The Mcs have landed

What day is it? The boys seem to have adjusted ok and slept full nights last night with normal naps today, D and I, however, are still operating on EST and are two mighty tired travelers.

The trip itself went really well, a couple of seating snafus on the plane and a really long wait to clear customs, but otherwise uneventful. C has earned the preschooler of the year award; he's just been an angel (and angel isn't typically the word I use to describe the boy)

Didn't see anything of brussels other than what you see along the interstate, namely brief glimpse of the Atomium, but it's not a far drive and might be one of our first day trips once the car arrives.

Our guest house is lovely and the owner's a dear.
http://www.gaestehauscosima.de./

Things I've Forgotten along the way

** Ely Cathedral, back in the UK was shut down the week after we were there so that they could film the Other Boleyn sister, starring Eric Bana and Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman and due out in February. The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett and due out in Nov. has also filmed there recently.

** On the train to Prague: Ticket checkers, dressed more or less like stewardesses, stop by every once in a while to check our ticket. Then, a rather austere looking man in a police uniform with two guns comes in; D offers the man his ticket. After the man left I said to D, weren't the guns a pretty good give away that he wanted our passports and not our tickets?

** There are TV towers (like the landmark one in East Berlin) all over former communist Europe. You can watch them pop up as the train rolls through the countryside. They were built to jam the transmission of radio free Europe. Radio free Europe was originally broadcast from Berlin. The biggest TV tower in Prague was completed not long before the Czech revolution and ironically is now the home of Radio Free Europe (who had to leave Berlin becasue it was too expensive; the Czech gov't rents them space for 1 Euro/year).

** Because of security concerns luggage lockers are a thing of the past; now, you leave your bags at a left luggage counter, kind of like you would ckeck your cat or dog into a kennel for the day.

** Prague is not yet part of the EU, so they still use their own currency, rather than Euros. On the morning we were set to leave we still had about 200 Czech Crowns (about 10 dollars), so I stay with the bags and send D off to buy snacks for the train with our remaining Czech money. After all, we were to be on the train all day; we'd have to eat something. He wanders around the entire train station, surveying every little shop, trying to figure out where to spend his money. He comes back and has spent all of it but 17 crowns (less than 1 dollar) and wait did he have to show for it---?????????? A bottle of some kind of Czeck liquor. "what's this?" I ask. "I dunno," he says, but they sell it in every store, so I figured we had to have some." The worse part: he didn't even leave me enough money so I could pay to pee and I wait until the train got there. We ended up buying train snacks when we changed trains in Dresden and then could use Euros.

** We were in an Internet cafe in Berlin and D was calling ahead to make our reservations in Ramstein and some man overheard him ask for a space available room. Turns out the man and his family had recently space a'd into Germany from California and was touring Berlin and Prague like we were. So, we swapped "how we got from point A to point B" stories with him.

** D and I most certainly do not look Czech. We were never ever mistaken for locals in Prague like we were in Berlin. In Prague, however, any one over about 30 has a very beat down look to them. I saw lots of mammas on the trains with their 3-4-5 year olds, and you would of thought they were the grandmammas. Now, it's possible that becasue we never got into the work-a-day sections of Berlin, so we simply didn't see everyday folk outside of the tourist district. I've been menaing to look up what an average yearly wage is in Prague, just to see.

Hurry up and wait

Long day on Friday getting accross Germany from Prague to Kaiserslautern. It became apparent that reservations are actually only really necessary on trains headed into Berlin, and then probably only on the weekends. It was Friday afternoon when we first headed to Berlin, and it was Friday a week later when were leaving Prague. Our train was ultimately headed back to Berlin; we got off it at Dresden, but most of the seats were reserved from dresden to Berlin, but from Dresden to Hamburg (our second train's final destination) not so much. I think all the reservations (Berlin to Prague, Prague to Dresden, and Dresden to Kaiserslautern) only ended up costing 11 Euros (about 15 dollars)-- worth it, I think, for not having to worry about having to stand.

We are now waiting on a flight home. We're actually wating on a particular flight; the plane has had maintenance problems, but its home is our home and we figure it has to go there eventually, so we wait. The alternative is to fly into Delaware and then rent a car to get home. I'd rather hang out here and watch movies. without a rental car it's hard to get very far, and we've both been so tired we've been sleeping a lot, but we went to see Ratatouille last night and Stardust tonight, and I finally finished Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence that I've been carrying around with me since we left home. In fact I stopped by the terminal today and bookswapped it out for Greg Iles Turning Angel--never heard of Iles, but he seems kind of Da Vinci code-esque.

UK Bound

Lucked into last minute lodging last night-- the second time this trip. There seems to be a pattern; check in after 10:pm and they'll release the VIP suites to any ol joe. Fabulous room and a great night sleep. Had laundry in the room, so took advantage of it to do a load, since I only brought one pair of capris, not expecting to be in a warmer climate.

Wandered back to the terminal this morning to rent a car-- the plan was to spend the day in Cadiz (look it up), and lo and behold saw a flight to the UK on the board. Sign us up we said. We have boarding passes in hand and are off to the Taco Bell next door for lunch (the only nearby options for food. We were going to eat lunch in Cadiz). Should be Fish and Chips and a well-deserved beer in an appropriately smokey british Pub for dinner, however.

So, in the end, didn't see any thing of Spain except what we passed on the way from lodging to the terminal. But the weather here is gorgeous. Can see why the area around here is a prime vacation destination.

Adios!

Crossing the Pond

Well, we made it. Am reporting in from Rota, Spain. Well, a terminal in Rota as we wait and see if we go to Germany tonight or hang out her for a few days.

Left home Tuesday and made our way to Charelston only to be told the flight we were going to take was no longer available. No big deal,however, becasue we got to spend a nice evening exploring downtown Charleston and ate dinner at a local seafood joint. However, finding a hotel in Charleston Wed. Night was an absolute nightmare. Quick 100 pop-culture cool points for you if you can guess what was happening in Charleston this week. That's right--next season's American Idol Auditions. We ending up paying $77.00 for a cheap travel class motel and felt lucky to have it.

Thursday we spent the day at Charles Towne landing historic site-- the original settlement site where the colonists spent the firs tdecade getting established before they jumped accross the bay and settled what we today think of as Charleston. We made it back to the terminal to pick up our flight scheduled to depart at 11:00 EST. By 11:00 we were checked in, by midnight we were on the plane, by 1:30 we were off the plane because of a mechanical failure--sitting on a bus on the tarmac in hopes the right spare part was in the warehouse. By 3:00 we were back on the plane and airborne by 4:00, asleep by 4:01. Didn't sleep bad at all, in fact slept most of the flight, but mainly because D, recognizing my inner princess did the only chivalrous thing and slept on the floor so I could stretch out over all three seats. Have been in Spain for only a few hours. Grabbed a bite to eat, getting our bearings and making plans. More Later!