Stopover in Frankfurt

We stopped over in Frankfurt for the day, arriving around 6am.  We could have continued straight on to Edinburgh, but I really wanted to immerse myself in a foreign place before getting to Edinburgh, which really for me was just another place to live, work, etc, so taking a day off in Frankfurt was a great break on the trip.

We bumbled around the airport, I was confused straight away as we were in Terminal 1, and my other experiences of Frankfurt were of the newer Terminal 2.  We read that we could buy a "Frankfurt Card" that would give us the train tickets into the city, as well as discounts on various touristy things.  We went into the DB (Deutsch Bahn) Travel Centre at Terminal 2, only to have a man bark at us "Only available in the city, I will sell you day tickets".

At one point I swear it felt like we'd hit an albatross.

So, we headed into town, washed up at the pay toilet at the central train station, locked up our handbaggage, grabbed a drink, and stepped out into Frankfurt around 8am, walking around.  It was lovely!  Beautiful weather, and it was nice to be surrounded by foreigners again, to hear all those different languages, to amuse myself with as much German as possible as I ordered breakfast for us in a cafe, getting offended the one time the waiter replied in English.

It soon proved to be *very* hot, so we sat in the park for a while, whereupon we were "attacked" by a few teenagers who were on a Jesus camp of some description, and that day's activity was to go out on "outreach".  Convert, in other words, but I don't think they expected the conversation they got out of us.  We were soon debating the finer points of both testaments, and there was a few times where I brought up inconsistencies that they couldn't explain, just saying that I had to have faith.  Bah.  I'll keep my own brand of faith, thanks.

Back in the trainstation I found a bread roll - sausage type of thing I'd been craving for a few years, one of my favourite German snacks.  Pleased with myself that I'd found it, we headed back to the airport for a bit of coolness.  We were early, but we went through anyway, sometimes the areas around the gates have things to do and see.  At security they were stopping everyone, like *everyone* for the wand thingy, and they made me open my handbaggage and explain every little thing.  I had my cables for my digital cameras in there, as well as the laptop, so they wanted an explanation for everything.  Over the tannoy we could hear announcements such as "would passengers blah and blah (Arab sounding names) on flight such and such to Kuwait please make yourself known to an information desk".  There were other announcements for flights to Iran.  Perhaps that's why we were frisked.  So we get to the gate, and the only thing to keep us occupied is a duty free store, so I bought Craig some chocolate.  Our flight was going to be delayed, for a medical emergency on board for when the plane had arrived.  I kept myself occupied by reading Brave New World which I'd taken with me (causing the security guys to raise their eyebrows) and Craig read the paper.  Eventually we got on the flight, but boy it was rough, all the way.  At one point I swear it felt like we'd hit an albatross.  All this, and Matty telling me previously that Edinburgh was expecting thunderstorms.  Oh joy.

But as you can guess, we landed safe and sound, and our last hurdle was the spouse visa confirmation at immigration.  Now when I landed in 2000 with my working holiday visa, I got tons of questions, all the terms and conditions of the visa hammered into me, so I guess I was expecting much the same.  The guy saw the visa, looked up at me, asked if Craig was my partner, and fiddled with his computer, stamped the visa, and wished us a nice day.  I think he was a little embarrassed, considering the grilling he'd been giving people before us.  Oh well!  Walking into the airport to collect our bags, we both got quite emotional.  We were here to start a new life, and nothing was going to stop us.