We are situated at a great hotel at the Frankfurt airport so won't have any challenges with ground transportation today. Our Lufthansa flight is scheduled to depart at 1:10 pm and they usually run on time. It is good to be checking in for an international flight about two hours in advance.
We repack our bags and take out our small blue carry-on bag to lighten the weight of our suitcases and put in purchases from the REWE grocery store - German foodstuffs that we will enjoy over the next weeks! Need to pack our four bottles of wine each in their wine skins/bubble wrap. We know we will be under weight on the return trip so that relieves some stress.
Beautiful sunny day in Frankfurt although we won't be outside today. Lana has a number of tax receipts which means "de tax" in Europe, so an opportunity to get back most of the tax paid if it meets the necessary conditions. Paperwork to be completed and then get stamped. The lineup at Lufthansa to simply check in the baggage is gigantic. Remember, these are travellers who already have checked in online. Typical Deutsch efficiency as the line moves pretty quickly. Only my luggage gets loaded onto the belt as Lana's suitcase contains most of the purchases and our smaller blue carryon bag. We will have this sent on at the de-tax counter.
Over to another queue to get our receipts/documents stamped and then other lines to either get cash or credit or provide more envelopes for later credit. It is worth the effort as you can be reimbursed a lot of Euro if you have done shopping in any country in Europe.
Buy some newspapers, bottled water and a couple of sandwiches/pastry for the long plane ride. The gate already has lineups of people waiting to shuffle through. This turns into chaos as they open more lines and everyone attempts to gain advantage. The agent checks your passport and your boarding card and then you scan your boarding card at a machine coming up. Always good to get on the plane sooner rather than later as overhead bins can be a real premium depending on where you are sitting.
Flight pretty much uneventful. We are in the air for about 9 1/2 hours and land almost exactly at 2 pm Sunday, September 16th in beautiful and sunny Vancouver. Immigration is complete chaos and there must have been numerous planes land at the same time so lineups are incredibly long. Canadian residents are given priority so that is good. We lucked out as Customs told us we did not have to pay duty on our four extra bottles of wine. He stated it "was your lucky day today." Yup!
$31 taxi ride to our home and then unpacking, laundry and other mundane chores. It will be a difficult transition to the new time zone given we are nine time zones different. That equals jet lag.
As usual, our European vacation sped by and it seems like only yesterday we left for Frankfurt. Lots of adventures, sightseeing, new locations, historic buildings, art and can't forget excellent food and wine. Great to meet our German friends in Berlin and then enjoy Paris with another couple. Lots of photos and our blog will make a good reminder for the details.
Hope you have enjoyed the blog as much as I did writing it. While it is time consuming and can be frustrating when the technology isn't working it was worth it!
Randy & Lana
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