First Day Travel Woes

On approach to Frankfurt, Germany, we were surprised to see so much forest.
The Airbus A340-300 that we arrived on, possibly one of the most uncomfortable flights ever. Very little leg room, and the person in front of Brian kept her seat almost in his lap.

And then …

Just like so many friends and the news reports warned, the airports in Europe are understaffed. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany with (what seemed like) plenty of time to catch our next plane to Lyon, France. What we did not know is that for some reason, our plane was docked at the opposite end of the (very long) terminal from all the other Lufthansa planes. But, we were up for a long walk. Following rare signs, we went down one escalator only to be told we had to go around the corner to wait in a line for immigration. Seemed strange, and the line was extremely slow.

Fortunately, our friend Marc texted us that our next flight was also delayed, so we had a chance to take it. When we were through that line, we raced to the gate where our next flight was to take off. About 3/4 of the way there, Marc texted again that we had missed it. We went to the gate anyway, assuming that we could get onto the next flight, but it was deserted.

Actually, that whole end of the terminal was deserted. We passed two Lufthansa “Service Center”s with no staff. So we went back to the middle of the knot of concourses, following signs to another Service Center. This line was much longer than the last one. We asked a few staff members if this was the right line, and they all said yes.

When we were still many minutes away from the front of the line, Lufthansa employees informed us that the Service Center was closing and advised us to go down to the main check-in counters outside of security and find the rebooking desk. Before leaving we asked an employee to check if we had been re-booked automatically and he confirmed that we were not rebooked. So we eventually found the rebooking counter and the longest line yet. We were there for more than two hours, finally getting booked on the first flight the next day with vouchers for hotel, taxi, and dinner.

Comfort Inn about 5 miles from Frankfurt airport
Brewery in the hotel
Dunkles and helles, brewery sign and moon from hotel room

Our vouchers for dinner did not include the delicious smelling food at the craft brewery associated with the hotel. The “stranded passengers” had to go to a cafeteria for mediocre pasta, chicken and overcooked vegetables. Fortunately, we were allowed to bring drinks from the brewery to our isolation area to go with dinner.

It was good to get a shower at the hotel, however. We got up early the next morning to catch a flight to Lyon.

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