Skip to main content

Episode 2: If you don’t bend you’ll break

​This is one of the big weeks we’ve been planning for since this trip planning began - meeting Beau in Germany to tour the Porsche museum. For him, it was smooth sailing through the airport in St. Louis, to Charlotte and on to Germany. Our travels are a different story…

We had a flight booked out of Bristol at 6 am Sunday morning, changing plans in Amsterdam and landing in Munich at 10:55 am. And then…

Saturday

9 am- Checked into the flight and got our boarding passes ✅

2 pm - Flight cancelled 🚫 

2:15 pm - KLM Airlines rebooked us… Bristol ➡️ Cork (Ireland) ➡️ Paris ➡️ Munich at 5:30 pm 👎🏼

2 pm - 3:30 pm - Tried to contact KLM via web (where they said to change our flights and it said I had to contact them), WhatsApp, text and phone. I had my phone, Nate’s phone and my computer all working on this.📱💻📱

The options really were 1) take the crazy route they rebooked us on, 2) cancel and take an EasyJet flight direct from Bristol and not arrive until 10 pm, 3) rebook to fly out of Birmingham at 6 am (and get to Birmingham Saturday night after the game). We chose Birmingham in an effort to not lose a full day. 

2:59 pm - KLM WhatsApp rep said they were submitting my request to ticketing and I should hear back in 24 hours (the flight was to take off in 15 hours and we still had to get to Birmingham) 🕦

3 pm - Got in Uber in Bristol with Carlie to go to Bub’s football game, finally got in touch with a person on the phone in customer service who rebooked us through Birmingham. 

3:30 pm - Booked hotel in Birmingham 🏨

4:30 pm - Booked train tickets from Bristol to Birmingham leaving at 8:33 pm 🚆

6:15 pm - Football game ended in a win! Took photos, called Uber and went back to Bristol hotel. 🏈📸🚗

7-8 pm - Repacked, left hotel, walked to train station, finally ate something. 🥪

8:33 pm - Train from Bristol to Birmingham Center 🚆

9:55 pm - Transfer to train to airport 🚆

Note: There were a zillion people on the train who were all so loud. It was a lot. 🧍🏽🧍‍♀️🧍🧍🏾‍♀️🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏾🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏾🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏾🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏼‍♀️🧍🏼‍♀️

11 pm - Arrived at airport train station, got in hotel shuttle 

11:30 pm - Checked into hotel in Birmingham 🏨

Sunday

3:30 am - Wake up alarm ⏰

4 am - Taxi to airport 🚕

4:38 am - Made it through security!

5:40 am - Board the plane to Amsterdam ✈️

6 am - Notification we were taking off 5 mins early 🎉

6:10 am - Notification we would be delayed up to 90 minutes due to snow in Amsterdam (see said snow below) 👎🏼❄️

6:30 am - Notification we were cleared to push back in 5 mins 🎉

6:48 am - Take off from Birmingham to Amsterdam ✈️

8:30 am - Landed in Amsterdam (1 hour ahead of the UK) 🇳🇱, next flight is delayed

8:45 am - Beau landed in Germany 🇩🇪 

10:10 am - Boarded the plane and taxied to the runway to take off

10:35 am - I can’t make this stuff up. We’re next to take off and the pilot comes on the intercom and says we’re delayed “a few more minutes” because the plane that took off in front of us hit a bird and now they have to inspect the runway 🐦‍⬛🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

11:30 am - We landed! It’s an absolute miracle that we all made it to Munich relatively on time. 

Noon - Just outside of the airport doors was a Christmas market with hot mojitos - yum! 🍵

12:30 pm - The train from the airport to city center is closed for maintenance. . . We had to find the bus and take a bus for 20 mins to a train station. Then the train (35 min) took us to the city center. 

3:30 - We’re finally checked into the hotel, Beau has showered and we’re headed for food. What a travel day!





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Salisbury, UK 🪨🪨🪨 1/2

The specific reason to go to Salisbury is to see Stonehenge. It was a nice town with some good food and very friendly people. But we probably won’t find a reason to go back - it’s about a two hour train ride from either Bristol or London. Pros: Tuesday and Saturday farmer’s market, walkable, good food and pubs. Tinga was our favorite, and we wish there was one in Bristol. Cons: Out of the way, roads are narrow and busses drive really fast (watch out!), all shops close around 5:30 with restaurants open later, Stonehenge was about a 20 min drive, limited hotel options Lodging: Milford Hall Salisbury (an IHG)
Post a Comment
Read more

After 13 years… we’re back!

 I loved writing this blog years ago, and while we’ve had so many great adventures since then, this moment in time calls for the blog to be re-established. So here we go! Starting tomorrow (Friday, Oct 24) I’ll post here about our grand European trip . Big shout out to Bub for deciding to get his Master’s degree in England , which inspired all of this. I imagine these posts will be mostly short with some photos, but we’ll see. More to come! In the meantime, here are some photos of our first trip across the pond - which included my 50th BD trip to Paris and the Moulin Rouge!
Post a Comment
Read more

What if your kids don't like water?

I remember vividly driving home down I-435 one day in 2003. I was pregnant with Brayden and talking to Karen on the phone. Just before I hit the Grandview Triangle, Karen says, "So what are you going to do if the baby doesn't like the water?" Now let me pontificate for just a minute. This is what I love about our dear friends. They call it like they see it. No holds barred. If your best friends can't be straight up with you, then who can? I know that many people don't understand this, for instance, the time Shawn told me I was not holding off my baby weight very well (in fact, I was pregnant with Beau and Shawn just found out). And Karen trying to help me come to grips with the reality that I may have children that don't like water. . . So I remember that day my immediate and very matter-of-fact response was, "That's not an option." Seriously, people, can you imagine Nate and me having kids who DON'T like the water? It's a way of life f...
Post a Comment
Read more