Getting There

I am writing this part in flight…we are on our way to Barcelona!  Eitan is asleep next to me in a melatonin stupor, and Andrew is watching a nondescript American sitcom on the Condor flight monitor as the food carts start parading through the aisles.  Andrew splurged on an extra six inches of legroom and reclining seats for us in “Premium Economy” (read this as “business class” comparable) – with the bonus of free (yes FREE) alcohol during meals.  Good stuff – we are now both equipped with white wine and Happy Mix (German Chex Mix) and we are only a few minutes into the 9+ hour flight.  Making whoopi already!  I have to admit that this is the first time I have flown on a German airline and it is very humbling to absolutely have no clue what the pilot is telling us along the route (at least he does an abridged translation to English for us outliers) – at least when we have flown on El Al I can call on my rusty Hebrew to feel part of the in crowd.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Ari, his friend Zack from U of M, and our dear friend Melissa for their teamwork this morning in getting us out of the house – and keeping me from considering divorce on this eve of relocating half way around the world (indulge me – this makes a good story)…Andrew and I have been married more than 26 years and I have always known that we have polar opposite approaches to planning and executing against deadlines.  I am a project manager  and Type A planner) – he is a “just in time” visionary and  procrastinator.  This usually makes for incredibly stressful lead ups to major trips and shifts in our normal routine (I think this move qualifies, right?).  The only consolation I have at this point is that I deep, deep down know that Andrew ALWAYS comes through in a pinch and has not a single bone of mal-intent in his body.  I still wanted to strangle him – starting about 9am yesterday – when he decided it was FINALLY time to start packing up his office and his suitcase.  The result was that this morning looked a little like a three- ring circus…we had to seal boxes, redistribute weight in suitcases, shuttle “to be stored” boxes to the garage for long-term keeping,  figure out where to pack the Xbox we ‘forgot” needed to be in a carry on bag, and then pray that we weren’t so over the baggage weight limit that we’d have to leave Eitan behind!  In the end, we got it done – albeit with an incredibly ridiculous excess baggage fee (it’s only money, right?).  And we’re off!

Notes from Frankfurt Airport

Our flight from Seattle to Frankfurt was long (9 hours and change) but smooth and about as relaxing as an international flight can be.  We all actually got a little bit of shut eye, watched movies, ate pretty good food (is that even possible on an airline???), and arrived close to on time.   A bit of sticker shock when we exchanged our US dollars for Euros for the first time here – while we hope that the euro zone stabilizes soon, it would be nice to ride the recession down to more parity in our favor.  This is a busy airport – looks like it is under expansion construction and there’s obviously a lot of business travelers coming through here – you can tell as the guys with briefcases are more formally dressed than stateside.  It’s hot and sticky here…we have to get used to that as Barcelona summers are just that.

We Made It!

I am now sitting in the common area of our summer apartment in el Born (now THIS is “real time reporting”).  with the help of our ‘gestor’  Popsi and our new friend and daughter of the apartment owner, we have shlepped 3 large suitcases, 3 smaller suitcases, carry ons, a bag of Ruthie’s stuff AND 3 very large boxes to this amazing little oasis smack in the middle of the Gothic area of the city.  The building is adjacent to a 13th century church and a block from the center of lots of restaurants, shops, plazas and oh, my – great pizza.  I cannot stay awake to give more deatils but will do so manana…and the great adventure truly has begun.