That is right – we head to the airport in about 45 minutes with a flight on a Lufthansa code share to Istanbul. According to the information – it should be Turkish Airways but who knows. According to what Lufthansa sent both of us – we should be checking in on line. Going to both Lufthansa and Turkish Airways ….. neither says we exist.

Airport early we think.

In any case, we will have internet access in the Lufthansa Lounge one way or the other. I will update this entry as we head off to an adventure together (George and I).

1314 –
Taxi to train station. Catching the S-Bahn to Mannheim, the ticket machine refused to work. Or rather, there seemed to be some magic way to do the touch screen that involved up and over rather than the direct approach. I finally gave up in disgust just short of Mannheim. Boarding the ICE in Mannheim we bought tickets from Heidelberg to the Flughafen so we were covered on the earlier trip.

And then the fun began. Partway to the airport an announcement came on – the distance train station at the airport was closed due to a suspicious package. End result? We were going to detour around and not stop. If anyone wanted the airport – get off at Frankfurt Main station and take the Regional Train or S-Bahn to the airport.

Now the regional trains were going to be packed – running a couple of times an hour. The S-Bahn runs every 10-15 minutes so we headed for the bowels of the earth and caught the S-Bahn. No signs of screaming, running or flailing around when we arrived at the regional lower train station so I can only assume that the EOD people either cleared the area or didn’t blow it up.

We are booked on Turkish Airways which to me meant that you check in at Turkish Airways. Yes, it is a code share with Lufthansa, but it is not Lufthansa. My DH was sure he could check in with Lufthansa so, biting my tongue we hiked to the far end of Terminal A to be told …. go check in with Turkish Airways.

I couldn’t resist, and said it. But then, I am often flying on partner airlines where he is almost always on Lufthansa. I can remember a time – 5-10 years ago where you checked in with whomever you booked. But in the last year, no matter if I have a Lufthansa flight number or not – I have always had to check in with whomever is actually operating the flight.

The lovely woman at the check-in counter even managed to get us seats together. So here we are, sitting comfortably in the lounge drinking a coffee and relaxing.

2121 –

And we made it to Istanbul, a city of only 13.4 Million. The flight loaded only a few minutes late and, considering the number of children on the flight, the howling was minimal. US now needs Visas for short stays ($20US/person) and it turned out our hotel is a significant distance from the airport. Not quite Hamptons to Newark – but it certainly felt that way.

Tomorrow we will be off to explore the city – and can easily catch public transportation from here….