Today is the day, we got up bright and early to finish packing our stuff so we could be ready when the airport shuttle came at 9:30. Packing was a disaster, we just have too much crap, you know that high maintenance husband of mine. We managed to get it all arranged in what we thought was the weight limit (it was the weight limit according to the website, which apparently means nothing to the people at the airport) but still had some stuff left over. Luckily we had a box at the apartment and our hotel was right across the street from Colin's preschool teacher. Poor Amanda, if you are reading this, I am SO sorry and thank you so very much! Shelby took her the box with our new address on it so she could mail it for free to us. We got to the airport in plenty of time and got all checked in. We soon learned that the website was very wrong on the max weights of the suitcases and we ended up having to for out 100 Euro in over weight fees, plus an additional 140 Euro in excess baggage fees (that 140 we'll get back when we file our travel voucher at least). Ouch!
We made it to the gate and Colin was SO excited to finally be getting on the airplane. All the waiting for this day, then riding in the van to get to the airport, then waiting forever at the gate, poor kid probably thought it would never come time to board the plane. He did great and aside from being a little overly excited he was fine on the flight.
The first leg was three hours from Frankfurt to Lisbon, Portugal. Then we were supposed to have a two hour layover before boarding our flight to the Azores. Our two hour layover turned into a 4+ hour layover when they did not have a co-pilot to fly. They kept pushing back the departure time and eventually gave us all dinner vouchers to go eat at the airport. We had some yummy tapas and drinks and it was all free. :) Finally about 9:30 PM we took off for our three hour flight to the island. We were all exhausted, Colin fought off sleep so hard even though it was hours past his bedtime. I finally got him to pass out on my lap for about the last hour and a half of the flight.
When we landed on Terceira it was right about midnight (which was actually 2 AM Germany time) and we'd been up for over 20 hours. We were met at the airport by our sponsor, his wife and another squadron spouse. I felt bad for them having to wait up for us to come in almost four hours late. They drove us to the base hotel, where they had already checked us in, picked up our keys and stocked the fridge and pantry! They have this welcome wagon thing DOWN over here, we've never had treatment like that from any base we've moved to. We got to our room, dug out some PJs and hit the sack! Looooooong day, but I can't wait to wake up in the morning and actually be able to SEE the island!
The first leg was three hours from Frankfurt to Lisbon, Portugal. Then we were supposed to have a two hour layover before boarding our flight to the Azores. Our two hour layover turned into a 4+ hour layover when they did not have a co-pilot to fly. They kept pushing back the departure time and eventually gave us all dinner vouchers to go eat at the airport. We had some yummy tapas and drinks and it was all free. :) Finally about 9:30 PM we took off for our three hour flight to the island. We were all exhausted, Colin fought off sleep so hard even though it was hours past his bedtime. I finally got him to pass out on my lap for about the last hour and a half of the flight.
When we landed on Terceira it was right about midnight (which was actually 2 AM Germany time) and we'd been up for over 20 hours. We were met at the airport by our sponsor, his wife and another squadron spouse. I felt bad for them having to wait up for us to come in almost four hours late. They drove us to the base hotel, where they had already checked us in, picked up our keys and stocked the fridge and pantry! They have this welcome wagon thing DOWN over here, we've never had treatment like that from any base we've moved to. We got to our room, dug out some PJs and hit the sack! Looooooong day, but I can't wait to wake up in the morning and actually be able to SEE the island!
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