Since Opus17 gave such a detailed account of his trip back to the US, I have to add my portion of the trip that started in SFO and continued to Stuttgart.
Opus17 left me at the Swissair Buissiness Lounge to get on his plane back to CVG and then SFO. I had another 1 1/2 hours until my flight for Stuttgart was about to board. So I pulled out my new book and engrossed myself in the plot. About 15 minutes into it, a commotion started. There were about 12 people trying to find a seat in the densely occupied non-smoking section of the lounge. About 8 of them were children of about 8-10 years. As they could not all sit together the group scattered in the lounge, but the kids managed to find an area together to get the toys out and started playschool at a sometimes eardrum deafening noise level. The parents were seemingly uninterested in this development that I decided to get up and venture to the gate area, which actually promised to be quieter. (Both Opus 17 and I had had a miserable night in an overheated hotel room and we had been up since 3 AM.)
I wandered down to the gate area for the European departures, which are mostly operated by CrossAir. Once I got through security I plopped myself down near the gate and pulled out my book. Suddenly there was some commotion near the desk and shortly thereafter an announcement flashed on the monitor that the flight was delayed for technical reasons. Then an announcement was made explaining in German and English, that the plane had not yet arrived from Stuttgart, and that the next update would be at the orginally scheduled flight departure time. Shortly after that another announcement was made that the plane was on the field but that there was a technical problem. Around the time that the plane was to leave, they announced that all was fixed now and that we could start boarding. Boarding the bus to take us to the plane, that is. So they piled everyone onto the bus and took us out for a 5 minute drive to the air strip. Since I had seat 2F (Business all the way on my extended Europe trip) I thought it might be best to board as one of the last people. The plane was a little Saab Concordino Turboprop with a seat arrangement of 1/2. I had my backpack and a purse, which I attempted to stuff under the seat in front of me, but fortunately the gentleman next to me asked the FA if she could find a space for both of our pack. This made things better since I now actually had space for my legs. When everyone was settled and the door was closed, the Captain made an announcement that all technical problems had been taken care of, but that we had to wait another 30 minutes until we cleared for take off. At this point a single moan went through the entire cabin. When the Captain finally switched on the props, which gives an unpleasant full body massage by shaking the entire plane with contents from side to side, we started towards the runway. As we turned I could see that there were at least 6 planes in line for take off before us, so I steeled myself for at least 15 more minutes -- by now I was supposed to be in Stuttgart. When we finally took to the air, the flight only took 25 minutes. In those 25 minutes the FA's managed to serve either Champagne or orange juice and a choice of three different sandwiches. They even came around two times with the sandwich tray. I must say you get more service on the little short flights than you get on a flight from SFO to Chicago. I am continually impressed by this.
We landed without incident in Stuttgart. (Actually just a day after my flight a turboprop CorssAir flight crashed near Zurich on its way to Dresden and killed all on board!!!)
Again we were met by a bus on the air strip which promptly took us to the terminal. Passport check was very quick, although they did actually scan in my passport this time, which previously had never happened as I have an EU passport and I usually get waved though. Could it be that Germany is getting a bit more security alert?? When I got to the baggage claim for the flight my bags came out immediately and I marched through customs without incident.
Opus17 says I should cancel my flights from Germany to Gatwick as they all are by Turboprop, and take the train, but I don't know. Do these planes crash a lot here in Europe?