Across the pond
The flight from Punta Cana to Frankfurt was only 8 1/2 hours, and we had favorable winds and only slight occasional turbulence. Despite just having what is termed “light chop”, these days the fasten-seat-belt sign goes on within milliseconds and remains lit long after the disturbances have vanished. I suppose the airlines are all afraid of getting sued.
Frankfurt
We arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule, and I breezed through the electronic passport control for EU citizens, with a slight inner smirk at the lengthy line for non-EU travelers. But that line moved quickly and doesn’t come close to the long lines that I experience in the USA.
The downside came at the luggage retrieval. One set of suitcases dropped onto the conveyor belt, and then nothing else. The display read “short delay,” and for the next hour, only single pieces of luggage came grudgingly out of the system. When mine finally arrived, I ran to the train station to catch my ICE train towards Munich and barely made it through the doors before they closed. Had the train not been delayed by 5 minutes, I wouldn’t have made it.