Christmas 2010 - Day Two

We flew through the night and made it to Frankfurt at 9:30 AM, Sunday. We got off the plane excited to catch our next flight to Milan! We were greeted wit cots--lots of people sleeping and laying on cots! NOT a good sign.

We found a ticket agent and asked what gate our flight was leaving from and were informed that our flight was CANCELLED! We found out there were hundreds of flights cancelled (see picture above--every city followed by the word "annulliert" is cancelled). This began hours and hours and hours of waiting in lines! We started out in a line to find out where we needed to go to rebook our flight. After 30 minutes in one line we were informed we needed to go through passport check-in. We got in the line for passport check-in (with a MILLION other people). Another thirty minutes later we were through passport check-in. We made our way into the terminal and asked an agent where we needed to go to rebook. She pointed to a line. A line so long we couldn't believe it! Seriously, it was long. It weaved through the whole airport forEVER!

We started standing. And we stood and stood and moved a little and stood some more and moved a little. Cita would find a place to sit and rest while Kate and stood. I can't tell you how awful it was. I spent most of the time just praying. I kept saying, "God, I know I am not supposed to pray for selfish things, but if you can please get us out of this I would be so thankful." I saw one toddler throwing up and while his parents were trying to help him people were cutting in front of them to get further in line and we saw elderly people close to falling over they were so tired from standing for so long. Every so often Lufthansa agents would walk by passing out water and snacks.

We started standing in some kind of line at 9:30 AM and finally made it to a ticket agent at 5:30 PM. Yes, you read it right we were in line that whole time. At this point we are all exhausted. We finally got a luggage cart and put all of our coats in it so Kate could rest. The agent booked us on a flight to Milan for Monday morning at 7:40 AM. She also gave us taxi, hotel and food vouchers. We were feeling better now!

Then we got in the taxi! We had the nicest Indian taxi driver. Very sweet. We headed out the the Ramada Niedernhausen. Our driver told us it was a 40 minute drive out of town! What?!?!?!?! Did I mention we are in the middle of a snow storm?! We made it about 20 minutes out and hit gridlock. Traffic was stopped because the snow and ice were so bad the semi trucks couldn't make it up the hill. Now we are really getting worried. What if we get out to this hotel and it continues to snow and we can't get back into the airport for our flight. Oh, yes, I forgot to tell you the taxi was a Mercedes-Benz and every time the car slid this alarm would go off! So there was this BEEEEEPPPPP every few seconds. We made a decision to turn around and sleep in the airport.

We got to the airport and went to the snack bar and got sandwiches, yogurt and juice. We snuggled in for a winter's nap. I slept for about 30 minutes and woke up. I was so full of fear. I wanted to get out of that airport so badly. I got our tickets out to check and see was seats we were in. To my surprise there were no seat assignments. I went up to the nearest ticket counter and asked the agent why there were no seat numbers. She told me we were waitlisted (stand-by). OMG! Are you serious? This was it. The last straw. I went back to my seat and just cried. I know! I am a big baby, but I was so frustrated. Cita woke up and I told her what was going on. We just sat - nothing to do or say. About twenty minutes later we noticed a the gate across from ours had people moving around (not sitting and looking sullen like everyone else). I went over and there was a flight scheduled for Milan leaving from the gate. I couldn't believe it! Why weren't we on that flight? Cita and I assumed it was full. We sat there looking at all the people who were getting ready to get out of there and just felt defeated. Then I thought, "what the heck, it doesn't hurt to ask!" I went over to the agent and asked if there were any seats open on the flight. He took our tickets and said, "One minute please." I RAN to Cita and woke up Kate and went back to the agent. He gave us boarding passes!!! I would have kissed him if I could! We ran onto the shuttle for our flight!!!! Thank you God!

We arrived in Milan after midnight. No luggage but we didn't care. We filled out our lost luggage paperwork and got a taxi to Como! We arrived at the Albergo Terminus at 1:30 AM Monday morning! Hello Italy!