Getting there; Germany; Getting there, again
Getting there
Crossing the US is not a difficult task, in my experience-- until now. Flying standby took much longer than flying ticketed all the way. Essentially, I spent a lot of time in Salt Lake-- when I finally got on a flight to Atlanta the thunder storms I had been watching on the weather report in SLC caused us to reroute through Knoxville for fuel. Eventually I did get to Germany-- it took longer than I expected, but I was lucky and got to fly in first class over the Atlantic (the service is good, the chairs are waaaaay cushier, but the food is still crap). And there was thunder...
Germany
By coincidence my good friends in Germany live in the region where some of my ancestors hailed from. The countryside was charming, the towns are seldom more than 5 km from each other, and their are numerous hamlets with picturesque thatched cottages. My hosts treated me to several trips to larger towns in the vicinity, culminating in a trip as far as Flensburg on the Danish border. At the conclusion of which we drove by the small village of Krummenort where rumor has it my ‘Harders’ originated from.
Getting there, again
Hamburg to Brussels (or is it Bruxxelles?) is an easy flight, made easier by the in flight service and a crazy Dutchman for your flight deck commander (you could tell by the accent and the humor-- had to be from Holland). Here is a warning for international travelers in the Brussels Airport-- don’t use credit card pay phones unless it’s an emergency: they cost ALOT.
Getting out of the Airport was very easy, they have a train station in the basement that will take you into the city, and from there to anywhere-- albeit with time. It took a couple hours to get out to Louvain-La-Neuve, but the conductors were nice and wear fun hats (think Foreign Legion, but in blue and red-- without the back-flap).
Crossing the US is not a difficult task, in my experience-- until now. Flying standby took much longer than flying ticketed all the way. Essentially, I spent a lot of time in Salt Lake-- when I finally got on a flight to Atlanta the thunder storms I had been watching on the weather report in SLC caused us to reroute through Knoxville for fuel. Eventually I did get to Germany-- it took longer than I expected, but I was lucky and got to fly in first class over the Atlantic (the service is good, the chairs are waaaaay cushier, but the food is still crap). And there was thunder...
Germany
By coincidence my good friends in Germany live in the region where some of my ancestors hailed from. The countryside was charming, the towns are seldom more than 5 km from each other, and their are numerous hamlets with picturesque thatched cottages. My hosts treated me to several trips to larger towns in the vicinity, culminating in a trip as far as Flensburg on the Danish border. At the conclusion of which we drove by the small village of Krummenort where rumor has it my ‘Harders’ originated from.
Getting there, again
Hamburg to Brussels (or is it Bruxxelles?) is an easy flight, made easier by the in flight service and a crazy Dutchman for your flight deck commander (you could tell by the accent and the humor-- had to be from Holland). Here is a warning for international travelers in the Brussels Airport-- don’t use credit card pay phones unless it’s an emergency: they cost ALOT.
Getting out of the Airport was very easy, they have a train station in the basement that will take you into the city, and from there to anywhere-- albeit with time. It took a couple hours to get out to Louvain-La-Neuve, but the conductors were nice and wear fun hats (think Foreign Legion, but in blue and red-- without the back-flap).
posted by rob | 11:41 AM
1 Comments:
I am glad that you made it! Yikes, what a trip. You will be comforted to know that travelling is miserable all around. For us, four hour lines in Heathrow, running to catch the plane, hours delay at gate because of security threats at other terminals, crap food, broken entertainment systems, late arrival, and, the kicker, we are still waiting for our luggage to arrive (we've been home for 3 days now).
Enjoy your time, the food, the adventure. I can't wait to hear your stories.
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