Halfway round the world in 36 hours

 

Waiting for our flight from Singapore to Frankfurt

Tuesday was departure day.  However, we were not leaving Wellington until 8pm so the day was spent making sure that the flat would be neat and tidy for visitors and for our return.  There were a few tasks to do related to our travel.  One of those was getting a SIM. 

 

After much research Bev and I had come to the conclusion that a crowd called Airalo were the best value.  It came in the form of an e-sim so could be installed before our departure.

 

I had also read quite a bit about Airtags as a way of finding luggage in case it got lost.  Given the pharmacy I was carrying in my bag I did not want it to go walkabout during our travels. 

 

Finally, we were picked up by A who took us to the airport.  The first part of the journey went without a hitch and before we knew it we were in Auckland having a nice walk over to the International Terminal.  We had a two hour wait in the lounge and then it was a short walk to the Gate to board our flight to Singapore. 

 

I had used some of  my Airpoints to upgrade to Business and a few days before leaving I noticed in the Air New Zealand app that we had been granted the upgrade.  It was a very nice surprise for Bev. 

Happiness is a bed, a cup of tea and TV

 

We had a good trip to Singapore.  The highlight for me of the journey was a small glass of the Trinity Hill Homage Syrah.  It is one of New Zealand’s best syrah and rather expensive.    

 

Changi Terminal is a very odd place.  It is fully airconditioned so there is no idea how hot it is outside.  We had five hour wait there that turned out to be a six hour wait due to the late arrival of our aircraft from somewhere.

 

The flight was reasonably good with nice food to sustain around 500 passengers.  Most of whom are crammed in like sardines.  I suspect I have irritated a few flight service attendants.  A couple of times I was approached to pull down my blind.  I tried to explain to the attendant that I wanted to while away the time by looking at the view - the hazy contours of the land we were flying over.  In addition, it was daytime and was not a way of combatting jet-lag.  I was told, “But, you have to do it”.  I patiently explained the  above and that I had selected a window seat for that reason. There was no more push back. Bev raised her eyebrows but chose not to participate in this interaction.

 

Long flights like this are the worst part of travelling to the other side of the world.  I had forgotten how tiring it is.  In the recent past, i.e. pre-Covid, we had generally stopped off half way and on reflection I think that is much better idea.  If we travel this far again I think we will do a one night stopover as it is much easier on the body.

 

We arrived in Frankfurt an hour later than scheduled after several movies and for me and a number of episodes of Masterchef UK.  We had good views of Frankfurt and environs as we came into land.  I was amazed at how much forest there was in the surrounding region. 

 

It did not take us too long to get through customs and although there was a quite a queue it  moved reasonably quickly.   Suddenly we were through the border and walking for another kilometre to find our bags, which, to our relief,  were there when we got to the carousel. The airtags had of course told us they were in the terminal.

 

We were taking public transport from the airport to our accommodation and that was where we hit our first snafu.  The staff in the information booth for public transport was not very helpful.  Then getting the right ticket was not easy despite an English version which changed back to  German partway through.  Eventually we made a guess (which was confirmed to be the right one by a lovely helpful local) and took the train to a strop where we changed for a tram. 

 

The Germans might be renowned for efficiency but fixing escalators is not one of them.  We had to carry our bags up a very long set of stairs, but a very nice man offered to take Bev’s bag for her.  Once we were at the  top we needed directions to the tram line and another nice English speaking man was helpful with pointing us in the right direction.  We again needed help to get tickets at the tram stop. A couple who did not speak English at all used many gesticulations and a lot of laughter to help us get them. 

 

It was very dark when we got to our last stop and we managed to get lost when trying to find our accommodation.  Eventually we got there with a little help from Apple Maps and a phone call to the AirBNB host. 

 

Thrirty minutes later after meeting our host I was in bed and out for the count.