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Sunday, February 14, 2010

Part III Waiting to leave Frankfurt


As we landed, I noticed how white Germany looked. Being familiar with various states of snowfall, I noted how fresh the snowfall looked. As we slowed down, I realized that it looked fresh because it was actually snowing.

When we left Raleigh, it was 63 degrees. I knew that it would be 70 when we landed in Cairo. And as I didn't want to include three coats in our entourage that already consisted of Kathleen, Sophia, Edwin, myself, my mother, two backpacks, one car seat, and a double stroller, we packed the coats in our suitcase. One doesn't really need coats in an airport, and those jetway things protect one from the cold fairly well.

As we taxied through the falling snow, a flight attendant came on the PA, "We will be using a mobile gate today, so after descending the stairs, please board a bus which will take you to the terminal." My mother and I looked at each other shrugged our shoulders. Hopefully nobody has died from ten minutes of exposure, and people would think what they would about my parenting.

A flight attendant took pity on us and carried Kathleen down the stairs while my mother carried Sophia and I carried Edwin. The kind woman deposited Kathleen and fetched our stroller from the slushy runway.

A few hours later we were boarded on our plane. Being a Lufthansa plane, we had the wonderful seat-back entertainment of international flights so I immediately started a movie for Kathleen and a movie for myself. Edwin said that he didn't want one.

Brandon, meanwhile, was in Cairo checking the status of our flight. Initially it was delayed 20 minutes. Then it was delayed 40. Next time he checked it was an hour. Then two. Then two and a half. And finally, it went back down to two.

I finished my movie. Kathleen finished had finished hers and started it again. My mother wanted to put Sophia in the baggage hold. Edwin slept.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Ah, adventures in traveling... *hugs*

UnkaDave said...

Tell Edwin to check out old Schwarzenegger movies next time - they ought to have them on Lufthansa, and even in the original Austrian.

PaulaJean said...

Maybe not the baggage hold. . .but at least the flight attendants were very helpful, bringing juice, water, pretzels, and coloring books which kept Sophia entertained for at least 2 minutes. It was a long wait.