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Published: July 11th 2008
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No Worse For The Wear
Not bad looking after a 10 hour flight. Negotiating Frankfurt
We arrived safe and sound in Frankfurt, Germany after a long 10 hour flight from SFO. The pilot didn’t take the shortcut I had recommended, so we were airborne for the entire time. The group was more or less together just behind the wings. We were treated to the rumble of the 747 jet engines for the entire flight. Three movies and two meal services were squeezed in along the way. I think books and i-pods were the predominant methods of distraction.
The bill of fare for the first round of eats was either beef or pasta. At least that was the announced menu. I’m not sure if either one was actually served. I chose the beef and quickly learned that tofu would have been a tastier dish. I know the airlines have to cut costs to offset the rising fuel prices, but do they have to do it at my stomach’s expense? (The preceding commentary is that of this blogger, alone, and may not be the opinion of each traveler in our group. I know for certain that our brethren in 1st class had a hugely different experience. But then again, they had a hugely different ticket price.)
As we were landing, the crew notified us that all gates at the airport were currently taken and that we would be parking in the middle of the tarmac. Stairs were brought in for us to exit the plane, so no chutes needed to be deployed. Buses were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs to whisk us back to the terminal.
Once inside the terminal, we realized that we had been dropped off at the entrance and were required to go through security once again. So out with the water bottles and in with the passports. After a few us enjoyed further scrutiny, due to overly sensitive metal detectors, we were all safely inside the terminal, and ready to proceed to our gate.
Senora Zaconne and Madame Robb checked the monitors and determined we were off to gate A. But which gate A? Frankfurt, like many European airports don’t assign gate numbers until a short time before take-off. Well we would start with A now and figure out the rest later. We were in concourse 1 which held all of the A and B gates. The signs pointing to A gates were to the right and signs pointing to the B gates were to the left. The group huddled a few moments to relax and unwind before heading to the right. Good thing we didn’t rush, because at that moment an airport official took his big stick and flip-flopped the signs for gates A and B. We were no longer going right, we were going left. Undaunted, we switched directions and proceeded on a half mile hike, down stairs, under the runway, back up a level via a lift (European for elevator), down a long hallway, swerved left, jogged right and made room for the bicyclist coming the opposite direction.
By this time, we learned that the flight to Madrid would be leaving gate A28. We found gate A28 with plenty of time to spare, as we did have a two hour layover. Upon finding our gate, everyone was free to relax, and explore the airport amenities. Snacks and water seemed to provide a bit of refreshment, while waiting for Lufthansa to take us on our final two hour flight. All in all, it was quite an adventure navigating Frankfort, AND we never even left the airport. Auf wiederzen.
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Lou
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Cool blogs!
How fun to get these! I almost feel like I ate some of the rubber chicken and pasta with you! Adios, amigos y buena suerte!