It's Off To Germany We Go!

So flying to Germany was pretty horrible.  It all started with the dog.  Miley is small enough  to fit underneath the seat of the airplane.  Which every airline on earth charges only 150 per flight for this service.  Every airline that is except for British Airways.  Which starting this year is the only airline that State Dept. will let you fly with.  They were completely unwilling to work with us.  It didn't matter that I found flights cheaper with another carrier that has contract with state they didn't care.  If you are flying to berlin you must go take the British Airways flight.  GRRRRrrr Bureaucracy! So . . . we bought Chris a ticket with Lufthanza, and I flew on my first international flight, which was also a red eye with the 2 girls on British Airways. This sounded like a good idea to me until I realized that I had the 2 girls as well as 9 suitcases, plus 3 carry ons!  We were packed into that rental car like sardines.  Plus Chris flew out 5 hours before us so I had to figure out how to drop off the rental car, and check us in with all of our luggage. Thank heavens for sky cap!!

Once I got the luggage figured out we made our way on the plane. The kids were being really good, and we hunkered down for the night.  H-May slept for the first 3 hours, Boo slept for the last 3 hours, I did not sleep for any of it, and to make matters worse I started getting sick halfway through the night.  Sick, sick, I mean nauseated, running to the bathroom every 30 minutes sick (Jenn and Raelynn, I totally jinxed myself) 

We made it to London and were all exhausted.  I had packed some clothes for us to change into. At the time I was in sweats and the girls were in PJ's but what I thought was a gate check of our carryons turned out to be a regular check so we would not be seeing our clothes until we landed in Germany. I was still really sick, but luckily the girls we extremely good and played until our next flight. I really did not want to get back on that plane, I kept trying to think of a way that I could get a hold of Chris and make him take a train and come pick me up.  But Chris was somewhere in Europe with out a cell phone so I forced myself on the plane.  The next 2 hours consisted of fanning myself with the emergency procedures card with 2 open barf bags on my lap. I made quite the spectacle.  But I managed to make it to the bathroom every time so I still had some dignity left.

Once we landed in Germany I found another obstacle.  That darn luggage.  Chris had assured me that I did not need to change my money until I got to the embassy, and that he would be waiting for me to help me with my bags.  BIG FAT LIE :)  I got off the plane and to my horror discovered that the smartcart machine only took Euros, there was no place to exchange my money and I had to get through customs with my luggage before I could meet up with Chris.  Again we had 9 very large suitcases, 3 carryons. It was physically impossible, and there were no workers to be found, anywhere. And to make matters worse the bathrooms were on the other side of customs and I was still feeling really sick.  I wanted to cry. Thankfully after about 20 minutes, and who knows how many prayers I saw a small window and Chris was standing on the other side. I got his attention and he found a way to get me some money so that I could get 3 smartcarts and get through customs. So after traveling for who knows how many hours we made it to Germany in our sweats and dirty nightgowns at 3 pm. Phew!

 Back Seat

 Front Passenger Seat

Back Seat