Our vacation in Andalucia begins – a clusterfuck at Frankfurt Airport

I’ve flown to or via Europe many times over the past 55 years, but until last month, never to or through Frankfurt.  I’ll never again schedule travel using that airport.

For this year’s holiday gathering with our son and his family, who live in Zanzibar, we aimed for something roughly half-way between; someplace that was not overly cold; but also someplace where our grandchildren could experience snow, which none of them had done since the oldest started walking.  One of guys with whom I play pickup soccer mentioned the Sierra Nevada de Espana, outside Granada, and we settled on three weeks in Andalucia, starting out in Seville; then to Granada, culminating in four days of skiing and other winter sports in the Sierra Nevada.  It sounded like a great compromise.

But Seville proved to be a hard destination to reach from DC.  So in checking around, we ended up with a three-leg flight which took us through Charlotte and Frankfurt, making the reservation through Travelocity and American Airlines.  What a nightmare!