Day 1, August 14

A perfect start to an unexpected trip! - Part 1

The year leading up to our vacation we had not dreamt about being able to pull off another trip this summer, but when some things fell into place, it started to look good for a Florida summer vacation.

And a few weeks later everything was booked and we were starting to make adjustments ….

And here we were. Finally the day we were to leave had dawned.

We got up around 7am, took showers and had some breakfast of leftovers to empty out the fridge. We then got our luggage ready, closed up the house and waited for the taxi to arrive. 

Didn’t take long and it arrived and the luggage got loaded into the boot and onto the back seat and off we went. It’s only a 20 minute drive and soon we found ourselves at the airport, rolling in our luggage to send it on its way. Luckily the check-in counter to drop off luggage was empty and within two minutes all of our luggage was on its way to Florida. 

We got some money from the ATM before heading through security and after that we still had time to stroll through the tiny Duty Free shop, before we found two seats and waited for our plane to arrive. 

A few minutes later it rolled in, passengers were disembarking and soon it was our turn to get on board. Right when we boarded we were handed some snacks to enjoy during our flight. We found our seats and got buckled in 

and soon they closed the doors and our plane started moving. It’s a pretty short flight 

and it didn’t take long for the flight attendants to start serving drinks. Tom had asked for some beer and was served a 

Birra Dolomiti, which he enjoyed. I had asked for some Coke and tried the snack we had been handed, 

Mini Corn Snacks, flavoured with Rosemary, but unfortunately they tasted like Rosemary cardboard and only one of them got eaten. I looked out the window for a while and soon we were descending onto Frankfurt Airport. 

We had about two hours until our connecting flight, so there was no need to rush once we got off the bus that had taken us from the plane to the airport. The planes we fly in on are rather small and so are parked pretty far from the actual terminal. Once in the terminal we checked if the departure gate had changed and then started our trek over there. We needed to go through passport control and for once that European passport really paid off, as there were only a handful of people queueing up in the EU self serve line and the regular line was long. We walked over to the Z-area of the airport and stopped at the Duty Free store to look around and Tom found some Whiskey he wanted to buy and I had found some perfume which we bought, stored in Tom’s on board case and then we walked further on. 

When we passed a bakery we decided to get a snack as we had thrown out the cardboard corn snack. The line in front of the bakery counter was long, but soon it was our turn and we picked up our goodies, then found a rather empty gate where we sat down and enjoyed our flatbreads. We had decided to share a Diet Coke and the two flatbreads we had bought, one that was topped with halved Frankfurter Sausages, which are kind of hotdogs and lots of cheese 

and one that was topped with Lardons and cheese.

 We ripped them in half and they were so good. By now it was past noon and it was time for us to head to our gate. One more check of ID and we were hiking down to one of the last gates in the area. It was close to boarding, so we got in line right away and about 10 minutes later the gates opened and we were allowed to get on board. We had booked Premium Economy seats, so they were pretty much right at the beginning of the aisle. Tom stowed our hand luggage and then we sat down and buckled in 

and watched the stream of people boarding. Once everyone was seated we were served some 

Orange, Mango and mint juice as a welcome drink. This was the time when we noticed that the family in the row in front of us was behaving rather strange. Two of their kids in the row behind them were all over the seats, the husband didn’t seem to care and the wife was covering one of the kids in her row with a blanket. Little did we know that the family would be the reason for some uncomfortable times on that flight. We departed a few minutes late, but once we had taken off 

and reached cruising altitude we were in for more snacks and drinks. First off, we were handed some small bags of 

Pretzels and Crackers and then it was time for drinks. Tom had another beer, a Warsteiner this time, while I stuck with Coke. 

And while we enjoyed drinks and snacks we checked out the entertainment on board. And it was then that the woman and mother to the four kiddos started to get antsy and when she realized that her husband had dozed off, she proceeded to lean on his seat and pushed it back so hard that it came to a halt with a bang. It was like she had pushed him into Tom’s lap, as Tom’s personal space was kind of gone. We looked at each other, Tom had to push his seat back a bit as well, but it was still uncomfortable. 

About two hours into the flight and an hour into uncomfortable sitting for Tom, they were starting to hand out lunch. We hoped that the guy in front of Tom would wake up, but nope and Tom had to eat his lunch scrunched in. 

They had handed out menus beforehand, so we knew what to expect and we both had chosen the same meal.