On Our Way!
The German Shepherd dog show in Ulm is something we had been looking forward to for awhile. We booked out tickets about a month and a half ago and are meeting the breeder here to make some good business contacts.
This isn't my first time to Germany...I lived here for a total of about 5 years. But I haven't been here for a couple of years, so there are some things that seemed to have changed. But first, a recap on my flights from a customer perspective:
The first flight was on United Airlines...it was a few hours to Denver where we would pick up our international flight. Here I remember why I appreciated living in Spokane, as getting through the airport is always an absolute breeze! The flight was nothing special, but maybe my expectations have dropped over the years. I was crammed into a middle seat (I usually try to get aisle seats). Other than being confronted by the flight crew for grabbing my headphones out of the overhead bin after they closed the front door...and sitting in a seat where my food tray had clearly been decorated by a kid coloring with crayons, the flight was smooth.
Hey, Ma! Lookie What I Drew!
Another big downside for United was the lack of free entertainment. They said if you downloaded the app, you would have access to a lot of in flight programming. But even after downloading it, they wanted a payment to access their movies and other media. The only thing I could watch was the generic Discovery Channel programming they had for all the TVs. Big fail here, United...but at least I wasn't beaten and deplaned!
In Denver, we didn't have a huge layover, but it was maybe an hour, so we had some time to charge our phones. We also got a good look at our next plane. I had never been on a double level plane before, so I thought it was pretty cool to finally get to ride in one. We had a quick bite to eat at Panda Express and we're on our way.
I was disappointed that our "exit row" seats were not really exit row. So it was a tight fit the whole flight (for me being 6'5")...but at least we could watch movies the whole time. I watched 3: "Logan", "Guardians if the Galaxy, Vol 2", and "Ghost in the Shell". I was happy to get caught up on my movies a little. Dinner was also served. I opted for the pasta:
A flight like that never really goes fast enough, but we eventualy land with time to make our last connection through Frankfurt. This is where the big change took place. The customs process was different this time and we broke up into about 8 smaller lines to go through passport control. It went smooth and was actually a faster process than the old way of doing it, but it seemed less organized...more a mass of people instead of actual lines.
We didn't have to get our luggage, as it was checked through to Stuttgart. But we arrived at the gate and surprise...had to wait. The flight was delayed taking off, but they sped up in flight, and instead of an hour to get to Stuttgart, it was a half hour flight. They didn't even serve drinks! But we landed nearly on time and now had to take the trains to our final destination.
Figuring out the trains in Germany isn't hard, but I just had to remember that I needed to get to the Stuttgart Main train station first, and it isn't attached to the airport. Buying the tickets is easy...but the mChine didn't take any Euro bill bigger than a 10. So after hitting an ATM, we were on our way. At the Stuttgart Hbf (Hauptbahnhof), we purchased our ticket to the final destination.
It was a hot, sweaty train ride...and the air flow in the train car left much to be desired. But I've always enjoyed watching the German countryside when traveling by train.
So after an hour and a half and three different trains, we pulled into the last stop and finally exited the car. It was a little after 5pm and we just had a short 900m walk to the hotel. The sun was out, there was a very light breeze, and the temperature was probably in the mid - upper 80s. The day of traveling made us weary and sweaty, but we got checked into the hotel and made our way to our room to get settled. A few hours later, the rain began, but it didn't matter, because we were just staying in for the evening anyway. The real adventure starts tomorrow!
Goodnight!