Frankfurters in Frankfurt

Flughafen Frankfurt am Main is the busiest airport in Germany and the fourth busiest in Europe. It covers 2000 hectares of land and is the primary hub for Lufthansa, our Star Alliance host for the transition from Calgary to Malta. It was at the airport in Frankfurt where the Gym Clan would gather prior to the assault on Malta. Gym and Mrs. Gym, with son Chris, flew directly from Calgary to Frankfurt and just to keep the Germans on their toes, Nicole and George would make a brief stop at Heathrow in London, before joining up with the rest of the Gym family in Frankfurt.

Nicole, George, Chris and Mrs. Gym in Frankfurt

Sadly, Gym was the only one to try the best wurst at the Frankfurt Airport. The Star Alliance lounge featured an endless supply of boiled frankfurters in the steam table and a nice rendition of good, old fashioned german potato salad, kept cool in an ice bath. The bar featured Beck's beer but it was my understanding that the GXY Group (the millennial generation) had "given 'er" on the transatlantic flight and were a little hungover by the time they reached German soil. Gym would have no ill effects from the wieners.

After flying over the Atlantic on a couple of wonderful, wide-bodied Air Canada aircraft and enjoying that always wonderful service, Lufthansa was an orderly and gracious host but frankly, was the lessor airline of the two. Now in defense of Lufthansa, you probably can't land a big Boeing on Malta, so we had to take a much smaller plane in there and this being more of a domestic flight, we didn't get the same 4-star treatment as one would expect on a long-haul passage. 

All needling aside, Lufthansa briskly winged us south out of Germany. We crossed the coastline above Nice, France and skirted the west coast of Italy, before crossing Sicily. Just beyond the southern coast of Sicily we started our descent and then we were expertly dropped neatly into Malta where the Gym Clan spilled out onto the tarmac, at precisely 2310 hours, the scheduled arrival time. With a curt Auf Wiedersehen to the German flight attendants, we had successfully completed the assault on this tiny island nation. 

There was no requirement to pass through customs because we were already in the Eurozone and before we knew it we were through the baggage claim hall and waiting for the hotel shuttle. Our invasion which had gone smoothly until this point, was stalled by a less-than-organized transportation outfit that had us waiting for a driver for 40 minutes. Eventually though, we loaded up and zipped across the island to the town of St. Julian's, where we checked into the Westin Dragonara, our base camp for the next week or so. Everyone is safely installed into one of two beautiful rooms and Gym and Mrs Gym took the Tower suite, that has a great view of the pool, the beach and the Mediterranean Sea.

Chris reconnoitring the pool at the Westin

the front Entrance to the hotel

Nicole and George at breakfast

Mrs. Gym and her favourite son, Chris in the lobby

It is the morning after the landing and breakfast was wonderful. Linda, Chris and George have gone to play tennis and Nicole is by the pool tanning while I sit here writing the after action report. I am happy to say that the landing was successful and we had no casualties.

Later today, we are going to explore the surrounding neighbourhood and see if we can get into the vibe here in Malta. The temperature is 24C and oddly, it feels the way one would expect....very Mediterranean. I like the climate, it is perfect.

Stay tuned!