A Southern Adventure August 2018 Travel Day

[pretty71]

August 9th Travel Day

Well traditionally I do not sleep well the night before travelling. We are usually in a Premier Inn so nothing unusual there, but there is all this "what have I forgotten?" "I must remember to do such and such?" Etc etc. We had also had a really nice evening all of us together with Sean so I was thinking about that too. To be fair I got to sleep without any problem at all and as I said I turned the light out at 8.30 but I was awake at 11.15 and still awake at 1.20 if I remember right...

Anyway it's just one of those things...I woke up at 2.45 and got out of bed and made a cup of coffee and set to organising a few of those things on my mind and getting ready.
I sang Happy Birthday to my newly 8 year old baby which seemed to do the trick and she got up no problem

We were ready to go at 3.25, we bundled out the door and in to the car. I had packed the Sat Nav so we were winging it...what a mistake that was! There were roadworks around the airport and I missed a sign in the confusion, luckily we were not on far before I realised. I did a quick u turn... the joys of it being 3.30am...and soon turned in to the meet and greet at terminal 1. This was really straight forward and very professional and I would not hesitate to recommend it... so far so good of course, let's see if we get the car back in one piece first

We found the check in desk and there was only a very small queue and we only waited about 5 minutes. All done and we were relieved of our cases.

We went through security, Grace was in top form going through here, she is great at the airport, she gets her own kindle out and reminds me to take my glasses off from around my neck etc. I am glad I didn't pay to fast track, I was very tempted before hand but it really was not necessary.

My bag got pulled aside for a liquid check and we were all through then and in to the wonderful world of duty free! We purchased some fragrance, Happy for Men and Happy for Women 70 pounds down, had a look at Raybans and then decided to get a drink. A glass of prosecco each, well not Grace obvs.. Don't mind if I do at 5.20am

We were at the gate by 5.45 and it was not too busy thankfully and we were soon boarding, we pushed back 15 minutes late at 6.30am. Well before you know it we were coming in to land at Frankfurt after being treated to a Danish pastry and a coffee. Great flight, good service, not stressed about the connection at all. We landed 5 minutes later than scheduled and were soon on a bus to the terminal. We had to go around to Z from B, it was a bit of a trek and a ride on a monorail but we soon arrived at security. This was very thorough, I had no problem with my sealed bags of new fragrance, Grace and I had a little pat down and we were though. It was very well organised. We were at the gate 25 minutes before take off. It was packed with people, they were boarding for the posh seats and everyone else looked like it was 10 lines of queues going in to 2! We were hovering and we were called to go through the other side as we had Grace we felt very lucky.

We walked down to the plane and were soon in our seats. We were on a new A380 and all I can say about these planes is that they are absolutely MASSIVE! I had the window seat in row 72 and all I could see out of the window was a wing... it was that big I could see nothing else!

There is plenty of room and a feeling of space and how they get up in the air I have no idea, it's huge!
Anyway you now know my feelings...
We took off 25 minutes late at 11.10 and were soon being served drinks. I had a vodka and Mick had a red wine. Lunch soon followed, Grace was refusing all food, she was exhausted and also worried about being ill, she was getting some sleep at this point. I had ordered her a kids meal but they didn't have any which I was a bit disappointed about, but she never ate it anyway so no harm done.

Daddy and I both had the chicken breast, it came with a garlic/white sauce, sliced new potatoes and spinach, it was delicious! We also had the customary salad starter, which was OK and an apricot sponge thing for dessert as well as a roll and cheese. Coffee and tea followed after with a little chocolate biscuit.

Wine was also served and they came round twice with that which was really nice, real cutlery too...what more could you ask for?

I had a sleep then whilst Grace watched Trolls and Daddy watched the Shawshank Redemption. When they had finished those Grace had a sleep and I watched some programmes I had downloaded to Iplayer.

I have to say the time soon passed. they served tea just about an hour before we were due to land this was not the usual sandwich offering but another hot meal. We could have chosen pasta (which was also the other offering at lunch) or chicken with pumpkin. This is what we both chose and it was nice if a little sweet. Another roll and butter and tea and coffee, you could also have more wine. We were also offered hot towels before each meal which was excellent.

All in all I found the service and everything overall for Lufthansa, really excellent. It was great service, the food was good, the plane was clean and they did not skimp with anything. I would definitely recommend them.

We landed right on time to good weather and we were soon in the immigration hall. We used the machines of which there were plenty and declared our left over crisps and biscuits and were through the other side within just over half an hour. We found our cases and went through to the main terminal, very chuffed!

We planned to go to the hotel and drop our bags and get our room sorted before Nanny and Grandad landed at 6.15pm. We were out at just after 3.30 so we went out to see if we could get the free shuttle to the hotel. We waited for over half an hour but never saw it so we decided to go and get a cab. We wish we had done this sooner now as it was only $17 and we didn't have to wait. We were soon at the Cambria Suites on Blue Lagoon and the hotel was good. It was 4.45. We dumped our stuff and arranged to catch the shuttle back at 6pm which we booked so we had nearly an hour in the room to chill out.

We went down to reception and had a bit of the wait for the shuttle but soon bundled in and were at the airport in no time. We were more or less in the right place too and saw that they landed about half an hour later than planned. To be honest the air con was so fierce inside we went and waited outside?

We could still see them though and we didn't have to wait too long thankfully.

They had had a good flight with no dramas which is great. We decided to grab something to eat there and then before getting the car so we had KFC and Grandad had something from Taco Bell.

We had to get the monorail to the rental centre which was easy enough and were soon making our way down to the garage. I saw the man at the booth who gave us a Ford Flex... this we like, it's not new, it has 22,000 on the clock but blimey it is spacious and lovely to drive so a hit with us. It has a built in Sat Nav too which has since let us down, clearly she has lost her mind so we are continuing to use ours.

Anyway we were soon driving out and managed to find our way back to the hotel in one piece...just.

We went straight up and straight to bed we had been up a whole 24 hours by now, Grace was dead on her feet and I don't know how she managed really as she has not eaten anything all day apart from a packet of cheese and onion crisps and a biscuit! Most of the time she was just too exhausted to eat.

We were all here though a very successful travel day

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New Photo Added by pretty71 - 11 Aug 18 11:13 AM.

[jengibbo]

We came home this route on Tuesday and the transatlantic flight was brilliant. We did however nearly miss our connection back to Manchester as we had to do security twice and we had a massive trek across the airport. Enjoy your trip.

[pretty71]

Originally Posted by jengibbo

We came home this route on Tuesday and the transatlantic flight was brilliant. We did however nearly miss our connection back to Manchester as we had to do security twice and we had a massive trek across the airport. Enjoy your trip.

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Wow thanks for the heads up! We love running at the airport! How much time did you have spare?

[jengibbo]

Originally Posted by pretty71

Wow thanks for the heads up! We love running at the airport! How much time did you have spare?

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We had about 15 minutes to spare. We did cut it fine.

[mick]

Great travel day

Joan

[Cinderella]

A good day!

[Jake71]

Glad everything went smoothly with your travel day.

[Floridaagogo]

Your plane food sounds lovely !

[Graciesmummy]

Great report. We are going via Frankfurt with Lufthansa this year, we've not done indirect for a few years, did you have to collect your bags in Frankfurt?