Entourage at Frankfort

Finally, finally, got the pic to upload. I was so pleased with this group of people in Frankfort. Lufthansa and Bahn (railway) were awesome. You see Eddie already loaded on the platform, waiting for our train. They roll him on from one direction, then adjust the height to the train, let the ramp down on the opposite side to match the train height and roll him off. The two ladies in the picture are operating the lift. The black fellow was our steward for the train. They had mixed up our "special service" request, though I had a confirmation, but he overheard us at the service desk and walked all the way to the train with us (of course he was going that way anyway), and went above and beyond the call of duty to take charge, and care of Eddie. The fellow to his right is our luggage porter. You can't imagine how far he pushed that cart to get where we are in the picture...and that was after they sorted out our luggage at customs. The other two guys are about to roll the refreshment cart on after us (they must have know we were coming...LOL).




I told them there were a total of three pieces. Two suitcases and the walker with Eddie's special abduction pillow I had all wrapped (and wrapped, and wrapped) up together in a bundle, then a Frontier bag around it (AA had no bags at TUL...cutbacks!, so they "borrowed" a Frontier bag). Really tacky looking but effective. Like a true Okie, I've packed a big roll of tape to bundle it all back up coming home. Okies can do damned near anything with duct tape, but I chose clear plastic (classy, huh?).




Well, there were actually four pieces of "luggage" total! They had tagged the wheelchair that Eddie was sitting in for loading at the plane door. So, when we got that squared away, the porter led the way to the station, found the elevators, over the walkway, down another elevator then way down the platform.




I need to back up a bit to tell you all about the service at Frankfort. Of course we were the last ones off the plane, and the onboard "wheelchair" routine again. If anyone who can't walk wants to travel by air, you might want to re-think it. That onboard "wheelchair" is a joke. It is little more than a utility two-wheeler with a tiny, unpadded seat attached. It takes two people and more muscle than I have to move it around. They just tug and lift and yank to even get it to the aisle. Eddie says they handle you like a bag of potatoes. The guy at Chicago was just awful (I'll tell you that one later). So it's not been a bed of roses, but he's never been (and won't be) harmed.



So the good story. We were met a the plane by FRA Services. A sweet young woman, pleasant, excellent English. She pushed the wheelchair (not the tiny one from hell, but Eddie's custom chair) about a mile through the airport with me jogging along beside her. Took us to Immigration and that was a breeze. Then another gazillion blocks to their offices and waiting room. Since the train didn't leave for another two hours, they wanted us to wait there. It seems the rail platform is open and very cold, with no comfortable area to wait. They had hot beverages, and a handicapped bathroom. We were picked up by a second, pleasant young woman about 45 mins before train time. That was where the mix up on the luggage came in, though Customs was mostly a wave of the hand. That young lady handed us off to the porter (in picture) who took us all the way to the train and stayed until the luggage and Eddie were onboard. The steward took over after that, then the porter in Cologne took us all the way thru the huge train station and to a taxi. We were escorted and cared for so very well. I can't say enough wonderful things about the Germany Lufthansa ground crew.



The taxi ride started off poorly. The eager taxi driver began loading our stuff in his vehicle... I loaded Eddie. Then he found out how much we had (duh, it was sitting in front of him), and he began to grumble and tried to pass us off to a larger taxi. Nope. As tired as Eddie was, I was not going to unload him again. Then when he learned we were only traveling a few blocks he really began to grumble...something about dumkoff, I think. I stood my ground, told the other taxi driver to load up the luggage and follow us to the hotel (english, pantomine, large hand gestures, and a bit of American Sign Language). That was the easiest 10Euros (for a 4Euro taxi ride) that dumkoff made that day, I'm sure. The luggage guy got 5Euros....and we all learned a lesson about getting in a rush.