“BEEEEP, BEEEEP, BEEEEP.” Oh no, wait, that’s what we were supposed to hear. Instead, we heard nothing. And so begins the first morning of our travels. Greg sat straight up waking me out of a deep sleep. I sleepily asked for the time, trying to figure it out by the brightness of the sun creeping through the shutters in our room. The answer was 7:20 am. On any normal day, this would have been a perfect time. Time enough for me to have a few quiet minutes before the daily routine began. However, on this day when we were supposed to be at the airport at 8:30 am, 7:20 was not perfect. Rushing a family of four out the door, into a parking lot we sometimes call a street, navigating through morning traffic (can I get a witness?!), actually finding the long term parking at the airport, much less a parking space, walking to the airport building (note prior posts about Brady’s walking skills), and finding the right flight desk all in a little over an hour is some kind of miracle. We didn’t make it in an hour, and I honestly can’t tell you the time anything happened after we woke up. It seemed to me to be fruitless to stress about the time because we couldn’t change anything.
We stood forever at the flight counter trying to check our luggage. Two lines were open when we got there. One family was on our right and one couple was in front of us. After standing there for quite some time, the line on the right just closed. The family at that counter hadn’t checked their bags or received their boarding passes, yet it apparently was very necessary to close the line. And so goes the Italian way. Finally, we are checked in and ready to head for security. We walk about 10 steps and get stopped by a line. I say “What’s this?” and Greg answers “the security line.” WHAT?! So we wait and wait, then finally begin to navigate through the roped lines. After about 45 min. a man behind us asked why we weren’t in the priority line. Oh, just because we felt it would be better to wait until the end of eternity with me carrying Juliette on my back and Brady swinging on the ropes like a monkey. It’s so nice we get to learn such wonderful new things each time we travel. First it was the toll road fee paid at a gas station, now it’s the fact that there is a priority security line. We work our way out of the “regular” line and bee line it straight for the priority line. The line was just as long! And so it goes with the Italian way, all kinds of people were in the priority line. I didn’t see any signs about who exactly belonged in the line, so there was a collection of families with children, older couples, young adults, pretty much anyone who wanted to be there.
Making it through security we rush to the terminal convinced we missed the flight. Two people were having their boarding pass scanned as we ran up. Whooo-hooo! We weren’t the only ones! Then we get on a bus and wait and wait. After a few more people showed up, the bus took off toward the plane. Thankfully we were in the first seats so I didn’t have to knock everyone in the head with my backpack and worry about Juliette grabbing everyone’s hair on the way to our seats. I’m sure the people would have really loved us doing all this after we had made them wait on the tarmac in a full plane. We actually had to wait for some more people to show up, so it was a blessing we weren’t on time.
The flight went off without a hitch and we made it to Frankfurt, Germany! Our rental car was at a different terminal, so it was going to take 30 min. to get it to us. Where is the first place we go in Germany? To see Mr. McDonald’s! There was a cool playground complete with a ball room. You know the kind, the multi-colored balls dripping with germs and who knows what else that the kids love to roll around in. Brady was over the moon because he was able to do some ballroom dancing. He’s convinced that “ballroom dancing” is dancing in a room filled with balls.
Locating the car was easy enough and the whole thing would have been no problem, except Brady decided to color on the car with his yellow crayon. He got the lecture that we only color on paper. Does the car look like paper? NO! An unnecessary amount of drama followed because he had his crayon taken away and he said he just “thought it was a great idea.”
Ok, finally, we are on our way to Nurnberg (Nurenberg or also Nuernberg), Germany. This is a grand road trip! Juliette is asleep, Brady is rotting his brain away watching a movie, and we are enjoying the peace. We stop for a few minutes so Brady and I can get some snacks. Greg comes in holding Juliette stating he needed to change her diaper. A few minutes later he comes out with her lying across his hands on her stomach, like a turkey platter. The simple statement “she blew it up” said everything I needed to know. She had to be stripped down and changed standing up. Outfit number 1 was no longer in use.
Our lodging in Nurnberg was an apartment a family rented out. This is ideal because there is plenty of space for all of us and we aren’t all sleeping in the same room (the same room is a problem because some people go to bed at 7:30pm, some at 11, babies wake up in the middle of the night- waking everyone up… you get the picture).
We walked to dinner at a small restaurant not far from the apartment and met an interesting woman. She was born and raised about a block from the Beirgarten where we were eating. She met her husband who was an American GI during the occupation and later moved to Illinois with him and lived there until she had to return to care for her sick mother. So, it was an interesting chance encounter to meet another American in this small Beirgarten, but she was able to tell us fantastic stories of Nurnberg in the 30’s and 40’s. We told her we were going to the Nazi Party Fairgrounds the next day and she told us of remembering when huge crowds would come to town for the rallies. Then told us of the firebombings of the city and how she and her cousin had firefighting duties, and once had to throw a burning couch out of her aunts fourth floor apartment and on another occasion found an unexploded bomb behind their woodstove and having to carry it off to a pond the German government had built to dispose of unexploded ordnance. She told other stories of the allies taking and occupying the city, life as a German wife in America, and other fantastic stories including going to family reunions in Huntsville, Alabama where her brother-in-law moved and raised his family (where I was born and still have family living there). It always amazes me how small this world is!
I was happy to have this day come to an end and was excited to see what adventures lurked around the corner!
