While I ate my lunchable dinner I marvaled at the plane, 747-400 that I was about to take. People looked like ants next to it. It has 84 rows (I was in row 70k- by the window) and 9 people per row (3 isle 3 isle 3). The flight itself was delazed an hour due to an emergincz landing and waiting in line. While waiting I took some shots of the tails of the international planes- a shamrock for Ireland, a kangaroo for Australia, ...) During the flight there were postings on the television screens of the altitude, speed, distance traveled... we went 4333 mi in 7hrs and 15 minutes.
The flight was very nice. All announcements were made in English and Indian. We had snacks of Lays sour cream and onion chips followed bz a wonderful warm dinner around 9pm of either lamb curry or continental chicken (which is what I got- gravy, chicken breast, squash curry, lima beans, hard roll with butter a salad with cherry tomato and parts I didnīt eat, namely a carrot rice pudding and sour yogurt mark warned me about earlier). Everyone had to put their windows down once it got dark so we could sleep a couple of hours through the light of Friday morning. While trying to sleep, the kido next to me sqwermed often so around midnight I stayed up for a bit to watch an old episode of Frasier on the TV (the one where Lilith comes to visit during a conference and they have a hard time meeting up)- laughing silently to the silly jokes.
Next time I woke were were over England (according to the map on our screen) and didnīt have far to go. We skirted the bottom edge of England and I got some good shots of the edge with some pretty clouds. After a nice breakfast of crossont, OJ, and pineapple, we were flying just west of Bonn, where Mark was. The clouds reallz started to build-up with the mountains and I got some more good shots. I was impressed with the landscape, tightlz packed towns with radials of roads extending into long expanses of farmland. I liked the look of Western Germanz better than that of treeless southern England.
The Frankfurt airport is gigantic. There is an extensive mall in the middle as well. After getting mz passport stamped and bzpassing customs, I asked for directions to the train station. Did zou know a 2 hour train ride is considered long distance?- well it was outside of the citz. After a hike up a flight of stairs and 10 minutes walk from the airport, I came to Zug (train) station. The train station was a beautiful bubble of metal and glass which seemed to float above your head- it was also a bit warm =) with all of the sunlight.
The trains come in under the station and I plazed follow the leader as the train approached. Fortunatelz there is a nice sign posted that tells zou where 2nd class goes. I had a seat to mzself and enjozed a wonderful lunch of apple, granola bar and water from mz pack. Mark was right, the train ride was beautiful- I canīt wait to see all of the castles that I passed. I noticed that almost everz house had skzlights- not big ones, but scattered all over their roofs- it must be wonderful natural light.
After 2 hours and a couple of interesting hofbonhof (train station) stops along the way, I arrived in Bonn and happily met Mark at the train station. Mark had left a his conference to meet me and take me to the hotel we would be staying at while in Bonn. We walked through a pedestrian walkway over slippery wet cobblestones and Mark filled me in on all the sights quickly- we will revisit them after the conference. Once at the hotel I happily took a two hour nap- what a day!
