On the plane, it seems like the boys did ok. They sat all in one row with Paton by the window. He had a lovely nap on the floor until the flight attendant made us wake him up (apparently it is against the rules). I did not fare quite as well in my seating arrangements. The mother and teenage son I sat next to were still a little grumpy from Hurricane Irene forcing them to spend three days in New York. They had to stay at a hotel in Brooklyn! I guess they could have extended their vacation in Canada instead of visiting museums. We flew on Singapore Airlines, which was pretty nice. The food was questionable, but they did offer just about anything you could want to drink - juice, water, two kinds of white wine, cocktails and some strange drink Singapore Sling. I was relieved to see the TV worked to I could ignore the teenager for the rest of my flight. Well, I thought I could. I know that even a hotel in Brooklyn would have guest soap. That boy needed to take a shower. Any time he moved foul odors wafted in my direction. Plus, I kept having to push his arm away because he was totally invading my space!
Finally, the flight was over. There were no lines at customs. We made our way to baggage claims. The plane was a 747 and it was full! So, there was a slew of people waiting to pick up their luggage. We waited and waited and finally, we see one of our bags. Then we wait and wait. The crowd is looking more and more thin. Russell helps a profoundly pregnant woman take several large bags off the carousel and then on a luggage cart while I and a few other people tried to keep her son nearby, but off the luggage carousel. Then, we waited and waited. There were only a few people left. We were all looking at each other with the same nervous edge. We wait a little more, then YAY! We recognize one of the bags. Of the 7 bags we checked, 6 were the very last ones to come out.
Finally, in possession of all 7 bags, we drag them about half a mile to our train platform, where we waited another 3 hours for the train. Getting on the train was no trouble since it was not crowded at all. Getting off was another story. With 7 pretty heavy bags Russell would hand me a bag and I would pull it off to the side where the boys were waiting. For Russell to get back to the other bags, he had to go up several steps fighting against all the people trying to get off. Remember, this is Germany where they pride themselves on their efficiency. You are lucky to get more than about 2 minutes to get on or off a train.
Once we were off the train with all the luggage we shlepped them down a long flight of stairs.This was the only time I was worried about falling. In fact, when I reached the last three steps I started Teetering and fell/stepped to the bottom without injury. We found the taxi stand and luckily there was a mini van sized taxi in line. But they couldn't get the back open! A few other taxi drivers came over to add their input to no avail. The driver fiddled with the door and then the button on the key ring. He looked on the side of the drivers side door to see if there was a button. After about ten minutes he crawled over the back seat. No luck. He walked around to the back door and tried the button one more time. Magically it worked and we were on our way. We gave the address of our apartment, and hoped the key would be under the mat as promised. We made the taxi driver wait till Russell got the key, otherwise we would have visited Hotel Münster. Not knowing what the apartment even looked like, Russell took about ten minutes to find the apartment and we could let the driver go on his way.
This morning we met with the manager of the apartments we now live in. She gave us an ethernet cable, a tour of the facilities (Newspaper Reading Room, laundry and etc.) and mentioned how to turn on the heat - which we wouldn't need, she said with a side glance, until winter. It isn't winter yet, but this morning when we walked to the little grocery store across the street, people were wearing parkas, jackets and scarves. It is still summer right?
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