We flew from Seattle to Frankfurt, landing today on time ( just after noon). Our plan had to wait about 30 minutes, for a gate assignment, but otherwise the Frankfurt airport was pretty easy, and our one checked bag came down the chute onto the carousel just when we got there. The line for passport control for non-EU persons was about 10-15 minutes.
The Condor flight, booked in business class with Alaska miles, was great. The A330 seemed quite new, and the seats functioned very well—-both my husband and I slept pretty well. And the food was very good—-actually better than some of our business class meals on British Airways. I would happily use Condor again, especially when we have no need to stop in London. It is really nice to get to the Continent without changing planes.
Actually the hardest part of the journey has been getting to the airport (SeaTac) and now getting from Frankfurt Flughafen to Freiburg, our destination for the night.
We generally get to SeaTac for any flight by asking a friend to drop us at the Mount Baker station, and take the light rail from there. Yesterday was no exception, but after we boarded the waiting train there was an announcement that there was a problem further south (some incident or blockage on the track) and the King County Sheriff would not let the train proceed to the airport. So everyone got off and then scrambled to call Uber and Lyft. $50 later we arrived at SeaTac without further trouble.
In Frankfurt, after deplaning and the long walk to baggage claim and then the Fernbahnhof, we learned from the schedule board that our train to Mannheim was late enough that it appeared we would miss our connection to Freiburg. I asked in the DB lounge ( we had first class tix) what we should do, and the agent there said no worries, the conductor will sort it out when he or she checks our tickets. Or something like that —she spoke in German.
So we boarded our train ( ICE 519) but no one came around to check tickets. There was an announcement before we reached Mannheim about connections, but it was difficult to hear. When we got off the train, there was our train (ICE371) waiting across the platform. Turns out there were so many people connecting from the train we were on that they waited. But we had to board quickly in the nearest car rather than walk to our reserved one. It was so crowded it was impossible to make our way through the train to our seats 8 cars ahead. So we waited til the first stop and then got out and sprinted along the platform to where we belonged. Now we are happily sitting in our window seats and my husband is falling asleep. I think I will start enjoying the scenery for the rest of the ride.
Edit: 2 things of note. No one has checked our tickets on this train either. But there was a very stern announcement about wearing mask —obligatorish—- and they must cover nose and chin. People across the aisle from us chuckled and did not don masks. I guess because they have an open bottle of wine and are taking occasional sips. But for the most part people are wearing masks.