STL - ORD - MUC - TSR

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On the morning of proposed departure the airline's web site was not up-to-the-minute. So I packed-up and loaded the car and decided the best thing to do was just go to the airport and ask at the counter if I could get all the way through. Surprisingly, a call finally got through to Lufthansa and, after quite a few minutes of checking, they came back on and said I was good to go.

Sleep the night before a trip is always a hit and miss proposal for me and so I really got no rest. The ticket agent looked askance at my tie-two-small-bags-together-to-make-one-big-one method, but it worked. St. Louis has pretty much shrunk down to a large regional airport since we've lost most of our hub status and airports of any kind are less than interesting. Security was bothersome, but not oppressive.

I always enjoy looking out the window on take-off and hopelessly trying to figure out which river I'm looking at.

The weather was brisk in Chicago, causing me to have second thoughts about all the short sleeve shirts I had packed. The flight seemed absolutely endless. I was sure we were over halfway there when I noticed we still had six hours left.

The flight crew was a motley bunch. I made myself quite annoying to some of my neighboring passengers as I declined to go dark while I watched the in-flight movies while they slept. Watching TV in the dark gives me a headache.

The slight modification in our flight path from Chicago to Munich delayed our arrival 20 minutes and once the stewardess told us we'd have to pass through customs before be allowed to transfer it was apparent I'd miss my connection. I didn't even take the time to unfold and load my trolley as I scurried through the airport in a desperate attempt to catch my plane. I had a friend waiting at Timisoara and no way to let him know what was up.

As it turned out, we didn't have to go through customs and the plane was 45 minutes late departing as they desperately tried to account for an extra passenger.

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