Bonjour! We are now in Luxembourg at our home away from home.
So our trip over went well. All 8 bags, 3 kids and us arrived safely with no meltdowns (the kids or us). Door to door the trip ended up being 17 hours-ugh. Amber slept for 6 hours - most of the first flight. I woke her up to have breakfast and then she fell back asleep. The flight was only half full so she was able to lay across some seats. Our layover in Frankfort was longer then before and then we got on a little propeller jet- it only seats about 80 people. Once on that it started to rain so we sat on the plane for 30 minutes waiting to take off. By the time we actually took off, 2 of the kids were asleep. When we landed in Luxembourg I woke Amber up and she asked "So when are we going to take off?"
Local time was 7pm when we arrived at the hotel. We are 7 hours ahead of time at home. At 10pm we all went to bed except one- Amber the one who slept most of the trip. She didn't fall asleep until 1am.
So all in all good trip and no incidents like when we were trying to travel back home in April. For those that didn't hear this before: We were flying home on a Friday morning and had an early flight like maybe 6:30 or so. So we thought we gave ourselves enough time to get to the airport. We had to wake all the kids up and give everyone something to eat and we had a rental car that we needed to return. So the airport is only about 20 minutes from the hotel and we got a little lost getting there. Once at the airport we couldn't figure out where the garage was we were suppose to drop off the rental car. It doesn't help that everything is in French. We finally find the garage to park the car and then you just drop the keys in a drop box and we are running as fast as you can run with a 3 year old and suitcases. We get to the check in and she says you are just in time to check in - whew we think we are ok, but no. She then tells us Amber doesn't have a ticket. How can this be possible? We are telling her we all had round trip tickets. So she goes to talk to her people. It is taking awhile so Jason's goes over to see what is going on. They say she still has no ticket, so Jason asked if he can buy her a ticket, and they tell him yes but now it would have to be on the next flight, because we are no longer checking people in for this current flight. So we tried to persuade them b/c we had already started the check in process, but no. So the next flight out of Luxembourg is the same time as our flight from Frankfort home so that wouldn't work. We had a jam packed weekend back at home and had to be home. So Jason runs outside and finds the biggest cab there which is a station wagon car and luckily the guy speaks English. Jason asks if he can fit us all in his car, he thinks so. So we run out and stuff all the bags in and the kids in I in the back seat. Of course we don't have enough Euros to pay him so Jason runs in to go to the ATM. The ATM eats his card, so he takes mine and tries and now it is frozen and won't let him withdraw any money. So we ask if we can try again at the Frankfort airport. So the drive to the airport is about 2- 2 1/2 hours. The cab says he can get us there in time. So once we start driving he asks us which airport in Frankfort so once we find out he said that is on the other side of town and will now be more money- ugh. We drive on the autobahn and he is going over 100 miles/hour. Since there are 4 of us in the backseat, Amber is sharing a seat belt with Sean and I am tightening every one's seat belts. We get to the airport and Jason runs in and is able to get some money out but now half is in US dollars and half in Euros. So the guy agrees to that. That was probably the most expensive cab ride in history, about the same cost as a couple of airline tickets! So we were able to check in ok and we got to the gate with only 15 minutes before boarding an international flight- whew we were able to get home! So that was an interesting trip.
So now we are just trying to get organized and get used to life here.
Au revoir (goodbye).
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