Heidelberg, Germany 18:30 Saturday evening
Well, at around 16:00 (central European time) I drag my ass off the plane in Frankfurt. As I walk towards the baggage claim area, it occurs to me that with the re-routing of my flight plus a hand-off from Delta to Lufthansa, there's about as much chance of my baggage coming off that plane as there is of George Bush inviting Michael Moore to a state dinner at the White House.
So, I bypass the baggage belt and head right for the baggage service office. I hand my baggage claim ticket to a gentleman there and ask him if he can see if my bag is on the flight. He taps my claim check number into his computer, shakes his head ominously and advises me that my bag is still in Atlanta. On the plus side, Delta has already posted a note to the tracer that the bag will be on a flight arriving in Frankfurt at around 08:00 Sunday morning. Well, that's just fine, but I'm heading to Berlin on Sunday morning.
The nice young man at the baggage claim area advises me to contact the Lufthansa baggage service office to file a claim. So, off I trot to Lufthansa baggage tracing, where a nice young lady takes all my information, including the address of the hotel I'll be staying at in Berlin. The nice young lady advises me that once my bag is received in Frankfurt, it'll be placed on the next flight to Berlin for delivery to my hotel. She also furnishes me with an "Overnight kit-male", which contains the following:
Razor, disposable, 1 each
Foam, Shaving, 1 each
Deodorant, Underarm, 1 each
Brush, hair (w/mirror), 1 each
Paste, tooth (Colgate), 1 each
Brush, tooth, 1 each
Shampoo (Neutrogena), 1 each
Buds, cotton (aka Q-Tips), 4 each
Detergent, laundry, 1 each
Shirt, T (XXL), 1 each
I proceed to meet my shuttle ride to the Heidelberg Marriott. I turn on my cell phone, since I've told Deb (that's my wife) to call at around 17:30 my time. On the ride to Heidelberg, my phone rings right on time...and immediately turns itself off. Shit. Not enough charge on the battery. Luckily, I've got enough battery to send Deb a text message: btry dying, and another one instructing her to call me later. I figure I'd get to the hotel and charge the phone up and she could call me later. Uh oh...guess where my charger is? Yup...in the bag that's somewhere, but not in Germany.
I finally get to the hotel, and call Deb to advise her not to bother calling and in general trying to coax some sympathy for my plight. While she's sympathetic, her sympathy is offset by her envy of me being in Heidelberg without her.
So, it's off to the Dubliner to have a bite to eat and a few beers. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully, it'll bring my bag.
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