Eating our way to Germany

At least that’s what it seemed when I looked at my photos of our long day of travel.

As you can see we are travelling very lightly this trip,with just one medium suitcase and one backpack per person. We said our farewells to the pups, Nan and Christy (who chose to stay with them rather than join Amy’s school trip) and Pop kindly dropped us off at the airport. We then went to get some lunch from Sumo Salad before it was time to meet up with the group.

I still can’t believe this is all I’m taking.

We got everyone checked in and Amy was horrified to find she’d been seated between Kevin & I. Luckily all the kids wanted to change around so that’s what happened after take-off. We had more time to fill in so we got a tea and cookies from Mrs Fields.

Then finally it was time to head through immigration (after a group photo shot, which we don’t have a copy of). Here’s a photo of Kevin & I

And the one where were photobombed 🙂

Finally it was time to head through customs (once all the students had said their farewells). Just so you know – you find many, if any photos of Amy as we are trying to let her be an “independent traveller” like the rest of the group. Kevin & I are just tag-alongs and will hang out more with the teachers. There was a bit more waiting, then it was time to board our first plane, which left just on 4pm. Because Kevin likes a window seat and I like an aisle seat we were seated together. Kevin actually ended up with the teachers, and I sat next to a group of boys, who luckily for me were very well behaved.

Shortly after we took off we were served drinks and peanuts and at 5pm a rather early dinner was served. I only ate the rice balls and bread roll.

I caught up a bit of google reader (still reading but probably won’t be leaving comments until we get back) and watched Storage Wars (which I’d never seen before) on the big screen (yep, no individual screens on this plane) and then Pirates of the Caribbean on my ipad. I started drifting off to sleep so turned it off and listened to some Enya (with my new noise cancelling headphones (which I loved way more than expected). I got a photo of the sunset…

then we were served another MEAL?? (I prefer the little snack pack you get from Qantas for the nighttime munchies) I did eat some of it though because traveling sure throws out your natural body clock and eating seems to help :-). The gnocchi and chocolate cookies were delicious.

Finally after 9 hours we arrived in Bangok. We had to disembark on the tarmak (boy was it stinking hot outside) and catch a bus to the terminal.

Being in a large group (of 37) means you travel pretty slowly so there was brief stop for refreshments. Kevin order a fruit smoothie and I ordered a watermelon juice. But they forgot to make it and we didn’t really have time to wait so I didn’t bother. The teachers thought we had to go through another security check (even though we’d just been through one) so I didn’t buy any water. Of course there was no security but a gate check so we couldn’t go back out. I know you can get drinks on the plane but I really like to have my own bottle to drink whenever I want.

Time to board our second flight. This one on an A380. I was sat behind Kevin,Amy and Hariette this time.

This time I got a Sprite Thai style :-).

And another meal just after takeoff. I was really tired and not much interested in eating. I should have just skipped this meal but when they bring out a special vegetarian meal it seems rude to say know (though they probably don’t really care). Anyway, I had a bit of it – the rice and the roll, and then got on with the business of getting some sleep.

I actually got around 4 or 5 hours so I was pretty happy with that (in addition to the two I had got on the first flight). When I woke up I watch a movie. This was really good. I really enjoy watching surfing movies but didn’t realize this one was based on a true story and had a sad ending. Which meant I had a bit of a cry fest.

Time for another meal. This was rather yummy and I ate most of the main dish, and of course, the roll and croissant.

Finally after another 11 hours of flying we touched down in Frankfurt, Germany. Gotta love with tail cam.

We got off and said goodbye to our plane.

Time for our first time buying food in Germany. Everyone headed straight for the bakery.

We then got on a coach for the two hour drive to Rothenburg, where along the way I enjoyed my second breakfast :-). Told you it seemed like all we did was eat. But this was over a 30-35 hour period of time.

Next up : our first day in the gorgeous town of Rothenburg.