Monday November 29th

I'm doing a bit of catch up today, since I've been without internet other than 10 minutes yesterday.

The flight from Chicago to Frankfurt was uneventful. I slept through the take-off, but woke up about 1/2 hr into the air and stayed awake the rest of the 8 hour flight. By the time I got to Frankfurt I was wiped out!

The Frankfurt airport is very large (probably similar to the Minneapolis airport) and I had to get all the way to the other end.....sigh...This is when I wished my carry-on was on rollers.

Now for a little TMI alert, so I can tell you about Frankfurt security.....

In Frankfurt you have to go through security again, which quickly became an issue. Their walk-through metal detector does not like the titanium in my arm, so I got THE pat-down everyone has been talking about!!!! Then the wand was going off on my arm so TWO different people inspected the scar on my wrist! We got up close and personal in the middle of the Frankfurt airport. I didn't have to remove any clothes, and thankfully had not worn a bra or I would have been asked to remove it right there. After feeling me up, and inspecting my wrist to be sure the lovely scar was indeed authentic, I was allowed to pass.

My carry-on was not allowed through.

I am all about new experiences most of the time, and was eager to see what happens in when they find something of interest. Besides, I had a 4 hour lay-over so might as well be entertained by TSA agents, right?

After sending it through the xray machine, they separated my carry on from everyone else's, and made me unpack it. It is a computer backpacked that I had CRAMMED FULL, and weighed about 20 lbs! LOL I pulled every item out, and they ran those items through the xray machine one at a time. Every...single...item. This is when I discovered the talking photo album I bought for Axel and the xray machines are not friend. They sent that photo album through 3 times, then it was picked up by a gloved TSA agent while I repacked my bag and was brought to a room off to the side. One agent stood between me and the door while another swabbed every inch of the album looking for explosives. Cuz I know I fit the profile of a terrorist, me and my talking photo album. I really wanted to ask what kind of explosives that swab sniffer thingy would pick up, but decided I had better keep my mouth shut.

Finally the agent who was guarding me said, "And how are you today?"

I replied, "I'm just GREAT! And how are you?"

"Terrible" he said.

"Oh, well that's not good, the airport is too busy for you to be crabby. What makes your day terrible?"

"It is terrible because a really nice person has come into my inspection room and now must leave because there is nothing wrong here. Have a wonderful rest of your day."

Now I only had 3 1/4 hrs left Frankfurt, Germany. As the time was approaching for my flight the weather became horrid, with snow quickly piling on top of the planes and visibility decreasing. I hoped the flight would not be delayed. We boarded the plane on time and the pilot announced that they were running a little behind because of the heavy de-icing they were doing on all the planes. That's about when I fell asleep.

The next thing I know, I was waking up TWO HOURS later, as the wheels left ground and we became airborne. I fell back to sleep for awhile until my seatmates woke me because the sandwiches (blech) were being delivered. Even though it was gross, I ate it anyway knowing it might be awhile before I ate again.

We arrived in Axel's country about 1 hr 45 min late, but 15 minutes of that was spent parking the plane! Seriously, the pilot didn't know how to park.

No, really.

So he pulls up to the jetway thingy and shuts the plane off. Small problem, he stopped too soon and the jetway could not reach the door. Everyone was told to sit back down so he could restart the engines and pull forward.

Only the engines wouldn't start.

LOVELY!!! To think we just flew across Europe on this plane!

They brought a tractor to pull the plane forward, and that wasn't working. There was a hump in the pavement (felt like a speed bump) and we could feel the plane get to the top of the hump and then roll backward again. Several of us (not gonna tell who started it) volunteered to rhythmically rock in unison to help get the momentum going to get over the hump.

No, REALLY!

I could hear my dad's voice in my ear talking about "Mickey Mouse operations" and stuff like that. LOL Finally after many minutes of the pilot embarrassing himself, we felt the plane give a lurch and roll over the hump. Everyone cheered, the jetway was hooked up, and we were allowed off the plane.

It was just like a low budget movie.