Frankfurt, Day 2 (Extra! Extra!)

So we woke up bright & early to head over the airport. Thank goodness i'd brought an extra duffel bag, cuz I soooooo needed it! Day got me 3 1-L bottles of gluhwein (it is sooooooooo good) for my family...along with all the other stuff i'd bought along the way...plus my intention of getting another bottle of wine at the duty-free in the airport! not only were my bags full to bursting, they were SO heavy!!

We were all pretty happy to be on our way home (ok...maybe not all of us...R?) . We got there early planning to check in and grab breakfast with Day & Kei before heading to the gates, but the lines at the Delta counter was a nightmare!! They didn't even start on our flight till like 30 mins after we got there and even then it was just pure sloooooooooooowness. First you have to line up for the security inspection (they look at your passport & ask you about your bags). And then you have to line up at an agent's counter for boarding passes. The first agent we lined up at got all flustered with the ppl he was helping, that he closed his station after he finished with them, and we were standing there like..."hello!! what's up with that?? we've been waiting in your line for like 1/2 an hr!! and NOW you close your line?!?!" sheesh. so we had to find another line and wait for another 1/2 hr. so we ended up not being able to have breakfast with D & K and poor them sat around waiting for us for 1.5 hrs!!

After going thru 2 security gates (i'm soooo glad only female guards are allowed to pat down female passengers...), we got to our gate and were waiting for the boarding call, when it was announced that our flight was overbooked and they were taking volunteers to postpone their flights to the next day for $1000 voucher for a future Delta flight, the night's stay at the hotel and all meals!! I've always kinda wanted to do something like that, but never really had the opportunity or had a good enough incentive. R and I looked at each other and decided to check it out (C had to get back on schedule to make it to a mtg). Long story short, R & I went for it!! We decided the extra day could be spent hanging out with dayna! wooo hoooo!!

So we filled out all the paper work and had to sort out the luggage claim tickets and stuff (since R & my luggage had to be taken off the plane) and then walked back into Germany (got an entry stamp and everything!). We made our way to the hotel (4-star near airport) and called dayna (it cost 5 euros to make a LOCAL phone call from the hotel!!! can you believe what a rip off it was?? but we didn't know where else to go, so we had to suck it up and make the call). Thankfully, day wasn't busy so she & K came over to pick us up and take us to the wine country (which is famous in germany...kinda like napa for us)! yippeeeeeeeee...

We stopped off at schloss johannisberg to admire the view (see above) and tried this rose (pronounced ros-ay...it's pink) that was super yummy. i wish i'd gotten a bottle...but we were gonna do more wine-tasting later and i didn't wanna get any more wine (since i already had 4 bottles!!).

Next, K drove us to rudesheim, this quaint little touristy town like 30 mins outside of frankfurt. we strolled around and had some snacks. Unfortunately, the wine tasting place D&K had it mind was closed, but we were able to try some at another place and i got another 2 bottles (ok, one's gonna be a gift...and 2 of the gluhweins are for my fam)!!!

Afterwards, we went back to D&K's and day cooked us dinner. (Funny how all the shops & supermarkets are closed on Sundays in Germany. didn't think it was that religious.) mmmMMmmm. It was the best meal of the trip! We had meat patties w/mushrooms & onions over rice and asparagus and shrimp and mozarella over tomato slices...delish! And then R & i capped that off with tiramisu for dessert at the hotel (cuz we had a meal voucher after all!). =P