we made it!

Hello from Germany!  This first post will be a long one, as it covers our journey here and our first couple days as well.  Our future posts won't be as long!  I (Julie) will likely be writing most posts, but I'm hoping that Rich will make a writing appearance occasionally as well!

We landed in Frankfurt a little more than 48 hours ago after a very long and tiring journey from Texas.  We arrived at the airport in Killeen just before 10am on Tuesday, December 16th.  We were standby on the 1pm flight to Houston, but the flight was oversold and we had to wait until our originally scheduled flight at 7:15pm that night.  The flight to Houston was short and sweet; but once we landed, we had to TRUCK IT across the Houston airport.  There was only about 40 minutes from the time we landed until our flight to London was to depart.  We made it with time to spare (only because the lights in the jetway had stopped working and they had to get this repaired before boarding)!  

Our flight to London was long at almost 9 hours.  It was also my first trans-oceanic flight and boy, was I ready to get off that plane.  A few things about this flight:

• Our plane was a Boeing 787...by far the largest aircraft I've ever been on.  First class looked pretty cushy!  There was a screen on the back of each seat so each passenger had our own.  We had a variety of free movies, TV shows, and music to choose from.  We just plugged our headphones in and chose whatever we wanted to watch.  I watched a few chick flicks, of couse, and Rich watched some dude movies.  Oh, and the coolest part to me?  We could look at the map whenever we wanted to see where we were at any given time, our altitude, flying speed, miles traveled and miles left, time in flight and time left, and other cool information.

Information about our flight.

Very close to London with only 33 minutes to go!

• We were all provided with a pillow and a blanket.  The pillow was quite flat, however, so I would recommend to purchase your own travel-size pillow of choice prior to a long flight.  Rich and I shared his u-shaped neck pillow, and I was very thankful for that.
• Our flight was an overnight one.  I was very glad for this, as it was dark and made sleeping feel a little more natural.  Not that either of us did a lot of sleeping.  We couldn't get comfortable!  I had melatonin with me but didn't take any...silly me.
• We were served dinner (we both chose the chicken breast with pasta and vegetables and some sort of sauce...not bad) and breakfast the next morning (fresh fruit and a croissant with butter...again not bad).  
• My biggest tip, by FAR, for anyone taking their first long flight:  BUY A BOTTLE OF WATER BEFORE BOARDING.  We were served beverages, of course, but in a period of 9 hours, I may have consumed a total of 12 ounces of water.  Not enough.  I'm sure if I had asked a flight attendant for more, I would have been obliged.  But if you're like me and would prefer not to press that call button, I'm telling you, buy water before boarding.  And don't say you "don't really like water"...flying dehydrates you, and your body needs it in a bad way.  By the time we landed in London, I knew I was dehydrated.  My headache and achy body told me so.  Take my advice!

I started to get really excited when we began the descent.  England was going to be my first visit to a foreign country.  It was cloudy and a bit foggy, though, so I didn't get to see much of anything except some beautiful green fields, some classically old rowhouses, and proof that Brits drive on the opposite side of the road from Americans!  

Clouds and old buildings.

Look closely and you can see the direction of travel.

Blurry, but it's the best I could do.

Once we landed in London, we made our way toward our next gate to board our flight to Frankfurt.  We passed through security again, which I guess is normal when arriving in another country.  The process was exactly the same as security in American airports, but the British agents were especially friendly and helpful.  The gentleman who assisted me even asked how my prior flight went.  After security, we made our way further until we reached customs.  The agents examined our boarding passes and passports, and that was it.  

We arrived at The Queen's Terminal at London-Heathrow.

Customs...not sure if taking a picture here is okay or not...

Me in disbelief that I was standing in front of Herrod's.

I was a little starry-eyed once we reached our gate and I saw the stores surrounding it:  Herrod's, Burberry, Gucci...wowee!  I took the opportunity for a tourist pic, of course (see above).  

We found a currency conversion kiosk and got some American dollars changed into some pounds and euros.  Rich went to get in line at our gate, and I went over to a little shop not far away to get a couple postcards and some Vaseline for my very dry lips (please see my advice above about drinking lots of water on long flights!). 

Rich in front of a spinning sculpture.

Our prior two flights were on United, but the segment to Frankfurt was on Lufthansa which is a German airline.  There was a little table on the jetway with complimentary newspapers, so I grabbed one.  I don't speak much German, but I recognized immediately the headline on this one.  This tragedy had taken place just a couple days before we left Texas.

Loose translation:  "Taliban murder more than one hundred children."

The Lufthansa flight attendants gave their announcements in both German and English.  It was starting to hit me that I was definitely not in the United States anymore!  

A pretty strip of sunlight through the clouds, likely somewhere over Belgium.

We were served sandwiches on this flight, and Rich and I both chose the chicken and feta one.  Not really sure what was in it, but we were hungry and it wasn't bad.  I fell asleep and woke up to the flight attendant saying something to Rich.  She was telling him that I needed to raise my tray table and raise the window shade (I never knew why the window shade level matters at all!).

This was it.  We were landing in Germany.  I couldn't believe that the time had finally come.  After all the obstacles, all the hoops, all the weeks we waited for official orders...we were landing.  I admit that I cried a little, but they were happy tears of relief.  

Two of our four checked bags had been lost along the way, but the baggage agents were able to quickly trace them to another flight that would be landing a couple hours later.  They promised to deliver them to a friend's apartment the next morning.  

This same friend, Aaron, is also our sponsor during this PCS, and he was waiting just outside the secure area for us.  I was so grateful to have someone waiting for us!  He drove us to the Wiesbaden Army Lodge, where we'll be staying until housing is assigned to us.  The room is like a typical hotel room, except with European outlets, European light switches, and a European tub faucet.

Yep.  Welcome to Wiesbaden.  As in, Germany.

Aaron's wife, Alla (who is from Russia), had made us dinner and sent it with Aaron.  It was delicious, and we gobbled it up before falling asleep in our clothes for several hours.  The time here is 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time and 7 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.  We woke up around midnight here, both of us wide awake.  I decided I'd take a bath, after figuring out how to make the faucet on the bathtub work!  We also opened the gift box that was left at the front desk for us by the church on base--they leave these boxes for all new incoming personnel.  It had a couple bottles of water, a few bags of assorted American chips, and packs of crackers.  At 1am, those Fritos tasted amazing on a gourmet level!

We went back to sleep finally and woke up again to go on base so Rich could do some in-processing.  We also got our ID cards entered into the system so we can get access into the gates, made appointments to take the driving exam at the end of the month, and made an appointment to meet with Housing on Monday.  We had lunch at the dining facility beside Rich's new squadron...fried chicken and macaroni and cheese!  After lunch, Aaron drove us to his apartment in Wiesbaden to pick up our bags that had been delivered, and then we went back to the base so Rich could be read in to his new position.  I couldn't go in for this, so I took the opportunity to enjoy a nap in the backseat of Aaron's car.  This jetlag thing is no joke, yall!

Once we got back to our room, we walked over to the bowling alley to have dinner.  It's only about 200 yards away from the lodge, and there are pool tables on the second floor as well as a karaoke lounge.  I forgot for a few minutes that we weren't in the States at this point.  We were eating American food, surrounded by American people, and John Denver's "City of New Orleans" playing on the sound system.

After we ate, we walked down the hill to the Commissary to look around at what's available grocery-wise.  We're able to get most of what we're used to back in the States--even Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi!  I doubt we'll be drinking as much of either here, however.  As much walking as we'll be doing to get around the city, water is where it's at.  We bought some Vitamin D tablets since the sun rarely shines here this time of year.  It's cloudy and drizzly most of the time.  Vitamin D should help keep the blues away!

Speaking of water, Rich and I have been having regular water and hot chocolate dates downstairs in the lobby of the lodge.  There is complimentary water (with or without gas, more on that later), coffee, hot chocolate, espresso, and cappuccino 24/7.  

Disposable dishes and cups aren't the norm here.  Too wasteful.

Rich getting some water, without gas.

Rich should be home any minute now.  He rode with some other new co-workers to the base at Katterbach today.  We were hoping he'd get to see some beautiful scenery on the way, and I'm also hopeful that he was able to take some pictures.  

Once he gets here, we're planning to walk into downtown Wiesbaden to check out the Christmas market, or Weihnachtsmarkt.  I am SO EXCITED about this.  Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely LOVE Christmas, so this will be an especially exciting thing for us!  Granted that the rain doesn't keep us in tonight, I'll share our Christmas market experience over the weekend!