Survived!:-) Oh boy, what an adventure I had! I ended up totally beaten up! I’m quite used to flying with one kid, we used to fly to Prague with Amaia every 4-6 weeks from wherever we were. She’s always been very good on planes, except for a nasty habit of being awake all the time and falling asleep while landing. I still remember how I put a lady sitting in front of us to sleep by my singing and Amaia was as fresh as a rose and then she fell asleep exactly at the moment we touched the ground. I carried her in my arms to the baggage claim and everybody was saying ‘oh, she’s so cute, look at her how she’s sleeping. But nobody offered help when I had to get the suitcase from the belt. I put her down on some benches there and then picked her up again. She was flat. I passed the passport control and the customs with her in one arm, leaning on my shoulder and suitcase in the other hand. Then my hubby took over and she woke up at the moment we put her in the car seat….Anyway, last year we took her to Mexico with us, it was a 10 hour flight (and before a 3,5 hour drive from Bilbao to Madrid and another 4 hours waiting at the airport) and she was just amazingly GOOD! She slept only 2 hours on the plane (it was a day flight) and the rest we were just painting, playing with toys etc. When we got there we still had to get on a bus and go from Cancun to our hotel close to Tulum. And she was still awake when we arrived!
Back to our last trip – again, thanks God she’s so good and used to flying because if not I would probably not be posting today, lol! There’re no direct flights from Bilbao to Prague (charters in summer but you can only stay 2 weeks max) so we always have to change planes. There’re several options. Frankfurt (that we usually do) but it’s massive and I didn’t feel like walking a marathon to change terminals:-) Paris (famous Charles de Gaulle) – I knew they wouldn’t give me the stroller, it had happened to me before (security reasons, ha!) Apart from that they happen to confuse the routes from time to time – the airport buses take you to a plane that goes completely somewhere else than your ticket says. Madrid – forget it if you want your luggage to arrive to the same airport as you do. So it was either Brussels or Munich. Munich had better connection time wise; although there were almost 5 hours waiting for the connection flight to Prague. I chose Munich.
So our odyssey started in Bilbao. We had to take a bus to get to the plane (that had never happened before!). The buses are quite old fashioned since they never use them so imagine getting a stroller to a double decker:-) Once happily boarded on the plane we had to wait for almost one hour for the crew to find two suitcases of some people who had checked them in but never showed up on the plane (security reasons again, what if there were ETA bombs!?! Luckily enough we had a priest sitting next to us, lol!) Then we finally took off. Both kids were just darlings! Well, with Amaia I kind of take it for granted, hehe. The shocking thing was that my dear little man did not cry a single time along the whole journey (I mean the whole day since 8 am when we started off until 6 pm when we arrived!!!) Can you imagine that? An 8 months old just either quiet or cracking up??? I wouldn’t…but I’ve just experienced it! SO LUCKY! Okay, back to our trip – so we arrived in Munich and I asked for the stroller. They wouldn’t give it to me! Damn the security reasons….So I had 4 hours (arrived with delay) to spend with a 9,5 kg baby in my arms and a huge backpack stuffed with laptop plus accessories and all the kids’ stuff…say another 9 kg. Baaaah! Additionally I found out that none of my phone cards was working for calls abroad (should have!) and I couldn’t call my DH…had to call from a phone booth in the end (after ??? years, lol!) Eneko quietly fell asleep in my arms after half an hour of walking around, finding a place to sit. And, eventually, eat. We found it and I put him down on a cushioned corner bench and me and Amaia had lunch in peace. She got French fries and ice cream after, yum! I’m usually quite strict with her diet (you know, don’t let her eat junk food, munchies etc.) but man, for how well she behaved I’d just let her eat French fries and ice cream for a month! We did some reward shopping after too:-) We made it to our second plane of the day (by bus:-)) and Amaia fell asleep before we got up. Sitting straight, with her head to the side, poor thingy. There was enough room so I moved across the isle with Eneko and made a comfy bed for her from two seats. The crew was nice enough to let her laying down (with the seatbelt fastened) even for the landing (usually they bug you to put the kids seated). We made it fine to the terminal (by bus, off course….) And the suitcases were out quick too. We had to wait quite some time after for the stroller and car seat though. Like if it didn’t arrive on the same plane…My mom and her hubby were waiting outside and took us home (a few wrong turns but that was ok:-)) The last bit was get the suitcases to our 4th floor (no elevator, sorry…) Our apartment is in one of those beautiful old buildings in the center, with high ceilings….that means…103 stairs up. My mom’s hubby has just passed very nasty herpes and can’t hold a cup of coffee so it was me who had to bring the luggage up. Nice work out, that I can tell you! But now we are HOME…safely, happily, home sweet home! Oh, did I tell you about the hole our neighbor did in our living room while fixing his water pipes…..?......
