Our first International Flight with the Family

August 5th, 2008 willl forever be remembered as the day that the Bieter family moved to Europe. Our plane was scheduled to leave the MSP airport at 12:00 pm, so we made sure to arrive around 9 am. We decided that we didn't really want to have to carry all of our bags and the kids through the process of checking our luggage, so we chose curbside. The checking of the luggage went great and we went through security and made it quite effortlessly through the airport to wait for our flight.

Overall, Geno was very well behaved on this part of the Bieter Family Adventure, until we entered the plane and took our seats. First of all, none of us were sitting by each other. Not good. Considering Geno is a toddler and needs a parental guardian at all times. There were these two nice people that offered to give up their seats so that Geno, Nick, and I could sit together, and Coretta was positioned right in front of us. This is where the real fun begins. Geno decides that he has anxiety because he does not know what is going on, and to add to this has been up since 6 am without a nap. The next thing that happens is that Geno begins to cry and before we know it, he is in a full blown tantrum flailing his body this way and that way, making it nearly impossible to hold him. This is when I see two twenty somethings looking at us and whispering and glaring at us from their seats. I finally, fed up, speak to one of them and give her quite the verbal lashing. Needless to say, she never looked at us again. Meanwhile Geno is clawing and scratching both my and Nick's face to the point that he is actually drawing blood. This was supposed to be the easy flight. Just 2 hours. It turned out to be 2 hours of hell.

We then are able to get off this flight and must scramble through the Atlanta airport to catch our 9 hour flight to Zurich. We finally make it, get situated, and the plane is off. This flight was a little less hectic because Geno was not screaming bloody murder the whole time, but he just wouldn't go to sleep. So much for our theory that if we travel during the day, as supposed to the red eye flight it would be easier.

We then find our driver and he tells us that he mistakenly booked two people, and that we may have to leave in two different cars at different times to Zug. Luckily we crammed all of our luggage in and can ride all together. Ten minutes into our twenty minute car ride, Geno starts screaming at the top of his lungs and Coretta tells us that she feels like she has to puke...and yes we are stuck in rush hour. I simultaneously look for a bag for Coretta to puke in as I am feeding Geno two bananas and trying to satiate him. We finally arrive at the Park Hotel in Zug to spend the night thanking God that we finally arrived at our destination.