First day in Germany!
First day for me has been okay. I slept through the night, going to bed around 10:30 p.m. yesterday, after a really looooooong delay in NewYork - likea 5 hour layover was turned into almost 10.
So let's start there...
Got up at 4:40 am, Tuesday, and headed to the airpot about 5:20. Got all checked infor the 9 flight. It was smooth - maybe that's why the day went like it did!!
Dallas to JFK in New York took about 3 hours, and we arrived a bit early so we found the gate and found food. Shake and something was good - burger and fries. I didn't know how badly I needed to eat until half way through the burger!! The fries were good - and yes, that would be bun and fries of carbs. I didn't care so much since I was planning to walk around before the 8 hours in a tiny seat.
And walk did I! My parents and I took turns guarding the luggage, and walking. I found the chocolate store - and did not buy anything. You know fellow chocoholics are like "whaaaa!!?!?!" It was too expensive, otherwise, I would have - but I drooled. Duh. So first our plane arrived (good), was told it would take 20+ min to clean and start to switch so we can board (normal), and then they found some mechanical something wrong... and about 45 after we were to leave, they switched terminals (que mass heard of Americans and Germans walking to the otherside of the loooooooooooooong hallway to basically the other end of JFK.)
And waited.And waited.... that plane had mechanical problems, and #1 of refreshments, left over peanuts and cookies, they are yummy, and drinks I think. And the delay of an hour. Ok, so at the other terminal, we had picked up a young 24 year old who was traveling for the first time, let alone overseas. Christy (the younglady) had a bus to catch at 3:30 when we landed in Frankfurt, and she and I talked, calculating the hour delay into the dash on the other end - she had plenty of time, like 3 hours and the bus left from the same end we were landing on.
The flight was supposed to leave at 7:30 or so, and now it was 9 or 10, and #2 of refreshments came out. Not good. We got Mom some food, and I wanted Panda Express (on the other end of the terminal where the original gate was) so Dad and I had fun taking a looooooooooooooooooooooong walk back and rode the moving sidewalks, and we had 30 min or so before boarding at that point, so we figured a quick shove in mouth meal and then off. AHAHAHA.......... #3 of refreshments came - food. NOOOOO!!
So it was delayed to 11, then 12, then 12:40 or nothing. We did see the flight crew board around 11, so we were rather happy and had even started to line up around that point and waited (this was before the delay after delay). Needless to say it was like 1:30 when we finally took off - about the time we should have been almost in Europe!!
Christy was understandablty very worried and was trying to make alternative plans... Poor thing was in tears as we lined up and we all were reassuring her we would get her to someone who could help better. She basicallty stuck to us like family - her seat was 2 rows behind us and Mom made sure she knew to follow us to Immigration. We ended up getting an Immagration officer to escort her through the line - which went really fast - and last we saw they were heading to the buses. She was super smart not to check luggage andI wish we would have swapt Facebook names to make sure she got to to the bus and her boyfriend at the other end, safely!
So we arrived in Frankfurt at 2 something p.m., Wednesday... really late!! My Aunt Gisi was a great sight to see! And we drove to Speyer, all of us really tired. Lovely dinner of spagetti and meat sauce - not a fancy "German" food - we don't really all eat saurkraut and meat! Mom and Dad went to bed about 8:30, and my aunt and uncle showed me the photos from my cousin's wedding - two of my cousins got married 2 years ago, three months apart, and only Mom was able to go to the second one. So it was 10:30 by the time I wen to sleepp - I played a few games on the Kindle, but nothing more without WiFi (which I got now, obviously).
Thurday: Wokeup about 6:15, and ventured downstairs about 6:45. My aunt came down and was surprised to see me. We found evidence my parents had been up in the middle of the night, so we figured they would be asleep for a while still. We sat in the back garden and talked and then I ate a bit as she went to the bakary. I wish I could get smell on the internet because nothing is the same as a German bakary. She got rolls of different kinds - and pretzels!! OOOOGHHH....it's like the most delicious fresh bread smell as it comes out of the oven and all youcan do is sit and drool. It was about10 and my parents were still not up so we set up the food back in the garden - a favored place since there is no AC in the houses - somthing so odd from the American perspective, but it's not 13913141451703771 degrees here. We left that in Texas, well actually the weather app says it's 91*F, 33*C ... eck.
Anyhow, parents made an appearence, and we ate brunch. Mom and I took a brief nap since I'm not feeling great - wacky body. Up in time for tea and cake - 2:30 - and my parents left with my aunt (who is a local artist) and uncle (who is a doctor and has his own practice, so kind of has his own hours) to vist a visiting artist student from China who does not speak German nor English - but has a translator thing I guess - so I stayed behind rest.
Sipping my tea, and charging my Kindle... so glad to to have technology that allows me to do such things as update!! My phone has no service, so basically it's reduced to a WiFi detector!! Hey, it works. In a week and half Mom, Dad, Gisi, and I, are traveling to London and I can see Sam and Em!!