Long layover in Frankfurt's airport

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Geo: 50.0924, 8.68195

We had flown from Chicago to Frankfurt via Lufthansa Airlines. The plane was one of those huge planes that had the second level. Good German efficiency had lines for us to get in to but the numbers stopped right before our row number! Finally found attendant that told us to go ahead and board.

We were seated at the bulkhead which meant we were able to prop our feet on the wall separating us from the business class which was nice. They served us dinner even though the plane did not leave until 10:15 pm. Following the rule of eat when you can because airport food is quite expensive we enjoyed a fish entree and two glasses of wine to help us sleep you see.

We were able to get some sleep because you were able to stretch your legs out further and not worry about kicking the seat of the people in front of you. They woke us up in time to have a small snack meal and coffee to try to wake you up. We landed at Frankfurt around 1:30 pm on Thursday.

When we got off the plane we were both a little fuzzy but took off walking to try to find one of the places with free Internet that Robert had found out about while doing research in preparation for this trip. I found one of the luggage carts and snagged it to make it easier to drag my things around.

The Frankfurt airport is immense. Robert found a tour you can take of the behind the scenes and another where you could actually leave the airport. We did not chose to do either one but instead continued to try to find Internet. They do have free 30 minutes of Internet but did not find the ones that he had researched.

When we had first disembarked from the plane, we had seen a McDonald's and so we finally went back there for some free internet and a salad with couscous and a cup of coffee. People watching as usual.

After our meal we walked around a bit more, saw where we would be able to take a shower and then decided it was time to take a nap. We passed by several places that were teeming with people waiting for their flight to be called. We finally found a area that was pretty much empty with the exception of a man stretched out on three seats. We sat down opposite him and stretched out as well. Robert didn't get to stretch out until he dealt with a father that was letting his small child run loose, banging his toy on wall next to us and on top of that a very stinking dirty diaper! This woke the other man up and Robert said something to the father who said he was waiting on his wife to bring the new diaper but Robert convinced him to take the child away as well. Of course the father had to make a big deal of the fact the child had a clean diaper.

We did get some much needed rest and then went and took a shower which did refresh us. By this time we were getting a little hungry so decided to go to Italian place, Lucullus Nero where you could see some of the planes coming in for a landing. We had a pizza..half salmon/spinach and half veggie along with a lovely glass of wine. The food was delicious and people watching as usual fun.

NOW FOR THE MOMENT OF CRISIS (in my mind of course) When we had taken off from Austin, we had only been given boarding passes for our first two flights and had to get boarding passes for the Frankfurt to Addis Ababa let of the journey. Found what terminal and took the inter-airport train to the correct terminal and then headed to the gate. Found out we had to go through security again even though had not left the airport. They found my money belt (has plastic zipper so does not always set off security) and had to remove it. Woman making big deal of how much money we had. Then.............Robert had to go over with camera bag for them to check and I was told we had to drink the water or they would throw our water bottles away. These were our bicycle bottles so drank it down and then when tried to load my things from the table told me I could not load them there. So I moved them and he said to Robert she could have loaded them here. Not sure where the communication broke down but it did.

Then, went and sat down in area at the gate and then announcement came on saying we all had to go outside and have our boarding passes checked. They were able to give us our boarding passes with no problems but when we got ready to go sit in the waiting area, the gentleman told us we had too many bags. We did try to argue because you are allowed one carryon and one personal item. He said the camera bag was too heavy but would let us board with it if we gave up one of our other bags so I gave up my daypack after taking out the camera and computer and reading book and some other things and we checked it through to Llongwe and hope it makes it there because sure there were some other important things I did not take out.

We then went to the waiting area to board our flight to Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian airline.

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