Not my usual topic but more than appropriate under the circumstances. Let me explain: being aware of your surroundings and taking the appropriate measures as needed to avoid problems.
Situational awareness is second nature to police, fire fighters, and military. It is why, decades after serving in the Balkans and mid-East why I still will never drive over anything in the road. Awareness also used to be second nature for mothers of small children, before the advent of the ubiquitous cell phone. It also underlies behavior for any smart person who is traversing an area unfamiliar or where they stand out in the crowd for any reason.
And then you have the average white dude who heads straight ahead figuring that it is the responsibility of everyone else to get out of the way or keep track of where they are going. I chose to find it funny most days, this particular form of obliviousness. But on occasion, like trekking through an airport it can become extremely frustrating. There is no way it can be interpreted as “I trust you to get where we are going” because it really is “I know where I am going, it is up to you to keep up….
Anyway, we arrived in Frankfurt, had the joy of an outside park position which meant outside stairs and buses. Onto the first bus we went. And then the doors wouldn’t close. Too many passengers? Moved a dozen or so people to the second bus. Still didn’t help. 25 minutes later, we finally headed toward the terminal. Turned out to be the far end of Terminal A which was the absolutely furthest distance one could get from baggage claim and still be in the airport. Then to top it off, baggage delivery took forever.
Then came the aforementioned trek to the rental car location (down stairs, along the underground concourse and back to the far end of Terminal A.). Take my word for it – don’t EVER rent a Peugeot. They suck. Whether or not all the electronic stuff is supposed to load, it doesn’t want to. The tutorials on how to run the nav system failed to load and I gave up, turned on my cell phone and used Maps to do our navigating.
After that, it wasn’t all that difficult to get to Miltenberg where we will spend a couple of days with George’s cousins before heading back to the airport and on to Iceland.
