We took off from Paris 15 minutes late or so and then landed in Frankfurt with 45 minutes until boarding. The walk between the gates is less than 10 minutes, but you do have to go through Passport Control to get to the international gates. This is a pain as it takes at least 15 minutes as the line is always long. We then stopped at Duty Free for some chocolate and Cuban cigars and walked up to our gate right as it was getting ready to board.
Frankfurt is a busy airport where sometimes you have to take a bus to your plane out on the tarmac, especially some of the larger planes. We made the first bus (never fly economy in Europe or for that matter, anywhere, anymore!) and made it to our seats. For some reason, probably due to being on 8 planes in 9 days, I thought we were in 8D and 8G, so that’s where we went. The flight attendants were so nice, way better than the United ones we had coming out. Right before takeoff the Purser came up to us and asked our names as we were booked in 5D and 5 G. Looking at my boarding passes, they were right. They said whatever we prefer is fine and we could stay there if we liked. Coincidentally, right before takeoff, the woman next to us took off her shoes and boy did her feet stink! The Purser (head flight attendant) again said of course we could move if we wanted to. So, right after takeoff, I moved us in less than a minute!
The flight was nonstop which is a huge plus as you don’t have to change planes and lug your stuff and walk through another airport when you’re already tired. It was a 10-hour flight, but I binged Landman again to catch up before season 2. At one point, I walked into the galley and startled this young flight attendant, and we joked the rest of the flight as we seemed to keep bumping into each other often.
Upon landing in Denver we zoomed through customs as we’re Global Entry. While most people have to go through a long que and wait in line and present their passports and have their luggage screened, we simply go to another line, stand in front of kiosk with a camera that uses facial recognition, (welcome to the future) and then when a green check mark appears, an officer calls your name, hands you a placard with a letter on it, (Lori and I were both E for entry) and we proceeded to walk right out the door. We hand an officer our placards and that’s it; we’re through U.S. Customs. No bag check, no passport check, nothing. We do any and everything we can to make traveling as painless as possible these days, no matter the cost.
The drive home wasn’t too bad. We made it from landing at 4 to making it home at 7. This included customs, stopping for groceries and driving through Denver traffic at rush hour. Not bad. I started laundry right away and took a shower. Both Lori’s and my ankles were swollen from flying over the North Pole for 10 hours but we’re much better this morning at 4:15am which is when we woke up. That’s 12:15 in the afternoon in Paris!
Great trip! We had fun and really enjoyed ourselves and the break. Italy is next in October and then Portugal perhaps later in the Fall. Good to be home. We’ll head to the gym at 6:30 to start working off the extra pounds we enjoyed putting on over the past 10 days or so. Glad we came back on a Thursday as we essentially have three days to recoup before work. Have a great day, we’ll add more pictures in the coming days, God Bless.