Heading out to Ethiopia DonQui has a 12 hour trip ahead ahead of him. This includes a crack of dawn hop from London to Frankfurt where he is to pick up his connecting Lufthansa flight.

Landing in Frankfurt at just before 9am, there is plenty of time to make his onward connection which departs at 10:30. As it is the same airline flying from the same terminal, DonQui imagines himself enjoying a second breakfast in a cosy lounge as he waits. After all how far can it be from gate A10 to B25?

Full of optimism he sets off following the sign saying ‘Gates B20-60’. Turning a corner he sees another long corridor ahead. His bags start to feel heavy as he goes up an escalator and turns another corner, only to be faced with an even longer, desolate-looking corridor.

The sign: ‘Gates B20-60’ continues to beckon him forward but by now it begins to feel like the carrot in front of one of his less bright distant cousins — always in front and never getting closer. What he thought would be a short jaunt followed by a rest in the lounge has turned into a 3 day camel ride through the desert without an oasis in sight.

A transit train ride, another security check, several escalators, and endless corridors later, DonQui finally arrives at Gate B25 just as his flight is about to board. It took him 52 minutes and he is not a slow walker!

Naturally DonQui tries to avoid non-direct flights if he can. Recently he has transited through Amsterdam airport quite a few times. Each time it had been relatively quick and painless. Not so Frankfurt.

Oh well it could have been worse. At London Heathrow he overheard a distraught passenger, ladened with bags, trying to work out how to make an onward connection from Luton airport. The time and expense of such a transfer made DonQui shudder.