The trip over to Germany

Guten Tag! After about 14 hours of airport and flying time, we arrived in Germany safe and sound on Monday afternoon tired but no worse for wear. The trip over from the states went very well. Angus was a trooper, only fussing a little bit and then mostly sleeping (about 6 hours on the first 8+ hour flight and then all of the short flight from London to Frankfurt). He ate his child’s meal (what a feast from British Airways—they treat kids very well!) and then crashed as we flew over the US enroute to Europe. I got in a few hours myself and Greg catnapped too. Emily and Paige went the Angus route, sleeping most of the flight.



Once in Frankfurt we picked up our rental car and I quickly recalled how to drive a manual transmission. After a herky-jerky start in tight quarters with crazy drivers, we were underway…or so we thought. Mapquest obviously knows the roadways of Frankfurt and their route numbers about as well as we do, and was not very accurate in giving us directions leaving the airport. So, we toured around a bit, hopping on and off the autobahn to ask directions and then finally, thanks to the iPhone compass and probably sheer luck, made the connections we needed to in order to reach the A3 autobahn to head to our destination. Two more hours of speedy but beautiful driving on the autobahn (they really mean it when they say stay out of the left lane except to pass—wow!) and we arrived in Grossenseebach! It is a lovely little village where Paul and Alice Astorino live; Paige and Emily are staying with them for a few nights before heading over to be in Herzogenaurach with us later in the week. After dropping them off, we headed to the McManus’ home in Herzo. Angus found his second wind (maybe it was his third or fourth by that point!) and made fast friends with Mike and Teri’s girls Kira and Megan, and their French Bulldog Bisou. We relaxed for a bit with food, beer and conversation, and then finally got Angus to lay down so we too could get some sleep!

And now it is Tuesday morning. Angus is still sleeping (if only he slept like this at home!), I went for a nice run around the town and Greg is off to meet Paige and Emily for the morning run. Our day today will entail getting oriented, finding a market and just relaxing. I can’t wait to explore!