To start with, the runway lights in Larnaka were working, so we left as
scheduled on the 28th of December. Not quite two weeks ago, but it sure feels
like a lot longer ago! We left our house at 12:40 in the morning--Joern dropped
us off at the airport, less than 10 minutes away, then drove back home, parked
our car, and loaded our luggage into our friend Richard's car. Richard dropped
Joern and our luggage (three full suitcases, and one with two collapsible ones
inside) off at the airport, and we were on our way. Lukas talked all the way to
Prague, and in fact, all of the children except for Helen stayed awake for the
flight to Prague, changing planes there, and the flight to Frankfurt.
In
Frankfurt we arrived in Terminal 1, collected our luggage, and headed straight
for Terminal 2 (the children finding the "sky train"--not what it's called in
Frankfurt, but that's what it's called in Duesseldorf and I can't remember what
Frankfurt calls it--extremely exciting, we less so, with the luggage), as that's
where our flight to San Francisco was leaving from. We started there by going to
the information desk to ask if there was a children's play area--yes, back in
Terminal 1. But the lady told us that we actually could check in, even though it
was still more than five hours until our flight.
I've heard plenty of
positive raving about Frankfurt Airport, but I'm not impressed with the
sign-posting. We did eventually find the United Airlines counters and got in
line. Halfway through the line it occurred to me that this would be a good time
to brush teeth, before our toothpaste was checked for the next flight, so the
girls and I headed for the restrooms--which were hard to find and very far away.
When we finally got back, the others had just gotten to the front of the line,
but the entire area was being cleared because of a bomb threat. We watched from
maybe 20 meters away while an area right next to where we had been standing was
marked off by the police with orange and white tape, but couldn't really see
what was going on. I commented that if there WAS a bomb, we really weren't far
enough away, but in the meantime, sent Joern and the boys to brush their
teeth.
They got back just as the bomb threat was lifted, so we started to
get back in line, but then got to go to the very front. We checked in and
started to head for Terminal 1 for the play area, when Lukas asked where his
backpack was. Good question. We couldn't find it where the line had been, Joern
was sure he hadn't had it with him in the restroom, so we went to the
information desk to ask about lost-and-found. The guy there looked rather bored
until Joern started the description, then he raised his eyebrows and said,
"Child's backpack? I have to make a phone call." I joked to Joern that maybe
Lukas's backpack had been the cause of the bomb scare.
Well, a couple of
phone calls later, it was confirmed that Lukas's backpack had been removed by
the police and taken to the place where they explode potential bombs, but that
they had been able to determine that it wasn't a bomb before they needed to
explode it, so it was now waiting in lost-and-found. Oops.
Following bad
directions and the very occasional sign, we did eventually find the
lost-and-found department, filled out a bunch of forms and paid four Euros to
recover Lukas's backpack (which contained a change of clothes, a lion, and a
bear), and then started looking for the famed grocery store.
More rare
signs (but along a very long corridor with interesting ads for a car rental
company that went through the whole history of the world) and a long walk later,
we found the grocery store, where we bought Broetchen (bread rolls, but one
canNOT call the delicious, German bread rolls by the uninspiring term of "bread
rolls"!! After nearly a year in Cyprus, we really missed those!!), cheese, cold
cuts, grapes, and water. I didn't quite understand why this grocery store is so
famous--it wasn't very big and it was of course very over-priced, but I suppose
just the fact that it IS a grocery store, which is open on Sundays and holidays,
is exciting? They even had fresh fruit.
We found a place to sit and eat
lunch, and then finally, after counting the carry-ons, headed back to Terminal 1
and the play area. It consisted of slides and a big ball pool, with benches and
a food court all around. Helen was asleep (in the stroller) by this time, so I
laid down on a bench and had an hour's nap myself. Then we headed back to
Terminal 2 for our flight to San Francisco.
Czech Air, by the way, was
friendly and comfortable, and on EACH of the two flights the children received
activity packs and I was asked if I needed anything for the baby and offered
extra bread for her. They also gave me a "baby belt"--an extra seatbelt which
connects to mine to put around the baby. A flight attendant friend once told me
that it doesn't do much to protect a baby, the main point is to keep the baby
from flying up in the air during turbulence and landing on another passenger and
injuring him or her. I don't particularly care if I have one or not, but the
point is that they did acknowledge the baby.
On our flight to San
Francisco, however, which was 11 hours, the children were not given anything at
all for entertainment, we could hardly see the movie screens which mostly had
stupid and/or inappropriate things showing anyway, we certainly didn't have more
leg-room than on the smaller plane, and I think possibly less, the flight
attendant looked put out when I asked for an extra bag of pretzels for Helen,
and both Joern's and my seats were broken. (His wouldn't recline, mine wouldn't
stay up.) And my headphones broke. It wasn't the first time that I rolled my
eyes at the announcement, "We realize that you have a choice of airlines and
thank you for flying with United." If we were able to make a choice based on
something other than price, we would NOT choose United.
Also, no baby
belt, and no directions on how to hold the baby. Again, not that I cared, but on
dozens of flights with babies (dozens? maybe even scores...), I have been given
nearly as many different instructions: "use the baby belt"; "no baby belts as
they're banned"; "use the sling/front pack/any baby carrier"; "please take the
baby out of the carrier"; "hold the baby facing you"; "hold the baby facing
out"; even "hold the baby diagonally"!! I've been given conflicting
instructions on two different flights the same day with the same airline. But
this was my first flight in which they didn't even say hi to the
baby.
That Helen fussed and screamed for several hours wasn't United's
fault, though. Katie and Lukas slept almost the entire flight, and Marie and
Jacob entertained themselves with the movies and with reading, and Joern relaxed
or even slept, but I spent a good portion of the flight fighting with Helen. I
walked up and down the aisles with her, looked out windows, sang, etc. She did
spend about five minutes scribbling on a magazine, and the pretzels kept her
entertained for another five minutes, but that was about it. She wouldn't look
at books and she wouldn't play patty-cake and she wouldn't even nurse. When she
did finally fall asleep, so did I, but the head rests weren't anywhere near as
adjustable as Czech Air's were, so I kept waking up with my neck
hurting.
While waiting for our luggage in San Francisco, a sniffer dog
found us and we were asked to turn in the three ham-and-cheese sandwiches we had
brought from the airplane. I asked if we couldn't please eat them right away, as
Katie and Lukas had literally had nothing to eat the entire flight, and the man
hemmed and hawed and finally said that he wasn't really allowed to let us, but
yes, we could keep them, but had to eat them completely--no, we would not be
allowed to just throw them away if we didn't finish them, and it would be a
300-dollar fine if we didn't. We turned in one, and Lukas and Katie each ate
one. Then we had to go through the red line, because we'd been "caught", and all
of our luggage had to be x-rayed. The lady there looked very sorry, looked at
five sleepy children and two exhausted parents and a huge pile of luggage and
really, really looked like she wanted to wave us through, asked what the dog had
found, questioned us about whether we had anything else (no), and finally
apologetically said that she was very sorry, but we had to put everything
through the x-ray.
My mother was waiting when we came out, she called my
dad and my sister who then came from my sister's house (ten minutes away), and
we piled into the cars and went to my sister's. We spent longer there than we
had intended, eventually having sandwiches for dinner so that we wouldn't have
to stop on the way to my parents' house (2 1/2 hours away), and then headed
north, arriving at my parents' house at about 11:00 p.m. on December 28th--9:00
a.m of the 29th in Cyprus, so over 32 hours after leaving home. People like to
wish that there were more hours in a day, but our December 28th had 34 hours,
and it was NOT fun!!
But we made it, and the sequals will have to wait,
as I now have to go finish getting children ready, as we're going up to Tahoe to
play in the snow and cross-country ski. :-)
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