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Over Two Minutes of Time-Lapse, Tilt-Shift Video Fun at Frankfurt Airport

As if you needed any more reasons to lust over airline lounges, we must say that some of the best photos and videos come from them. Proving this yet again is YouTube user Ross Johnson, aka Tumbles94, who emailed us to say that he's again used his perch in one of the Lufthansa lounges at Frankfurt International to capture mesmerizing tilt-shift, time-lapsed videos.

For this third installment—see the first two here and here—Ross spends a good long time shooting the 747s and smaller jets that scuttle around the tarmac, plus the drones of the support vehicles.

Note the changing light as the day progresses, and the shadows the clouds cast. Riveting stuff, and many thanks to Ross for continuing to produce these.

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Back by Popular Demand: More Time-lapse and Tilt-shift Video on the Tarmac

Encore! Encore! It's time-lapse and tilt-shift at an airport! Last week we featured a great but short video shot from one of the lounges at Frankfurt Airport.

This week, the video's creator Ross Johnson, aka Tumbles94 on YouTube, returns with a longer version—about 40 minutes of shooting condensed via time-lapse into a hypnotic 1:20. Overall it's a bit like the full length novel to the earlier video's Cliffs Notes, but when is that a bad thing?

The star of this video, in our humble opinion, may just be those cranes going about their work with slow purpose, meanwhile the support vehicles hyperactively zip about like they've each downed a 5-Hour Energy drink.

Catch the first video here:

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The USA Has Crop Circles, Germany Has Giant Auto Logos

Headed to Frankfurt anytime soon? If your answer is yes—and we wish ours was—you’re in for a little treat as your plane approaches the runway. Those crazy cats over at General Motors have installed quite a large display in a field around the airport, as they want everyone to realize that Chevrolet is a pretty big deal.

The giant Chevy advertisement is part of the company rolling out the welcome mat to important industry big wigs and hotshots attending this year’s auto show in Frankfurt. The Chevy sign takes up like 6,458 square feet of space—oh wow—and is obviously the biggest Chevrolet logo in the world. We have to admit, however, that we have a hard time thinking of any other logo in the world that’s even bigger than this one—right?

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Inside and All Around Lufthansa's Massive 'Tokio' Airbus A380

Steven Frischling—airline geek, professional photographer and travel security blogger of Flying With Fish—just returned from Lufthansa's first A380 flight between Frankfurt and New York. For us he shares his range of feelings on the trip, Jaunted's second-ever special rendezvous with this plane:

The word "behemoth" does not adequately describe the Airbus A380-800, especially when you're standing underneath it, but it's got to do.

I have stood beneath the Boeing 747-400, stood inside the engine of a Boeing 777-200 and flown in the cavernous belly of a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, each of which are massive in their own right. I have seen the Airbus A380-800 from a distance...and it seemed gargantuan even then.

The other day, for the first time, I had the opportunity to explore an Airbus A380-800 up close, at Lufthansa's Frankfurt Technik maintenance hangar. It was then that, upon walking up to the A380, instantly my idea of the airplane was changed from other superlatives to simply "behemoth."

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Inside Lufthansa's Super Swish First Class Terminal at Frankfurt Airport

Steven Frischling—airline geek, professional photographer and travel security blogger of Flying With Fish—just returned from Lufthansa's first A380 flight between Frankfurt and New York. While camped out at FRA, he did some special snooping for us...behind the velvet ropes of the First Class Terminal:

For the vast majority of travelers, the single most stressful portion of air travel is the experience of the airport. Airport terminals are crowded, noisy places, where security lines may move at a snail's pace and security screeners may be less than polite, not to mention that it's rare to find a comfortable seat and the food options are dismal.

For the privileged, however, Lufthansa has a solution to all of these common traveler complaints, and more; it's the First Class Terminal on the grounds of Frankfurt International Airport.

Lufthansa's First Class Terminal (FCT) is technically not a lounge, or even located in the main terminal; it's actually an independent terminal completely dedicated to meeting the needs of (and pampering) first class passengers flying internationally. Simply put, it's an experience of multiple upscale services, as well as serving as a haven from the usual stress of traveling.

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Why Renting an Automatic Car in Europe is One of Life's Great Mysteries

We like to think of ourselves as intrepid international travelers, but in one respect, we are utterly, hopelessly North American: we only drive automatic cars. Ordinarily this doesn’t make renting a car too difficult, but while we were planning a recent summertime excursion in France, we discovered just what a handicap it is.

Not only was it nearly impossible to find an automatic car outside Paris (and even in the city, we had to query certain agency locations), but heaven forbid we had to make any changes to our reservation, because that would set us back another carload of either time or money. Here are some of the potential pitfalls we swerved to avoid during our recent reservation fiasco, but if you’ve got tips of your own, let us know!

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Inside Lufthansa's Frankfurt Headquarters

Would you believe that Lufthansa, Germany's flag-bearing airline with the professional image, has a full sand volleyball court inside of their Frankfurt Headquarters? Well, they do. Too bad it's classified as "art" and not allowed to be used for actual lunchtime volleyball games.

This is just one of the many surprises we stumbled upon recently when Lufthansa graciously took us on a tour of their state-of-the-art Aviation Center, a new building alongside Frankfurt International Airport, with a birds-eye view of all the tarmac action, but with a focus on the interior as well.

The Aviation Center was completed in 2005, and yet it's still only half-done. Lufthansa wants to double its size and extend the wing-like structure, but for now this will do. It consists of glass-enclosed office blocks separated yet joined by nine interior gardens, each with original art and its own biosphere-like environment, from a Japanese zen garden to Australian outback. The glass-latticed roof allows the building to breathe while being protected from the elements, and keeps the structure extremely energy-efficient. Actually, the whole place is very eco-conscious, with sustainable materials used in the building and recycling and conservation stressed everywhere.

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Inside Lufthansa's Frankfurt Arrivals Lounge, with Private Showers!

What's cooler than chilling with a scotch in a First Class departures lounge at an airport? We'd argue that it's that, plus then rolling into another lounge for a breakfast buffet after arrival at your destination. This can be had on a few airlines with dedicated Arrivals Lounges, and we recently popped into the newest, Lufthansa's Arrivals Lounge at Frankfurt Airport.

Having opened in the early part of last year, and as the only Lufthansa Arrivals Lounge in their entire route network, the hidden space down in the baggage claim is often overlooked. On a fairly busy morning with flights into FRA, we were joined in the lounge by no more than 12 other passengers, leaving plenty of space for spreading out our work and grazing the breakfast buffet. But first, it was off to the private showers downstairs!

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Follow Along With Us On Lufthansa's First A380 Flight Tomorrow!

A tail stands guard over Lufthansa's headquarters outside of Frankfurt Airport

While you're safely snug in your beds and snoring away tonight, we'll be rising bright and early on Germany time to hop from Frankfurt Airport to Hamburg's Finkenwerder Field, otherwise known as the private airport of Airbus. What're we doing there, you ask? Naturally, we've hoofed it overseas for the First Flight of Lufthansa's new Airbus A380, which goes down tomorrow at 2pm CET (8am EST) when the airline takes delivery of the plane, currently the largest commercial airliner in the world.

If you're awake, the festivities will begin far before then, and thanks to the rumor that Finkenwerder will have WiFi, we'll be tweeting and blogging live from the event. And it doesn't stop there! Although we're one of more than 2,000 guests who get to bask in the A380's presence, we're also totally hopping onboard the plane as part of the 560 on the first flight from XFW to FRA. Know what that means? We'll have exclusive first looks at their ridiculously luxurious new first class cabin, business class and economy...all kept tightly under wraps until tomorrow.

How to follow along, after the jump!

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Thar's Gold In Them German Vending Machines!

Looks like the Germans have lost their faith in paper currency (again) these days. How else to explain the Gold to Go dispensers in the Frankfurt Airport? The Times UK reports:

After inserting your euros in the slot there is a familiar whirring noise as if the machine is readying itself to spit out a can of lemonade or a bar of chocolate. Instead there is a satisfying clunk as a prettily wrapped bar of the world's favourite precious metal thuds into the dispenser.

"It's better value than the bank," Romy Erhardt of TG-Gold-Super-Markt told The Times, "And it's very convenient — no waiting time — you just put in your cash and a minute later you are an investor in gold."

Passengers can buy passengers one gram, five grams or 10 grams of gold starting at about 30 Euros. While the value is better than the bank, passengers will still pay a bit more than market value. C'mon its a gold vending machine. That's expected.

The company has already installed a similar machine in Frankfurt's main train station and plans to put 500 more of the machines throughout the country as well as in Austria and Switzerland. While passengers at the Frankfurt Airport can also get a Maple Leaf Five Canadian dollar coin and a Kangaroo Fifteen Australian dollar coin, we're still tickled by the idea of a vending machine spitting out a real gold bar placed in a metal case that reads, "My Golden Treasure."

Related Stories:
· Germans flock to gold bars vending machine at Frankfurt airport [Times UK]
· Gold Mining Map [Jaunted]
· Gold Super Markt [Official Site, German]

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Now In Pictures: Lufthansa's Insane First Class Lounge

We drooled over the concept of Lufthansa's new, totally over-the-top first class lounge at Frankfurt last week, but our obsession doesn't stop there: Now we've got pictures.

Thanks to a tell-all, show-all set of Flickr pics from BangaloreAviation we have now seen inside the Lufthansa first class lounge at Frankfurt and the hype was justified. Just look at the bathroom--there really is a bathtub! This set of pics also includes shots with a cute rubber ducky but we don't know if he's a standard Lufthansa fixture or not.

Outside the bathrooms things stay just as swish, with shiny wood bits everywhere and a very sleek bar (because the bar is a very important part of an airport lounge). We really want to get in their ourselves, but as we lamented before you can't buy your way in--it's all a matter of booking exactly the right Lufthansa flights. We'll be trying.

Related Stories:
· Lufthansa Unveils Insane New Lounge for First Class Passengers [Jaunted]
· Lufthansa Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: BangaloreAviation]

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Lufthansa Unveils Insane New Lounge for First Class Passengers

Flying into the Frankfurt airport next week? You could buy und Snickers and splash cold water on your face in the bathroom on landing -- or you could stop in at Lufthansa's brand-new Welcome Lounge, a 12,000-square-foot way to say "Welcome to Germany, complete with breakfast buffet, PCs which are free to use and a generous selection of single-malt whiskey. All you have to do is take a qualifying flight at the right level of service, Rich Uncle Pennybags!

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