Visit to Germany.

 We made a short visit to Gottingen in Germany last week. Our daughter Nandita got married to Simon Lange in a civil ceremony on Friday the 4th of April at the Gottingen Town Hall.

Nandita holds a Masters in German language from the Gottingen University. She now works in the same University. 

Simon holds a Masters in Physics from the Gottingen University and is working in specialised field of laser optics.

Our journey started from Pune at 0530 hrs on Sat 29th March. There were some tense moments due to a traffic jam in the Khandala ghat. We were lucky to get past with a delay of 45mins. After gulping a quick breakfast at Khalapur, we were at the CSM airport, Mumbai by 0915hrs.

The flight took off on time at 1pm. We flew Air India to Frankfurt. This is a rare day flight and affords view of interesting terrain throughout. Snow capped mountains in the Afghan/Iran/Iraq/Turkey region and quite a bit of bare terrain. The flight also cuts across two large seas before entering East European air space in the last two hours of the nine hour flight.

Air India's service was quite nice and the crew quite courteous. Cruising altitude was approx. 38000 ft and cruising speeds 850-900 kmph. Choice of In flight entertainment in the Boeing 787 is quite decent.

We landed at Frankfurt at 1730hrs local time. It was a bright evening with a pleasant 15⁰C. Post immigration and baggage, we were out of the airport by 1830. At both Mumbai and Frankfurt, we opted for wheelchair assistance, being senior citizens. The buggies in Frankfurt are quite useful and save time due to long distances. Immigration formalities too are faster when you take ground assistance. The ground staff at both Mumbai and Frankfurt were professional.

Our daughter had made excellent arrangements. She was waiting at the airport to receive us and had booked ICE (Inter City Express) train for us at 2000hrs to Gottingen. Some of the lifts and elevators were not functioning. Things in Europe are quite similar to what we go through in India. The ICE trains are not bullet trains but clock speeds of 260kmph.

The train was delayed due to late arrival of connecting trains at Fulda and Kassel junctions. We arrived half an our late by 1040pm. A ten minute drive took us to our home away from home.

It is in a calm and quiet area called Weende after the local river. It is situated on the Northern edge of the city.