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September 4, 2006

The journey home

Beep. Right after I set both of my alarms for 2:45am I got a text message on my phone. It was 11pm. It was Bob texting that he'd managed to damage two rental cars now. I couldn't let that one wait the 36 hours before I was back online so I called him. "What happened?!!" He was okay but shaken after driving the very pedestrian Royal Mile. OHMYGOD. Bob said, "You are right Jana. I'm endangering lives by driving in Edinburgh." He was okay, but rental car #2 was damaged in the same place as rental car #1.

I hung up and went to sleep. Three and a half hours later I woke up and did the mad scramble for the airport. 3:15am the car was supposed to arrive to take us to the airport. 3:25 no car. There was one car idling out front but I thought that couldn't possibly be the car to take us to the airport. It was one of those compact euro cars. Finally the driver got out and asked if we were going to the airport. I said, "yes." I started hauling out our luggage and he said, "how many of you are going? Are those all of your bags?" Yes. He said, "No way. Impossible." Eek. He ended up taking Gro to the airport with the luggage and then coming back for the rest of us. I guess Karsten had wanted to go on the first trip because after the cab left without him he yelled at me, "Mommy, you're crushing my heart into smitherens!" 45 minutes later we made it to the airport with no time to spare, but we did make it.

The story of Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde was inspired by a real life character from Edinburgh. I think my kids were inspired by the story as well. By day, well behaved. At 3am evil twins. They kicked the chairs in front of them. Screamed. Hit each other. This was only 3 hours in to the 20 hour journey. I was fearing for my sanity and the others on the plane. I hauled out my laptop and started a DVD. Minutes later it went into hibernation mode but by then we were landing and on to leg two of the trip.

We had a 5 hour layover at Schipol. I love that airport but I was reminded that there are some Dutch oddities out there. We bought the kids some happy meals at McDonalds with some spare Euros I had found around our flat. I ordered a water. The water came in a cup with a lid and straw. I picked the cup up and it was hot! I took it back and asked for cold water. The woman said, "we don't have cold water." I would have just asked for ice but remembered Holland is a country without ice. Nevermind. I'd drink hot water. After the kids finished their happy meals I put the straw in my water and took a big suck. Ack! My mouth was scalded! Nevermind, hydration is overrated....

The positive thing about Schipol is it is loaded with great things to do. I tried to find the cool play area I'd found last time I was there. I never did relocate it, but I found 3 other great play areas instead. Right before boarding the plane I bought a big jug of water. I had read that you can bring bottles of water for babies but you have to taste it in front of security. This is what I did for Britta's bottle of milk before boarding in Edinburgh. No. You can't bring bottles of water on the plane. I had to ditch it. Yeah, so much for hydration.

We settled on the plane. Britta sat behind Karsten so when she kicked the seats it was only him she was bothering. Karsten had a private tv screen so he had no need to kick or scream. All was well. My eyes started getting sleepy. I shut them just for a second. Then a few seconds longer. Britta was coloring with markers and very happy. I cracked my eyes open. She was stamping herself with marker. Oh good, she was happy. I closed my eyes again. Eventually my eyes opened again. The nice Dutch guy sitting next to Britta said, "She's morphed into the Incredible Hulk." Her whole body was covered. I was more happy that I'd had a few moments of sleep.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, thank goodness. We made it home 10 hours later and I took a 2 hour nap. My parents came over and made dinner. The kids went to bed and slept until 6 or 7am. I was expecting pancakes at 3am again so I was quite happy.

Posted by jana at September 4, 2006 8:12 PM

Comments

Posted by: Robert Cottrell at September 5, 2006 1:10 AM