December 22, 2012-
*sigh*
*double sigh*
Our little family has been dreading this day….the day we leave Austria and head back to China.
How about some breakfast at the hotel? It looks like it's going to be a LOOOOOOONG day.
Time to head back to the Christmas market. The girls have thought about what they want to purchase with the 50 Euros their Oma and Uropa gave them. I've also decided what I want!
Check out this shop filled with beautiful wood carvings:
Mozart's Geburtshaus:
Annika knows exactly what she wants to buy:
We did a very quick walk inside this beautiful old cathedral:
After walking around outside in the drizzle (the weather couldn't make up its mind if it should rain or just drizzle) we were ready to come in out of the cold,wet air and have one last treat. Mark and I shared a Sacher torte while the girls each got a Mozart torte.
We stopped in at a little shop that sells Gmundner ceramic…and guess what??? They can ship it to the USA- no problem!!!! I've been looking for a set of Gmundner ceramic (the green swirly pattern) for YEARS. Mark just bought me eight place settings for Christmas!!! WOW!!!!!!! What a super nice gift! Thanks, Mark!!! (the only catch being that I won't get to see it for two years as we're having it shipped to our Wisconsin home).
Drats. Triple drats. It's time to head back to the hotel and check out. We've got to drive to Munich today to catch our flight back home!
Some how we managed to stuff the girls and our luggage back into our little rental car (next time I vote we get a bigger car!!!!)….and it's time to head out on to the Autobahn and head to Munich.
But how about a car snack:
A little bit of scenery:
We made it to Munich in record time!!! Yes, we remembered to gas up our rental car before returning it. Certainly didn't want to pay the astronomical fine for not filling 'er up! Returning the rental car (Hertz) was EASY.
However, checking in for our flights was NOT EASY. We had the WORST EXPERIENCE EVER while checking in at the Air France counter. The check-in clerk was the RUDEST person we've come across working in an airport (and that says a lot as we've been through many, many airports). I think he deliberately caused Ava's car seat to go astray. No, I'm not joking. All four of us have reached medallion status with the SkyTeam (that's Delta and its partners). He really wanted to pick a fight with me! Air France or the Munich airport really ought to choose it's employees more carefully. I know other people who've had bad experiences at this airport and are no longer flying through it. We left that counter very disgruntled customers. There was absolutely no reason what-so-ever for that clerk to be so rude to us. We will be coming back to Austria but perhaps we'll spend our money flying in and out of a different airport.
Whew.
We're passed security and inside the terminal.
Guess what???
This is a puny terminal with VERY little to do. And we have HOURS before our flight!!!! I'd forgotten that Munich airport has so few shops and restaurants once you pass through security. Not a well designed our though out airport.
The first leg of our trip takes us to PARIS! Yes, Paris!!!! Oh, how I wish we could do a stop-over!!!!!!!
My, oh my. What a bizarrely unique looking terminal:
Doesn't it look like something out of a science fiction movie? Like Space Odyssey 2001?????
We asked at the counter if we could upgrade our economy seats to economy plus seating. It usually costs a couple hundred dollars per person but more than makes up for it in comfort (and more leg room). Well- they upgraded us for FREE!!!! How sweet is that???? Thank you!!!! I had assumed that we'd have to pay for it- what a nice surprise! And an even nicer surprise was sitting in these fancy seats:
And those are just economy plus seats! You should have seen the first class and business class seats. Sadly, I couldn't sleep on the flight. I bumped my head on something waaaaaay back in Turnau and my shoulder and neck were screaming with pain for the entire flight. Owwwwwwwwww!!!!! Maybe I pinched a nerve??? Whatever I did I hope I never do it again!!!!
We made it to Beijing…Ava's car seat is missing. Arg!!!! I just hope we get it back!!! (we did. Thank you Air France!)
Uh oh.
Do you see our driver????
He's not here! Mark asked our driver to be here at 4:30pm (and I can verify this) but he's not here. Where is he??? Arg! He hasn't left yet! He thought we were coming in at 10:30pm!!!!!!! Great. How's that for a "welcome back to China"??? That means we have to wait in the Beijing airport for two hours. Salvation! There's a 24 hour open Starbucks in this airport- I think we'll just plunk ourselves down and order drinks and food. Sounds like a good plan???
And no, I'm not angry at our driver. It was an honest-to-goodness mistake and we failed to communicate properly with him. Next time we'll make sure he has our departure and arrival times in writing.
Oh, thank goodness.
Mr. Li is here! Thank you for jumping in the car to get us!
*cough, cough* splutter, hack *cough,cough*….
The air here is so thick- it smacks you in face as you walk out the door. Hello China!!!
We're heading back to Tianjin via a quick stop at the Apple Store in Sanlitun. We're hoping they have something in stock that we really want.
Rats. That was a wasted stop! No, they don't have what we want and it'll be months before they'll get it in. Might as well wait until we're back in the USA and can buy it CHEAPER. (why yes, there are many things that are cheaper in the USA!)
Time to head home. Tomorrow is a working day for Mark and I'll be spending the next week or so catching up with laundry!!!