Trip Day 18 - going home

Sunday December 1

Our flight was scheduled to depart Frankfurt at 12:55 pm. When we booked it we looked at flights from Nuremberg but they all seemed to be very early ones to Frankfurt. Having to be 2 hours before those made it not very attractive to us and we looked into trains to Frankfurt. What I had found was leaving 6:52am and would be at the airport at 9:20am for only $49. Very doable. 

When I asked Bernie yesterday he was very eager to help. Having experience he said the one at 7:30am for 63.98 Euros for both of us would be just right. He ordered a taxi for us for 6:45am and it all looked very good to us.

The taxi was very punktual and all worked out great. The ticket told us to go to platform 6 and there you have signs like this overhead which gives you all sorts of information. Since it was a Sunday and early morning we didn't book seats which in my eyes is much easier to just get in.

There was heavy frost on the grass etc.

A lady and her helper came through the train and asked whether we wanted anything. Why not. We each had a coffee and some nibbles. We really could have had something on the ship but this made the time go faster.

A screen overhead inside our carriage gave all sorts of info. This one showed the route the train was going.

We had to walk quite a way from the train to the Lufthansa check-in which was good for us. Check-in was a bit of a disaster since the program didn't seem to work. It wasn't our problem though and the airline people were all very nice. Finally they managed to give us boarding cards and send our luggage off.

Passport control and security wasn't bad at all. The usual! And then a long walk to the gate which again was good since we had plenty of time.

Did I say that our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:55pm? Well, it was delayed. Probably numerous reasons but one at the end was that it also needed to be de-iced. Of course I will never complane about safety messures. We finally started at 14:22pm.

We had not paid extra for pre-seat choices and it was not ideal. The middle row had 4 seats. Neither one of us got a ticket with an ailse seat but James at the end could change into the only one which was empty. Otherwise the plane was full.

One hour later German airline food. Well, no complains. It all depends on expectations.

The pilot had promised to try to catch up on the lost time but he was not successful. We arrived too late in Washington-Dulles and missed our last flight home. That flight was a United flight booked through Lufthansa. First we went to United to find out what was going to happen. After quite some wait we were told that we were already rebooked ... onto the last flight the following day about 10 pm. Oh no! They recommended that we would talk to Lufthansa since their late flight made us miss the next. 

So we did. Lufthansa was very friendly too and told us also that we were already rebooked. When I explained that they would need to give us a hotel room and meal vouchers but it was probably cheaper to give us a taxi voucher to Richmond he decided to talk to his superwiser. And that was very satisfactory. 

In no time we were in a taxi.The driver told us that he quite likes "long hauls" and at 10 pm local time we were in front of our house. All we had to do was to give a signature. And, of course, some cash tip since we didn't have to pay anything from Richmond Airport home. Yeah!

Needless to say we fell into bed really soon. Even the day home had to be an adventure. How lucky were we how it ended? Thank you Lord for keeping us safe!