Germans at their best in courtesy and efficiency. Review on Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) - Intl.

I have been four times through the Frankfurt Airport on my trip from Muscat to Helsinki and return during summer [July 2001] and winter [ Dec 2001]. It is really a big and nice airport, very clean and well managed. The staff are very courteous, the policemen at Immigration / Passport control are ever helpful and ready to answer to all your queries. It has 4 big terminals A->D with several gates, but every where TV screen display and map is available to go from one terminal to another, even without any one's assistance. If you are on transit, you should be careful not to waste time in looking around inside the airport(which is beautiful), but to rush to your connecting flight terminal first and cross check with the TV displayed check-in gate clerk to see whether there is any change in gate number at the last moment. Due to huge number of flights passing through this airport being a major transit for all European and American destinations, the check-in gates invariably get changed at the last moment. It happened to me all the four times. However, the terminal ( such as A or B etc) remains the same but there are so many gates that [ up to 64->70, as I remember)if you have to change from gate 1 to say gate 60 you need 10 to 15 minutes to reach there.

On 3 out of 4 occasions I had only one and half to two and half hours interval between connecting flights. There was no missing baggage or delay in flights.

You have coin and card operated telephones every where so are the toilets but no cyber cafe (only limited), unlike Hongkong Airport (where you can freely surf and send e-mail).

Souvenirs are very costly, so are the other items on display. Therefore, only buy the minimum if you are not going out of the airport to the city.

During summer I had taken two days break at Frankfurt on my return from Helsinki to Muscat. Frankfurt is the business capital of Germany like Mumbai for India. It has the highest building in Europe. A half day city tour is enough to cover important places inside Frankfurt city. If one has time for a full day tour, he should not miss the Rhine River valley tour, which is really very exciting and a lot of important tourist spots are covered including the magnificent cruise in the river. On both sides of Rhine river, one sees lush green grape vine cultivation, Germany being one of the largest producers of beer and wine. Taxi to city are modestly priced and drivers are very honest. A lot of Indians are working in different jobs and there is one of the 4 branches of GAYLORD restaurant in Frankfurt near central railway station, where delicious Indian food is served. A lot of Indians work in the hotels and fast-food outlets too.

I had been to Munich in the year 1979 too on sight seeing tour by train from Milan. Germans especially like Indians and on both occasions I felt that this is the best European Country considering their punctuality, behaviour and devotion to work.