Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Travels With Sadie, Part Seven: The Leap Home

Alright, so in the days leading up to our departure from America, I was really dreading going back, for several reasons. We had just spent 2+ weeks really relaxing and enjoying ourselves, and I didn't think I was ready to go back to the day-to-day routine. Like, having to go to the grocery store almost every day, navigating a foreign city, etc. But Hunter helped me by pointing out that if we lived in America, it wouldn't be like a vacation every day. We would still have to do all of the annoying stuff. I was also afraid that I would basically have to get used to Germany all over again, that it would be like starting over. Hunter convinced me that wasn't true either because we already knew so much more than we did than when we first got there.

Anyway, we got to the airport and were told our departing flight was delayed an hour. This wasn't really a big deal, because we had a 4.5 hour layover in London. The layover wasn't idea, and we had considered changing our tickets and spending a night in London, but it was going to be so expensive to change the tickets, we almost could have just taken a trip to London for that price. We did decide to spend the night in Dusseldorf again when we got in. It isn't so far from Aachen, but by that time we would already have been traveling for so long, plus it would be a bit late.

We flew British Airways on the way back; we had both had good experiences with them before and really, they are one of my favorite airlines. But this flight was just not good. It might not have been the worst flight I've been on, but it was definitely the worst BA flight. We had the bulkhead seat again, which didn't cost anything extra like it did on American. However, on American there is significant extra legroom and on BA there isn't. So when they came to hook up the bassinet, it made it impossible to get up or even pull out the TV screens. Sadie slept in the bassinet while we ate, but then we asked them to take it away because we needed to be able to get up. Also, they had the on-demand viewing on the screens, and Hunter and I were going to watch Blue Jasmine together, but my screen wasn't working, so that was pretty lame. Basically I was cramped, uncomfortable, and bored the whole time.

The flight into Dusseldorf must not have been as bad because I can't really remember it, and I can't even remember much of the layover in London. We got our bags, ate at McDonald's in the airport (I believe Hunter's first McDonald's trip in Europe), and then went to check in to our hotel. It didn't take long to feel "right at home" again. We were standing in the check-in line; there was only one employee working and she was helping someone else. Some people got in line behind us and suggested we step up a little bit. That is just so, so, German, nitpicking the way you do some tiny little thing that doesn't even make a difference. I mean, could the invisible other employee not see us or something? Typical. Anyway, we checked in, got rested, and went back to Aachen the next day.

And yeah, it was a bit like we had never left. It wasn't that hard to get back into the routine, but there are things I still miss (mainly the Diet Coke). I'm not sure when we will visit America again. I really wanted to go for my 10 year high school reunion this summer, but it's looking more and more like that won't happen. It's just really cost prohibitive. I thought this early I might be able to get a good deal on a flight but the cheapest I've found is $1300/person and that just isn't practical, as much as I hate to admit it.

So, we are back in Germany (for like 3 weeks now, this series took a while) and soon I'll get back to more posts about Sadie, Germany, and my life in general.

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