Just a heads up, there will be a series of posts about our trip, but I want to remember as much as I can. So you dont' have to read all of it if you don't want to. There will be lots of pictures, though.
Thursday March 28 was Steve's last day of work. I spent the day packing, attending a cooking group, and that evening we went to a farewell of a family in the ward who will be moving to South Korea. The plan was that the kids would fall asleep in the car, stay asleep as we put them in bed. Then Steve and I would do some last minute packing, shower, and sleep a little bit before a taxi would come at 11:45pm to take us to the airport.
That did not happen. The kids fell asleep in the car and Big E was successfully transfered to his bed asleep. Miss A, on the other hand, woke up shortly after the transfer and then refused to go back to sleep. She didn't fall back asleep until 10:45ish. Steve had to sit with her on the couch with the TV on before she fell asleep again. I tried to sleep, but couldn't.
It seems that there are no flights leaving Doha at a reasonable hour. Our non-stop flight to Frankfurt left at 2:15am. And do you know what was amazing? The airport was full! It was actually crowded at midnight in the Doha airport. Yuck! It also seems that Doha is expert at making people wait in lines. We waited for the gate to open (which is normal, I know) but then when it was time to board, we waited in line (again normal), but then we walked down some stairs and had to wait for someone to unlock the door so we could get on a bus to go to the plane. I personally think having to take a bus to board a plane is ridiculous. And it's a longish bus ride for what it is.
Anyway. The kids did remarkably well at such an awful hour. Big E was so excited to watch the buses go under the airport to pick people up. "Look! Another bus!!" Miss A, though did not make a fuss, was not happy to be awake. (she woke up once we got to the airport.)
We arrived in Frankfurt at 7am local time, which was only 2 hours behind Doha. After making it through customs we headed for the trains. (In case anyone is wondering, we didn't need any visa b/c we have an American passport and were staying less than 30 days. That's true for any EU country, we also don't need an international driver's license, if we had rented a car, which we didn't).
We bought a 6 day use the trains as much as you want pass for two adults. Children under 6 are free. So that made buying it worth it. And Big E was super excited to ride trains. That's all he would talk about prior to leaving. "We're going to ride trains and a boat!" he'd tell everyone who'd listen. Here we are riding from the airport to the main station.
Parking is not free anywhere, not even in the hotel parking lots. You have to pay so much per night. Parking is also a nightmare it seemed. The old towns were just not built for parked cars. Their solution? Park halfway onto the curb. Notice the blue sign.
After we arrived at the Frankfurt main train station, we stowed our luggage in a locker and then tried to figure out how to get places. Don't mind me getting some coins out of the money belt, which I failed to put in my pocket when I put the belt on.
Here's the ground floor of the station. There are two more level below this one.
We had trouble finding a map, but the nice man in the 1st class lounge gave us one, and even let us come in an warm up, even though we didn't buy 1st class tickets, "because you have babies," he said. Those babies were sound asleep, but we were grateful to sit somewhere warm while we looked at the map.
We decided to head to the Kindermuseum first. It had a few exhibits and a play area for the kids. We let Big E and Miss A run around and play for an hour or two before eating lunch. They really enjoyed it. There were two other english speaking kids there and Big E played with them and built forts out of cushions.
We ate lunch at KFC because it was close and we were quite hungry. It was probably a good thing we decided to eat there. I'm not sure we would have found much else open. It happened that we arrived on Good Friday and almsot everything was closed, even the grocery stores. That's more than you can say in the states. A funny thing happened in the KFC. I went to go change Miss A's diaper but the janitor, who had been sitting on a chair near the restrooms the entire time we were eating, stopped me and said I couldn't change her diaper in there. "I can flush the stinky stuff and it won't be stinky," I said. He said that unless I could take it with me, I couldn't change it in there. He couldn't even tell me where to find another trash can. Not exactly child friendly that store. I wouldn't go there ever again, besides the fact that it's KFC and not really good food.
After lunch we walked down the street to the Eschenheimer Turm, which is an old guard tower that was part of the city old city wall. The wall was torn down a long time ago, but they left the towers standing. A money belt with 4 passports and three layers of clothing and a poor camera angle isn't very flattering, but this is the only picture we have of the tower.
Then we turned around and walked to see the Dom and Museum. The Dom is the Frankfurt Cathedral, also known as St. Bartholomew's. It's the main church in Frankfurt and was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundations of an older church. It was were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected and later crowned in this church.
Sadly, all of Frankfurt's old town was bombed by allied forces in WWII. So it's not exactly original. It was restored in the 1950's to what it looked like though.
Then we rode a train to the main station again, picked up our luggage, and walked the short distance to our hotel. It was only about 3pm, but we were exhausted. Steven and I didn't sleep much on the flight and we were cold as it snowed off and on that day, though no snow was on the ground. We skyped with my mom and dad and sister, let the kids watch a movie, ate dinner, which Steve went to the train station for as we couldn't buy something from the grocery store and went to bed by 8.
Here is a view from our 6th floor window.
Thursday March 28 was Steve's last day of work. I spent the day packing, attending a cooking group, and that evening we went to a farewell of a family in the ward who will be moving to South Korea. The plan was that the kids would fall asleep in the car, stay asleep as we put them in bed. Then Steve and I would do some last minute packing, shower, and sleep a little bit before a taxi would come at 11:45pm to take us to the airport.
That did not happen. The kids fell asleep in the car and Big E was successfully transfered to his bed asleep. Miss A, on the other hand, woke up shortly after the transfer and then refused to go back to sleep. She didn't fall back asleep until 10:45ish. Steve had to sit with her on the couch with the TV on before she fell asleep again. I tried to sleep, but couldn't.
It seems that there are no flights leaving Doha at a reasonable hour. Our non-stop flight to Frankfurt left at 2:15am. And do you know what was amazing? The airport was full! It was actually crowded at midnight in the Doha airport. Yuck! It also seems that Doha is expert at making people wait in lines. We waited for the gate to open (which is normal, I know) but then when it was time to board, we waited in line (again normal), but then we walked down some stairs and had to wait for someone to unlock the door so we could get on a bus to go to the plane. I personally think having to take a bus to board a plane is ridiculous. And it's a longish bus ride for what it is.
Anyway. The kids did remarkably well at such an awful hour. Big E was so excited to watch the buses go under the airport to pick people up. "Look! Another bus!!" Miss A, though did not make a fuss, was not happy to be awake. (she woke up once we got to the airport.)
We arrived in Frankfurt at 7am local time, which was only 2 hours behind Doha. After making it through customs we headed for the trains. (In case anyone is wondering, we didn't need any visa b/c we have an American passport and were staying less than 30 days. That's true for any EU country, we also don't need an international driver's license, if we had rented a car, which we didn't).
We bought a 6 day use the trains as much as you want pass for two adults. Children under 6 are free. So that made buying it worth it. And Big E was super excited to ride trains. That's all he would talk about prior to leaving. "We're going to ride trains and a boat!" he'd tell everyone who'd listen. Here we are riding from the airport to the main station.
Parking is not free anywhere, not even in the hotel parking lots. You have to pay so much per night. Parking is also a nightmare it seemed. The old towns were just not built for parked cars. Their solution? Park halfway onto the curb. Notice the blue sign.
After we arrived at the Frankfurt main train station, we stowed our luggage in a locker and then tried to figure out how to get places. Don't mind me getting some coins out of the money belt, which I failed to put in my pocket when I put the belt on.
Here's the ground floor of the station. There are two more level below this one.
We had trouble finding a map, but the nice man in the 1st class lounge gave us one, and even let us come in an warm up, even though we didn't buy 1st class tickets, "because you have babies," he said. Those babies were sound asleep, but we were grateful to sit somewhere warm while we looked at the map.
We decided to head to the Kindermuseum first. It had a few exhibits and a play area for the kids. We let Big E and Miss A run around and play for an hour or two before eating lunch. They really enjoyed it. There were two other english speaking kids there and Big E played with them and built forts out of cushions.
We ate lunch at KFC because it was close and we were quite hungry. It was probably a good thing we decided to eat there. I'm not sure we would have found much else open. It happened that we arrived on Good Friday and almsot everything was closed, even the grocery stores. That's more than you can say in the states. A funny thing happened in the KFC. I went to go change Miss A's diaper but the janitor, who had been sitting on a chair near the restrooms the entire time we were eating, stopped me and said I couldn't change her diaper in there. "I can flush the stinky stuff and it won't be stinky," I said. He said that unless I could take it with me, I couldn't change it in there. He couldn't even tell me where to find another trash can. Not exactly child friendly that store. I wouldn't go there ever again, besides the fact that it's KFC and not really good food.
After lunch we walked down the street to the Eschenheimer Turm, which is an old guard tower that was part of the city old city wall. The wall was torn down a long time ago, but they left the towers standing. A money belt with 4 passports and three layers of clothing and a poor camera angle isn't very flattering, but this is the only picture we have of the tower.
Then we turned around and walked to see the Dom and Museum. The Dom is the Frankfurt Cathedral, also known as St. Bartholomew's. It's the main church in Frankfurt and was built in the 14th and 15th centuries on the foundations of an older church. It was were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were elected and later crowned in this church.
Sadly, all of Frankfurt's old town was bombed by allied forces in WWII. So it's not exactly original. It was restored in the 1950's to what it looked like though.
Then we rode a train to the main station again, picked up our luggage, and walked the short distance to our hotel. It was only about 3pm, but we were exhausted. Steven and I didn't sleep much on the flight and we were cold as it snowed off and on that day, though no snow was on the ground. We skyped with my mom and dad and sister, let the kids watch a movie, ate dinner, which Steve went to the train station for as we couldn't buy something from the grocery store and went to bed by 8.
6 comments:
The view from your window almost matches the one from our apartment. We are clearly in EUROPE. Great post. You are so brave to travel with kids!
So fun!!! I hope to see Germany one day! It looks like your kids did pretty well!
Loved the post and pictures! You are brave to travel with small children and you are definitely making memories in the process.
Looks like an awesome trip! We're so jealous. Can't wait to hear more about it!
The pictures are beautiful! I still cannot believe how much Elliot looks like a little Steve. Can't wait to read more stories!
I'm exhausted just reading! What a great trip! Glad you made it out of Qatar!
Jill
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