*****English Version below*****
Die Reise
Die Reise
Wir haben 9 Kisten, 7 Koffer, und 5 Stück Handgepäck gepackt (mehrmals... weil Minimenschen sie immer wieder auspackten). 3 Autos hat es gebraucht um uns, unsere Familie, und das ganze Gepäck nach Dresden zu fahren. Zum Glück hat Johannes´ Schwester einen riesen VW Bus... sonst hätten wir wahrscheinlich einen Transporter mieten müssen.
Das Gepäck wurde ohne Problem eingecheckt und dann fing die tränenreiche Verabschiedung an. Über die Jahre stellte ich fest, dass unbefristete Verabschiedungen die schmerzhaftesten sind. Tschüss Sagen tut bei weitem nicht so viel weh, wenn man das genaue Wiedersehen schon vor Augen hat. Aber wenn man gar nicht weiß, wann wir uns genau wiedersehen werden... da tut es doch ein bisschen mehr weh. Wir wissen schon, dass wir wieder besuchen kommen. Es gibt aber noch so viele Unklarheiten in Calgary, dass wir bis jetzt keine Reisen geplant haben. Also diesmal bleibt es traurig und offen.
Nächster Halt: Frankfurt! Der erste Flug war ereignislos. Wir müssen dafür dankbar sein, dass unsere Kinder mit Druckänderungen nicht zu kämpfen haben. Sie haben ganz zufrieden die Rückenlehnetaschen inventarisiert und schüchtern die anderen Fluggäste angelächelt. Die Zwischenlandung in Frankfurt war auch schnell und schmerzfrei (na gut, Ailis hat in die Trage durch den ganzen Flughafen geschrien - das war noch ein wenig schmerzhaft). Schnell durften wir unsere Sitze im 2. Flugzeug finden.
Parkinsonsche Gesetz heißt dass, "Arbeit dehnt sich in genau dem Maß aus, wie Zeit für ihre Erledigung zur Verfügung steht." Wir hatten die Theorie, dass das gleiche auch für Aufmerksamkeit für Kinder im Flugzeug gilt: sie werden genau so viel Aufmerksamkeit in Anspruch nehmen, wie zur Verfüng gestellt wird. Wir probierten einen Tipp aus dem Internet aus in dem wir einen Sitz getrennt von der Familie buchten und betreuten die Kinder abwechselnd. Wir hatten 2 Stunden Schichten wo einer von uns die Kinder zähmte während der andere Kopfhörer anmachte und die Familie völlig ignorierte.
Ich muss sagen, dass wir jetzt vom Konzept komplett überzeugt sind und es wieder in Zukunft ähnlich machen werden. Wir sind in Calgary in viel besserem Zustand angekommen, im Vergleich zu anderen Reisen mit Babys. Weniger erschöpft angekommen hieß wiederum, dass wir schneller durch den Jetlag durchgekommen und uns an Mountain Time gewöhnt haben!
Die Kinder waren ok mit der Flugreise. Sie haben beide nicht wirklich geschlafen, aber H hat den Zugang zum Touchscreen voll ausgebeutet und A war mit den Snacks und Spielzeug größtenteils zufrieden. Ich habe versucht, einen Film für H abzuspielen, weil ich so viel gutes von Encanto gehört habe... Ohne je einen ganzen Film gesehen zu haben, brachte H ungefähr 30 Sekunden Geduld auf bevor sie wieder mit hin und her swipen weitermachte. Na gut. Ich habe während meine Pause Encanto für mich geguckt - war sehr schön.
Mit vielleicht dem schlechtesten Timing überhaupt, ist H direkt während der Landung eingeschlafen. Sie war nicht sehr begeistert als wir sie wenigen Minuten später aus dem Sitz ziehen mussten.
Johannes und ich waren sehr erleichtert, mit dem Fliegen fertig zu sein. Nicht destotrotz waren wir noch ziemlich nervös vor dem Gespräch mit dem Grenzwächter. Deutsche Touristen dürfen bis zu 6 Monaten in Kanada ohne Visum bleiben, wir warten aber noch auf seinen Aufenthaltstitel. Da die kanadische Grenzwächter ziemlich viel Spielraum haben, wäre es nicht unmöglich gewesen, dass er Johannes nicht durchlässt. Zum Glück, hatte er kein Problem mit unserer Situation und uns durchgewunken (und mich auch zum obligatorischen Covidtest eingeladen...)
Nachher durften wir 3 Gepäckwagen und einen Kinderwagen einen sehr langen Flur entlang zur Zollkontrolle schieben. Ein barmherziger Zollbeamter warf einen Blick auf unsere triefäugigen Kinder und legte unsere Akte direkt oben auf der Stapel, damit waren wir innerhalb einer halben Stunde abgefertigt. Mit all dem Gepäck haben wir dann Hilfe von zwei weiteren Zollbeamter ins Boot geholt und damit waren wir endlich frei!!
Meine Eltern und liebe Freundin, Megan, haben uns und unser Gepäck begrüßt (es hat wieder 2 Autos gebraucht um alle Körper und Taschen ans Ziel zu bringen) und wir fühlten uns fröhlich und erleichtert, die Reise hinter uns zu haben.
***** English Version*****
The Journey
We finished packing (and repacking) 9 boxes, 7 suitcases, and 6 carry-on bags. We loaded up a 3 car caravan and began our journey with a drive to Dresden. Thank goodness Johannes´ sister has a huge VW bus otherwise we probably would have had to rent a vehicle just to transport all our luggage.
We got all our luggage checked and then began the tearful goodbyes. Over the years I´ve noticed that goodbyes are always much more painful when it is open ended. Saying goodbye when you already have the next visit planned is much less painful than saying goodbye when you´re not actually certain when you´ll see each other again. We know we will be back, but until more things are certain about our lives in Calgary we don´t feel comfortable booking any trips yet... so an open-ended, tear-filled goodbye it is this time.
Next stop! Frankfurt. The first flight was uneventful, we are so grateful our children don´t struggle with the pressure changes hurting their ears, they both enjoyed inspecting everything in the seatbacks and smiling shyly at other passengers.
The layover in Frankfurt was quick and painless (well, except for Ailis screaming in the carrier on my back through the entire airport... that was a little painful). Then we boarded the plane for our long flight to Calgary.
Parkinson´s Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." We theorized that the same holds true for how much attention our children would need on the plane - they would need as much parental attention as was made available to them. So we decided to try what some other parents on the internet have suggested which was to book 1 seat apart from the family and for the parents to take shifts sitting with the children. We took 2 hour shifts where one of us wrangled the babies and the other put on some headphones and ignored the family completely (including when the children were screaming).
I have to say we are now big fans of this arrangement and will repeat it in future. We arrived feeling so much less exhausted and frazzled than we have previously, which in turn seemed to take the edge off of jetlag and helped us adjust to Mountain time more quickly!
The girls were ok with air travel. Neither of them slept during the flight (9 hours) but H enjoyed manipulating the touch screen of her seat-back entertainment system and we brought enough snacks and small toys to keep A mollified. I did try to play a movie for H, thinking that Encanto was sure to be a hit... But H has never actually watched a movie before so she was much more interested in swiping the screen repeatedly than she was in watching anything. Ah well. I watched Encanto by myself during my 2 hour break - it was lovely.
In a case of hilariously bad timing - H fell asleep as the plane was landing. She protested loudly at being pulled from her seat a few minutes later to debark the plane.
Johannes and I were relieved to be off the plane but we were still nervous about speaking to the border agent. We are still waiting for Johannes´ application for Permanent Residence to be approved so it was a calculated gamble to fly to Canada - but German tourists are allowed to stay in Canada for up to 6 months without a visa. Luckily the border agent waved us through (though not before telling me I´d been randomly selected for covid testing...).
Afterwards we got to push 3 carts of luggage plus a stroller down a very long hallway to customs. A very kind soul took one look at our bleary-eyed children and placed our file at the top of the pile so we were in an out in under half an hour. Then 2 more customs agents helped us roll all our luggage out to the arrivals hall and we were finally free!!
My parents and friend Megan greeted us and all our luggage (it did take 2 vehicles to get all bodies and bags to the right place) and we felt such relief to have the journey behind us.
The Journey
We finished packing (and repacking) 9 boxes, 7 suitcases, and 6 carry-on bags. We loaded up a 3 car caravan and began our journey with a drive to Dresden. Thank goodness Johannes´ sister has a huge VW bus otherwise we probably would have had to rent a vehicle just to transport all our luggage.
We got all our luggage checked and then began the tearful goodbyes. Over the years I´ve noticed that goodbyes are always much more painful when it is open ended. Saying goodbye when you already have the next visit planned is much less painful than saying goodbye when you´re not actually certain when you´ll see each other again. We know we will be back, but until more things are certain about our lives in Calgary we don´t feel comfortable booking any trips yet... so an open-ended, tear-filled goodbye it is this time.
Next stop! Frankfurt. The first flight was uneventful, we are so grateful our children don´t struggle with the pressure changes hurting their ears, they both enjoyed inspecting everything in the seatbacks and smiling shyly at other passengers.
The layover in Frankfurt was quick and painless (well, except for Ailis screaming in the carrier on my back through the entire airport... that was a little painful). Then we boarded the plane for our long flight to Calgary.
Parkinson´s Law states that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." We theorized that the same holds true for how much attention our children would need on the plane - they would need as much parental attention as was made available to them. So we decided to try what some other parents on the internet have suggested which was to book 1 seat apart from the family and for the parents to take shifts sitting with the children. We took 2 hour shifts where one of us wrangled the babies and the other put on some headphones and ignored the family completely (including when the children were screaming).
I have to say we are now big fans of this arrangement and will repeat it in future. We arrived feeling so much less exhausted and frazzled than we have previously, which in turn seemed to take the edge off of jetlag and helped us adjust to Mountain time more quickly!
The girls were ok with air travel. Neither of them slept during the flight (9 hours) but H enjoyed manipulating the touch screen of her seat-back entertainment system and we brought enough snacks and small toys to keep A mollified. I did try to play a movie for H, thinking that Encanto was sure to be a hit... But H has never actually watched a movie before so she was much more interested in swiping the screen repeatedly than she was in watching anything. Ah well. I watched Encanto by myself during my 2 hour break - it was lovely.
In a case of hilariously bad timing - H fell asleep as the plane was landing. She protested loudly at being pulled from her seat a few minutes later to debark the plane.
Johannes and I were relieved to be off the plane but we were still nervous about speaking to the border agent. We are still waiting for Johannes´ application for Permanent Residence to be approved so it was a calculated gamble to fly to Canada - but German tourists are allowed to stay in Canada for up to 6 months without a visa. Luckily the border agent waved us through (though not before telling me I´d been randomly selected for covid testing...).
Afterwards we got to push 3 carts of luggage plus a stroller down a very long hallway to customs. A very kind soul took one look at our bleary-eyed children and placed our file at the top of the pile so we were in an out in under half an hour. Then 2 more customs agents helped us roll all our luggage out to the arrivals hall and we were finally free!!
My parents and friend Megan greeted us and all our luggage (it did take 2 vehicles to get all bodies and bags to the right place) and we felt such relief to have the journey behind us.