South Africa Trip - Day 0: Getting to SA (6/1-3/2010)

I transferred most of my miles to Sean's one-pass account so that we could book our airline tickets using (mostly his) miles; I found out that when this is done, the tickets redeemed have the status of the member who booked them, so we had platinum status (Sean had been traveling for work a couple of years). I found all this out by accident when I tried to go through security, the lady pointed me to the business class area instead of the economy area (where I am naturally inclined to head to at the airport). Before the flight, I ran into Sean (he came looking for me in the airport) and he got me into the KLM lounge. This was the first time I had been in one of the lounges; it was nice and way better than just sitting at the gate as they had food and drink that you could help yourself to. Since the tickets were purchased with miles, they have a few connections. The first leg, IAH – AMS, was a horrible flight; the guy next to me took up at least ¼ of my seat and in front of me there was a baby, granted it was decently behaved for baby standards. Get into AMS and get to the connection with plenty of time (Sean beat me as he got off the plane way before me with his better seat :) ). From AMS we head to FRA (Frankfurt), which was a short and sweet flight as I had no one next to me. In FRA our aunt picked us up and took us to her house outside of Wiesbaden where we met up with our cousins for a small German brunch feast (meat, bread, cheese, etc.). 

My older bro, my Aunt, and me at the cafe where we stopped to grab some apfelwein  before exploring Wiesbaden and the surrounding area. Notice the stray sheep in the background just chilling in the street??? :)

After eating, they took us into town and we walked around a little bit checking out some churches, the assortment of cuckoo clocks and trying some of the region's apfelwein (apple wine – tastes like a cider mixed w/ champagne). 

The worlds largest coo-coo clock (according to them :) ) in Wiesbaden.

After that we went to the Neroberg mountain railway which is surrounded by some pretty amazing houses and lots of trees which made for a beautiful drive. We took a tram up to the top of the hill and walked around a little bit before sitting down to have a beer out on the patio to enjoy the view around us while taking in the cool, crisp air (which was colder than what they like but I was loving it). 

This was the tram coming down the hill as we went up.

My bro and I in front of one of the many beautiful churches in the cities of Europe. 

One of the many beautiful views from the top of the hill that the trolley took us up.

After that we went home for dinner and a few more beers while hanging out before we headed back to the airport to catch our flight. We were let into the Lufthansa Senator lounge near the gate and got to relax for the hour or so before our flight while having some food and drinks. While waiting I saw a plane that had gummy bears advertising painted over it; thought it was pretty cool. We got onto our jam-packed plane and I was sitting next to a German and a Norwegian man which made the flight a little better as they were smaller than the guy I had on my first flight. Got some sleep, and woke up to see the sunrise out the window; wasn't as nice as below the cloud-line but still beautiful. Landed in Jo-berg and we missed our connection as continental booked our flights too close together and we couldn't get to out gate in time. After dealing with a bunch of yahoos and running around the airport a bit to fix this slight, we got on our plane to Cape Town where we found Jim waiting for us upon arrival.

Clouds covering the top of Table mountain in Cape Town. Unfortunately this was the view the whole time we were there. Still a cool vista. 

 We all got a cab to the hostel (Carnival Court), checked in, got oriented in our area, and then went shopping while having an easy night. Got some dinner, had a few drinks then got to sleep a little early as we were exhausted from our travels. 

Sean and Jim (who is doing some work while we hang out - shame!) and I hanging out after settling in to the place.

We didn't sleep well that night (J did as he had earplugs) as there was an argument out the window with enough swearing to upset a sailor, glass bottles being clanked constantly, and then some soccer hooligans (think English) singing drunk chants after places had closed.