Munich Airport - 11.03.06

Oh, man. I hate Germany. Frankfurt's airport was small, crowded, and smelly. Munich's is large and pleasant, but we have no time to think about that as we run a hellish gauntlet.

Bus from the plane to the terminal (what is with the Europeans and these buses?).

Passport control, with a bored and slow-moving German processing a lengthy line.

A long jog through the terminal. We pass our gate. It is behind glass. Apparently there is a security area contolling access to these gates, so we will have to go down to it and double back. People are boarding the flight.

Another passport check. We are stopped so a lady can scan our passports. Again.

A security line, complete with metal detectors and luggage x-ray. Perplexing. Didn't I do this in Italy? What greater threat could I possibly be right now than I was then? I haven't been outside any secure areas. The line is long and the Germans are frankly botching the whole procedure, stopping the entire line for individual scans of each passenger. We take advantage of the business-class line, except there is no advantage. It's as long and slow as all the others. Our flight leaves in 10 minutes because, and how could I forget this part, Lufthansa has gone ahead and given us just a 50-minute scheduled layover to accomplish all this. And then they were 10 minutes late out of Pisa. We are fuming.

Finally, we run to the gate and board. This flight also leaves 10 minutes late. The pilot says he is waiting on a few passengers with late connections.