Friday: Ryan drives back from business trip in Vancouver. Picks up Katy at SeaTac (from Missoula) at 7:30 pm. Stay up all night frantically packing, weighing, unpacking, and repacking suitcases.
Saturday: 5:30 am back to SeaTac, fly to Atlanta then to Munich.
Sunday: 8:00 am (German time) arrive in Munich having slept about 4 hours since Thursday night. Have ATM card seized by ATM at Munich Airport. Curse into cell phone in front children’s marching band. Children are ushered away from crazy lady with too many bags and no ATM card.
9:30 am arrive at Heide and Armin’s house, eat a second breakfast. Play “Peter Pan” with F. for several hours while staving off sleep-deprived delirium. Give in and take a nap around 5pm, even though Rick Steves warns this will only prolong jet lag.
6:30 lovely dinner with the family and meet their new Manny (male nanny) a hilarious fellow from Australia, and his German girlfriend. Drink two glasses of wine and almost fall asleep on the table.
Monday: 7:30 am Armin offers to drive us to pick up the rental car. We get lost. Finally find it and realize we have rented a van the size of a school bus. Ryan nervously drives it to Heide and Armin’s house.
8:30 I run (literally) to the bank to explain the ATM situation. Order a new card. Meanwhile, Armin, Ryan, the Manny, and Heide load van full of our suitcases and a few donated furniture items. This takes up about 1/4 of total van space.
9:30am hit the road. Get lost getting out of Munich. Decide to put off lunch until we have a ¼ tank left, as we only have 6 hours to get to Berlin.
3:30 arrive in Berlin with 30 minutes to get to the flat where we must meet the agent and the landlord. Get lost. Call the agent, we’ll be 15 minutes late. He’s already there. Get stuck in traffic. The agent calls back, where are we?
4:45 finally arrive, apologize profusely. Are shown around the apartment in the dark (German apartments come without lighting fixtures!) Sign lots of papers. Start unloading the van, taking 50 pound bags and furniture through 2 hallways, 2 courtyards, and up 5 flights of stairs. Feel like I’m going to have a heart attack. Give up on massively heavy table top from Heide and Armin, leave it by the dumpster. Finish unloading, head to IKEA. Buy lighting fixtures, shower curtain, and mattress.
9:30pm Ryan misses a turn light and almost hits a tram. Get pulled over. Hyperventilate. Show American driver’s license and get off with a warning. Take van back to rental agency. Take U-bahn back to apartment. Collapse onto newly-purchased mattress.
1 comment:
Good grief!!
My only hope is that it was a
water mattress.
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