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We were treated to a 4 am wake-up call on our last day of vacation. We took the subway to the CAT airport train and then flew to Frankfurt on AirNiki. AirNiki was a ton of fun. The flight attendants wore jeans and jaunty hot pink berets.
I learned a valuable lesson in Frankfurt -- never forget your Star Alliance Gold Card. As a frequent flyer, you get access to the airline lounges on international trips. Since I was flying United, I thought my frequent flyer status would be printed on my boarding pass and that I wouldn't need my Gold Card. I was wrong... Fortunately, I found a sympathetic agent at the United counter who was willing to vouch for me at the Lufthansa Star Alliance lounge. We were able to talk and beg our way into the lounge. Hooray!
The Lufthansa lounge featured self-serve espresso drinks -- I made myself a latte macchiato; a fruit wheel, and gummi candy!
When we arrived in Washington D.C., we had no problem getting into the United lounge. Alas, it was not nearly so posh as the one in Frankfurt. No wonder Lufthansa is so protective of the space. For the final leg of our trip, we were waiting on the runway to take off from Washington Dulles airport to San Francisco. There was some bad weather in the region and Air Force One was forced to land at Dulles! That delayed things considerably. I was able to catch a glimpse of Air Force One out the opposite side of the airplane. I was able to listen in to air traffic control on the seat back audio system. It was like a game of Tetris as one cool and collected air traffic controller shifted planes out of the way so the President could depart. It was fascinating to listen to!
We were finally able to take off. Six hours later, we began our descent into San Francisco as the sun was setting. What a fitting end to an amazing and educational trip to Europe!