Germany- Luther Tour, Day 14: München-Frankfurt-Home-August 14, 2017

Travel days always make me nervous, at least until I'm on the plane. So, even though I hate getting up early, getting up at 6 was my idea. We enjoyed our last wonderful breakfast at about 7.

At 7:30, we woke up the driver in the first taxi outside and got in to go to the airport. It was 60 and clear. The guy didn't drive crazy. In fact, at times I thought he could have gone faster with no problem. He was getting passed. When we got to the airport at 8 the fare was 70,10! Due to the type of change he had, my husband wound up paying 72 Euros, about $85! It would have been cheaper to take the train, but with all our luggage and the condition it was in, we just didn't want to do that. Sigh.
We easily found the Lufthansa check-in area. I had our flight confirmation number, which brought up our info. My husband's bag was the first on the belt and it was too heavy, as usual. We pulled it off and put mine on. Mine was well within the limits, so my husband opened his and started handing me stuff. I'd put it in mine and we'd check the scale. When I hit a weight that was close to the max, we stopped, took mine off and put his back on the belt. Success! We got his tagged and then it was my turn, after his disappeared down the belt. The moment we tried to check me in, all the consoles went out. The attendant tried to reset it to no avail. She sent us around that bank to another set. By 8:20, my bag was on its way.

Security did not take long, even though they swabbed my CPAP machine. In Europe, you don't take off your shoes, which is great. We were finished with that at 8:30 and went in search of the tax refund. We finally found it, but could not figure out how to get to it from where we were. We went to our gate, 10, and I left my husband there, while I took the souvenirs and their forms with me to try to get to customs. I wound up going through passport control to get around to its location on the second floor. There, they told me, I had to do this when actually exiting the country in Frankfurt. So, back through passport control and a half mile hike to G10, which I reached at 9:17.
We were definitely in the Lufthansa terminal.

At 10:43, we were in seats 24 Band C on flight LH103 to Frankfurt with the cookies they'd handed us as we boarded. That was a first! Pushback was at 11, even though that was listed as departure time. Any way, we took off at 11:04. Drinks were soon served and then they came through for trash, because we landed at 11:49. Basically, an up and down flight.

Frankfurt is an unusual airport, because we actually got off the plane by walking down stairs to the tarmac. Then, we boarded a bus for a 4 minute ride to the terminal, arriving at 12:09.

At 12:15, we were in a large group trying to figure out getting into the passport control line. A woman came calling to see boarding passes. She saw my husband's and said he'd won the prize and he was selected for special screening. She saw mine and noted the TSA Pre-Check that was printed up in the corner. I said he had TSA Pre, too, but she said it didn't matter. (Later, I noticed that his had x's where mine had the TSA Pre-Check notification. He'd been randomly chosen long before today.) I told him that he might as well give me my bag, and she said no, he'd be joining me soon and I should wait in the duty free shop. However, I told him I had to go to customs and I'd meet him at the gate. With that, I uncertainly got in the passport line.
I watched him and his growing group on the side. It even included a kid. She collected their passports and then called them one by one to go to a specific booth and then to wait on the other side. He actually got through that before I did.
When I got through, I did not notice that the Zoll and Tax Free was immediately to my right. I wound up doubling back and it turned out to be the easiest ever. The customs guy didn't even want to see the stuff. He just stamped my papers. Then, I stepped next door and got in the short line at the Tax Free office. She asked for my credit card to put the value-added tax back on and like that I was done at 12:35.
I got to the gate at 12:45, but no sign of my husband. The seats were full and I just leaned against a pole near where we would go through the gate. It was a very warm, uncomfortable airport.  As time passed, I began to worry, because boarding was slated for 1:05. Finally, at 12:54, he came. He'd gone to check to see if I was at customs. They had swabbed his shoes and they wanted to see the iPad and his phone. That was it.
Germans are known for their organization. I was not impressed by that which was exhibited here by Lufthansa. First, boarding started late. Then, they called the usual groups in a very slow order to go down the gangway. This was a 747 we were boarding. We were to be in a row of 10 seats across. That is a lot of folks to be checked in by 1 person. In front of where we were standing there were about 4 scanning machines, but they weren't using them and no one was there to work them.
Suddenly, there was a call for our group and we were told to go through the scanning machines in front of us by scanning ourselves. There was a mad push to get in lines and go on. Once I scanned mine, I went through the gangway door and waited for my husband. When we got to the airplane door, there were two people checking boarding passes and passports. That really slowed it down. Why weren't people at the self-scanners to do that?
Finally, at 1:30 we were in seats 30 B and C on LH464 to Orlando. You'll recall, I picked those hoping no one would show up for A. No such luck.
Each seat had headsets and mine had like five. I put the extras in the seat across the aisle. When I finally got around to opening mine, it had a piece of plastic that stuck out and stabbed me. My husband wasn't using his and I found that one had a dead earpiece. I wound up asking for one back from the guy across the aisle.
Pushback for this flight that was supposed to depart at 1:50 was 2:02. Take off was at 2:23.
The row in front of us had screens that tucked into the sides of the seats. Ours were on the seat in front of us. I spent the flight watching movies and doing needlework. I saw Paris Can Wait, Silence, The Zookeeper's Wife, and, because I couldn't take any more depressing movies, Mamma Mia, even though I've seen it before.
For lunch, we were offered chicken or pasta. I chose the former and my husband the latter. It wasn't too bad. We both had a glass of wine with our meal.

I got up after every movie, to keep the knees awake and uncomplaining. I was wearing the knee supports to keep the knees warm. With each successive getting up, they were stiffer and stiffer, unfortunately. I saw the man in front of me had water and I asked, in German, of course, where he got it. When I went to the galley ahead of us, she said she'd bring it to the seat and they started bringing it around more frequently.
For dinner they offered chicken or pasta again. I was going to get the pasta, until I heard it had a green sauce. So, chicken it was. It had a barbecue sauce and odd vegetables that I never did figure out or like.

Not long after dinner, it was time to prep for landing. They actually collected back the headsets and the guy next to me made sure he told the flight attendant that he'd given me one. Did he not notice all the others that had been in his seat?
Since I was finished my movies, I watched the approach on the map. For the first time ever, Oviedo, where we live, actually showed up on the map.

In spite of the fact that they had told us to turn off our phones, we suddenly heard a phone ring. It was the girl next to us in A and she talked all the way down! My husband said to her later that he'd flown enough to know the phone should have been off, but she just shrugged.
We landed at 6:05 pm EDT. It took 7 minutes to get to the gate. This had been our first flight on a 747 and it had been comfortable.

As the keeper of the receipts, I'd filled out the customs form on the plane, as usual. When it asked about food, I was honest, since we had bread and chocolate. We easily dealt with the automated passport control and then got in the citizens' line for customs/ passport stamping. There were other planes that had landed around the same time. The non-citizens' line was huge. Ours was shorter, but we had few agents. To top it off, the air conditioning was not working well due to renovations. A woman was directing people to lines for agents at the head of our line. We were luckily directed to a guy who was fast. He didn't even ask about the food. He just stamped and welcomed us home.
It was now 6:36 and we went to wait for luggage. I went to the restroom and I was appalled by what a mess it was. This is the first thing some people see when they come to Orlando, for goodness sake!
The wait was warm and uncomfortable, due to the lack of seats. The first luggage didn't appear on the belt until 6:46. There were two guys, whose job it was to straighten the luggage when it came up from below. Our bags finally showed up at 7:02.
We hauled them ourselves to the escalator rather than letting them be sent over to the terminal to be claimed. We reached the terminal at 7:12 and headed for the food court. A friend of my husband's who lives near us was working a gig at Disney and would be picking us up about 9:15. I checked my McDonald's app and found a deal for a free sundae with a purchase. I got us fries, a Coke and the sundae. We passed the time on our phones, as people do these days.
We were amazingly awake, when we were picked up and I was still with it, when we got to our house. I was surprised to see I'd walked 7, 635 steps today.
What a great trip! We saw so much and learned a lot of new things. But, the best part was spending 10-12 days on a bus holding hands with my husband. Let's hear it for bus trips!