Our Wonderful, Relaxing, Perfectly Smooth Trip to Germany

ATK has sent our family to Germany for 2-3 months so that Nate can help Airbus get some plans ready for ATK. We left on Thursday the second. Our shuttle arrived to take us to the airport just before 1:00. We arrived with more than enough time to check bags and get through security.  Since we were traveling with a child, they let us through the pre-check line where we didn't have to remove our shoes, or coats, or toiletry items or laptops. We made it through very quickly and had a couple hours to wait until our flight was supposed to leave.

However, we actually waited longer than that since our plane had "mechanical problems" that had to be fixed before anyone could board. We were supposed to take off at 5:00, but our flight ended up leaving about an hour late. We were told that the winds were favorable though and that we shouldn't arrive too much later at the Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) in France than we were originally scheduled to.

Knowing that Austin does not sleep well during trips, we planned ahead for things the best we could. We obtained a prescription from his doctor to help him sleep, and we made sure he knew that planes were for snoozing on. If anyone asked him what he was going to do on the plane, he would promptly answer "sleep."  It worked like a charm!  He slept through the whole 10 hour flight except for the first 9 3/4 hours.

Austin tries to use his headphones on the plane...not very successfully.

Here's the full story.  We gave him his sleeping medication with his dinner and afterwards tried to get him to sleep. But he wouldn't. He was terribly restless, obviously tired, and a bit loopy. We tried everything we could think of to get him to sleep. We went through his normal bedtime routine the best we could. We turned off the screens at our seats to limit distractions only to have him fight to turn them back on and play with them. We pleaded with him, tried to calm him, told him about how important it was that he slept, reminded him airplanes were for sleeping, threatened him with consequences if he wasn't quiet, walked him up and down the isles before having him try sleeping again, let him lay out across two seats while Nate stood in the isle.... Absolutely nothing worked. He continued to grow more and more overly tired. He hadn't even had his usual afternoon nap. He screamed and kicked and crawled all over us and made scene after scene.

After a couple hours with no success, we gave up. We turned his screen back on and tried to get him to at least stare at it quietly. That more or less worked to at least keep him relatively quiet with only occasional outbursts for most of the remaining hours of our flight. This arrangement also made it impossible for us, his parents, and most people directly around us to sleep though. Austin would sit leaning forward in his seat with his head tilted back at an abrupt angle, his eyes half closed and his mouth partially opened. However, if we tried to get him to lay down or otherwise move into a better position while watching his show, he would become upset again and fight us. On top of all of it, as I became stiff and sore and uncomfortable from my seat, I also found myself subject to strong disagreeable odors wafting toward me from another passenger nearby.

Our hopes of Austin (or us) getting even the slightest bit of sleep dwindled away as the plane started its descent. None of us had slept at all during the ten hour nighttime flight. Then about 10-15 minutes before we landed, suddenly Austin conked out.

Austin falls asleep just in time to land at CDG

The plane stopped and everyone got out, but Austin was far too tired to be functional at any level by that point. He had been awake for nearly a 20 hour stretch. He couldn't walk let alone stand up on his own. He looked like he was badly drunk. When we managed to get him on his feet briefly he would stagger about, take a few steps backward and collapse on the floor. Nate carried him while we did our best to carry our 6 heavy bags (three full carry-on suitcases, a diaper bag, and two heavy laptop bags) out of the airplane and across the airport to catch the next leg of our flight to Munich. Meanwhile, Austin screamed the whole way.

The Charles de Gaulle Airport is an absolute maze. I can't figure out what the designers and architects were possibly thinking when they created that monstrosity! In a just world, whoever designed the CDG would receive a punishment of being forced to go from one end of that airport to the other in record breaking time while trying to carry a number of heavy bags and a screaming child. Or, maybe they should have to do the same thing while confined to a wheelchair. No assistance from others or hidden shortcuts allowed! Maybe they should have to do this for hours on end until they are so exhausted that they promise to pay for the complete re-building of that airport.

We walked down halls and went up and down elevators about 7 times between 3 different levels following the signs pointing us to the correct terminal before we arrived at our gate. I don't know for sure how many elevators there were though because we sort of lost count. We also had to go through yet another security check (removing everything this time) that took forever because the security found my favorite pocket knife that Nate had accidentally missed while cleaning out our Camelpak before stowing it in our carry on.  Apparently the TSA completely missed it. So, they had to search and re-search our suitcase until they found it. And now I am out of a pocketknife.

We finally arrived at our gate just moments after our flight had left. By that point, I had been worn so thin that I was on the verge of tears. Austin was still crying and falling over, and Nate was not any less frustrated than I was. Then the gate attendant explained to us that there was actually a shortcut from our previous flight to that terminal (apparently with no signs pointing it out) that we had missed.

The gate attendant got us seats on the next available flight to Munich leaving a couple hours later along with some vouchers for sandwiches and drinks for all of us. We spread our coats out on the floor and laid Austin down on them so he could keep sleeping. When we finally boarded the plane, I was surprised to discover our seats were first class. We worked to get Austin comfortable and sleeping again as we took off. Nate and I both dozed off some for the first time during the trip, but not for very long. It was a short hour and a half flight, and we were soon interrupted by a plane steward bringing us drinks and a snack/meal. The drinks were particularly appreciated, but I was feeling too tired to greatly enjoy the food. It was all fancy stuff: a vegetable mixture in a little straw boat topped with what looked like caviar, some sort of salmon loaf, a bite sized tuna sandwich, a little bowl of colorful diced fruit, a tiny pink macaroon along with another fancy little cookie, and three pieces of candy neatly packaged in a little cardboard bag.

Austin sleeping on a coat at the CDG

We finally arrived in Munich, found our checked bags, and found the car rental place. Austin was a little more awake than he had been before the flight, but overall, he was still extremely touchy and prone to bouts of crying. The car rental place explained to us that the type of car reserved for us was not currently available, but a couple such cars were scheduled to be returned within a half hour to an hour. We were offered a different type of car right away if we wanted it, but since this was the car we were planning on using for a while, we decided to wait. After it was finally available, we filled out paper work for the car, eventually found our car in the large parking garage, and worked on stacking our luggage in it just right so it would all fit. Then we had to wait a little while longer for someone to bring us a car seat.

Then there was about an hour drive from the airport to our apartment. We finally arrived around 8:00 p.m. Germany time. In total, our trip from start to finish had lasted 22 long hours, and we were exhausted.

The trip was not much fun to say the least, but I am sure it could have been worse. For example, I could have lost my wedding ring. I almost did in fact. While at the Charles de Gaulle Airport waiting for the next plane to Munich, I suddenly realized my ring was not on my finger. It was one of the worst feelings ever. During the ensuing moments of panic we frantically searched our bags to see if it had fallen off in one of them while I was pulling something out. Luckily, we soon found it. I don't even know what I would have done if we hadn't. I am so grateful we found it so quickly!