Well, with the change of flights last night, our departure time also became earlier than originally planned. This meant less time with the kids, but I did manage to fit a bit of time in with them before we left. It was all fairly uneventful -- traveling to the Vancouver Airport. Honestly, I don't really even recall the first leg of the flight from Vancouver to Calgary but neither did Kirk. I was going to blame it on my MS brain, the fact that I can barely recall being in Calgary, but with Kirk not remembering either, I figure it must be the jet lag that happened by the end of the trip.
What I do remember is our flight from Calgary to Frankfurt. With all the last minute changes of flights we had business class on all of our flights there and back. This was incredible. You had your own "pod" so to speak.
For people who have traveled business class before, just humor me. For me, having never been in business class, it was a world all its own. I had assumed I'd be hungry like on any other flight I had been on in my past (which weren't many). In business class, you get fed almost the entire way! We had thought we would sleep just after dinner, but dinner (seriously) took almost 2 hours to complete.
From appetizer to the meal to desserts, it was probably 6 courses all together. Amazing food. I felt sorry for all the people behind us (which is where we normally should be!) eating peanuts while we were having steak.
My thoughts on flying, however:
We eventually got to have a bit of sleep, but only a few hours before we ended up in Germany. Not having traveled much before, the airport there in Frankfurt is quite .. .confusing. It is very large and unless you really know where you are going (which we didn't), it can pose quite a problem. We eventually found a place to store our carry-on luggage after which we attempted to locate the train station. Up to this point, I had been doing pretty well with respect to walking and not limping so we decided to take the train into a city called Mainz. I had pre-printed out someone's instructions of the train ticket dispensing machines prior to leaving our house, which was invaluable as the machines were in German and very difficult to understand. Many people just sat there staring at the machines, not knowing what to do. Even with my instructions, it took us around 5 attempts before we could obtain a ticket!
Mainz is very beautiful and quaint and we had a great time just walking through the old part of the city. But walking for a few hours was proving difficult for me (once again) and I started to limp more and more as time progressed, so we decided to head back to the airport early. This is where we fit the next 6 hours, sitting on chairs and waiting for our departure time of 22:22. It was a VERY VERY long day waiting. After we got on the very small plane towards Katowice, we only had 1 1/2 more hours of flying. It was after midnight when we arrived at Katowice. Once in side the small terminal, we came out of the gates, looking for someone who would be holding our names (meaning, "our ride"). Oddly enough, no one was there to pick us up. Very odd. We stood to the side for a few minutes and then Kirk realized that he saw someone's sign say Euromedic, but it was the incorrect name on the card. Long story short, the guy who came to pick us up had had a very long day as well, and had written down the wrong name. We eventually got back to our hotel after 1am. I don't think I've ever traveled over 30 hours in one stretch .. it certainly takes a toll on your body. Both Kirk and I can barely even remember what day it is now. Off to sleep, hoping to get some REAL sleep where I'm not waking up every hour. In the morning, I have an eye exam with the other 4 patients that are also here to be treated. Night! (oh, and once I figure out how to get this thing to accept photos today, I'll add some. I keep trying but it just says "error").
What I do remember is our flight from Calgary to Frankfurt. With all the last minute changes of flights we had business class on all of our flights there and back. This was incredible. You had your own "pod" so to speak.
From appetizer to the meal to desserts, it was probably 6 courses all together. Amazing food. I felt sorry for all the people behind us (which is where we normally should be!) eating peanuts while we were having steak.
My thoughts on flying, however:
We eventually got to have a bit of sleep, but only a few hours before we ended up in Germany. Not having traveled much before, the airport there in Frankfurt is quite .. .confusing. It is very large and unless you really know where you are going (which we didn't), it can pose quite a problem. We eventually found a place to store our carry-on luggage after which we attempted to locate the train station. Up to this point, I had been doing pretty well with respect to walking and not limping so we decided to take the train into a city called Mainz. I had pre-printed out someone's instructions of the train ticket dispensing machines prior to leaving our house, which was invaluable as the machines were in German and very difficult to understand. Many people just sat there staring at the machines, not knowing what to do. Even with my instructions, it took us around 5 attempts before we could obtain a ticket!
Mainz is very beautiful and quaint and we had a great time just walking through the old part of the city. But walking for a few hours was proving difficult for me (once again) and I started to limp more and more as time progressed, so we decided to head back to the airport early. This is where we fit the next 6 hours, sitting on chairs and waiting for our departure time of 22:22. It was a VERY VERY long day waiting. After we got on the very small plane towards Katowice, we only had 1 1/2 more hours of flying. It was after midnight when we arrived at Katowice. Once in side the small terminal, we came out of the gates, looking for someone who would be holding our names (meaning, "our ride"). Oddly enough, no one was there to pick us up. Very odd. We stood to the side for a few minutes and then Kirk realized that he saw someone's sign say Euromedic, but it was the incorrect name on the card. Long story short, the guy who came to pick us up had had a very long day as well, and had written down the wrong name. We eventually got back to our hotel after 1am. I don't think I've ever traveled over 30 hours in one stretch .. it certainly takes a toll on your body. Both Kirk and I can barely even remember what day it is now. Off to sleep, hoping to get some REAL sleep where I'm not waking up every hour. In the morning, I have an eye exam with the other 4 patients that are also here to be treated. Night! (oh, and once I figure out how to get this thing to accept photos today, I'll add some. I keep trying but it just says "error").
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