Not quite as planned - part 1

This trip was full of surprises, both great and let’s call some of them „not so great“.

It started out the day before, when we did online check in for our flights and suddenly realized, that those were not the seats we had picked when we had booked our flights. Turns out that we had been upgraded to Business Class. Score! What a nice surprise.

So when travel day rolled around we got up around 7am, got ready and had breakfast before loading the luggage into the car and heading off to the airport. Even though it was a workday, traffic was light and we made it to the airport with plenty of time. We stopped at the short term parking, unloaded the luggage and rolled it inside the airport to check it in. There were long lines left and right, but business check in was all empty so this task was done within a very short time. Luggage checked in to Orlando we headed outside, got into the car and went to the long-term parking, parked the car and back we went to the airport. Security was a breeze and then we walked through the small duty free shop and ended up waiting at the gate for about 10 minutes until it was time to board the small plane that would take us to Frankfurt.

Once on board and in our seats the flight attendants handed out their little treats,

Walkers shortbreads, before we took off. A few minutes later we were already on our flight to Frankfurt.

We both had some Coke during the flight

and soon enough we landed again.

Since our home airport is fairly small and not many people travel to Frankfurt, the small airplane we travelled on was parked at the furthest out spot possible. Then we had to get on a bus that took a LONG time to get to the terminal. Once there we needed to get to another terminal, go through a check point and finally made it to our terminal. On the way we stopped at a Duty Free and Tom got himself a small bottle of Whiskey and a small present for our friend Angelina. There was still time until we had to get on the plane and since we travelled Business Class, so why not visit the Business Lounge. Walked over, showed our tickets and up we went.

We found a nice table

and got ourselves a drink and some

Frankfurter sausages, baguette and mustard for a quick snack. They even had free ice cream and needless to say I had to try it. It was

peach sorbet and really refreshing, the small bar was absolutely just the right size. And since the internet was really good up there, we checked our mail and messages and with just a few minutes to spare we made our way over to the gate.

Turns out that they were not ready for boarding yet and we had to wait a little longer anyway. We got in line with everyone else and after another 20 minutes we were allowed to board the plane. I had changed Lufthansa's seat assignment to one that was closer to the exit and we quickly had found our seats and settled in.

And as soon as we were settled in the flight attendant offered us some drinks. We both got a

glass of champagne to celebrate the start of our vacation. Another half an hour later the plane pushed back

and we were finally on the way to Orlando. Soon we had climbed up into the skies over Germany

and the flight attendants were about to offer some more drinks and snacks. Tom and I both got a glass of

dry white wine, a glass of water and they handed out some roasted and salted almonds with it. We snacked on it for a while, while watching TV. Funnily enough there was a programme on about an English chef, who visited Austria’s capital city, Vienna and learned about Austria’s cuisine and its origins. It was a really well done programme. About an hour and a half into the flight we were served some lunch.

How different Business Class lunch is from Economy.

First off we were handed some hot/cold towels to freshen up, then they put small white table cloths on our tables before serving our starters. They had three different ones and they all sounded delicious. We made our mind up and Tom ordered the

Chicken Breast Gremolata with Red Lentil Salad and Chive Olive Oil, which was as yummy as we expected it to be. I had my heart set on the

Spiced Salmon with Turnip Celery Salad, Frankfurt Style Pesto and Pumpkin Seeds, which was equally tasty. We were also served some

butter and

fresh rolls with it. We had some of the same crisp

white wine with it and it was just perfect. After we had finished our starters we were served a salad course,

Seasonal Leaf Salad with Tomato, Cucumber and Wasabi Dressing. I was a bit suspicious of the Wasabi Dressing being hot, but it had just the right amount of spice to not be overpowering. The salad was fresh and crisp and just what we had hoped for. Didn’t take long for our main courses to arrive. Tom had asked for the

Prawns and Vegetable Provencal with Tomato Stock and Mixed Rice. It looked yummy and Tom was very happy with it. My choice had been the

Fried Breast of Corn-fed Chicken with Jus, Leek Tomato Stew and Herb Polenta. It was really good and we both enjoyed our food very much. We were both pretty full when they took away our empty plates, but the flight attendants told us that there were yummy desserts as well. Again, there were three choices, one being a cheese plate, one some fresh fruit, but we both opted for the

Crème Brulee Mango and Pssion Fruit Ice Cream. This was definitely a first for both of us and it was so good. They did offer coffee and tea, but none of us did want any and we just went on to watch some more TV. Tom stuck with some movies while I started watching a TV series called “The Missing”. It had a lot of episodes and the more I watched the more it gripped me. And while I was still watching the first episode, the flight attendant came around with more drinks and

some chocolate for each of us. Since Tom didn’t want his, I had two sets to enjoy while watching my series.