Are we there yet? How about now?: Day One

Sunday, August 11th we arrived at the Logan Airport for our European trek. The kids were anxious and excited to fly on the airplane and begin our adventure. We've spent the last few weeks preparing for and planning the trip. The next three pictures were taken at the airport. You can see the anticipation on their faces!

The first leg of flying ran smoothly. We had a layover in Philadelphia and the flight there only took an hour and a half. By the time the girls had settled in with snacks and activities, we were preparing to land.

I was nervous about our last leg of flying. The flight from Philadelphia to Zurich, Switzerland is seven and a half hours. My hope was that they could catch a few hours of sleep on the flight so they could adapt to the new time change when we arrived in Europe. They did amazingly well on the flight. Natalie and Mallory sat with Jay a few rows ahead of me, Hillary and Rosalie. We were served dinner since it was an overnight flight (none of the girls would eat it - surprise, surprise) and they were running previews for the inflight movies, so that took up a lot of time. I got a kick out of Rosie with her headphones on. She couldn't hear how loudly she was talking when the pilot gave the OK to use your devices again. She yelled, "Wait?! So I can use my device now Mom?" Everyone around us got a kick out of it.

The girls started to fall asleep around 9:30 and slept until we landed at about 3 am (9 am Zurich time). I had Rosalie awkwardly cradled in my arms and Hillary with her head in my lap so she could extend her feet. I slept a total of one hour on the plane and Jay, for two. It was miserable but I was concerned the girls would sleep well to be able to function the next day. I watched three inflight movies and felt like a zombie when we landed. I guess I forgot about the part that we would have to function also.

A Greek passenger on the flight had a medical emergency about an hour from landing. The girls seemed calm about the situation even with the pilot making repeated requests for doctors, nurses, EMTs and Greek translators to help out on board. We had to remain seated when we landed so awaiting paramedics could get on the flight and put the passenger into an ambulance. Scary stuff!

Finally in Zurich and waiting on our rental car

Our first stop in Luzern, Switzerland was about 45 minutes from the airport. Our first impression of Europe did not disappoint! The walking bridges and buildings are so old and all so unique and beautiful.

We stopped for cappuccino and pretzels at Restaurant Rathaus Brauerei right on the lake. Rosalie held some of her pretzel aside to feed the ducks and swans after lunch. She kept getting closer and closer. I think she may have been trying to feed them by hand!