This review was supposed to appear weeks ago, but it took me that long to walk from our arrival gate A42 to the baggage claim to the train station. Which is not the only endless walk you can enjoy at Frankfurt airport. Two words: The Tunnel. It connects concourse A and concourse B at level -3 (or so). Which means you go six stories down, then walk and walk and walk and the light at the end of the tunnel really is only the staircase six stories up again. Actually, there is a Skytrain thing that connects the two concourses, but you will never find it, because there is no sign pointing to it.

Speaking of signs: Never try to end your journey in Frankfurt. The signs for the baggage claim and exit are extremely well hidden. When you leave your plane or come up the stairs from the bus gates, you would expect a sign indicating whether you have to turn left or right towards the exit. But, no, there is none. After all, how can any passenger travelling to Frankfurt not know the airport inside out. I read somewhere that the people in the tower expect the same from pilots and refuse to help them with finding their way around. At least they are consistent.

Oh, and did I mention the bus positions somewhere close to the Atlantic? You get on a bus. That bus goes past concourse B, then concourse A, then the aircraft maintenance facilities, then the fuel storage facilities, then some parking positions (no, not your’s), then the cargo terminal, then more parking positions. Only then can you finally spot the tiny silhouette of your plane on the horizon. Of course, the wind is all wrong, and after boarding you have to go all the way back. And further. Beyond terminal 2. Through lots of parking positions, most of them empty. Then swing in a wide arc around runway 25R and finally, half an hour later you are off.

Funny thing, though: Despite all this and despite the fact that as an airport with more traffic than Amsterdam it has only two and a half runways that cannot be used simultaneously, they run the show very much on time. Pretty much like the rest of Germany, then: Rather annoying, but at least efficiently so.