Arrival!!!

After a tearful goodbye to Grandma and Granddad, and of course the doggies, our friend Tim Hiatt and his daughter Grace drove us and our many bags to the airport.

Airport check in went very well, and with Christmas presents in my carry on, I was glad they didn't open any of our bags.

Our first flight was to Philadelphia and our plane was quite small.  I was concerned that it would be worse for my motion sickness but I think maybe it doesn't go up as high, so it was actually better for me.  Lainie, who has flown many times, had some anxiety about it this time.  She was fine once we took off.  During our layover, we heard on the news of the terrible school shooting which did nothing to improve my travel-crabby mood.

We boarded our huge plane to Munich and since Brad has a different return date, he was not seated in our row of 4, but near us.  I was like, "Hey!" because the young woman next to him was quite a knockout.  But then Rupaul (yes, that was his name) sat next to me and he was pretty buff, so it all worked out.  LOL!!!

The first half of our flight was uneventful and we all enjoyed the personal TV/movie/game system. I was very pleased with the airline's meal plan as I had called ahead to order dairy free meals for the girls and they were correct. Not tasty, but correct! The “normal” meals were good. Actually the girls' meals looked good to me! Somewhere over the ocean the cabin lights came on and the flight attendant announced that if there was a doctor or nurse on board, they were needed immediately. It was a bit scary! There was an older woman who had a back problem with a pinched nerve and was in a lot of pain. I don't know what happened to her but they were taking her blood pressure and moved the other passengers near her so she could lay down. Our next issue came when we were literally a few minutes from landing in Munich. The airport was closed due to icy runways and with over 40 aircraft circling waiting to land, we were diverted to Frankfurt. None of us were pleased with this! That airplane gets tinier as you sit in it for 9 hours. We had to sit for about 2 hours in the plane in Frankfurt before taking off again for Munich. Thankfully it's only about 40 minutes from Munich.

Tired, crabby, cramped.

We landed and found our shuttle driver right when we exited, which was great because we had no idea how to find him! He was holding a sign that said “KUKA” so it was easy. We were welcomed by the smell of fresh pretzels :)

We loaded up and were driven to our new temporary home!!! I had forgotten how narrow the roads are here. It is very quaint and I love the way the towns look!

We met our landlords and they showed us around our home, although it was still being cleaned. We dropped off our luggage and Klaus (landlord) took us to pick up a few groceries. We can't get our rental car until Monday as it's closed. Stores are also closed on Sundays so if we didn't get groceries on Saturday, we would starve. He was very helpful and we picked up a few things. We found a chain bakery with several options that are milk free. This was great news because they even have pretzels! We bought a baguette and 8 pretzels to get us through the 2 days. (Now it's Sunday morning and the pretzels are almost gone! Should have bought more!)

We had been in our house about 15 minutes and were starting to unpack when the doorbell rang. It was a stranger, and she introduced herself as Johanna, who basically found us this house. (She is our friend Karen's friend and lives a street over. She told Karen of this rental house and that is how we got here!) She said Karen was concerned that she hadn't heard from us, so she walked over to see if we were here. She is very nice and it is so great to know we have a friend a block away!! We called Karen and she said she would stop by with her daughter Lydia. They came by and it was so great to see them! The kids remembered each other from 4 years ago and Lydia brought some supplies for making snowflakes. The girls did this while we grown ups talked.  We later Skyped with Grandma and Grandad and the dogs!

Lea was asleep by 8pm in her Murphy bed in our living room, lights and TV on, she didn't notice.  We were all in bed pretty early and slept well.

Let the adventures begin!!

Home!!