Got to Frankfurt about a half hour late, but I wasn’t too worried with 90 minutes left to catch my connecting flight to Bremen, where my brother just got home after a week in the hospital following a hip joint replacement, which is what set this whole trip in motion in the first place. But the timing all changed with the realization that I had to make another trip through security for some annoying reason and security at Frankfurt Airport is an incredibly slow motion and methodic German process. There’s one guy who helps to neatly arrange all of your carry-on crap in the plastic bins, politely but firmly pausing between each passenger, and another guy rotates the bins 90 degrees and pushes them through the machine. People are visibly aging in line. They topped that off with a special ‘random’ extra security swabbing of my camera bag, probably because there are too many gadgets and wires inside, which looks a little terrifying on the multicolored X-ray. This side trip required a short hike in the wrong direction to another security station. I was assured that my gate was right around the corner. 

 

10 minutes before take off I got going towards the gate and experienced the utter vastness of Frankfurt airport first hand. 2km later, including running down 5 long moving walk ways and at least 8 flights of stairs to avoid the overloaded elevators. I arrived at the gate in a full sweat, huffing and puffing only to find that my plane had departed without me. Next flight in 5 hours. The smiling but terse woman at the desk directed to go back 2km - do not to pass Go, do not collect $200 - and find the Lufthansa Services office. There I waited patiently in line for 20 minutes only to find out that I had to go to the Lufthansa check-in, outside security and another 1km or so away. Another hike, then another terse explanation-demanding gate keeper, then another 15 minute wait in line and another 15 minutes with an agent who couldn’t get the computer to cooperate, finally resulted in a new boarding pass on the next flight. Then it was back through the maze including another trip through the slo-mo security machinery. I get the special random manual double check again, with full swabbing of my scary camera bag and contents. My shoes look suspicious too, so they get a special solo trip through the X-ray machine. My flight is hours away at this point and I really don’t care. I stroll 2km back to the gate and enjoy the sights. Along the way I meet the pope... or is it Santa Clause? Maybe it’s St. Niklaus. Whatever… it was worth stopping for a selfie. Apple Health app report: 3.44 miles, 7482 steps and 11 floors of climbing for the afternoon. Not a bad workout for a rainy day. 

 

Got out of San Francisco on Wednesday December 10, just in time to miss the huge storm that was moving in, only to find cold rainy weather on the other side of the planet, in Deutschland. What did I expect? My flight to Frankfurt was kinda bumpy, especially for the ginormous Airbus 380, which is a lot of plane to thrash around in the sky, but sitting near the front of the plane was nice and quiet for a change. Not much sleep, but the food was actually decent - a nice filet of salmon on rice for dinner and an omelette and fresh fruit for breakfast. Plus wine and beer are always included. Too civilized. My neighbors promptly donned headphones and said barely a word for the entire flight, so I did the same. Kinda boring, but maybe better than getting one of those talk-the-entire-flight kind of people for 10 hours.