A Start...

I've been keeping track of all the happenings in a Word document so that I could just paste it here when the time came... So here it is.

08/04/09

7:02pm

Boarding plane to Washington Dulles Airport. Plane to Toronto was delayed, so they switched our flights. We’re flying straight from Dulles to Frankfurt and arriving an hour earlier than our previous flight from Toronto would have. Guy two rows up tried to stuff a duffle bag under someone else’s row… “Watch this!” Denied by the flight attendant and made to check it. Corey’s bookbag squeezed into the overhead compartment. Corey can’t type. My window is super greasy. Yum. Thomas can’t type either… Why aren’t there mouse buttons on the bottom of this mouse pad? Three hungry hungry hippos are holding us up.

08/04/09

10:48pm

We are about 45 mins into our flight to Frankfurt. Corey and I got on the plane and automatically bypassed first class only to find that the row numbers we were walking by were too high. We came back and discovered that our seats are on the first row of International Business Class. With this seating comes a TON of legroom, reclining seats with footrest, and a four course gourmet meal for dinner with a selection of wines, plus continental breakfast in the morning and free Starbucks throughout. I guess we lucked out that there was a security issue in Toronto, because we’re getting there sooner and we’re flying first class. Before writing this I helped the German lady next to me figure out how to work her personal entertainment system (built into the seat). She just pulled out a sandwich and handed me half of it, which I tore in half again and handed part of to Corey. Chicken, tomatoes and lettuce in a hoagie bun. It was good.

08/05/09

12:51am

Just finished an excellent dinner (by any standards, much less that of a plane) of salad and bread, then shrimp and cold deli meats plate, then beef and purple lettuce main course plate, then key lime cheesecake and coffee dessert. We are currently, by the “map” option on the personal entertainment screen, traveling at 38,000 feet above Newfoundland (almost to the Atlantic on the eastern side), about a third of the way through the trip. We’re moving 638 miles an hour and the outside air temp is -55deg C/

08/05/09

5:25am/11:26am

About to land in Frankfurt. Captain says it’s a beautiful day.

08/05/09

14:51

On the train to Berlin via Hannover. Big ordeal just passed over, as Corey left his Eurail Pass in the scanner when he was making security copies. He had to buy a new pass, and will be able to return the old one for an almost-full refund later on when his parent s bring it over. I had my pass validated and made reservations for the Cisalpino train from Zurich to Como while I waited for his new pass to come out. It looks like there may not be a night train from Rome to Nice as we had planned on, so we will have to wait and see how that plays out. Corey says he is going to be SO glad to get rid of this crap in Berlin. He has two rolling bags, a pack, and a bookbag. I currently have my pack and my rolling bag only; all my other bags are packed away inside those two. Whew. Hope we’re on the right train… Oh, and as you can see, we’ve switched to 24 hour time to be consistent with the trains.

08/05/09

21:04

We are finally at Ben and Maria’s apartment in Berlin. More to come on the journey here later, but for now we are about to head out to a much needed and very late dinner…

More to come later... Miss and love you all.

Thomas