Der flug

Several hours before the flight, we went to the airport and checked in approximately 60 kilos, about 130 pounds, of luggage.

Here is everything when we later piled it onto a train:
Rowan kept freaking out about whether the flight attendants would allow her to bring her giant backpack on the plane as a carry-on. They did, so her freakout was for nothing. She also had another bag as her small carry-on, so I got to carry her purple yoga mat as one of my carry-ons.

The seats on the plane were the most cramped, narrowest seats that I have ever seen on a plane. And it's not because the Germans are a tiny people; they are not.

Condor is a German airline, and we were some of the few passengers who were not German. A lot of German tourists come to Alaska in the summer; it seems that not so many Alaskan tourists return the favor.

The flight attendants spoke German by default, and switched to English if a passenger answered back in that language. But they were dressed like normal flight attendants, no liederhosen or any such costumes.

Condor did make up for its cramped quarters by providing excellent service. We were barely in the air for half an hour before they pulled out the cart with free alcohol. It was only one drink, but I've never had a free drink on a plane before. They fed us dinner and breakfast, as well.

They had TVs hanging from the ceiling playing a random mishmash of entertainment. The programming ranged from old episodes of The Nanny to a Nickelback music video to several movies, including P.S. I Love You. On several occasions back home, Rowan tried to get me to rent this movie, but they were all rented out. On the plane, I tried to tune in for a moment, but it was dubbed in German. I could tell from random glances at the screen, though, that it sucked. It was only later that I realized that the English sound was probably just on a different radio channel. Fortunately, this was well after the movie was over, so I was saved again from watching it.

Rowan mostly slept the entire trip, except when I woke her up to eat. Nyquil is some good stuff, I suppose.

After almost nine hours in the air, we landed in Frankfurt. We were exhausted, but we still had to get on a train to Strasbourg.

We loaded our bags onto a luggage cart and headed to the train station, which is connected to the airport. We had to take a lot of escalators, but the luggage carts are ingeniously designed to be able to ride up escalators. I love the Germans. Except when they're trying to take over the world. But that was a while ago.