Ready or not, we're on our way. After months of planning and a day of packing, we are hoping that we are all set for whatever comes our way. The main adventures for this trip will be via ferratas and hiking with a sprinkling of history plus any shenanigans we might get into with the awesome Lucas Lehman family. Stuff will definitely not go exactly as planned, but fingers crossed we'll be able to adapt. COVID has made planning extra complicated. We've been busy getting things like international driver's licenses, researching via ferrata and hiking routes, and finding places to stay, as well as jumping through hoops for COVID. Up until just about when we left, we didn't even know if this trip was going to be able to happen.
Our garden is in full swing - bursting with cucumbers, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, beets, kale, swiss chard, onions, garlic, potatoes, and tons of herbs and flowers. It was hard to leave all of this behind. However, we did a bunch of harvesting in the past few days and what we couldn't process, put up, or eat, we gave to the Ellingsons who stopped by for a quick visit right before we left. They have braced themselves for massive consumption of cucumbers and zucchinis.
The packing process has been interesting. Everyone had a different style - James' pig pen style is certainly unconventional. He didn't even right-side-out his clothes! Meanwhile, Maya and I had neat, folded, categorized piles. And Dan quickly packed after coming home from work the night before leaving.
Our airport parking shuttle driver was a spirited guy. When he was driving into our terminal, he was up in arms and colorfully vocal towards the cars that were in the wrong lanes and in his way. So after laying on the horn for an extended time, he got out, directed cars to move and got back in, only to do this one more time before we got out. It was a very entertaining true Boston experience.
Once in the airport and through security, Dan surprised us and let us know Uncle Chris had worked some magic so we were able to hangout in the Lufthansa Lounge. James said that he didn't know that places like this even existed and wondered if he could spend the whole vacation in the Lounge. I have to admit, it was a totally different experience waiting for our flight listening to relaxing jazz while nibbling on free snacks and sitting in super comfy chairs.
Business class was just awesome! The food was really good and the seats went completely flat which made sleeping a ton easier. Except James can't sleep if there is a screen, so he watched movies the entire flight. Jet lag did hit him eventually.
We had a short layover in Frankfurt and then hopped on a plane to Munich. Meanwhile, Juno was making their way from Denver, Co to Munich, so we all met up at baggage claim in the Munich Airport. We had not been together since Christmas, so it was sweet to reconnect as a family of 5 again. As an added bonus, all of our bags also arrived with us. Of note is that there is excellent compliance for COVID restrictions - lots of social distancing and everyone even wears their masks correctly.
Next, we got our rental car, packed our bags into it and then squeezed our bodies into it. The kids were not pleased with the lack of space for them in the back. James commented that his head even hits the ceiling. Once we started driving towards Innsbruck, Austria, Maya and Juno were asleep in a hot minute, but James did not sleep much at all in the car. There was lots of traffic and we were a little hungry and thirsty, so we stopped at a rest area to get our 1st food in Germany. The drive took longer than expected because of traffic, but we finally made it to our hotel in Innsbruck and everyone collapsed on their beds. It was about 4:00pm and we did not hear another peep from James who did not wake up until the next morning.
Nice traveling business!!
ReplyDeleteI've always wondered what it was like in those airport lounges!
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