On the Other Side

June 1 2019

I never sleep on air flights. I have tried many things (many!), but just end up dopey and sleep-deprived when I get off the plane.

This trip, my seatmate stretched out in his flattened seat after dinner, and promptly dropped off. I watched 2 movies and 4 episodes of The Big Bang Theory. The seat is big and comfortable, so it was just a long, boring evening.

Ninety minutes before the plane was due in, the lights came on, and the cabin crew started breakfast service. It was 9:30 in Germany, but only 3:30 am in Orlando. The window shades that had been drawn all night, suddenly revealed bright daylight as they were retracted.

People moved around and murmured. Some used the bathroom to change out of their pajamas. Soon, we were descending into Frankfurt Airport.

Frankfurt

Frankfurt airport is horrible. This old airport stretches for blocks (miles?) of corridors, all with signs in German and English urging you to Baggage Claim and Trains. I trudged along, following my fellow passengers in our pilgrimage to claim bags.

We were so close. Then, trapped by an impediment. It sprang up in the hallway like an ambush: Border Control.

Here's where the wheat and chaff separted. Those with EU passports, on the left, walked thru automated recognition robots. They barely paused.

We, all others, formed a line. A 35 minute line. To talk to the few border police who were on duty to look at our passports. I was interviewed for about 1 minute, but some took longer. The snaking line seem to last a long time.

After clearing border control, I headed for the baggage claim area, which was nearly deserted now. My bag was nowhere in sight. On tired legs, I explored the large area, and found nothing. Eventually, I got to the Lufthansa baggage service office. I gave the worker there my baggage ticket and she looked it up. By now, I was trying to imagine how I'd replace the stuff in my bag.

But no. She said the bag was misdirected, and would be coming here now in about 30 minutes, or, did I want it delivered to my German residence? I was relieved that she knew where it was, and sat down to wait for it to pop out of the ground at carrosel #5.

It popped out in about 30 minutes! An airport miracle!

I proceeded to customs (nothing) and my quest for a train to Stuttgart.

The train station gets further from the terminal each time I visit Frankfurt. This time, it was several miles away, thru endless halls of shopping and fast food joints.

With a few small detours, I finally found myself at track #5, waiting for ICE Train #575 to take me to Stuttgart. It arrived a bit late (shocking!), but I found a first class coach, and settled in for the 1.5 hour trip to Stuttgart. Finally!