The Hicks Family in Germany: Part 1

Amazingly, I am feeling somewhat back to normal.

Even though I'm in the midst of colorguard season, getting t4s ready and books to the accountant, not to mention the fact that birthday season is in full swing, I'm actually feeling ready to take on such fun things as blogging.

I still have to share in spurts so as to not overwhelm myself.

So, today is all about our air travel.

This was our first time in the new Edmonton International terminal and I was impressed.

I especially loved the 3D art below as well as that by the talented Jason Carter. 

{No pic included, it was at security so my hands were otherwise occupied.}

The kids couldn't get enough of plane watching so we made sure to have a window seat in each airport.

 Cedric flew on an infant ticket which was one of the reasons we could afford this trip. 

{The others were travel points and friends who call Germany home.}

The kids were both great on the flights {the ipad played no small part in this}.

What wasn't great was the 2 hours we spent in this plane {below} on the Edmonton tarmac.

It made our 2 1/2 hour layover in Chicago a smidge too short and we missed our connection to {and day-trip in} Dublin.

O'Hare is definitely one of those airports in which you need a long connection time, it would have taken us over an hour to get from gate to gate.

We, however, were stopped at security where they told us the flight was gone and sent us to the airline desk.

 The positive {let's focus on positive} that came of the missed flight was being switched to a nearly empty flight to Heathrow which got us to Dublin in time for our final flight to Dusseldorf.

Yes, that's 3 connections through 5 countries.  

At least Fiona was thrilled with the numerous passport stamps .

We just made this new flight and it would not have been possible had we not carried on {I'm patting myself on the back as I type this}.

Since the passengers were sparse both kids had a decent sleep and we landed slightly tired but happy.

 Our original flights had us spending 8 hours in Dublin, enough time for a quick visit to town to take in a couple of sights.

Instead we had a quick 2 hour layover.

We were disappointed of course but quickly reminded ourselves of how lucky we were to be taking this trip at all.

Regardless, after even our small amount of research, Dublin is on the short list of places we would like to go soon.

Our trip home was fairly uneventful.

Though we did get stuck in Chicago on account of weather and therefore didn't make it home until the wee hours of the morning.

Considering our O'Hare experiences we will avoid it like the plague on future adventures.

I thought a photo of {hopefully} our last visit to this airport was appropriate.

Having said that, we would like to visit Chicago again some day.

Is there a train to Chicago?

Maybe we'll drive.

In the end I would call our air travel successful despite the snags.

We kept true to our motto to go with the flow and it paid off.