July 13, 2002 (Saturday)- After spending a restless night in NYC, this morning we were up early and on our way to the JFK airport where we would board a Lufthansa flight arriving in Frankfurt, Germany the next day, Sunday. From there, we'd catch a flight to Moscow!
Having flown large and small U.S. airlines the Germany Lufthansa plane and service were beyond our expectations--really nice for the 8+ hrs. to Frankfurt.
We arrived at the Frankfurt airport VERY early in the a.m. and waited for our flight to Moscow. The airport was nice and clean and soooooo quiet that early in the morning. As we sat in a waiting area, I noticed a "beer house" not far down the corridor. I commented to John that we'd see how serious Germans are about their beer if they opened the beer house early that morning--and on a Sunday (I was raised in the Bible Belt, you know!!). Sure enough, around 7:30 or 8:00 they were open for business--what a hoot! We decided that we'd pass on the opportunity to taste real Germany beer that early in the morning!
When we boarded our flight to Moscow the plane was not nearly as luxurious or large--understandable--and we quickly noticed that we were apparently the only native English speakers on the flight! Even though we both have traveled outside of the U.S. and have been around foreign languages, this was the beginning of "culture shock" for us, and the beginning of our "reality check" as we neared our much anticipated destination.
