26.7.2011 Frankfurt Airport and Train to Weimar

Once we arrived in Frankfurt we were the last ones to get off the plane (partly due to the fact that Stanley was still waking up and we hadn't yet gathered everything). After we got off, our first thought was, “Where’s our stroller?” We had checked it right before we boarded and expected them to bring it up when we landed. Unfortunately, no. Turns out there were a bunch of other parents trying to figure out the same thing. We asked someone, and they told us to go to baggage claim. So with two kids, 6 carry-ons/personal items, we traveled the maze of airport security. At the passport check, the clerk was not to happy about all of the baggage carts that made their way to his station. What do you expect when you take away a family’s stroller? He kept pointing to a sign that says no carts, but the sign just said European passports this way, all others that way.

Our life on two baggage carts and a stroller

Finally we made it to the baggage claim but still no stroller. Heather asked around and found that all strollers were at a different carousel. I made the trek to baggage claim 33 and there was our stroller still covered by the blanket. My knots were not great but they held well enough. By the time I got back Heather had managed to pull most of our bags off of the carousel and into our little spot at baggage claim. I quickly found two baggage carts and managed to get all of our bags onto the two carts plus stroller. Unfortunately, the baggage carts in Europe require you to hold down the lever to actually move them. Heather in all of her ingenuity found one of our baggage straps that was able to hold the lever down as we tried to find our train. It was quite the site and we had quite a few stares as we traveled the airport/train station with our pile of luggage. Heather ended up pushing the stroller and pulling one cart while I pushed the other.

Our spot waiting for the train

You may be wondering why I let Heather maneuver two things while I just had one. Let’s just say our spirits were not the best at the moment. Maybe we were hungry, tired, overwhelmed, or all of the above. Or maybe it was because Heather took the time to ask where we needed to go, and I didn’t listen because I thought we should follow the signs to the Bahn (Train). Turns out the signs to the Bahn that I wanted to follow were to the city train and the directions Heather received were to the long distance train that we needed to take. She had to ask a second official person again showing them our ticket before I would listen. A great example of a stubborn male that is trying to lead when he really doesn’t know where to go.The most interesting thing about our hike with all our stuff was going up the escalator. Fortunately, there was an employee who helped us up with all our stuff. That is where the hand brake on the carts come in handy.

Heather getting the information we need

We finally made it to our platform, Heather once again asked for directions and this time I listened. We were able to park everything and have a little break and snack. Heather then asked me a very good question that I hadn’t thought of, “How will they know what time we arrive in Weimar?” Barbara had been out of town the week before we left, and Allyn who I had been corresponding with, was out of town the week we arrived. I had failed to bring a phone number to call the school, and we discovered that free wi-fi was not necessarily available in a major train station like it was in Seattle. Instead you have to pay for a T-Mobile hot-spot. Yikes, we weren’t ready to set up an account and give our credit card number. As we were trying to figure that how to contact the school we also took inventory of our stuff and realized that we were going to need help getting on the train and the train was going to arrive very soon.

Stanley being goofy in Frankfurt

By this point we had cooled off from our earlier issues, and were in a better place emotionally. We prayed that God would provide us with the help we needed getting on the train. As we were praying a gentleman was walking by and looking at us. Heather asked him if he spoke English, which he did, and where he was from, Israel. She then asked him if he would help us on the train. He said yes, and just then the train began to pull up. He got on, I threw him the bags, and we got everything loaded just before the train pulled out. As the train was pulling out, the conductor signaled to us that our bags could not stay were they were. So I had to move everything again. Fortunately, some other kind people on the train helped find places for all our bags. It was quite a process but we were on our last leg to Weimar.

Scott & Holly Waiting for the Train

As I was moving bags Heather and the kids were playing musical chairs (unintentionally). Certain seats are reserved, and some that are not marked as reserved are actually reserved as well. Note to self-don't just book tickets for the train-book seats as well. Fortunately, Heather met a gentleman (or an angel) named Oliver. Oliver acted as Heather’s interpreter for both language and culture. How did she meet him? She walked right up and asked to use his smart-phone to check our email to get the phone number for the director of the school. Then she used his phone to call the director to let her know when we would arrive. Heather would not typically ask to use a stranger's smart phone but this was a total God thing. As God had it, the train was delayed from the Frankfurt Airport station to the Frankfurt main station (Oliver’s stop) and Heather had time to get to know Oliver a little better.

The view from our train (no we didn't take this one)

During the rest of the trip we met a few more Germans who helped bridge the language gap with train employees and smiled at the kids. It was God's grace and those things that got us through the last difficult leg of the journey to Weimar. One of the things they had to help us with was an issue with our ticket. Apparently when you buy a train ticket on line you must have the card with which you bought the ticket with you on the train so they can have a proof of purchase. Scott had left his card with his dad to use for our house stuff back home. Big oops! Anyway we learned our lesson. We then bought dinner on the train, received free ice-pops for the kids, looked at the 1000 German words book that Grandma Sue got for Stanley (and us), and mostly tried to keep the kids entertained and contained. Not always an easy task. We kept telling Stanley, “This is Germany, this is our new home.” It was a weird feeling as we drew closer and closer to Weimar. This IS our new home. We’re going to LIVE here! What if we don’t like it? Will people be at the train station to meet us? We just had to trust in the LORD and know that He DID bring us here, and we are walking in His will.