Flughafen Frankfurt am Main | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts tagged ‘Flughafen Frankfurt am Main’

25T91 Final travel day

E90: Schengen limit.

I’m on an ICE train from Cologne non-stop to Frankfurt Airport; the trip is 70 minutes if there aren’t any delays. Online check-in completed last night, and the final feature is the 10.5-hour flight to Canada.

At Frankfurt Airport, I pass through security to go from landside to airside, and I pass through E.U. passport controls because I’m leaving Europe. The gentleman noted from my passport I’m on day 90 inside Schengen. I replied: “I know; that’s why I’m now at the airport.”

This ends 91 consecutive days of journaling for my European summer of 2025. Thanks for sticking around to the end, and I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoying putting all of this together. Additional and lengthier descriptions will follow in the coming weeks and months.

*Bahnhofsvorplatz: see ya’ later, Cologne!*

*Bahnhofsvorplatz: Cologne central station.*

*Heading out to Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport); switch of trains not required. The final destination for this short-duration ICE train is Frankfort am Main Hauptbahnhof.*

*Flughafen Frankfurt: The Squaire, on top of the train station for long-distance trains.*

*Frankfurt Airport: Terminal 1, departures hall B. Judging by multiple appearances, is Apple truly pushing use of Apple Pay in Germany?*

*Departures hall C: checking the big departures board for assigned gate*.

*In “purgatory” without an assigned gate; on the tarmac about to board at Frankfurt Airport.*

I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 6 August 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.

My Frankfurt: Berlin Airlift Memorial, planespotting at FRA

Above/featured: Taxiing “behind” the memorial is Finnair A350-900 (A359) with oneworld livery. In summer 2022, Lufthansa’s Eurowings Discover delivered flights between Germany and North America with “wet-leased” Finnair Airbus A359s. Photo, 14 Jun 2022.

The city of Frankfurt am Main is known as: gateway into Europe for the city’s international airport; the country’s financial capital nicknamed “Main-hattan;” the city where German parliamentary governance and federalism got their start with the first freely-elected parliament for all German states in 1848; the home of Grüne Sosse and Ebbelwoi, the local savoury speciality and apple wine, respectively.

But the history shortly after World War 2 tells of an important connection between the cities of Frankfurt and Berlin.

Post-war Berlin was a landscape of occupied zones by American, British, French, and Soviet forces, a partial reflection of similar occupation in post-war Germany. Over a dispute about what monetary currency would be used, Soviet forces in eastern Germany blocked all road, rail, and water access into western Berlin on 25 June 1948. In one of the largest aircraft operations in peacetime history, the United States and United Kingdom began airlifting vital food and fuel supplies from their airbases in western Germany to over 2 million residents in west Berlin. Among the three airfields in western Berlin, Tempelhof became a key centre for critical supplies for almost one full year.

The Soviets allowed western forces to fly solely in three narrow air corridors from western Germany, over Soviet-controlled eastern Germany, and into Berlin. Inbound flights to Berlin along the southern corridor began from the area around Frankfurt am Main. The Rhein-Main Air Base (1945–2005) operated as a hub for US Air Forces as “gateway” into Europe; the base occupied the southern side of Frankfurt Airport and served as essential staging point during the Berlin Airlift operation. On 12 May 1949, Soviet forces reopened road and rail access into western Berlin, ending the blockade.

After countless flights in and out from Frankfurt, I visited the Berlin Airlift Memorial next to Frankfurt airport, as well as the planespotting area.

Berlin airlift air corridors, from West Germany into West Berlin. From "To Save A City: The Berlin Airlift 1948-1949", by Roger G. Miller, US Air Force History and Museums Program, 1998.

1948 map of Germany, north at top. 3 approved “corridors” for the Berlin airlift from Western Germany over Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany and into western Berlin. North corridor: primarily inbound from Hamburg area (HH) to West Berlin. Central corridor: primarily outbound from western Berlin towards Hannover area (H). South corridor: primarily inbound to western Berlin from the Frankfurt area (F). The three airfields in western Berlin were Gatow, Tegel, and Tempelhof. Source: Miller 1998; with labels added for clarity.

Berlin Airlift, candy drop, Rosinenbomber, raisin bomber, candy bomber, Operation Little Vittles, Douglas C-54 Skymaster, C-54, US Air Force, National Museum of the US Air Force, VIRIN 050426-F-1234P-012

On approach to an airfield in west Berlin during the airlift operation, a U.S. Air Force Douglas C-54 Skymaster makes a candy-drop, seen as tiny parachutes below the tail of the plane. Aircrews dropped candy to children during the Berlin Airlift as part of Operation “Little Vittles”. Source: National Museum of the US Air Force, photo 050426-F-1234P-01, c. 1948 to 1949.

( Click here for more images )

Lost minds, lost carousels : Flughafen FRA Airport

How to be ridiculous, in perfectly good Denglisch

Date: 2009 October 10.
Location: Terminal 2, Frankfurt am Main Airport.
State: “unorientation”

Something one often forgets is that they might want to pay attention to the public-address announcements : the next gate for a connecting flight, or where to pick up their luggage.

After disembarking the plane from Prague, it’s obvious from the overhead signage in the terminal about whether I should be going to baggage claim D or baggage claim E. Now if I’m actually paying attention, that’s an entirely different matter.

Nonetheless, I stride boldly and confidently into luggage claim D.

Conclusion number one? I have chosen unwisely.

Gepaeckausgabe, baggage claim, signage, photo by Claus Wolf at FRA

Gepäckausgabe | baggage claim. Photo by Claus Wolf (CC2.0)

Schadenfreude

I flag down one of the luggage porters in the claim area …

ME : Entschuldigung … ich bin gerade von Prag angekommen und ich suche ja die richtige Gepäckausgabe. (Excuse me, I’ve just arrived from Prague and I’m looking for the baggage claim.)

HIM : Welcher Flug? (Which flight?)

ME : Czech Airlines, O-K Flugnummer 5-3-6.

He nods and gives me a look of sympathy … or … is that pity …

HIM : Sie sind im falschen Bereich. Sie müssen in die Halle-E hingehen, um Ihr Gepäck abzuholen. (You’re in the wrong area, you have to go to baggage claim E.)

ME : Ach, für SCHEISSE … (You really don’t need that translated, do you?)

HIM : Kein Problem, bitte gehen Sie draussen zum Information hin und da gibt es ein Angesteller, der Ihnen helfen können wird. (No problem, just head on out to the Information booth. Tell the clerk there about your situation, and they should be able to help you out.)

ME : Alles klar. Danke sehr!

HIM : … a final look of sympathy …

I leave baggage-claim D, out of the security of airside to find myself in front of the Information booth. I’m telling my sob story to the lady at the booth, complete with boarding card and passport as visual confirmation of my folly. I receive another look of sympathy, or maybe this time, it really is pity. A quick decision made in her mind, she commands me to follow her.

(Yes, ma’am …)

We slip past the crowd of people “landside” waiting for their loved ones to come out of the baggage claim area “airside”, and we pass through two sets of doors into the correct luggage-claim area E.

I’m gobsmacked, because we’ve just “casually” walked from an unsecured-landside area to the secured-airside baggage-claim area without going through security checks. No, it’s all about authority, her authority: a badge on her uniform, her electronic pass-card, and her faith in the truth of my story – all three elements, each equally vital. As I’m not completely out of my mind (yet), what little I’ve left is conjured to thank her for her help. She smiles, and she’s off on her way, back to her realm at the Information Booth.

I don’t bother to look back to see if she’s shaking her head at me … in sympathy … or pity.

Five minutes later, my luggage is out on the carousel. Because apparently, I’m made of magic today …

And that’s just the first part.

Someone needs MY help?!

After retrieving my baggage and leaving the security-area a second time, my plan is to take the monorail to Terminal 1 and the regional train station (Regionalbahnhof). I want to take suburban rail S-Bahn to Frankfurt central train station (Hauptbahnhof). As a trip from airport into the city is about 4 Euros with the S-Bahn or about 30 Euro with a taxi, I’m going cheap today.

As I leave the baggage area, a stranger walks up to me, asking me in German if I can help him and about how he can get to the Hauptbahnhof.

The first question in my head is: “why are you asking me this question?” There are tons of other people around, leading me to the second question: “why are you asking me? Do I have “loser”, “sucker”, or “Dummkopf” plastered on my face?

Must be, because thankfully, I’m keeping my piehole shut.

I find myself helping the poor guy, as I manage to talk to the guy out in passable German. He’s got to get to Wolfsburg, which, at 300 kilometres from Frankfurt, is not a trivial schlep. I ask him to follow me to the Regionalbahnhof, where we’ll hop on the S8 or S9 S-Bahn train for the short ride to the central station downtown.

Throughout the short ride, he keeps looking at his slip of paper with information about his train connection to Wolfsburg. He looks up and asks: “Sicher?” (Are you sure?)

In my head, I’ve got a snappy, if not snippy, reply.

“Look, you asked for my help, why would I be yanking your chain, to go this far, to take the train from the airport to the main station, where in fact there is not only graphical signage inside the train showing us where we’re going. Have you also not noticed a nice lady’s voice over the public address system: nächste Haltestelle: Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (next station: Frankfurt main train station).

Instead, I nod dumbly, and point to one sign indicating the route of our train between the airport and downtown, and to the display indicating what the train’s next stops will be, including the central station.

It’s only natural he’s asking; I’m a stranger, he’s a stranger, and I’m helping out another stranger.

Mercifully, we arrive at Frankfurt central station. We leave the S-Bahn underground level, and we ride the escalators up to the “Fernverkehr” (long-distance trains) at ground-level. We’re standing in front of the departures board to look for his train. I lead him to the correct platform, I shake his hand and wish him well. Viel Glück!

Conclusion number two is having to learn the differences between two verbs. When you tell someone to follow, the correct verb is “mitkommen,” (to follow or to accompany; i.e., “Kommen Sie bitte mit“). The other verb is “folgen”, which is generally used to mean to follow something or something to cause some kind of following result.

Conclusion number three is this. “Frankfurt am Main” is Frankfurt on the river Main (pronounced “mine”). This prevents confusion with “Frankfurt am Oder,” located on the other side of the country next to the Polish border. So, if you see or hear “Frankfurt am Main main train station”, don’t panic. Your eyes or ears are not fooling you, and you haven’t lost your mind.

Just be sure to check the overhead signage …

Originally posted on Posterous, 2010 April 28 and adapted from “The 25” on Facebook, this post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-2z.