Yeah. I’m bit tired. You?
In transit - May 12, 2004
This is Lawrence.
On the 11th Jozef brought us back to the Hotel Silvia after we left court. We said goodbye to Danuta and headed upstairs to the suite one last time. We had mostly packed and just needed to get out of our court clothes and into our traveling clothes. Jozef would be back for us after lunch.
Before we got out of our court clothes, we asked one of the clerks to take a photo of us to commemorate the day. (Not as if we are going to forget it anytime soon, but the photo was nice.) I was a little sad to change from my nice suit into my grass-stained, soup-stained, dirty cargo pants. The cargo pants were great to have with me. Comfortable and with lots of pockets, they are definitely great for traveling. Still, one day - when the high chair had been lost - I had “M” on my lap while he ate soup. For a three year-old he is a really neat eater. Repeat - for a three year-old. So, we joked about how our clothes were not really dirty, they were just “experienced”.
We ordered up a big lunch because we had not eaten much breakfast and had not had second breakfast. We were also unclear as to when we would get to eat again. To celebrate how well court had gone, I even ordered a bowl of the fantastic ice cream that they serve at the Hotel Silvia. (Chocolate this time for those keeping score.)
Around 2:30 (14:30); the bill paid, the car loaded, and our goodbyes said; we headed on the road to Warsaw. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that Poland has borrowed an awful lot of money to build new highways and you see a lot of highway construction. Good. Not a moment too soon. The size, quality, and availability of Polish roads varies greatly. What should be a three-hour car ride to Warsaw is a six hour ride. When we have to make that ride with the kids, we figure it will take eight.
Along the road to Warsaw, we were caught in a violent hailstorm and had to wait up for a while. It didn’t help that the road has ruts. However, by 8:15 (20:15) Jozef had delivered us safely back to the Hotel Novatel Centrum. We wanted to return to the hotel that we had stayed at earlier because we were not eager for surprises. Too tired for that.
After we checked in, Elaine logged on to update the journal and I headed out to the bookstore to buy more Polish-English books and a couple of Polish books meant for first and second graders. I am determined to continue to make progress towards learning Polish.
Then I went down into the tunnels to find us a little food. The pedestrian tunnels - with the little shops that line them - are not as scary as I was led to believe and I was able to get a slice of passable Hawaiian pizza.
Even though we had an early flight, I stayed up late reading the replies to our posts that many of you have made to this journal. I cannot tell you how much we appreciated getting those replies from everybody. A special thanks to Robin H. and Auntie Gail for letting us know that we weren’t talking to ourselves.
I asked for a 5:00 AM wake-up call and headed for bed. Breakfast is not served until 6:00 and we had to be at the airport for 6:45 since they tell you to be there two hours ahead of time. In the U.S.A. they want you there three hours ahead and they mean it. So, we left the hotel before breakfast. Well, it seems that we should have had breakfast.
We arrived at the airport right on time and got to our check-in point where we were told to come back later. (Quite snottily by the lone rude person that we met in Poland.) So, we waited the 15 minutes to check-in and then headed off to a mediocre and very expensive breakfast. Finally, we were able to head to the gate and board the little plane.
Because the plane for the flight to Munich was small, they were going around the waiting area tagging the larger carry-on items to check. I was lucky that they did not take my case away from me this time as they had the last time. The case had sustained scratches but had protected the laptop and cameras wonderfully. (Anyone wants to here me extol the virtues of this case I brought at reasonable price on the Internet, just ask me.)
The flight from Warsaw to Munich was lovely. The food and service was wonderful. One stewardess (who looked like Marcia Brady) even switched into PERFECT American English when Elaine did not understand her German. She told us that she had been an exchange student in America. Well, only two hours to Munich.
The Munich airport is odd. It is modernistic to the point of being user-unfriendly. It is hard to find anything because there are very few signs and the ones that do exist are too stylish to be easy to use.
Finally, we got to security and both got cross-examined and patted down. They were confused as to why I carry a compass. “So I always know which way I am going” didn’t immediately seem to satisfy them. I never really considered my compass a weapon of mass destruction. Just between you and me, I think that they really admired the compass that I carry and were looking for a pretext to confiscate it. They didn’t. But, I could tell that they wanted to. So, after the full-body German massages, we headed to the gate.
The gate is right near where you come off the elevator for the terminal, which is only about a half mile away from the security station. So, you can see the gate behind a thick glass wall, but you don’t actually get to it for another 28 minutes.
I had not liked Lufthansa on the first flight. My seat had not reclined, the stewardess was snippy, the food odd, and the movies poor. This one went a little better. It showed nearly the same movies that it did on the way over. However, one of the stations showed Discovery Channel documentaries including one about Boston’s Big Dig which helped to pass away some of the nearly eight hour flight.
It was a mostly smooth flight and I dozed some. Elaine was tired enough that even she dozed a little bit. Coming down from Canada we had some rough going, but they dipped below it. I generally dislike flying and was very happy when we landed at Logan Airport in Boston.
We breezed through Customs because we got to go in the American citizens only line, got our bags, and headed to hook-up with the car service. We will not be so quick through Customs the next time when we have three children with Polish passports, but it should not be that hard either.
I must say that I have always thought that The Big Dig was a waste of money, but the ride from the airport through the tunnels was quick. I had thought that they could just build a new airport with rail, highway, and bus links somewhere else much cheaper than The Big Dig. Probably true, but not what they did.
In the car, we called our mothers and my brother Tom. We were giddy to be on our home turf again. We got home in time to be sitting on our front stairs when Ross got off the school bus. He ran to see us, dropped his book bag, and flung himself into Elaine’s arms. It looks like he grew since we left. It sure looks like he is a very big boy - especially compared to his brothers and sister.
We talked and wrestled with Ross, emptied the suitcases, talked with our mothers, and tried to stay up to adjust to the time. We were very wound-up from all that had happened lately. Elaine fell asleep about 7:30 (19:30) (Note from Elaine: I didn’t fall asleep as much collapse fully clothed spread eagle on the bed). After Ross went to bed, I tried to answer E-mail. I actually fell asleep while typing at the computer. Time for bed. I had made it to 9:30 (21:30). My body thought that it was 3:30 and had mostly been awake for the last 23.5 hours. Yeah. I’m bit tired. You?
This is Lawrence.
On the 11th Jozef brought us back to the Hotel Silvia after we left court. We said goodbye to Danuta and headed upstairs to the suite one last time. We had mostly packed and just needed to get out of our court clothes and into our traveling clothes. Jozef would be back for us after lunch.
Before we got out of our court clothes, we asked one of the clerks to take a photo of us to commemorate the day. (Not as if we are going to forget it anytime soon, but the photo was nice.) I was a little sad to change from my nice suit into my grass-stained, soup-stained, dirty cargo pants. The cargo pants were great to have with me. Comfortable and with lots of pockets, they are definitely great for traveling. Still, one day - when the high chair had been lost - I had “M” on my lap while he ate soup. For a three year-old he is a really neat eater. Repeat - for a three year-old. So, we joked about how our clothes were not really dirty, they were just “experienced”.
We ordered up a big lunch because we had not eaten much breakfast and had not had second breakfast. We were also unclear as to when we would get to eat again. To celebrate how well court had gone, I even ordered a bowl of the fantastic ice cream that they serve at the Hotel Silvia. (Chocolate this time for those keeping score.)
Around 2:30 (14:30); the bill paid, the car loaded, and our goodbyes said; we headed on the road to Warsaw. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that Poland has borrowed an awful lot of money to build new highways and you see a lot of highway construction. Good. Not a moment too soon. The size, quality, and availability of Polish roads varies greatly. What should be a three-hour car ride to Warsaw is a six hour ride. When we have to make that ride with the kids, we figure it will take eight.
Along the road to Warsaw, we were caught in a violent hailstorm and had to wait up for a while. It didn’t help that the road has ruts. However, by 8:15 (20:15) Jozef had delivered us safely back to the Hotel Novatel Centrum. We wanted to return to the hotel that we had stayed at earlier because we were not eager for surprises. Too tired for that.
After we checked in, Elaine logged on to update the journal and I headed out to the bookstore to buy more Polish-English books and a couple of Polish books meant for first and second graders. I am determined to continue to make progress towards learning Polish.
Then I went down into the tunnels to find us a little food. The pedestrian tunnels - with the little shops that line them - are not as scary as I was led to believe and I was able to get a slice of passable Hawaiian pizza.
Even though we had an early flight, I stayed up late reading the replies to our posts that many of you have made to this journal. I cannot tell you how much we appreciated getting those replies from everybody. A special thanks to Robin H. and Auntie Gail for letting us know that we weren’t talking to ourselves.
I asked for a 5:00 AM wake-up call and headed for bed. Breakfast is not served until 6:00 and we had to be at the airport for 6:45 since they tell you to be there two hours ahead of time. In the U.S.A. they want you there three hours ahead and they mean it. So, we left the hotel before breakfast. Well, it seems that we should have had breakfast.
We arrived at the airport right on time and got to our check-in point where we were told to come back later. (Quite snottily by the lone rude person that we met in Poland.) So, we waited the 15 minutes to check-in and then headed off to a mediocre and very expensive breakfast. Finally, we were able to head to the gate and board the little plane.
Because the plane for the flight to Munich was small, they were going around the waiting area tagging the larger carry-on items to check. I was lucky that they did not take my case away from me this time as they had the last time. The case had sustained scratches but had protected the laptop and cameras wonderfully. (Anyone wants to here me extol the virtues of this case I brought at reasonable price on the Internet, just ask me.)
The flight from Warsaw to Munich was lovely. The food and service was wonderful. One stewardess (who looked like Marcia Brady) even switched into PERFECT American English when Elaine did not understand her German. She told us that she had been an exchange student in America. Well, only two hours to Munich.
The Munich airport is odd. It is modernistic to the point of being user-unfriendly. It is hard to find anything because there are very few signs and the ones that do exist are too stylish to be easy to use.
Finally, we got to security and both got cross-examined and patted down. They were confused as to why I carry a compass. “So I always know which way I am going” didn’t immediately seem to satisfy them. I never really considered my compass a weapon of mass destruction. Just between you and me, I think that they really admired the compass that I carry and were looking for a pretext to confiscate it. They didn’t. But, I could tell that they wanted to. So, after the full-body German massages, we headed to the gate.
The gate is right near where you come off the elevator for the terminal, which is only about a half mile away from the security station. So, you can see the gate behind a thick glass wall, but you don’t actually get to it for another 28 minutes.
I had not liked Lufthansa on the first flight. My seat had not reclined, the stewardess was snippy, the food odd, and the movies poor. This one went a little better. It showed nearly the same movies that it did on the way over. However, one of the stations showed Discovery Channel documentaries including one about Boston’s Big Dig which helped to pass away some of the nearly eight hour flight.
It was a mostly smooth flight and I dozed some. Elaine was tired enough that even she dozed a little bit. Coming down from Canada we had some rough going, but they dipped below it. I generally dislike flying and was very happy when we landed at Logan Airport in Boston.
We breezed through Customs because we got to go in the American citizens only line, got our bags, and headed to hook-up with the car service. We will not be so quick through Customs the next time when we have three children with Polish passports, but it should not be that hard either.
I must say that I have always thought that The Big Dig was a waste of money, but the ride from the airport through the tunnels was quick. I had thought that they could just build a new airport with rail, highway, and bus links somewhere else much cheaper than The Big Dig. Probably true, but not what they did.
In the car, we called our mothers and my brother Tom. We were giddy to be on our home turf again. We got home in time to be sitting on our front stairs when Ross got off the school bus. He ran to see us, dropped his book bag, and flung himself into Elaine’s arms. It looks like he grew since we left. It sure looks like he is a very big boy - especially compared to his brothers and sister.
We talked and wrestled with Ross, emptied the suitcases, talked with our mothers, and tried to stay up to adjust to the time. We were very wound-up from all that had happened lately. Elaine fell asleep about 7:30 (19:30) (Note from Elaine: I didn’t fall asleep as much collapse fully clothed spread eagle on the bed). After Ross went to bed, I tried to answer E-mail. I actually fell asleep while typing at the computer. Time for bed. I had made it to 9:30 (21:30). My body thought that it was 3:30 and had mostly been awake for the last 23.5 hours. Yeah. I’m bit tired. You?