OK, here we are. The flight went "well". I waited too long to call for seat assignments, so we couldn't get four together. We had two together and two others not together. Probably not good for a transatlantic flight with kids 4 and 9.
The ticketing agent, at checkin, told us to ask at the gate. The gate agent stonewalled me. Typical Northwest "service". I'm standing in what I think is a line in front of the gate desk, which has three signs on it saying "closed". The one gate agent who is dealing with the public is calling names and periodically getting on the PA to tell all of us in line to keep the area clear. Does that mean "Get out of line and go sit down"? I notice that no one is stepping out of this line to go up to the desk. Maybe there is no line and we're all just dorks. Another agent steps up and announces, "If you have boarding passes, you don't need to come up to the gate. If you have no boarding passes, we'll call your name." Well, I have boarding passes, so should I wait? I go up to ask, and agent is snippy. Grr.
On the plane, Katie found someone willing to switch, so she and Emma [9] sat together and Jack [4] and I sat together.
Somewhere over Greenland, Jack complained that he wanted to "go home". Sorry, pal, not gonna happen. We watched "Atlantis" and he went to sleep. I slept a bit, too. Later, I found out that Emma hadn't slept much at all and had kept wanting to get up and go to the bathroom. Bummer for Katie, who also didn't sleep.
Anyway. As we prepared for landing in Amsterdam [t minus 40 minutes], Jack had a case of "sick-of-the-plane-itis", complaining that his stomach hurt. On the plane, I'm worried that he's going to hurl. As soon as we were in the jetway off the plane, he's running and jumping, pulling his rolling Scooby-Doo carry-on, saying he feels "better". Little stinkerbutt.
The Amsterdam airport is beautiful, though it smells like smoke everywhere. I was given a new apppreciation for Minnesota's Clean Indoor Air Act.
The little drink stand accepted and gave change in U.S. dollars.
A 1.5 hour layover later, we got on KLM 1795 for Munich.
1.5 hour flight, uneventful, then we landed in Munich.
As Vincent Vega says, "It's the little differences." #1. At European airports, the luggage carts are free. #2. I went into the men's room in baggage claim in the Munich airport and found a few interesting things. One was a toilet brush, plain household-style, sitting in each stall in the men's room. Also, in the stall, spray cleaner for the seat with pictorial instructions how to spray some toilet paper and make the seat sparkle. Never see that in the US. The toilet brush would be gone and Americans would never stoop so low as to clean off a public toilet seat themselves. Also in the restroom, a totally cool electronic towel dispenser. It worked like the automatic blowers in the US. Put your hands under it and it fed out a length of cloth towel. Move your hands away and it took up the slack.
The rental car area is apparently in the next county, so we started walking. Stopped halfway there to change our dollars to Euros [$350 TO 386 Euro] at Deutsches Bank. They couldn't change our francs to Euro, but said the [a?] central bank could. We shall see.
Off to Avis. We booked a five-seat station wagon for about $500 for the two weeks. At the time of booking, I didn't want to spend $1000 for a 7-passenger van. When I got tot he counter, the fellow said that they had only one 5-seater SW, and since it was on the small end of the range, he'd upgrade us to a 7-seat minivan for the same price. Excellent. So, we're driving a two-week-old Opel minivan or two weeks. I already want one.
Drive to Rosenheim; arrive at Ur-Umi and Ur-Opa's house at 6PM. We got lost coming into town. We apparently took the wrong exit and came in from the east rather than the west. I don't remember seeing an earlier exit for Rosenheim, but cest la vie.
First sight upon coming into Rosenheim: WalMart. I'll get a picture later.
Had dinner, went to bed.
Woke up at noon. Darn window shades. Shower, breakfast, errands with Ur-Umi. Katie stepped on my glasses in the morgan, so first stop was an optician who set them right, No charge. Notable graffiti on the trash dumpster out back; "fuck you" in english.
Off to a store for a cemetery candle. Off to an old-folks home to look it over. Tante Kuki needs a new place. Off to the cemetery to visit family plots. Off to a little Kafe with a nice view of the Alps to have Kaffee. I annoy the server because I don't speak German. Umi pays after I try.
To a local supermarket, like Super Target but smaller.
Groceries, clothing, pet store, toys, auto parts. We buy groceries and a car seat for Jack. $20. Worth $20 to not have to carry it on the plane. We'll probably carry it back , however, since I left mine on top of my car when Amy borrowed it before the trip.
I'll post this to forestall data loss, then continue.
6:36:29 PM 
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