Day 95: Traveling Home

Today's the day. We return home.

We originally thought we'd take the Tube to the airport. The cost is way less and yet, only about 5 minutes longer than taking a taxi. However, when faced with taking those large bags up and down all those stairs and hallways, we opted for a taxi instead. Ok, Uber car.

Side note: It actually didn't cost that much. It was well worth it. And, just so you know, it takes about 45 minutes of aggressive driving to get to the open road. Once on the freeway, it's only about 15 minutes to the airport. After this hour, Xander is feeling a bit ill from the stops/starts and tight curves out of the city.

Hello, Heathrow!

Chris digitally checks in. We take our luggage to get tagged... and, well... two of them are over weight. One is REALLY too heavy. We quickly take from one and put into another, re-weighing and re-packing. The gentleman behind the counter wants the bags to be around 24 kg, even though the limit is closer to 22kg. One of them was 27kg, so it was a bit of repositioning to get it working right. We could have left the "as is" but it would have cost us an extra $200, so it's worth it to fix.

Side story: During this time, the clocks turned 11am. The gentleman helping us asked us to please be quiet for the next minute. All counters went quiet, an announcement came over the PA system asking for a moment of silence in support for Paris. After the moment is over, computers restart and business begins again.

Our bags are checked in. We have a little bit of time. I get water for the kids while Chris heads into the Tube station area to turn in our Oyster Cards (you get your deposit per card back and any outstanding balance). Well worth doing.

Time to go through security. As we enter the line, the woman checking tickets looks at Venice on my arm and asks if she's ok. We mention she's a little ill and will be ok. The woman asks if we would like a wheelchair. When we hesitate, the woman informs us that the walk to terminal B is about a 20 minute walk. Uh, yeah, we would LOVE a wheelchair! There is no way Venice can walk that far. Thank you for the suggestion and information on how to get a wheelchair.

This time, everyone makes it through, except me. Well, I make it through no problem, but my bag is sent down another track to be manually checked. Everyone gathers their items back up (putting shoes and belts back on, repacking laptops, and such). I get into line behind a gentleman who is having his bag hand checked as well. While I wait to be checked out, Chris and Venice head off to get a wheelchair.

Security. Good times. First, there was no one working the counter where bags have been flagged. So, we wait. Then finally, someone came to work this line. The gentleman in front of me had left his laptop in his carryon on. WHAT? After the millions of signs that ask you to remove your laptop AND the people working behind the bins and conveyor belts verbally asking for you to remove your laptops, he still leaves it in his bag? Ugh. So, every zipper has to be opened, everything has to be wiped down with the "chemical" tester.  Everything has to be removed from the bag and removed. Some items are sent through the scanners again. Meanwhile, Xander and I are waiting, waiting, waiting. The man is cleared and he slowly puts everything back into his bag. The woman cannot begin with me until this gentleman packs up and leaves. So we wait. She makes a comment that if he wants to avoid this, next time, please take out his laptop. The gentleman replies, "I heard that," with the attitude off the charts. Ugh.

My turn. Similar treatment. Open all the zippers. The woman goes through everything. Unlike the gentleman ahead of me, I get no explanation as to why my bag was flagged. And now, Xander and I rush to meet up with Chris and Venice. We had a lot of time before, and now, we're starting to run out of time.

We find Chris and Venice, eating lunch downstairs. Xander and I grab a quit bite and join them at the table. Chris quickly heads out to find the wheelchair and comes back with a cool purple wheelchair. We're in business and ready for our 20 minute walk to our terminal and gate.

Once we arrive at our gate (we made it with enough time for one last bathroom stop), a gentleman came over to us and said that there is a special wheelchair entrance on the other side of the gate (he already has his wife over there). We thank him and head over to where he's waiting. Minutes later, we are checked in and behind the counters waiting to board the plane before anyone else is even asked to line up at the gate. Kind of cool to not have to board with the hoards. Chris wheels Venice down the jetway and we get on and find our seats. We are ready for our 10+ hour flight home!

Side note: At one point, there were about 5 airplanes coming in for a landing. Their headlights were lined up in the sky and it was a pretty cool sight. Chris went to take a photo and was politely told that photos are not allowed. Hmm. Is that normal or is that heightened security?

The flight is uneventful (yay). And, this airplane is a different style of plane we came over on. This one has a digital screen for every single seat. On the way over, we had to sign into their wifi (which was horrible) to try to watch anything (stilted and undoable). On this flight, we each get our own access to the entertainment and there are no glitches in the streaming capabilities. Yay! I watch Paper Towns and Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Askaban. Side note: Half of the list of available movies are comprised of Harry Potter movies and Bond movies (all of them). I can't help but wonder if it's because we're traveling from London or is it just a coincidence. Anyway, I watch my two movies (and a few Amy Schuler episodes) and the flight goes by quicker than I can imagine.

We all love watching the little graphic airplane make its trip from London to San Francisco,
showing us where we are in our trip. 

Another side note: By the time we arrive in SFO, our bodies think it's after midnight. And yet, we each only slept about 15-30 minutes on the plane. Excitement to get home, feeling sick, not able to get comfortable... not sure, but none of us are feeling rested when we get to SFO and go through Customs. Venice, in particular, had a rough time on the flight and missing out on sleeping. We do get her a wheelchair after disembarking the plane, but we did have to ask and got lucky that they were able to find another one for us. Normally, I guess, you arrange ahead of time for a wheelchair. Sometimes there is an extra one (like now) but they have to be sure that anyone who ordered one gets it (can't give it to us on accident).

welcome to san francisco

As we approach Customs, there are self-check-in kiosks. Chris checks us in, says we have nothing to declare (which doesn't quite match what I put on our paper copy we filled out on the airplane), and we head to a real person behind a counter. We answer a few of the questions that they have to ask to check us out (what were you doing, where did you go, what's your business)... you kind of feel like you're getting to know someone and they're really interested in you, but there is definitely a feel of, "this is serious" and we're asking to be sure you're not a crazy person bringing back contraband. Anyway, the guy never asks for my paper copy (phew), and we had to the next step.

Finally, after three check points, we are in the SFO airport. We pick up our bags and walk them one hallway to a place where we re-check them. We're just doing the manual labor of taking them from one place to another, the bags are not really rec-checked. They have been checked all the way through to Eugene, so no re-weighing or anything like that. Just rolled from point A to point B and we're on our way. Unfortunately, we have to go through SFO's security check now. This time, I sail through. Phew.

We make our way to the American Express lounge (Chris has a card that gives us access to this lounge) and we settle in. Venice lays down on a couch and sleeps. The rest of us eat a bit of food and recharge our digital devices. And then it's time for our flight home.

Haha! Joke's on Customs,
we DID ship a live animal!

We have crappy seats on this flight (we're not all together) due to the fact that we purchased them just a day before. But, Chris talks to a woman behind the counter and we get them changed so that we can sit with the kids (two and two). A short flight. Uneventful (yay). We get another wheelchair (phew) and head to meet our family.

Xander and I head down the escalators and fall into Granny and Jiichan's arms, tears of happiness overwhelming us all. Chris and Venice arrive a minute later from the elevator and it's their turn for more hugs and tears. Funny story: While we're in the midst of our reunion, a friend, who has also been traveling, stops in to say hi! Someone who we saw at the airport when we were leaving for a trip to Montana last spring. Small world! Or, is that just our home town? You're always bound to run into someone you know.

It's a bit surreal to be back. Our bodies feeling like it's about 6am, we are zombies and just wanting to get into our own beds. We'll deal with our emotions... tomorrow.

Day 81: Long Day of Travel

Oh, sigh. Time to leave. The visit went by so quickly. We got a lot in, but it feels fast. We get up to say goodbye to the kids before they catch their bus to school. Chris gets one more run in with Tim (he went from no runs for over a month, to two in one weekend, go Chris!)

Tall Chris or short doorways?

And then it's time to say goodbye to Kristie (thanks again for the laundry... I know you KNOW what it means, which makes it all the more special that you offered to help do it ;) Tim takes us to a bakery on the way to the train station. We order crazy amounts of bread. 2 regular pretzels, 2 special pretzels, a few sandwiches, and something sweet. The store had to give us our own bag for all our purchases (and they put each individual item in an individual paper bag, to begin with).

Unfortunately, there are no parking spots at the train station. We traveled around twice and didn't see any. So, we have to do a quick pull over, grab our stuff, and say a fast goodbye to Tim. Thank you and your family for such a wonderful visit! It has been so nice to travel around by chauffeur to see the countryside and a slice of your life. Thanks!

And now for our train rides home! Should be easy sailing from here on out.... and that would be my mistake... for thinking it could be that easy!

Our first train is crowded and we have first class seats (from what we can tell) but not assigned seats. When we get to our train-car and look around, there really aren't any free seats. This seems common, Germans seem to take up more space than they pay for and just wait to be asked to move and make room. They aren't annoyed that you ask them to move, but you have to ask. So, there are a lot of coats on seats, or briefcases on seats, making the seats look occupied, when in fact, they aren't. But you don't really know, that person could be in the bathroom or walking around. So, we cannot find seats. We try the second class area, but the story is the same there.

We just find four individual seats and take them. Xander, however, isn't comfortable sitting with strangers, so he chooses, instead, to stand next to Chris for the this part of the trip. It's only 40 minutes until we reach our transfer station. And, luckily, on one of the stops, someone gets off leaving two seats together. Venice and Xander move to these seats so that they can sit together. Chris takes Venice's vacated seat, and we're all close-ish to each other now.

In the end, no one every came to check tickets (this makes some sense, we are on an RE - regional - train instead of an IC or ICE train), so who knows if anyone was really sitting where they were supposed to...

Out the train window

We arrived at the Mannheim station, to transfer to the train that will take us all the way to Hauptbahnhof in Berlin. It's an hour late. We enjoy some of our bread items while we wait. And, as we all shiver in the cold, this is when I realise I have left my rain coat (just a shell, but still) at the Moser's house. Dang it. After all the, "Don't forget your..." I told the kids... I'm the one who forgot stuff.

There is some confusion, as our train disappears from the board and the NEXT train (doing the same route) comes in. Are we supposed to get on? What happened to our train? Chris goes to find a help desk to ask. But he's gone a long time. Long enough that the new train is now pulling into the station and we still don't know what to do. Chris says the line is long and he hasn't even asked anyone yet, so he comes back to the platform. We find a conductor on the platform and ask him what to do. They inform us to not get on the later train that's here now, but that our train will be coming in 5 minutes on another track. Phew. Ok, we're good.

Sunset, Fog, Darkness

And here it comes. Our train, an hour late. We get on and look for our seats. Unfortunately, someone is sitting in one of our four reserved seats. Chris pulls out his ticket, the woman in our seat has a ticket for train 11 and this is train 12. She gets up, apologises and leaves (I hope she was able to get back on, as the train is now pulling out of the station). We settle into our seats. We're in another 6 person compartment, but this time there are two others with us, so we're full up (note, the compartment next door has been vacated... lots of evidence that others had been in there, but now it's empty and ours is full.... bummer).

All of us are really hot. With 6 people in the compartment, it heats up fast. Not to mention that the heat is turned all the way up (each compartment has an individual dial to control climate). Xander just about dies of the heat, so he exits out and walks the hallway, trying to cool down. Chris accompanies him. On their way back into the compartment, Chris sneaks his hand to the dial and lowers it a few notches. Within a few minutes, it starts to cool down in the room. A bit longer after that, the woman gets her coat to drape over her lap and the man gets another shirt to put on. Meanwhile, our family still feels that it's too hot.

Despite the temperature, the train ride goes well. The kids plug-in. I blog. Chris naps (and asks me to kick him if he snores... oh the fears of sharing a compartment). We are treated to a beautiful sunset. Then we enter some crazy fog. And then, just outside of Spandau (the first stop in Berlin, but not Hauptbahnhof, the second stop in Berlin) the train stops. Then they announce "something". After the second or so announcement, the woman in our compartment asks if we'd like her to translate. Yes, please! She tells us that the train has hit a wild boar and they are seeing if we can continue.

Well, after about an hour, the announcer comes on and says, "Wir warten blah blah blah." We're waiting for....? The woman says that other officials are coming in to investigate the train to see if we can continue on this train or if we need to get on another train. In the meantime, the service car is offering free drinks. Chris and the kids go to get drinks and bring back waters and soda, which we enjoy with some of those pretzels we thought were superfluous when we bought them (but now we're feeling pretty good about).

After two hours (Chris has now cancelled our dinner reservations... dang it, there goes one of our last nights in Berlin...), and, "Wir warten..." we're still waiting. And waiting. And waiting. The new announcement, our compartment mate tells us, is that the Polizei are on site (we have seen them walking up and down the halls of the train outside our compartment) and will assist us in an evacuation (I thought I heard that word in the announcement) out of this train onto a train that is now coming.

As we wait, we get to know our compartment mates a bit more. The couple is from Stuttgart and are on holiday. They were offered these Bahn tickets (I didn't quite catch who gave them the tickets) and are here to visit Berlin, but only for a weekend. But, they are retired, and have no worries, so they're content to let happen whatever happens (although, at one point, they joke that they should have driven). We talk about our trip here, Chris' work... and how the kids are just on a special holiday (always seems easier than to explain homeschooling in a foreign language).

The woman is very concerned about our kids. So, at one point, she gets up and goes to the service cart and comes back with several cold sandwiches. Chris offers to pay her back, and she replies, "Oh, I got them for free!" And when we offered to share, she said, "It's for the children." So, even though Chris and I are a little hungry, we can't eat the children's food... so we feed the children. I do like how the people of Germany are collectively here to support the kids. It is a good feeling in times like these. But if the older generation is going without, then we must go without as well. Side note: I'm sure the couple think we're horrible parents. Not only were the kids plugged in most of the time, they also fed themselves a lot of their Halloween candy (and rejected some of the sandwiches they brought them due to too much mayonnaise or "icky" bread).

During these three hours we are stopped on the tracks, power never goes out. This is great because we are able to keep using the air in the compartment, the kids can get wifi, and, albeit very long, our weight is as comfortable as it can be. I used the wifi to figure out where we actually were. The map showed that we were super close to Berlin... by now, we could have been on a bus and gotten there already. But, we're waiting.

And now, here comes the train. Their lights are on. Our lights are on. We are one track apart. We stare at each other. In fact, our kids push their faces and hands onto the window, miming "help"!

And we wait. Side note: This is when Chris and I sneak in some bites of the left-over food that the kids didn't eat (when the couple leaves to go to the bathroom or stretch their legs).

We're waiting

The next announcement relays that the plans have changed again. We will NOT be getting on the train here, but at Spandau. We will continue to Spandau on this train, at a slower speed. Then transfer to the train that was next to us (and is now pulling away). At this point, we decide we will not transfer, but get on the SBahn and just go home from there.

Well, after all that, we did start to move slowly and we did arrive at Spandau... and THEN they said for everyone to get on the SBahn (yeah! Get on a train that's working already!)

So, we get to Spandau (yay) and transfer to the SBahn (yay). As we're traveling along, the lights go out on the train (boo), flicker (boo), and then come back on (yay). People actually laughed when this happened... but it feels like we just missed another disaster.

It feels good to get to Friedrichstrasse, where it's familiar and we know where to go. As we get off the tram near our apartment, I see the fast-food hot-dog/hamburger joint near our house. I mention that we probably all need food (it is almost 10am and we never had a proper dinner). Xander and I return home with our bags while Venice and Chris order some food to bring home.

We "enjoy" a late meal... and then we head to bed. Rest, something we all earned!

Day 78: Travel to Kollweiler

Friday. 

We finish packing, eat a simple breakfast, and head to Hauptbahnhof to catch our ICE train to Frankfurt (with a transfer to Kaiserslautern). Our first train is approximately four hours (the second about an hour), so we’ll be hungry for lunch on the train. We’re guessing we’ll have options for food,but we aren’t 100% sure, so when we find our seats (Chris bought a Bahn card for the big discounts and ability to pick seats), Chris heads back into the station to get us a few items of food. He’s going alone because the train will leave in about 20 minutes and he’s racing the clock. Of course, as soon as he leaves, we find a sizeable menu indicating we’ll be able to order food. I text him right away, but the texts take some time, and then there is no reply.  I try to call, but the call doesn’t go through. I make two more failed attempts. Then he calls me, but when I pick up, he can’t hear me. I finally receive a text from Chris that he’ll just get a few pretzels. 

Side note: When we finally do order, the pretzels are twice as expensive on the train and the selection of food isn’t as large as I thought. So, Chris is wishing he had bought more at the stand in the station. But it all works out. Venice gets Flammkuchen (pizza with sour cream instead of red sauce), Xander orders a bowl of chilli, and Chris and I get a sandwich. Decent, but not stellar. It’ll do. 

Once again, we love traveling by train. Smooth. Freedom to stand up, walk around, use the bathroom whenever we want. This time, we are sitting in a compartment built for six. We have glass doors to shut out those walking by to the bathroom and getting off and on the train. We’re feeling pretty fancy or like we, ourselves, are headed to Hogwarts. With the Bahn card, the seats were very reasonable, so we’re pretty happy.

Venice on the computer and Xander on this iPod.

We are unable to “watch” our progress on the train as the schedule left in our car is the wrong one. I’m glad we figured this out, as it had me worried… our destination wasn’t on there… so a moment of panic (even though they had come through and checked our tickets… still a moment of panic). So, we’ll just have to listen carefully and watch the clock to help us get off at the correct station.

Here in First Class, there is free wifi! This is pretty exciting. Often, there are hot-spots around, made available by Telekom. You need to have some sort of account with Telekom to get a password and then you can sign into the many, many hot-spots around town or on trains. But, on this train, there is free wifi, no password needed, for those of us in First Class. Pretty special! So, we all log on. Xander plays games. Venice watches YouTube. Chris naps. And I get to blog while on the train! Side note: I did one blog… and felt a bit icky… darn motion sickness. 

View from the train (pardon the window reflections)

As the train proceeds, it becomes clear that we are delayed a few minutes. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue. BUT, our transfer time is only 12 minutes. So an 8 minute delay means we only have 4 minutes to find our new track and train. We are watching our progress carefully as we lose a minute, then gain a minute… At one point, our transfer time seemed to be less than 3 minutes. And, a short bit of confusion when we get into Frankfurt, stop, and then back out. I guess it's what they have to do, but it sure is disconcerting to go one way and then another instead of all in one direction. By the time we arrive at our connection stop, we had gained back a few and had a whopping 9 minutes to transfer…. and, of course, our next train… was delayed. So, we now wait.

After our lovely experience in our first class compartment, we became pampered. Now, mixed with other passengers, it's loud (I think our neighbour's phone rang at least 4-5 times, with a "whoo-hooo" style ring). As we get closer to our destination, the sunshine disappears and we enter the fog.

As we exit the platform, there's Tim! Friend from college, here to pick us up. Couldn't have timed out more perfectly. Let the memories and catching up begin!

Driving "home"

Once settled into our new home-base, we catch up more with Tim (we think it's been about 11 years since we last saw one another... and back then they had a young one and a baby, and we had a toddler... so I'm sure not much deep conversation went on back then!) Venice and Xander explored the outside trampoline. Beckett came down to keep our kids company. While dinner was cooking, Kristie arrived home and we were able to meet two of the four kids (one is at an overnight and one is out late with friends).

After an awesome dinner, our tummies full, it was time for some pumpkin carving. Thanks to our hosts for having pumpkins and carving tools ready for us. It's fun to get back into a little tradition.

Carving pumpkins

Venice's pumpkin: water, earth, fire, air - Avatar
Xander: Amplemann, Venice: Water, Levi and Tim: Bart Simpson

By now, its' pretty late. The kids are tired (falling asleep on the couch), the adults are tired, the dogs are tired. And there's a big day planned for tomorrow (our host's oldest has a cross country meet), so we must all get some good rest. It's great to be here. Our hosts are welcoming. We settle in for a comfortable night.

Annie (the dog) is ready for bed (left), Xander becomes a pumpkin, too (right)

Day 46: Return to Berlin

Well, the bad news is there is still a bad wifi connection, more mosquitoes buzzing around Chris' head, and Venice definitely has the cold that Xander and I had.

A last look at our hotel (says hotel on the left) and our location.

The good news is we have time to shop for souvenirs!

There is a toy store the kids have been wanting to visit. We went there first. But, as Chris and I predicted, it was mostly.... toys. Things we can see anywhere. So the kids concede and don't buy much there. Venice did find a few cute-cuddly hedgehogs and I found a grammar game (yeehaw!) but then we were on our way to the many "real" souvenir stores.

Looking for a good spot to put our lock.

The first one we entered is the oldest store in Salzburg (if you believe). And all the items we were looking at are handmade, not made in China (if you believe). So, it's a perfect store to buy lots of souvenirs. We did go to a few other stores along the street, but the content seems to be the same in each store. Not too much variations either, pretty much the EXACT same stuff. Xander did find his favourite t-shirt. A green shirt that says, "No kangaroos in Austria". I guess they get confused with Australia all the time. Makes me think of our New Mexico, USA license plates, always getting confused with Mexico.

Venice really wants to buy a lock to leave on the Love Lock bridge. I know it's mostly for couples in love, but why not a family? So, we buy a red lock, and write Baileys on it (the store even had a sharpie for us to use, they are well prepared for this tradition!) We walk to the bridge, the kids find a good spot and lock it away. Venice threw the key into the river and we will all love one another forever, or so the lore promises!

Working together to put the lock on, lock it, and toss the key.

Showing our lock has a good view of the Fortress. 

Back at the hotel, we finish up packing, call a taxi and head to the airport. Um, this taxi driver is crazy. I do think, in general, the drivers here in Salzburg are more aggressive than those in Berlin and I thought Berlin drivers were aggressive. Turns out, there's still a sense of common sense in the Berlin drivers... with this taxi (and remember the fast bus drivers) there's a little more "out of control" feeling. When driving well over the speed limit, on the wrong side of the street, to pass someone on a city street... it gets a little "white knuckle" feeling.

At the airport, we have no trouble with any kind of border control (none on the ride there either). At check-in, our passports are checked, but that happens where ever we travel, so nothing new really. By the way, did I already say that America is the only place you have to remove your shoes when going through security? I think I did. It's still awesome.

The trucks (top), Filming a scene in the car behind the tree (bottom-left)
Some of their lighting equipment (bottom-right)

We are flying a new-to-us airline. It's €35 a ticket, plus €15 for a bag. Pretty cheap. The biggest downside is that we fly into Berlin's "secondary" airport, so it's a 60 min travel home via public transport (or a $50 taxi?) Oh, and if you want in-flight water or a snack, you will have to pay for it. But, on a short flight (ours is only 90 minutes, max), who needs that? So, perfect. No wonder so many fly and visit all sorts of countries within Europe. Cheap flights can be easily found.

As we walked from the Bahn station to our apartment, we found several large white trucks parked on our street. Turns out, some scenes of a movie ("Berlin Syndrome") are being filmed on our street. So, for a few days (and into a few early mornings) they will be here to offer hair and makeup, wardrobe, catering, etc. It takes about 30 people for the one scene we saw being filmed (however many actors in the car, two holding a black backdrop, a couple camera people, the director, and lots of people on hand watching, probably waiting to do other jobs like hair, get coffee, etc.)

After starting laundry (it will take me about 4 days to do all of this laundry!), we head out to dinner (because who wants to cook the first night back after a long trip?)

It's a nice feeling to be back in Berlin. Austria, I have to say, was easier than Prague, as the language was the same and the system, or infrastructure, seems familiar. However, Berlin is "known" and it feels comfortable. I do still harbour bouts of anxiety when going to a restaurant without Chris, or having to deal with the big market (where you have to talk to the butcher and answer questions about a membership card and packing your own items, etc.) but all in all, it does feel comfortable here. I know the Bahn stations (and destinations which makes it easier to know which side of the track to wait on), so getting around has become simple and almost second nature.

So, as we ease back into our routine, I leave you with this image (I forgot to include it in the post from the gardens at Schloss Mirabell) of a unicorn. Enjoy.

Day 41: Travel to Munich

Feeling a little better this morning. So, over the hump. Even walked with Chris this morning.

Xander Skyped with Poppi this morning, talking about activities and weather. Skyping is fun!

Time for laundry and packing. By the way, I've figured out how to start the laundry so it will wash and then dry. However, this is almost a 3 hour commitment (unless you pick express wash) and the clothes STILL aren't dry when I go to take them out. So I always add 30 min of drying time afterwards (I don't know how to do this when programming the wash+dry cycle) and then I still hang dry a little. So, each load takes about 3.5 hours plus the hang drying. And it's a smaller unit, so small loads. Seems like a lot of energy spent, both electronic and mine.

Venice's hair is just as pretty as it was last night. But now we get to see it in the sunlight. So striking!

We decided to have our favourite burritos for lunch today. We ordered one for Chris as well, since he was coming home early from work to pack and get ready to leave. And, yep, they got our order wrong again! We keep trying. The food is so good. But we never get exactly what we order. Sometimes with guacamole, sometimes not. Sometimes with salsa, sometimes not.

The best parts of lunch, today, is that we got to eat with Chris AND he brought a care package sent by Granny and Jiichan! It was like I was in college all over again! Slightly different things in there (e.g. baking powder and cornstarch) but "happy making" all the same. The kids were excited for the peanut flavoured candy (everything is Nutella flavoured, or hazelnut, but rarely peanut) and American dollars! We are good to go for some yummy cookies and baking! P.S. Venice has read the funnies (about 4 or 5 Sunday's worth?) all the way through and plans to read the several times more. Vielen Dank!

Admiring her hair (I catch myself staring too)

Taxi time. Airport time. And our first traffic experience! Perhaps it always happens at rush hour, but it was our first time in a real traffic jam (another reminder that living without a car has been FANTASTIC). Our taxi waited 2-3 times for one light. The last time, we were first in line at the traffic light, but we couldn't go because a 30 ft truck-bed was blocking the intersection. Our taxi driver called these drivers, "undisciplined," as they shouldn't have gone knowing the traffic wouldn't allow them to completely cross the intersection. But, our taxi driver, also undisciplined? He went around the truck bed, at the end of our light... maybe slightly running the red, but what to do? We had already waited a few lights and it seems like we'd never get to cross!

We decided to see if there was an added cost to checking bags. Good thing we did! You are only allowed one carry on (we had four backpacks and three small-roller bags). And they are included in our flight fee. We haven't had to pay for checked bags yet. Maybe this is just an American thing? Anyway, off to sail through security.

After a slightly bumpy flight, we arrived in Munich. I think it was around 8:30? One of Chris' coworkers arranged for a taxi for us, saying that this time of night, during Oktoberfest, it can be hard to find a taxi. Well, what a nice ride! It was a large Mercedes with facing seats in the back. So all four of us could sit together. The kids said it felt like a limo, with free water too. And by free, I mean, including in our €100-30 min ride.

It was dark, so our first introduction to Munich was in the dark, looking out the windows and moonroof. There were lots of long tunnels, lots of neon lights, and, it seems, lots of modern buildings. After being in Berlin and Prague, this felt a big like Vegas to me.

One of the VERY long tunnels we drove through.

The taxi dropped us off at our... hotel? Whoops, wrong door (but associated with our hotel?) Weird. We just had to go a few doors up and we were there. At this hotel, we have two rooms with adjoining rooms (but whoops, they forgot to unlock the doors between the rooms, so we got that fixed... along with one of the keys, which didn't work).

Interesting note, I guess some hotels in America do this, but here, it's very common for the key to also activate your electricity. Did I mention this already? I'm starting to forget what I've already written about. Anyway, you put your key in a "slot" by the door. This allows your air conditioning and lights to work. It's confusing, though, as habit has us looking for our room key all the time... oh yeah, it's in the "slot"! Or, if you walk out of the room without it... you're in trouble! Or, if it's warm, you can't have the air conditioner cooling your room while you're out. And even thought it's cool outside right now, I seem to be hot. Chris says to just drink water (perhaps I am a little dehydrated...)

Even our hotel feels "glitzy"

After settling in (and eating a few granola bars) the kids settled in for bed. We settled into our room. Side note: We have bidets again! However, unlike the Italian hotel that had towels right by the bidet, this one does not. There is an extra towel, but it's right next to the hand towel for hand washing. Um, please don't mix those up!

Day 8: Traveling Back to Berlin

The retractable-ceiling of the dining
area of our hotel (with rain on it)

Early rise, breakfast, and pack. Venice decided, last minute, she really did want one more item (a "Murano" drinking glass). We found "the one" but the store was closed. It seems most stores open around 9 or 9:30 and our taxi was arriving at 9am, so it wasn't going to happen. We're crossing our fingers that a souvenir store at the airport will have one...

We had planned to take a gondola ride while in Venice. We thought, perhaps during one of the our days there. But it was so darn hot, sitting in a black boat just didn't sound appealing, or we were too busy doing something else. Then, we decided, we'd pay a little extra and take a gondola road in the evening, last night after dinner. But the rain came and we all decided that we'd rather not sit in the boat in the pouring rain.

And today we're leaving. The thought of another body-to-body boat ride did not sound good. Chris decided to splurge on a private taxi to the port, which cost as much as a gondola ride. So we decided to pretend our taxi rides were "just like a gondola" ride.

Taxi ride to the port.

You'd think we'd have security down by now, having gone through several in the past week. But Chris beeped, not sure why, as he didn't beep in the past and isn't wearing anything different. Weird. Update: There WAS a "Murano" drinking glass at the airport souvenir store. Not quite the colour scheme Venice wanted, but close enough! And I saw a few watercolour images on the store's walls (part of the decor, not for sale) that I would love to try to copy someday (I've been wanting to learn watercolour, so here's something to aim for!). So I took photos of the three images, which got me strange glances from the woman running the shop. Whatever, I'm leaving!

A new bridge (about seven years old?), very modern.

We bought a few sandwiches and snacks to tide us over, since we'd be traveling during lunchtime. We ate them in the terminal, watching for our plane to arrive. Everyone was relaxed and happy to be returning home. And we all called our apartment in Berin, "home"! Going to Berlin first, to set up, and then to Italy, accomplished what we had hoped. This schedule created a sense of "home" in our apartment and we were all ready to take a break from "tourism" in our new digs.

Random photo of someone wearing "my" shoes.

After a while, Xander decided to go check the gate and came back running, "They're boarding and it says 'Last Call'!" What? We grabbed our backpacks, ran to the gate, and sure enough, he was right.  There was no line and we sailed through our ticket check-in. As we hustled down the stairs, we came out onto the tarmac and saw a bus, fully with people. Oh yeah! We have to take a bus to the airplane. We now remember that we got off our plane, upon arrival, and got onto a bus that took us to the terminal. DOH!

We squeezed onto the bus, and about 6 more people came after us (so we weren't last!) Phew. Made it. Side note: I'm so done with the smell of smoke (people smoke everywhere, ugh) and the smell of B.O. (although, that smelly person might be me, I'm not fairing well here in Venice!)

Fun tidbit: On Air Italia, they offer you a drink and the choice of, "sweet or salty"? On the way there, the salty choice was a type of Frito, but on the way home it was more like croutons (I was a little disappointed, needless to say).

After returning to our apartment (it was still there, hadn't burned down or flooded or anything, phew), the kids rested and Chris and I went out to get some groceries. He showed me the ATM that is less than a block from our home, then we went to the market to buy as much as we could carry.

Funny story. We were thinking of making baked potatoes and we like sour cream with these. So we thought of sour cream. But, we also know that's somewhat an American thing, so we were going to look for crème fraiche" instead. We found the dairy part of the market and found TONS of yogurt and milk and such, but I couldn't find the crème fraiche. So, resorted to asking and practicing my German. I asked a worker, at one of the dairy cabinets, "Where is the crème fraiche?" (in German), and she paused and said, "Crème fraiche?" I said, yes... and she pointed, right in front of her. Sigh. Most embarrassing. We bought it and then promptly did something else with our potatoes, so didn't even need the darn crème fraiche.

Back home, we cooked our first home cooked meal since we left for Italy. We even had time to read a chapter or two in Ready Player One, our current read-aloud book.

Nice to be at home.

Day 4: Zombies Traveling

Well, yikes. We're all so tired. The kids are zombie-like this morning. No conversations. Simple0-blank stares as they nod acknowledgement. Poor Venice had a bout of insomnia last night. So, we're all tired this morning.

But, the taxi will be called in a few minutes and we'll be off!

As a P.S. to yesterday's post (fighting with the machines), I forgot to add that Chris spent several attempts trying to change the stove's clock. On-line manual to rescue, again! But it was a funny-frustrating thing to have to figure out (it seemed to always end in lots and lots of beeping alarms.)

Day 1: Arrival

Venice watching Frankfurt during landing.

The flight to SFO was uneventful, but a bit choppy. Not your rolling turbulence, but slightly jarring, enough for Xander and me to get a little nervous. The flight to FRA (not France, but Frankfurt!) was much smoother. Even so, the beginning of this trip was a little nerve wracking for some, as it's hard to imagine a large 747 getting off the ground, gliding through the air without issues, and landing softly.

But, this flight, too, was uneventful. Just a crazy 10 hours-11 minutes long. This translates to 3 movies, several 30-minute sitcoms, and a few documentary shorts. We all skipped Tomorrowland (although Venice watched the beginning and then guessed/narrated the rest) and Insurgent (want to see it without skipping and good sound throughout), but we all watched Home (pretty cute, even with all the skipping video.) Most of us tried to use the in-flight free wi-fi to watch a show of our choice, but the wi-fi was sketchy. I tried to watch Into the Woods and only got about half way through (that one hour of watching too about two hours of stop-n-go with the spotty wi-fi.)

And, by the way, it's faster to go over the "top" (over Canada and Greenland) than to go "around" (over the U.S.A. and western Europe.) Only having flat maps to look at, I am curious to see a globe to visualize better. Is it a shorter route or better winds?

We may have left the smokey air of Oregon, but we have landed in 95 F here in Germany.

P.S. Chris and Diana maybe napped a total of 30-60 min. Neither Venice nor Xander slept at all.

Leaving the SFO-FRA flight. Stepping on German ground for the first time.

Here, in the Frankfurt airport, we made a bit of a mistake. After going through customs (we later think we went through the "wrong" customs), we followed the airport signs to gates A, Z. I can see how we made the mistake now, but at the time, we really were just following the signs. There were lots and lots of arrows pointing to gate A, and NO signs saying, "YOU ARE LEAVING A SECURE AREA"... but that's what we did. We basically made a U-Turn, after leaving the secure area, and had to go through another security check. This wasted about 45 minutes. Not too bad in terms of time (I thought we might miss our connecting flight, but Chris said we would be ok), however, it was definitely an ordeal. We seemed to get stuck in the line that took forever. Murphey's Law at this point. And then poor Xander was very nervous to go through the giant scanner (where you stand like a jumping-jack and are scanned). THEN, before it's my turn to go, I see Venice getting a full pat-down (thank goodness by a female agent.) THEN, we forgot there was a Kindle in Venice's backpack, so we hadn't taken that out. Thus, her backpack was taken to the side to get completely emptied and repacked. 

After doing all of this, we followed more signs to gates A, Z and this time we found the right path one level down. It was a looooong walk in the heat. We finally made it to our gates. Got sodas and pretzels (I asked the kids to not judge all German pretzels by the airport pretzel. Xander gobbled his up. Venice's is hardening in her backpack.) As soon as we finished our snack, we boarded our flight to Berlin. 

Xander on the flight to Berlin. He took the photo of the engine and windmills. Then, a photo of our landing and the airport.

This was our last flight of the trip. Also uneventful. Venice might have caught 15 minutes of sleep, although she doesn't remember falling asleep. Other than that, no one else slept. We arrived at around 9:45am, local time, having left our Oregon home around 9:15am the day before!

We had to wait about 45 minutes for luggage. We're not sure of why it took so long, as our plane was just one gate away from the baggage claim. Once they started to put luggage out, ours were among the first, as Chris has priority with the airline. All five-checked bags made it! And, we found a taxi that could fit all our bags and all of us. Not a surprise, out taxi driver spoke English and pointed out a few things on the way to our apartment.

As we piled out of the taxi, our contact for our apartment came out to the street (he was watching for us!) A wave to our taxi driver, and we were heading up to our apartment. We had brief hope of relief as the hallway was super cool, seemingly air conditioned. But none is available in our apartment, so we're baking for a while.




After a tour of our home and a hand off of keys, our first task was to switch from pants to shorts and from socks and shoes to sandals. Our second task was to head to the market to be sure we had a few things so we wouldn't starve in the next few days. The market is only two blocks away. It's small, but has almost everything we need. We look forward to exploring other markets and farmer's markets, but I can see using this market every week as it's so close and we won't have to carry items too far. One of the first things we bought were paper towels (we'll have to get cloth napkins later, but for now, we needed something.) And, how nice, they are super cute. We bought one more reusable bag, filled up two bags and took our groceries home.

Side note: We used a rolling-hand basket to shop (we have these at our Rite Aid at home) as we couldn't figure out how to get one of the regular carts. They were all daisy-chained-locked together and we couldn't figure out how to unlock them. But after we checked out, Venice saw another shopper unlock one and figured out how to do it, so for the next time, we're set to shop with a cart if we want to!

Ok, second side note, we did stop by a beverage market on the way home from the regular market. We had one empty bag left, so Chris could only buy a few beers and sodas. But he mentioned, with a grin, how cheap it all was!

After the market, we came back to the apartment and rested. Did a little more unpacking, but mostly rested. We also decided to put off the conversation of "who gets which bedroom" until later. The kids plugged in and rested. Chris napped on the living room couch. I laid on the floor with my legs against the wall (trying to un-swell my feet and cool down) and I actually fell asleep for 20 minutes. We are all tired!

Spring Rolls and Schweppes Bitter Lemon (I may drink this every day!)

We decided on a nearby restaurant, Lemongrass Scent, for dinner. Asian fusion. I really liked the food, and since it's only 3 blocks away and economical (about 30 Euros), I can imagine going there a lot. The kids may be thinking otherwise. No air conditioning, so we melted. Open air, so bees wanted to share our meal. And Venice practically fell asleep at the table while Xander couldn't sit upright. Did I mention we are all tired?

Back to the apartment with our leftovers (more commonly called Take Away here) for cool showers and baths, opening the windows to cool the house down (it's currently 87 F outside and 9pm), and rest up for some exploring tomorrow!