Thursday, 24 September 2009

All the window shades are closed, and people stay asleep until around 11:30 or so.  Slowly we all awaken and begin to adjust to the fact that we're already half-way through the day.  The woman next to me asks if I would up the shade "ein bischen" and I do.  She laughs, and remarks in German about a Magritte painting in which men are walking around on clouds.  I look out - and it looks just like the painting, ohne menschen.  There is a quick breakfast with sausage, ham, fresh breads, ementhaler, and fruit, and we're on the ground in Frankfurt.  We don't unload at a gate but are bussed to another part of the airport.

In Chicago they gave me boarding passes for Florence and assured me that I would not have to leave the security envelope.  Wrong!  Frankfurt is such a maze.  Passport Control was hidden away, and getting to my gates was a real chore.  Having arrived at the gate (on the first floor) we were all informed that ingress to the gate would not be for another hour and a half - so off to the Business Class Lounge to catch up on email.  Nothing there looked inviting, food or drink-wise.

Finally the gate is opened, and we bus out to an under-wing fusilage plane (I love this style of aircraft).  The trip is wonderful, passing near Stutgart, and over the Alps.  I look down, and there is Brienz, and the Brienzsee, and Thun - all wonderful memories from a summer with Arthur's family in Switzerland a few years ago.  The Alps are playing games with huge cumulus clouds - it's really quite enthralling.

The Tuscan countryside is really quite beautiful.  I always think that Napa minics it so well, but from up above it in October it appears incredibly green and fertile.

We land in Florence about 50 meters from the terminal, and a bus comes to pick us up!  There goes my carbon footprint.  To my delight, the cabs are relatively inexpensive, 20 Euro.  The hotel (Casci) is as I remember it, small and friendly.  They now have wireless, which makes me quite happy, and I am given my old room (8) back.  It has a balcony that opens out to the gardens in back of the old palazzi that crowd Via Cavour.

I unpack, only to realize that a bunch of camera accessaries have been stolen from my luggage.  I quickly descend into an Istanbulschmerz (an attitude of despair - realizing that you've spent a great deal of money to travel somewhere, and it all may turn out bad).  I am hoping that this really crazy attitude will disappear with the morning bells.

Florence is hot and crowded, but I go out for a walk.  I've had so much food on the trip that I don't eat dinner - just walk - attempting to get rid of the schmertz.  At 21:00, I've had it and head to bed.  I've never conked out so completely in my life.