Frankfurt

After spending all day Friday flying from Seattle to Frankfurt, I had to spend all day Saturday adjusting to the new time zone. Germany is 9 hours ahead of Seattle, so I had to adjust from normal sleeping time to vacation eating time. Craig did allow me one nap at something like 4 in the afternoon. He says I slept well over one hour, but I believe he is mistaken. He often is when he calculates how much sleep I get at any given time.

Anyway, upon arrival in Frankfurt, the anticipation of seeing my husband for the first time in over 6 months was getting the best of me. I scurried off the plane, curious as to where I should go next and appreciated that I figured out a long time ago to follow the crowd, especially when you all got off the same plane. The simple theory there is that most travellers have baggage and it is all going to the same place anyway, right? Well, this applies with international flights as well, especially since I had no clue what the process would be with customs. With customs, speak only when spoken to, provide the minimal amount of information, and don't make some smart comment. It will get you in trouble. We all deplaned and boarded a bus that took us to the terminal. I guess this is some security feature. Or maybe the terminals don't allow for the big planes to get up close and personal. Fortunately for me, this isn't Japan, so I didn't have to deal with the vehicles on the Left side of the road.

After getting off the bus, I followed the throngs of passengers as if I knew exactly what I was doing anyway and tromped up the stairs, even though the escalator was right next to me. I was climbing the stairs faster than the escalator. Meanwhile, I was trying not to break into a sprint, since I knew I wouldn't see Craig until after I collected my bag and got through Customs. Passport Control was a breeze. There are 2 types of passengers in Germany: EU or Non-EU. I am Non-EU and stood in the slowest line possible. All I got when I got up to the desk was, "Allo!" That was it. No questions, no smirking, nothing. E-Z.

Baggage was interesting. I followed the other passengers and stood there, wringing my hands, watching the luggage as it came up to the carousel. The most interesting thing that I noticed was that the belt would stop (stopping all the bags behind it) and wait for an open spot on the carousel. Once the empty spot came into view, the bag was appropriately pushed forward to land in that void. After careful observation, I noticed the two huge "eyes" to the right of the chute and surmised that these communicate with the belt and activate it at the correct time. Slick, huh? Sure, except that my enormous bag was still deposited on top of another bag. Which meant that I struggled to force it off of the belt without also removing the bag of a complete stranger. It was probably funny to an onlooker for the 15 seconds it took for me to complete this task.

Then it was time to leave. Nobody was standing at the gates when I approached, so I looked at another guy and he looked at me. We shrugged and both shoved on through. Then I was heading out to the "Arrivals" area. I couldn't walk fast enough to see my husband. I began scanning the crowd and thought I would fall over with the anticipation. Then I spotted him. Sitting in the first row, the furthest from the "secure area", sat my hubby. I saw him before he saw me and I broke into a huge grin. He saw me and began walking toward me and met me. We hugged and kissed, of course, and then headed back to the hotel.

When we began planning this venture, we discovered that the cheapest rooms were the ones with twin beds in them. We managed to find a hotel in Neu-Isenberg, about 10 minutes from the airport, that had 2 Queen beds. Thrilling, huh? For 43 Euro, we got the use of a fairly large room with 2 Queen beds, a bathroom with shower and tub, and a balcony.

Germany was AMAZING and an experience. The remaining 9 days will also be catalogued. Hopefully, I will get some pictures set up for you to see!