Traveling Is Fun
Posted: 1/29/2004 6:00 PM (Permalink)
One of the things I noted during the trip was that we didn't see many Americans while we were in South Africa. Lots of Germans, English and Irish people, but very few of our own kind. It’s pretty easy to figure out why this is the case.
We spent 24 hours and 7 minutes of flight time getting from Seattle to Cape Town. 24 hours that doesn’t include sitting around in airports waiting to be allowed to board the plane. 24 hours that doesn’t include the time sitting in a plane waiting for everyone to get their carry-on baggage stowed away. It doesn’t even include the time spent taxing down runways. That is 24 hours and 7 minutes in which our plane was not physically attached to the Earth. Ugh!
We had a long lay-over in Frankfurt. Probably a blessing, that because after a sleepless, short night flying from San Francisco, I definitely needed a break.
It’s traditional for me, whenever I fly to Europe, to spend the first day there wandering aimlessly around a museum in whatever city I’m in trying my darndest to keep from falling asleep. This time, the museum was the Städelmuseum. Don’t ask me to remember what I saw there.
Frankfurt is not the most picturesque of cities, but here’s a picture of the pedestrian bridge the crosses the Main river by the museum.
For some reason, I really like the little “panicing man” icon that they use in Europe to indicate escape routes. This one is from the train station at the Frankfurt airport.
He’s either in panic or he’s dancing, I’m not sure which. In any event, after 12 hours in cold Frankfurt, we made our escape back to the airport and on to Africa. I saw a beautiful moon rise over the Sahara. The airborne dust made it deep orange color. Sorry, no pictures of that.
The next morning, we arrived to a lovely clear day in Cape Town. We got a good view of Robben Island (the prison where Mandela was held) on the approach. Unfortunately, Laura’s luggage did not make the trip. This is another one of our travel traditions. Travel tip: If you are packing two suitcases, put some of your clothes in each one so that if one of them doesn't make it, you’ll still have something to wear. Alas, Laura would be without clothes for another 24 hours.