Cologne Main Station / Cologne City
I checked in at the Airrail counter at Cologne Main Station, but as my
flight leaves FRA in the next morning, it was not possible to check
my luggage for the flight the next day, although SQ has an evening
check in at FRA. To be honest, I did not expect that it was possible,
so I checked the luggage only to FRA, but one could ask. I got my
voucher for a snack and a drink, but had to ask for a
magazine.
After a short visit to the nearby Four
Points and asking about their availability in February (the Cologne
Stammtisch weekend in February 2005) I waited for the arriving of my
flight / train.
14
October 2004
QKL – FRA
[Cologne City – Frankfurt]
LH
6827 (Lufthansa); ICE
17:54 – 18:50
Business Class
Seat 1
H (81)
The train arrived just in time and I headed to the compartment, where one
person was seating (no LH passenger), after some minutes another
Airrail Passenger arrived. I took my seat and began to read, as I had
done this train ride so many times before there was nothing to watch.
Some other passengers showed up in the compartment after we had left
Cologne, as the train was nearly full in both classes and there were
two seats left in our compartment.
The DB / LH staff was
very friendly and offered us the usual choice of sandwiches and also
offered to look after some cake in the “Bord Bistro”. I took a
chicken sandwich and had a coke light.
We arrived in FRA at
the scheduled time and I headed to the Airrail counter to wait for my
luggage to arrive. After 10 minutes it was delivered, I picked it up
and headed to the Terminal.
Frankfurt Rhein-Main
At Frankfurt Airport I headed to the Iris Scan at Terminal 1. A
colleague of me registered in April and told me about it. She and
flyertalker cathaana told me also, that it safes some time,
especially, if you are in the back of a plane and other planes
arrived at the same time.
I can highly recommend this; the
staff of the Bundesgrenzschutz was very friendly and explained
everything to me. They biometrical dates of the iris scan are send to
the Bundeszentralregister (the register, where every citizen of
Germany is registered and also the criminal offences a citizen had done in the past). But the dates are not used in the moment, because
the legal situation in refer to data protection is not settled. As far as I know, you could also register, if you
are a citizen of the EU (but I do not know where the dates are
secured in this case).
After I had registered I headed to the evening check in of SQ and checked my luggage for the flight leaving
the next morning. The staff – LH staff and one SQ supervisor –
was very friendly and very efficient.
After I checked in, I
head only with my hand luggage to the arrival level, where the
shuttle buses from the airport hotel leave. I was lucky, the shuttle
for the Holiday-Inn Express Frankfurt Airport has just arrived I got
the last empty seat in the Van, a VW Caravelle.