This morning, we took the train from Koblenz directly to Frankfurt airport. We had a quick breakfast at the Ibis, and then walked to the train station. Upon arriving at the station and looking at the board, I saw a side note next to our train that said something in German and the number "45." Knowing this probably sounded like a delay, I went to the ticket office. 
I said to one of the attendants, "Guten Morgan, Sprechen sie Englisch?" (Good morning, do you speak English? I have probably used this phrase the most on the trip, along with "vielen dank"- thank you .)
 
She said, "yes, a little." Good enough! 
I asked about the train and she confirmed that yes, it was delayed not just 45 minutes, but 55, because of an accident. I asked if there was another train to the airport, and she mentioned a slower one that left about 10 minutes after we were supposed to leave, and being a slower train, would get us to the airport 30 minutes later than the original time. We would arrive at 8:35, and our flight left at 10:45. This was still better than the delayed train, and because we had our boarding passes and I gave us some cushion, I figured we would be fine. 

We rode the train along the Rhine and along all the cute towns, so again, the ride was very scenic. We arrived at the Regional station in the Frankfurt airport (this airport is so big that is has two separate train stations - one for regional trains and another for international) and went up to Terminal 1. We checked in our bags and began the tedious process of going through border control, security, making our way to the gate and going through another security. I actually don't mind the security measures, though.  At border control, he asked when we had arrived, where we had been, and that was about it. Passport stamped. We arrived at the gate and had about 20 minutes before boarding, so it all worked out just fine. We had time to use the restroom before boarding and didn't have to sit too long. 

Now, we are on the plane and all should go smoothly with getting into Chicago. I will write a final post this weekend.

Thanks again, for reading. Almost home! 
Jamie