necessarily with the right place sizes or flight times to suit out schedule. How different and exhausting the journey would have been had we not had the privilege of our own plane!