First day of the world tour

First day of the world tour

Well, the first day of our trip around the world didn’t turn out too badly. At a quarter to five on the dot (in the afternoon), we are picked up at home in Eckental by our helpful friend Kurt. Afterwards we drive to Kalchreuth, where we want to pick up our dear friends Sabine and Hans.

They are actually already at their front door when we drive up. Although they have two suitcases and two pieces of hand luggage with them, we can easily fit everything in the trunk of Kurt’s car. We had originally planned to travel with hand luggage only, but then decided at short notice to pack a suitcase as well. As I said, everything fits in the car and off we go to the airport in Nuremberg.

Wise from experience

Why are we leaving so early? Assuming the flight is surprisingly punctual, we want to have a snack in the lounge first. But that alone is not the real reason: we simply want to have enough time to discuss the possibility of combining the two tickets into one at check-in. The advantage would be that we could check our luggage through to San Francisco.

We are actually flying on two different tickets: the journey via Frankfurt to Mailend has a different booking number to the actual ticket for the round-the-world trip, which starts in Milan and then goes via Zurich to San Francisco.

But the friendly lady at the Lufthansa counter in Nuremberg actually manages to combine the two tickets and route both us and our luggage all the way to San Francisco. And so we no longer need to worry about this until we reach our first destination.

However, the main reason for all this action was the following: the connection in Frankfurt is extremely tight. So if the plane from Nuremberg doesn’t arrive on time, the luggage stays in Frankfurt. However, if the destination of the luggage is Milan, then it will be sent there. But we are only staying there overnight in order to continue our flight the next day. So, to cut a long story short: in the event of irregularities with the flights, our luggage would be sent to San Francisco, and that’s exactly what we want.

Surprise

But what can I say? We live in a world where promises are handled according to the motto: Who has never made a promise in their life? This applies from the timetable of the plan to the promise of eternal fidelity. But now the promises regarding Lufthansa’s flight schedule worked out pretty much to the minute. WOW!

In Frankfurt, we probably won’t have any more time to fortify ourselves in the lounge. But that was clear from the start. We reach the plane to Milan fairly relaxed and arrive there on time.

Overnight stay in Milan

After arriving, getting out of the building to the cabs is similar to the walks we like to take on Saturdays. Shortly before reaching the cab rank, we almost decide to walk the rest of the way to the hotel; it can’t be far.

Nevertheless, we take a cab and are briefly shocked by the 30 euros charged for the distance of just under two kilometers; but you can’t treat yourself to anything else, so we accept!

At the hotel, we are then told that we can normally only take the hotel shuttle for the return journey to the airport, which also costs 15 euros per room, because no cab driver would give up his position at the airport for “a few” euros when, on the other hand, a trip to Milan earns considerably more. Well, that’s just the way it is!

We treat ourselves to a snack and a drink at the Crown Plaza Milan Airport and decide to take the hotel shuttle back to the airport tomorrow at half past seven.

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