Willkommen zu Franky

Ok. For the uninitiated, we are doing some flashbacks, so you might want to read yesterday's novel before you take a look at this one. So, where were we...

May 18th, Frankfurt Airport and Arrival in Freiburg

Customs at Frankfurt airport was pretty easy. It was no where near as hard as I thought it would be, they just asked us how long we were going to stay. We had to get 3 of those luggage cart things for all our beautiful Rubbermaids, and we still had to carry backpacks and Mom G. pulled her suitcase while pushing Reese in the stroller. It took about half an hour to get about 100 m with the current setup. Apparently, the carts have an automatic braking system, and you have to push down on a lever to get the thing to move smoothly. Too bad we didn't figure that out until after we wore grooves into the floor. Just kidding. But the brakes were hard to figure out. All the luggage was intact, which was incredible considering the pack job. At the end of the gauntlet, we picked the "nothing to declare" exit (not sure if that was the right one) and breezed right through. And then the fun began. We went to pick up our cars at the Budget rental place, and it turns out that the Budget rental place where we actually reserved the cars was in the other terminal. So me and Jodi and Erika went looking for the other terminal while Mom and Reese guarded the mountain of luggage. Now, I am not so great with instructions, so the 20 min return trip turned out to be about an hour and a half. That also included making a wrong turn somewhere and taking a tour of the Frankfurt airport after picking up the cars. When we got back to the original terminal with Mom and Reese, I was pretty fed up and strung out, so I quadruple parked on one of the busiest roads at the airport, tossed Jodi the keys and took off to get Mom/Reese/luggage. Needless to say, it was a stressful 20 min for Jodi managing the two cars, keeping angry Germans at bay for the crazy park job, and listening to Erika wail from the backseat. By the time I got back, she had them both parked properly, one behind the other. All our stuff fit well into the larger rental car, and Mom picked up some lunch/supper/breakfast/snack for us to eat. Things were finally going a little smoother. Then, as I put Reese into his deluxe 1975 rental car seat, I heard the beautiful clicking sound as the buckle was secured into place. Except it wasn't secured into place. It was snapped in half. So I went back to the Budget rental place, and they inquired with a couple of the rental companies nearby, and the representative gave me the deluxe 1956 baby bassinet (sp?) model. I was a little unsure about this one but I was a little desperate so I picked it up and ran back to where we were parked. In the meantime, the airport Polizei informed the women they needed to pay for the parking in the arrivals area. Mom tried to talk some sense into him about our situation, and it was actually a long talk, so I hear, even though he didn't speak English. As soon as Jodi caught sight of the atrocity I was carrying, she started shaking her head and pointing me back inside. So, I did the right thing and sent her back inside to deal with it. After a short conversation, we were promised a seat would be delivered to our car in the arrivals lane. We had a leisurely supper in the car with kids (buns with meat and cheese, coffee), and as time ticked away, we got some more food to keep Reese happy. An hour later, Jodi went back in to see what was going on, and we were assured it was on its way. Another hour later, I went inside, and the sales rep phoned the guy who was supposed to drop the seats off. Around the same time, he showed up with a choice of three seats for Jodi to pick from. She quickly picked out the newest model, installed it in the car, and we were off to Freiburg, about 4 hours behind schedule. We felt assured with securing Reese in the car and it slightly made up for the lost time and foggy experience on no sleep. Perhaps it was a good thing we waited it out and got a good seat...? The drive to Freiburg was pretty tricky - for Jodi anyway. I took the lead in our sporty rental car followed by Jodi in a Ford Fiesta equivalent with the kids and Mom, and we were going to go nice and slow on the autobahn. I guess I had a heavy foot that night, and I lost them in a matter of minutes in the blinding rainstorm. It was crazy to see all the drivers flying past us at incredible speed. After about an hour of white-knuckling and sweating, Jodi's Mom convinced her to stop trying to follow me. Oops. We did meet up at a gas station about half way there, and then we got to Freiburg at around 12:00. And then I took a wrong turn, and we had a quaint midnight tour of Freiburg on a couple hours of sleep and both kids awake. At around 12:30, we finally pulled up to our hotel (the same one me and Mom G. stayed at in December for the interview). The room was actually incredibly nice, and exactly what we needed. Erika and Grandma bunked on the pull out bed couch thing, and we put Reese in the playpen. Within about 15 minutes and only a couple of tears from Reese, we were fast asleep. Ahh... lovely hotel Lowën. I definately recommend it. So ends the 2nd day.

These first couple of days are pretty long, so we are going to have to pack it in for now. More to come tomorrow.

Jodi and Jeff