Connection to Rome was from Frankfurt. Boy where we glad to set foot on
soil, any soil after flying 10 hours with a feisty Anjali and nonstop gabber
Maya! It was the new Airbus 380 which took us from SFO to Frankfurt. The first
and business class folks sit at the top level, and winding stairs lead up from
the economy class. I made Anjali walk the stairs 25 times before she tired out
and fell asleep on my shoulder. I timed her. She fought to stay awake for about
an hour, and slept for half an hour. This happened in cycles all of the 10
hours! My neighbor was this Afghani man traveling with 3 children. He took pity
on me since I slept all of half hour on the 10 hour flight, and did not even
wake me when he wanted to go to the bathroom. No, he was not wearing adult
diapers. The seats are spaced apart a bit more in the A380, so he squeezed past
without waking me. Maya sat next to this 3-year old, who was as talkative as
she was. When the entire section was trying to sleep and the lights were
switched off, these two caught up on stories, conversing like old buddies. The
stewardess had to come by and shush them a few times. Long story short, yes we
were glad to be on ground and a couple of hours from a shower and bed.
But of course, things had to go a bit awry in Frankfurt. Computer system
shut down, and they had to manually check in passengers. To delay matters
further, everyone had to go through security check-in again. With only an hour
between connections, we ran with 2 carry-ons, 1 heavy laptop backpack, and
another backpack filled with baby stuff. Kala pushed Anjali’s stroller. Maya
kept pace, while asking “Why are we running?” like Lenny Kravitz; Anjali loved the
lights and smiling people whizzing past her. For us, it was like backpacking
down mission peak before night set in! We did it, and our flight left with our
baggage onboard, 30 minutes late. It was definitely a first for us on
Lufthansa, who pride themselves for punctuality.
The one thing that sort of set the tone for the rest of the trip was the
food on this short flight to Rome. They served us this Rye bread with cheese sandwich-That’s
it. The bread was a bit nutty, and when chewed with the cheese, had this
remarkable texture. It was like biting into soft heaven, and chewing it with
softer heaven. Oh man, it was fantastic, and we resolved to recreate it when we
got back home. I know a German bakery in Fremont, right off Fremont Blvd, which
sold German cheese and bread. That set the mood for Italy- A little confusion, good
food, kids on hyper-drive and nothing to do but chill.
Not expecting anything other than good pizzas and pastas, we did not know
what we were in for when I set foot in the cacophonous capital of Italy.
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