Welcome to Germany

As I type this, I'm nodding off, rubbing my eyes (well, that one probably doesn't happen while I type or I'd be famous for my computer typing skillz), and glancing longingly at my hotel bed.  But, in the hopes of reassuring family and friends that we made it safely, and to relay some of the more eventful parts of our trans-atlantic trip, I wanted to get it all out before I forget in the daze of house finding, unpacking, and dog walking.

Our trip from MN to MD was completely uneventful except for the fact that we arrived about 17 hours ahead of schedule and had no where to go since we couldn't check into our hotel room yet.  With Grandpa (Timmy's g-pa) and my FIL at the wheel as self-labeled trip decision makers, it only made sense that we made a midnight trip to D.C. to tour around.  It was actually fun except for the part that I really couldn't see anything.  I caved around 5 in the morning and begged them to take us to our hotel room.  Once they did, I fell into bed and didn't wake up until that evening.  Much needed sleep.

We left Baltimore around 4pm on Monday afternoon, and endured the most boring 7 hour flight which can only be beat by the 12 hour flight returning from Kuwait.  It didn't help that I was constantly asking Timmy if he thought the pups were doing okay and if they were terrified of the noise, which after a certain point he refused to answer me and gave me the cold shoulder.  I couldn't help it!  Poor dogs must be scared out of their minds, and they were...back to that in a minute.

We landed in Germany at 6am local time on Tuesday morning, and were actually asked to come disembark before anyone else on the plane, which was a definite shocker for us.  Turns out that Timmy's future coworkers were keeping an eye out for him and wanted to make sure he was taken care of.  They pulled our luggage for us, set the dogs in a corner, and pulled us into a conference room to make sure everything was taken care of.  In the Air Force, that means you hope that one or two things were done correctly and will fix the rest as you can.  Turns out that our room reservation (made for us by someone at Ramstein) was not a pet friendly room and we had no where to put them.  There are always kennels, but they are very pricey and not really an option.  Three hours of talking and pacing later (during which time I finally managed to get the dogs outside so they could go potty), one of the supervisors at the passenger terminal offered to watch them until we can get a place.  Life saver!!!  I honestly don't know what we would have done if he hadn't stepped forward.  I was at my wit's end and about to start bawling...not a pleasant thought since I was so overly tired it would have lasted forever.

The dogs, on the other hand, were not happy with me at all.  Ninja forgave me for shutting him in his kennel after a couple minutes, but I continued to get the cold shoulder from Sass after hours and hours of cajoling and petting.  It didn't help that she was trembling anytime someone came near or she heard a plane.  She actually preferred to stay in her kennel even though she had spent an entire 24 hours in it by that point. Poor darling broke my heart, but I knew she would rebound eventually.

We managed to get our car today, which took about four hours, but it has already saved us from having to be shuttled by other Airmen.  The dogs are perfectly happy spending time with their temporary family (which has a dog and two little girls...they're in heaven).  Timmy and I had our first date out to dinner in a foreign country, and tomorrow we get to wander around to do a little shopping for necessities at the amazing BX on base.  I was too overwhelmed to whip out the camera while touring Germany countryside this afternoon, but I promise that pictures will be coming soon, and probably more than you would like to see.

That's all for now, and I'm heading to bed.  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend, and cannot wait to hear about Thanksgiving celebrations as we celebrate our first in a new land!