March 1st, 2023
We landed in Frankfurt on time at shortly after 5:00 a.m. local time. Since we had booked the final transfer to Düsseldorf by train with Lufthansa Express Rail, we went directly to the separate baggage claim of Lufthansa Express Rail. There we waited for our luggage. We were clearly back in Germany - here was only a bad-tempered LH employee sitting at an orphaned counter, who somehow acted busy and did not even say “Good morning”. Little by little, some luggage arrived - just not ours.
Finally, an ANA employee called me on my cell phone and told me that our luggage had been delivered to the normal belt and was waiting for us there. He said this was so because the flight was booked via Lufthansa, but was operated with an ANA aircraft. Thereupon, a very nice older ANA employee personally picked us up and accompanied us back to the baggage carousel, where another employee was already waiting for us with our luggage.
That’s how service works in Japan - we’ll really miss that. Our next destination was once again the Starbucks in Frankfurt’s airport train station. There we could order our coffee without Luise’s help at last. At 7:13 a.m. the train to Düsseldorf arrived - of course a little delayed as usual in Germany.
Arriving in Düsseldorf, we immediately missed the Japanese restraint again. At the cab stand, the usual German bickering for one of the arriving cabs began again. Several cabs were snatched away by people who arrived later than we did.
In the end, however, we were lucky and were glad that we could still catch a cab that brought us home safely. At home we were greeted by our tomcat Tom. We unpacked and had a rest for a while.
As usual, this vacation ended the way it started: with a dinner at “Lustigen”, our Croatian restaurant. It was a great time with Luise in Japan and we are really looking forward for her return at the end of April.