Breakfast and Frankfurt

I thought that I will take a break for breakfast and then continue with my writing on the flight. But consuming the breakfast was not as easy as I had thought. When they had supplied snacks the first time, it was contained in a small box with out any accompaniments and I could just open the box with out difficulty and eat the contents. This breakfast was an elaborate experience. I did not know that we were required to be nimble with our fingers and also possess the combined skills of a juggler and an acrobat to eat breakfast in style on a flight. The breakfast tray contained lot many things like bread, rolls and some cooked stuff in one box and accompaniments like cheese, butter, yoghurt, cream, jam, sugar, ketchup and water in tightly sealed separate plastic containers. Taking the individual sealed packets out of the larger sealed container and arranging all of them on the small extendable tray attached to the seats in it self was an achievement, let alone opening and eating them. A little effort would not open them. An extra effort would tear the packet and spill the stuff and also make the elbows go out of control knocking off the co passengers stuff out of his tray. And I had to keep the pillow and blanket balanced on my knees while doing this exercise. But I managed to open them and ate all that was left in the containers after I had opened them. My co passenger spilled some juice on to my lap and so, had lost the right to complain about my smearing his elbows with butter and jam. I very wisely kept the packet of fork, spoon and knife untouched and used my fingers, thereby avoiding disasters.


I was exhausted with the effort of eating the breakfast and after the tray was cleared, tried to sleep a bit. Moreover, the passenger who was in front of me decided to push her backrest further back and there was no chance of opening my writing pad. I wanted to continue my observation of the progress that our air craft was making, but the airline had decided to entertain us with the antiques of Shahid kapoor. I switched off the monitor and switched on the music channels. There were some twenty eight channels of western music all of which sounded like the wailing of various animals to my uninitiated ears and one bollywood channel which sounded like all the animals howling together. I switched off everything, closed my eyes and tried some meditation and failed. I think that I did doze a bit, for, when I opened my eyes again, the monitor showed the plane hovering over Frankfurt and was giving out detailed instructions about the layout of the airport, various terminals and what we were expected to do on arrival. We landed at Frankfurt right on time, 27th May 2010, 07.35 local time.



In spite of having heard that Frankfurt airport is very big, I was expecting our arrival and departure gates to be close to each other as they were in the same terminal. Soon after arrival we wanted to locate the departure gate and then spend the five hours that we had there, leisurely. We started in the direction of gate A62 and after a walk of what seemed like a kilometer and half, and a ‘sky train’ ride of another kilometer, found that we were only half way through. By then, we had reached a large hall from which we could look down and see a lot of shops, restaurants and lounges. The area looked very attractive and we were tempted to abandon the search for gate A62, go down and spend some time there. I even managed to find the gate leading to the place but was stopped by an officer at the entrance. I explained that we were in transit, had about four hours for ourselves and intended looking around. He advised us to do all the looking around from where ever I was at the moment and added that if we go out of the gate, we need to enter again through another gate miles away, passing through three levels of security and assured me that, by then, our flight to Detroit would be half way over the Atlantic. We gave up the idea of sight seeing in Frankfurt airport and trudged along towards gate A62.


This departure gate, which I was expecting to be a small opening with limited space around, turned out to be a lounge of the size of a tennis court having comfortable seating arrangement with the toilets and food kiosks close by. It was very pleasant to lounge and move around. We freshened ourselves, ate the food that we had carried and I went to buy a bottle of water. I had heard that Frankfurt is expensive but had not expected a bottle of water to cost five dollars and half cup of coffee, three. I made my first transaction in foreign currency. Even though I paid five dollars for a bottle of water I did not feel bad. That is how airports are. But I really felt cheated to find that a cup of coffee costing three dollars was really one fourth of an ‘indian cup’, that is, half of what we get on Indian railways! And worse, it was not even hot. Coffee that is not hot is not coffee. Coffee left a bad taste in the mouth, but otherwise Frankfurt airport was fine.


The Frankfurt airport experience reminded me of the Maya Sabha built by Pandavas in Khandavaprastha which flummoxed Duryodhana. What looked like a door was not a passage. A thick glass wall was actually an entrance and I was wondering what I should do when the lift doors did not open on reaching our level, when my wife noticed that it had opened at the back!.


The sight of an aircraft landing and taking off always fascinates me. When ever I go to an airport to receive or drop somebody, I try to find a vantage point from where I can see take offs and landings and spend some time watching the action. These days, with the security controls in and around the airports, I never get to reach a place from where I can have a good view. Sitting in the lounge of gate A62 in Frankfurt airport I had a clear view of the runway and during the two hours that I spent there, watched enough landings and takeoffs to last my life time. As I calculated, from the runway that I was seeing, there was a takeoff or landing every half a minute. I had thought that the nose wheel of an aircraft touches the ground first while landing. I found that it is not so. It is the wing wheels that touch the ground first. A correction to my collection of useless information.


Frankfurt airport has shops, hotels, lounges and offices on the first level, arrival gates on the second level and departure gates on the third level. There are four sections of departure gates A,B,C,D, each having about 65 gates. All together, about three hundred fifty gates! Boarding to our flight to Detroit which was to take off at 13.35 was called at 12.55 and we stood in the long queue in front of the gate. Those who needed assistance were to board first, followed by people carrying babies and small children and then senior citizens. My grey hair reduced our waiting time in the queue and we overtook many real senior citizens who had dyed their hair. Grow old gracefully(and fast). It helps in an airport. Flight was uneventful and since there were no Kapoors or Khans on the monitor of our Air Bus A330-300, I could spend the time watching the monitor and recollecting lot of forgotten geography. We landed on time at Detroit, 16.25 on 27th may.