April 13, 2022
Day 1: to Frankfurt to Leipzig
Dodie played her “I’m a weak old lady” card to secure preboarding at the Lufthansa gate. The actual reason for this is the large number of people bringing outsized luggage on board. If you are not in there really promptly, they will swallow up the overhead space.
This time the pre-board area was clogged with non-wheel chair people, probably with about the same disingenuous idea as us. When the gaggle of preboard people proceeded down to the door of the plane there was quite a delay. I put it to Dodie that this was a good test, and anyone failing to collapse while standing out there should be dragged off.
The plane turned out to be a jumbo jet, and this was the first time I had been close to one. They really are size “J”, and the crew that we observed boarding seemed to number about 20.
The seating on this monster plane was of course not any more generous than on lesser craft, but we were impressed with the extensive seat back entertainment system, and the two quite decent meals that Lufthansa came up with.
Ten hours sitting in a chair, any chair, is pretty tough, and we both felt really beat at the end of it. But of course the day’s odyssey had only begun. Frankfurt airport came up with a minimum 2 km walk to the baggage pickup.
| Heart | 1 | Comment | 0 | Link |
On the way was the border control, where the officer stamped us through with zero fuss. Customs similarly was a voluntary affair. If you deemed that you had nothing to declare, you just walk out, into the embrace of Germany.
The first thing we noticed, in the airport at large, were the bakeries -and clearly the Germans had not forgotten how to make the snitte (custard and fruit slices) and snecken (spiral poppy seed sweet buns) and stuff we so adore. And just as in France (more than in France) the bakeries were also filled with sandwiches from fresh ingredients, on great buns. We were immune to all this for the moment, because we had saved some of the good stuff Lufthansa had supplied.
The next German feature, that this time we did need, was the great train system. I had thought to take the S-Bahn to the main station, and there to find a ticket to Leipzig. But Dodie was wiser, and she found a ticket office to sell us the journey to Leipzig direct from the airport. Of course we had to change trains at the main station, but the transaction was really smooth, with agent super helpful and also speaking perfect English.
So here I am typing this on he ICE train to Leipzig, as the countryside rolls by. We gave some of our M&M Crispie chocolate to a family across the aisle, proudly declaring it to be from Canada. We later learned they have it here too. There is probably no way to bring chocolate to Germany, they already have it all.
After so many hours with the mask on, the ear straps were seriously hurting. So I noticed and mentioned the man of the family's gizmo for behind the head to hold the straps and spare the ears. In a wonderful gesture, he took it off (sanitised it) and gave it to me.
Today's favourite thing: The generosity of strangers.
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We were able to reach Jurgen on the phone, since our onesimcard.com SIM decided to work, with a little tweaking. Even though calls with this cost 49 US cents per minute, we’ll stick with it for now, trying to run down the $170 credit we have somehow accumulated. But one fun activity I hope Jurgen will take me on is the search for a more economical local SIM, which would be especially useful for internet, when hotel wifi is not available.
Jurgen found us at the train station and whizzed us home, where we got to hug and greet Birgit after 3 long years away. We all sat and talked late into (our) night, until Dodie and I grew quite frantic and collapsed, around 9 p.m.
Favourite thing #2 for today, Leipzig lerchen (larks). They are not actually baked into these tarts, which in fact have a marzipan like filling.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 17 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |