Perfectly imperfect arrival

Warning: I you don't like travel logs please skip the next 7 posts :)  this is my journal of our events and memories.  . .

We made it!  We are in Germany!! 

 The flight didn't go as plan a,b or c, but the itinerary we did was just perfect.  I flew the kids to Utah and dropped them at the curb with my mom and ran back through security and got back on the same plane that just landed and headed back to phx (the flight crew wondered where my kids went).

When I got home, I checked flights and the one we wanted was full and the others were not looking good.   I started searching for flights through different cities to find seats that would get us there.  I found a great route . . . and guess what?  It took be BACK to SLC!
Phx-SLC 1hr 45 mins
Layover: 1 hr
SLC-Charlotte: 4 hrs (we randomly got first class tickets and were SO happy to have a bit more room on our overnight flight.

Give Dave a break . . .it is 2 am our time

Layover: 1 1/2 hours
Charlotte - Philadelphia 1 hr 30 mins (we each had 3 seats to ourselves so we laid down and slept nearly the entire flight)

We had a long layover (planned) in Philadelphia.  We went to the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and ate the most amazing philly cheese steak.

I then had lots of time to kill in the airport while Dave was working.  Luckily, Dave got passes to the US Airways club.  It was so nice to sit in a beautiful quiet room, with food and drink and service you wouldn't believe.  We were treated like first class citizens and it will be hard to go back to regular airport travel.

Both Charlotte and Philly airports had rocking chairs in the terminals . . . how funny is that?!?

The flight to Frankfurt had over 100 empty seats so we had 4 seats to share.  After a delicious dinner and movie, we stretched out (Dave on the floor and me on the 4 seats) and slept for 3-4 hours.

PHL- Frankfurt: 9 hrs
Layover : 2 hours
Frankfurt- Dresden 1 hr.
Total time:
In flight 20 hours  (17 hours for Dave)
Layovers: 14 hours

I was fully prepared to wait long hours at the airport to try and get a flight, but everything worked out perfectly!  We were thrilled to be in Dresden early and hoped to get some sight seeing in.  We immediately took a wrong turn onto the wrong autoban and after 1/2 mile, there was a major accident 1/2 mile ahead of us.  Everything STOPPED and we ended up stuck waiting on the AutoBan for FOUR HOURS while they cleaned up the mess!  It was so annoying to have everything go perfectly in the airport only to be stopped, going the wrong direction in Germany.  The good news is that I went running, down the middle of the road (the cars were pulled off to either side to let the police and ambulances through).  How many tourists can say they ran down the middle of the autoban?  I got some funny comments and stares and cheers, but I couldn't understand any of them :)

We are here!  We are tired and hungry, but we found the temple in Frieborg and are going to sit down to eat with the Harpers.  I am so excited!

(written later)

After flying to Dresden and sitting on the Autoban for 4 hours, we decided to head straight for the temple in Freiburg.  We found the city just fine, but then we realized that we didn’t actually have the address for the temple.  It is a small town so we thought if we drove around long enough we would find it . . . not so.  We stopped at a gas station and Dave looked it up.  We were so happy to see Dave’s parents and the beautiful temple.  We were thankful for the apartment the temple president allowed us to use for a few nights, the shower, a home-cooked meal, and great company.  We were able to attend the night session at the temple.  The temple was beautiful.  We were able to be the witness couple which helped me attempt to stay awake.  We only had about 5 hours of sleep in 2 nights so we were exhausted.  Dave listened in German, so he succeeded in staying awake more than myself.  If I blinked too long I did a quick head-nod.  I haven’t been that tired in a long time! So thankful for a bed!

Links to the rest of the trip:  Getting there  Saturday    Sunday    Monday    Tuesday   Wednesday   Thursday     Home