A little delayed, but it has been honestly difficult to find enough time to sit down and do any serious writing without a child, spouse or somebody else vying for my attention. All is quiet at the exact moment…naps are being taken by everyone but myself, so I figured I would get us much in as possible. What I have been doing is taking point form notes of the many experiences we’ve shared so far, and will be expanding on them all as we go.
Melanie’s father Stefan picked us up at our house at 1pm. Everything was packed and ready to go. We loaded up his car, and sped off to the airport (quite literally, actually…he’s a bit of speed demon). Luckily I have an eagle eye for details, otherwise we would not have known which terminal to pull into. Since the terminal status had been in limbo when Melanie ordered the tickets, they had not posted it on the paper. The only way to know for sure was a sign on the 401…which at 140km/h goes by really fast. I spotted the blur that looked like our carrier and off we went. Screeching to a halt, we unloaded the car, said our farewells and headed into the terminal looked for Luftansa airlines.
We deliberately came a little earlier than necessary so that we could request bulkhead seating. Always anticipate a fully loaded flight and gain as much ground as you can when tagging a 21 month old in tow. We lined up at the Luftansa Economy class window, and were soon informed that they were not in fact going to be taking us on the first part of our flight. Air Canada would be taking those duties…taking us the seven hours to Frankfurt, where we would then take a connecting flight with Luftansa to Dusseldorf.
So, we dutifully lined back up at the Air Canada desk (luckily in the same terminal only a couple rows over), and checked the three million pounds of luggage Melanie had dutifully packed for us…only taking on two carry-on bags…one filled with Nathaniel’s necessaries and other essentials in case the rest of our luggage ends up in Siberia or somewhere else that we are, in fact not in.
With a couple hours to go, we made our way through security, luckily catching the security people at a quiet time so they were very patient with us as we emptied our pockets of anything that may set the detector off (Note, some candy wrappers do have metal in them). Wisked through that and soon enough found ourselves in a huge walkway with the moving sidewalk. They do not allow strollers on it though, so Melanie and Nathaniel had to walk normally. I split it 50/50, first just standing then remembering Henry Rollins (a fav speaker of mine) taking people out if they get in his way on those things so guiltily I picked up the pace.
The restaurant selection at that point was sparce…so to try something new we had a quick bite at the Bacardi Kiosk Restaurant. We then browsed around the duty free shop where I drooled over a limited reserve bottle of 30 year old Glenfiddich. $535.00!!! I have a pic of it, but can’t take it off my camera phone.
Soon enough, our flight was announced for boarding and we chatted with the flight attendants, who informed us the flight was underbooked, so they moved us to a row all our own…lots of room for Nathaniel to stretch out and sleep.
I’ll end there for now…part 2 coming soon….the interesting stuff happens next.
Cheers!
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I’m enjoying Germany vicariously. Keep it up!
Will do! Interesting how the day runs away on you though…I swore to myself before leaving that I would write at least 2 hours a day, both about the trip and other stuff hiding in my noggin for the last few months…but family, alcohol, and various tabacco based products tend to keep me away from the machine. I’m fighting back though!!! Not so hard though, as bloody hell the booze here is cheap. Glendiffich – 18 years old. 34 Euro. If I had someone to drink it with (they have all declined here, sadly), I would buy it. Until then, Red wine and mostly good Pilsner it is. As always Scott, thanks for reading.