Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Trip To Germany - The Journey

The traveling was going to be the easy part.  I had already traveled to Germany with Vivian twice.  The second trip (previously known as "flight from hell", now known as "well, that wasn't sooo bad") took 30 hrs, such a freakish delay would never happen again.  The kids had just proven on a trip to Virginia that they are good travelers even when strapped in a car seat with no easy access to entertainment via their parents.  Delta had added a flight from Pittsburgh to Paris, leaving us with just one plane change.  Easy peasy.

Can you hear Karma laughing out loud as I type this?  Here's what really happened.

Plan
  • Dec 22, 2.30pm.  Leave house to pick up kids from daycare and head to airport
  • Dec 22, 6.20pm.  Depart Pittsburgh
  • Dec 23, 8.20am.  Arrive Paris
  • Dec 23, 9.45am.  Depart Paris
  • Dec 23, 11.20am.  Arrive Hannover to be picked up by Mutti with the car
  • Dec 23, 2.00pm.  Arrive in Sennestadt
  • Total travel time door to door:   17.5 hrs

Actual
  • Dec 22, 2.30pm.  Leave house to pick up kids from daycare and head to airport 
  • Dec 22, 6.20pm.  Depart Pittsburgh
  • Dec 23, 8.20am.  Arrive Paris (so far, so good)
  • Dec 23, 9.45am.  Flight canceled.  Rebooked for 1.25pm
  • Dec 23, 1.25pm.  Flight overbooked.  Bumped from flight.  Rebooked for 7.35am next morning
  • Check into hotel at the airport
  • Dec 24, 7.35am.  Flight canceled.  Rebooked for 1.25pm
  • Dec 24, 1.25pm.  Flight canceled.  Booked on train to Koeln
  • Dec 24, 4pm.  Train delayed.  Go to eat something
  • Dec 24, 5pm.  Train missed.  Ooops
  • Dec 24, 6.20pm.  Next train.  Depart for Cologne
  • Dec 24, 11.00pm.  Arrive Cologne.  Too late to continue to Bielefeld
  • Check into hotel at the train station
  • Dec 25, 9.20am.  Depart Cologne
  • Dec 25, 10.15am.  Arrive Hamm
  • Dec 25, 11.00am.  Depart Hamm
  • Dec 25, 11.45am.  Arrive Bielefeld to be picked up by Mutti with car
  • Dec 25, 12.30pm.  Arrive in Sennestadt.  Hallelujah!
  • Total travel time door to door:  64.0 hrs

I had a much longer post started with more of the details, but that would've turned into a book.  Suffice it to say the kids held up remarkably well and the train travel was made much easier by the fact that our luggage was MIA at the airport so didn't need to be lugged around.  As a sidenote, we never did get the luggage back while we were in Germany, it was delivered back to us in Pittsburgh more than a week after our return.  As I am typing this, there's a box full of Christmas presents on my desk, waiting to be taken to the post office to be mailed to Germany...

Here are some pictures we took during the trip.  Really, the only time we even contemplated taking photos was when the kids were sleeping somewhere.  Note that some of these are from our cell phones, so the quality isn't always as good.

Waiting for yet another flight to be called or canceled...
I don't even remember exactly which part of our airport adventure this is ...
Utterly exhausted - and we haven't even left Charles de Gaulle Airport yet!
Annelee in her sexy socks, spending Christmas Eve in a Parisian Cafe (sounds quite nice that way, doesn't it)
First class travel to Koeln.  We managed to snag four seats, even though we had only reserved two.
A little to tall to lie straight on her seat, but asleep nonetheless

1 comment:

  1. I thought the plane ride to California (with no layovers) was bad! It probably took you the whole visit to recover from getting there.

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