One flight, three takeoffs, two and a half landings

Wednesday started out beautiful.  A leisurely breakfast on a gorgeous day.  We headed for the airport to begin our trip to Paris.  The plane took off on time, and we had some spectacular views along the way.  We think the mountains in these photos are the Himalayas.
But as we got closer to Frankfurt on our 12+ hour flight, we began to see more and more snow, a precursor of what was to come.

Joel describes it best:

Hong Kong to Frankfurt – where we had a connection to Paris on Lufthansa -- is scheduled as a 12 and a half hour flight.  We took about 18 hours and never made it to Frankfurt.

All was pretty routine including the fact that we had to circle Frankfurt for about 30 minutes due to snow.  But our very German captain told us we were heading in and made one of the smoothest landings we ever experienced.  But we only stayed on the ground for about 3 seconds, as he gunned the engines and immediately took off again (that would be the ½ landing and  takeoff #2). (In case you ever wondered, that's why planes always pick up speed just BEFORE they land).  After a while, the pilot announced that they did not like the braking action of the plane when they got on the ground, so off we went. These guys are GOOD!  They made that decision within seconds of landing.  He also told us we were heading for Stuttgart, where it was a bit warmer so they were getting rain instead of snow.

We landed in Stuttgart (landing # 1.5) and stayed on the plane for about an hour and a half.  We then prepared for our takeoff #3 to return to Frankfurt – all of a 25 minute flight – where, we were told, the airport was opened and the runways cleared.  But somewhere in those 25 minutes Frankfurt shut down completely (how they could not have predicted this is the only hairball of the night), and so we headed for -- wait for it -- HAMBURG!!! 

We landed there (landing # 2.5) some time around 11:30 at night, got bussed to the slowest customs line ever and then waited a long time for baggage.  (we actually heard a customs agent ask someone from our flight if they were in Hamburg for business).  We were back in the ticket line to try to get a morning flight to Paris until about 1:30 when we gave up and camped out in the airport until 4:30 when we got back in the ticket line, and managed to get on the 7:05 flight to Paris (which had its own pile of snow yesterday, as well).  Interesting trip.

And he continues:  Spent the night in lobby chairs at Hamburg airport, waging a losing
battle with wireless connections.  Ticket counter at 4:30, tickets at
5:15, takeoff at about 8:00 (scheduled for 7:05 -  more snow, plane
de-icing).  Touchdown in Paris at about 9:10 am local time -- 4:10 pm
Hong Kong time, some 27 hours after takeoff #1.

On flight in, countryside and Paris seemed blanketed in snow, so that
looks interesting and new.

I know many of you have had your own travel nightmares.  Please share your experiences in the comments section.  We would love to hear them.

The Travelers