The IT Nerd

Something unexpected happened last night. A friend of mine who lives in the Frankfurt area found out via my posts about my trip that I was in town and invited me out to dinner. That gave me the opportunity to see a bit of Frankfurt at night. My friend picked me up in his car and drove us across the river Main into the central part of the city. After parking, he took me to this fine establishment called Leib & Seele:

It was busy so we had to wait for a table at the bar:

The had a number of good beers on tap. Thus I took a pilsner to enjoy while we waited for a table. It only took 10 minutes for one to become available. They have a very extensive menu and here’s what I chose:

This is spaghetti with cheese curds, bacon, and olives. It was outstanding. After dinner, we drove around and my friend pointed out some of the sights to see which I really appreciated. I made a promise that the next time I am here, I would explore the city in daytime as there’s a lot to see and the night isn’t the best time to do sightseeing. Having said that, here’s a couple of pictures:

I got to bed before midnight so that the next morning I could have breakfast, check out of the hotel and make my way to the airport. Now one thing that I should point out is that the taxi that I took to the airport looked like this:

Taxis around many parts of Germany are typically Mercedes E class cars. A very comfortable ride to the airport and affordable too. My ride to the airport cost me 26 Euros.

Frankfurt Airport is a massive place. It took me a while to not only find the check in counter, but to find my flight on this board so that I could confirm that it was on time.

I saw a couple of people riding these Segway like machines in the airport.

People were also riding bikes in the airport as well. Like I said, this place is huge.

I also saw a heavy police presence in the airport. If you look closely, you’ll note the German made HK machine guns in their hands.

One thing that is kind of unique is that Frankfurt airport has lots and lots of shopping before and after security.

One thing that is handy is these stands that allow you to scan your boarding pass and see if your flight is on time and what gate it is leaving from. Given the size of this airport, that’s a welcome feature.

I typically show up at airports three hours before my flight. That way I can clear security, passport control, and the like with ease. And I can relax before my flight. For example, I was able to get to my gate and use the free WiFi to post this story. A word about the WiFi here, it is great. You have to register using an e-mail address and you can use it for free and it is speedy. This was in sharp contrast to Indira Gandhi Airport which has horrible WiFi.

Now my flight back is on this Air Canada Boeing 777:

Given that this business trip was almost ruined by Air Canada when I left Toronto, I am hoping that they get me home safely, efficiently, without any delays, and without losing my baggage. I will be using my Tile app to look for theTile inside my checked baggage to make sure it makes the flight. The peace of mind that using the Tile app to ensure that your checked baggage makes your flight is one reason why I recommend Tile to anyone who asks.

So my next stop will be Pearson Airport in Toronto where I’ll tie up a few loose ends. Stay tuned for that later today!

This entry was posted on January 27, 2017 at 2:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.