But there's no queue at the business counter! Phew. I'm in my pre-reserved seat no problem, but there's a 2h delay. Oh. And I only have a short stopover in Seoul. There are profuse apologies, and I double-check it's a definitive delay, unlikely to shorten. Indeed it is, due to the late inbound aircraft, so I decide to go for the worst.

Sorry, typo. I decide to go for the wurst. I love a good bratwurst, and have fond memories of snacking on them at stations, travelling across Germany when living in Alsace years ago. So I head into Frankfurt for a wander and a bratwurst at the Hauptbahnhof, perched by a tall table, watching the good people of Frankfurt head for their trains home, through the multidirectional rush in this almost bafflingly large station. I can people-watch for hours.

But I don't, I've a plane to catch, so I hop on a surprisingly decrepit old S-Bahn back to the surprisingly decrepit local station at the airport.

And it's a C-gate. Bof. If you're not familiar with Frankfurt C-gates, then count yourself lucky at not knowing the armpit of this airport. And this isn't even one of the main C-gates, it's the armpit of the armpit. C pier is a long walk from... Well, anywhere really. It's actually physically quite close to the terminal 2 Skytrain
station, but that would be far too easy - you have to walk there from 1B. It's about 15 minutes.

Just to compound annoyance on annoyance, the C gate I'm going from doesn't have an adjacent lounge, so I have to go to a difference security zone, which means I'll need to clear security twice, and won't have the benefit of direct lounge-gate access. And so it turns out that I'm behind a planeload of Guangzhou-bound passengers, the priority lanes closed, and they're doing outbound passport checks just to get into the gate area. 15 minutes later, I'm at the front, being told "oh, you want to go to the lounge, just go through". And then taken aside for secondary swab screening on all my electronics.

It barely seems worth it, but at least the (Lufthansa Business) lounge is quiet - as there's barely anybody who can be bothered making it this far at this time of night, presumably. The lounge is clean, has huge windows out on to the tarmac, and looks pretty good. Drinks and snacks aren't bad - some Apfelschorle and sandwiches are plenty for me at the moment. But it's lacking in atmosphere, and that's not just the quietness. It reminds me of a car showroom, only without the cars, and with slightly better coffee.

Anyway, I get bored - the wireless internet is expensive, and it's so quiet I end up going outside and phoning home, before heading to the gate... Which is chaotic. The rest of C is eerily quiet by now, but this gate is buzzing, just not in a particularly good way. It's got that 80s pre-fabricated look about it, and I don't know what Asiana have done to deserve ending up here. The gate area (you're 'boarded' into a closed-off area) cannot seat a busy 777, so it's standing room only (or at least, it is, thanks to those lovely people taking up three seats at once, horizontally). However, this is fleeting, and we board. Special assistance first (a family with a 10-year-old get told to go away and not to be so daft) then F and J. At last, I'm on!

And what a world of difference. Immediately, the crew are around me, I am welcomed, the delay is apologised for, I have a drink, my bags are stowed, and I'm informed that, if I'd like a row to myself, I am welcome to move to 5D, which I do. The cabin has a rather pleasant atmosphere - this is a two-class plane, and so J is right at the very front - it's the ubiquitous Wedgiebeds, but nicely done out, in light, soft colours, with huge monitors. The downside is, thanks to the width of the 777, there's a middle seat in the centre block - unnecessary on this particular flight, but I wouldn't fancy being in there. More drinks are provided, more apologies, some comfortable slippers (I'm wearing them right now!) and now I can sit back and relax...

The safety video is a fairly standard video/animation mix, but it is followed by a couple of animations about "beautiful manners". Kids running wild and loud talking/music are not tolerated on Asiana, it seems.

So we're off. Just on levelling out, I change and return to a menu and a purser, who greets me personally and, once again, apologises for the delay. By this point, I almost feel like replying that no, I don't expect them to control the weather, but that would be ungracious, so I smile, nod, and choose the Korean meal, although I'm not entirely sure what it actually consists of.

It's a bibimbap, which comes with handy instructions on how to eat it (really, I'd no idea). I'd known precious little about Korean food save for kimchi, which I knew of only by reputation. But I was impressed! It was an incredibly flavourful dish, something I've always found difficult to achieve in-flight. It seemed designed to
satisfy every sense of taste: it was bitter, sweet, salty, sour, savoury, spicy... And all from a very simple little dish. If this was what I had in store during my stopover, I was in for a treat.

Then, well, maybe it was the cabin, maybe it was the well-stoppered wedgiebed, maybe it was the climb up the 509 steps up Cologne cathedral, but I slept extremely well, having to deliberately wake myself up so as no to get too jetlagged. A couple of hours of IFE followed. The system itself works well, but there wasn't a huge amount on there that I really wanted to watch. Not terrible, just unremarkable. The crew were constantly attentive, offering drinks and snacks throughout the flight.

So, before I knew it, we were landing at Incheon, and the crew were lined up waving us off. I felt like I'd had a relaxing night, and that it was now afternoon - perfect! (as that's exactly what it was...) A thoroughly enjoyable flight.

Arrival at Incheon was entirely painless. It's a sparkling airport - relatively new, but it's not lost any of its sheen. Passport control is rapid, bags are there in a couple of minutes, and I'm out, Won in pocket, less than half an hour from landing. I sit down with a coffee to get my bearings, and immediately have a couple of people asking where I'm going, how I'm getting there, and so on. My natural reaction is to be defensive, but I quickly discover this to be unnecessary - they're asking out of friendliness and helpfulness, and nothing else.

I'd booked a small hotel near Namsan, from AsiaRooms, which wasn't especially close to any of the limo bus routes, and so end up deciding to take the A'Rex train service from the airport into town. It currently only runs as far as Gimpo airport, but there's a new, fast metro connection from there, so I gave it a go. It's a bit of an odd interim set-up, as there's only one express service per hour, which costs more, and takes only a few minutes less than the 'commuter' service, which runs every 12 minutes. So, I went for the latter, but due to a communication breakdown, ended up having to re-buy a metro ticket at Gimpo (I wanted a stored money card, but these were strangely hard to come by). Anyway, it's a decent enough service, but they're definitely commuter trains - new, but with bench seating and no luggage storage. It goes at a reasonable (but not huge) speed, but really does drive home just how far Incheon airport is from central Seoul - this is a big city, and it's a big way out of the big city.

From Gimpo, new ticket in hand, I notice that the new metro line 9 has an express service, running every 20 minutes. I wait for this, and it's worthwhile, nearly halving the journey time. It follows the river, and most stations are interchanges with other lines, making this a good way into town. Some of the interchanges, however, do involve quite lengthy walks or escalator rides. It takes a little over 90 minutes from Incheon to reach my station in central Seoul, which isn't terrible, given the distance. Not the most relaxing way to travel, perhaps - it'll be vastly improved when it's finally extended to Seoul station.