Frankfurt airport and getting home - belatedly

I should have written and posted this last post when we got back, but somehow, there was always something to do....anyway, here it is - the conclusion of the trip.

It turns out that it was a holiday in Switzerland, so we didn’t have to get up extra early to say goodbye to Uwe, Esther and Leandro as they headed off to work – instead, we had a nice breakfast, finished our packing, played around a bit outside, and said our farewells to Esther and Leandro (who waved at us till we were out of sight). Uwe drove us to the train station at Olten, which seemed like a nice enough town, and Torsten fell asleep en route. When we got there, we removed Torsten from his car seat, and he kept right on sleeping – so Uwe and Ingo unloaded all our bags and we made our way to buy train tickets. Luckily, the track we needed was right outside the ticket office, so after getting the tickets, all we had to do was step outside and wait for the train to arrive. We said our goodbyes to Uwe, and wished him luck getting home, as his van’s engine had smelled a little bit off when we parked.

We managed to get on the train without any problems, and settled down for the ride to Basel, where we would change trains for the ICE for Frankfurt airport. The ride and the change went without incident – Torsten had fun pointing out the trains along the way, and Basel was an easy station to negotiate.

The ICE is as nice as I remember it, and turned out to be very full – I was glad that we had made reservations, although they weren’t really needed, as Basel was the first station. Still, better to be safe than sorry. We settled into our seats, and Ingo and Torsten then headed off to the cafeteria car to get us some lunch. Torsten managed to scam some chocolate from the server for being cute! There are definite advantages to having a good looking child. Ingo’s curry wurst was really good, and my meatloaf on a bun was not bad either.

As the trip wore on, Torsten became somewhat cranky and restless, as there were too many people and too much noise for him to really settle down for an afternoon nap. People were fairly understanding – still, it was lovely to reach Frankfurt airport at last and get off the train. That was a bit of an ordeal, since there seemed to be a lot of people milling about in the way, but we finally found the entrance to the hotel.

Checking in was funny. Because it was Pfingsten (Pentecost) and therefore a holiday in Germany, the desk clerks apparently had been trying to explain to Americans all day why things were closed. They didn’t know what the translation of Pfingsten was (or why it was a holiday) when asked by the person ahead of me, so I gave them a brief rundown, and they were duly grateful for the information. Truly, speaking German to native German-speakers really helps to get good service!

Our room was very nice, and had an extra bed for Torsten. We used the chairs in the room to prevent him from falling off, and pushed the end of the bed closer to the window so that he could stand on the bed and look out. He was in seventh heaven, since he was then able to see buses and planes to his heart’s content.

After a bit of a rest, we went downstairs to find an ATM and explore the airport a bit. (Unfortunately, we didn’t have the foresight to find out where the Air Canada check in counters were, preparatory for the next day, so we wasted a lot of time the next day lugging our baggage around and looking for the check in counters – oh well). We bought a bottle of water for the night, and then headed back to the hotel room to wait for Marco and family to arrive.

Around 7 pm, we got a call that they were downstairs in the lobby. We traipsed downstairs, and exchanged hugs, then went in for dinner at the hotel restaurant. The servers were really nice, and very friendly to Torsten. Once we were seated, our waiter brought a little children’s playkit for Torsten that included coloured pencils, a little plastic boat, a little plastic truck, some postcards with pictures to colour, and the box that the kit came in had activities printed all over it. Torsten really liked all of it, and immediately began playing.

It was so nice to see Marco, Ingrid and Glenn again! We got caught up on what they’d been doing – Glenn had cut his hair, preparatory to looking like a fine, upstanding young German when he comes over for his Canadian school year. We discussed the school, traveling around, how things would work, etc. – it was a long and lovely dinner, and the food wasn’t too bad either. Toward the end of dinner, Torsten began to get a bit tired, but he was very good about playing with his things at his seat. Suddenly, I noticed that he was making “vroom” noises, the type he normally makes when he’s playing with a toy car. Our plates were those fancy-schmancy kidney bean shaped plates, and he was busy pushing a tiny piece of potato around the perimeter of the plate, making car noises! It was extremely funny.

As Torsten was tired, we wrapped up for the night, said our goodbyes, went back up to the room, did our nightly ablutions and went to bed.

In the morning, we checked in without any difficulty (after eventually finding the counter), and then started making our way to the gate. On the way, a woman in a Lufthansa uniform stopped us and asked if we’d like a ride to the gate – so we got to ride in one of those little cars that zips all over airports! One of the major benefits of having a child. The next major benefit followed immediately, which was that we were jumped to the special security line that’s reserved for people with disabilities and small children – so we zipped straight through security as well. At the actual gate was where our luck ran out – Frankfurt airport requires passengers to check in at the gate prior to being admitted into the seating area at the gate. Unfortunately, the machines being used by the Air Canada personnel weren’t working properly, and the personnel were incredibly slow. To make matters worse, we got stuck behind some elderly Germans going to Canada as part of a tour group who had apparently NOT checked their bags through from Berlin, so their bags were sitting somewhere on the carousel for their previous flight into Frankfurt – this created a severe clog in the line, as the Air Canada personnel were apparently incapable of having the people step off to the side for the responsible person to deal with while they checked other people through.

Finally, however, we made it into the gate, and then into the plane – and then back home! The flight was uneventful, Torsten was very good throughout and had a long nap on takeoff and again on landing (I actually managed to watch 2 movies), and we met up with my parents, who had brought my car, without any problems. It was a great trip, but it was lovely to be home again!