Friday July 27th

Friday July 27th
1:11am Saskatoon Time
9:11am Amsterdam, Netherlands Time

So, mom and I are just hanging out in the Amsterdam airport waiting...again. Our plane from Minneapolis had mechanical problems, so we were delayed, causing us to miss our transfer here. So...we’re waiting. Im pretty darn tired. I got up at 8:30am on Wednesday, and I havent been to bed since. So... im currently going for 41 hours. I think. I went over to Shaun’s on Wednesday, and stayed there until almost 4am, then left for the airport at 4:15am. Mary came to the airport to see me off. I love her. Our plane didn’t even come until after 10.uuugh. I tried sleeping on the 8 hour plane ride to Amsterdam/our 6 hours waiting at the Saskatoon airport, but i failed. My eyes even hurt too much to read the new Harry Potter...i know. Mom made new friends on the plane...as per usual. She’s too friendly. We’re hanging out with our new old women friends right now. Our first impression of them was when we were waiting in Minneapolis for the plane to take off, it started to rain. They were like, “oh....they must have put the sprinklers on”. Yes...sprinklers...on the cement runway. Im glad our fellow passengers are intelligent. But they’re sweet old things, and make me smile. They followed us through the Amsterdam airport so we could get new tickets together, and so we can show them how to use the phones. Silly ladies. So, we’re off to board the plane to Hamburg. Ill finish laterrrrrrrrr.



Friday July 27th
3:04pm Saskatoon Time
11:04pm Hamburg, Germany Time

Finally everything is in place. After getting out hotel, Mom and I went back to the Hamburg airport at 8pm to meet dad and the girls on their trip in. We hoped and hoped they made all their flights. We even asked, but the airport had no idea. They got in on time, we caught the train back to the hotel, and everything worked out, thank goodness. I didnt need anymore drama today. Mom and my trip today wasnt so smooth. Every plane was late, so we barely made our connections. Then our plane in Minneapolis got delayed on the way to Amsterdam because of mechanical problems. I think I told you this already. Anyways, our delay in Minneapolis caused us to miss our connecting flight from Amsterdam to Hamburg. So we walked 2 miles across the Amsterdam airport with our new old lady best friends, and rebooked a ticked to Hamburg. We got to Hamburg at.... 10:30am. They have all these like smoking "areas" that are like a little glass umbrella. Anyways, then we headed for the train station. The travel booth gave us detailed instructions to our hotel, so we were all set. They all knew the Radisson, and knew it was a popular place. Everything went smoothly except for we were both lugging 2 freaking huge suitcases and a handbag each. Some men had to help us carry our luggage up 3 flights of stairs in the train/subway station. They were so nice (“yeah i bet they were nice. They were probably just trying to sell something”....”yes dad...”). We got off the train right in front of our hotel. Unfortunately, it was a highrise...and the picture we had wasnt a highrise. Just our luck. So we went in, and i must add i was slightly grumpy. We went up to the checkin, and mom was going to pretend she didnt know this was the wrong hotel, then maybe they’ll shuttle us to ours. I did NOT want to go on those crowded trains again with my suitcases. So we went to the checkin counter and was like “whaaat? We’re at the WRONG hotel? No way!” So we asked how far this one was. She said...”by car? It would be about.... a 6 hour drive”. You’re freaking kidding me. Our stupid travel agent told us it was 15minutes from the airport. So we called the hotel 6 hours away to cancel, but they told us we had to cancel through the travel agency. Unfortunately it was 3am in America, so we had to wait until it opened. We could have booked a room at this Radisson location, but it would have been $600, so mom decided against it. I sat in the hotel lobby for over an hour with our luggage (that i had to steal back from the bellman who didnt understand we were not at the right hotel. “sooo...you got room yet? What room yours?”) while mom went and found a travel agency to find us a different hotel for tonight. She got back, we waited until it was 8am in America, then mom was on the phone for over half an hour cancelling the other hotel reservations. I was so scared they wouldnt allow her to cancel. Once that was successful, we decided to taxi to our hotel. Our driver was the sweetest man ever. He told us about how he loves Mcjagger and The Stones. He told us how he was from a small town not to far out of Hamburg with 500,000people. He told us about the Otobom (spelling?) and how he usually drives about 220km/hr on it in his taxi. Might I add that his taxi was a brand new Mercedes. All the vehicles here are Volkswagon, Mercedes,Audis, or BMWs. So we got to our hotel called Novohotel, checked in, and then i had an hour and a half nap. FINALLY. 51 hours . I’m a machine. Then we headed on the train back to the aiport to meet the rest of the family. So far so good. Hopefully tomorrow wont be disaster trying to get the rental car :S