Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Europe Adventure: Day Twenty-Four, part two- Flying Home

After leaving Dachau we drove straight to the airport and turned in our car. 
I couldn't find a gas station along the way and was afraid to go off exits that I didn't know so I ended up having to pay for the gas through the rental company which was very expensive so I definitely wouldn't recommend doing that!
We checked in and got our flight. 

 Leaving beautiful Germany...


Once again we had a layover in Iceland although this time it was a short one. 
Then we got on our second flight that would take us to Denver. 
On this flight my airplane seat reserve trick FINALLY paid off. 
I was told that if you reserved the window seat and the aisle seat you were much more likely to not have someone reserve the seat in between you unless it was a full flight. 
This had not worked on any of our other flights but on this one it did! 
We got to have the entire row. Yay!
This was so wonderful on such a long flight as well as the fact that it was a really comfortable plane and there was no real turbulence. It was probably the best flight I have ever had. 
My mom spent time writing in her journal. 
 


We used the middle tray for our drinks to free up our own trays. 


Flying over the Faroe Islands. 
The pilot directed our attention to them as he said that they weren't usually this visible. 



I spent a lot of the flight listening to Salt to the Sea on audible and coloring. This was so calming and made the flight go by so fast. 


We also both watched The Imitation Game on our own screens. 
We landed in Denver and had to sadly say goodbye to Icelandair as they didn't fly into Salt Lake City. 
We had reserved a cheap flight from Denver to Salt Lake with Southwest and all I can say is.. Never Again!
That was the worst flight I have ever been on in my life, save the one time I was in a small private plane that stalled and almost crashed. That should tell you how bad it was.
It was really cold out and so we had to sit in the plane for a while during the de-icing of the wings. 
It was completely packed and since there are no reserved seating we had to bustle on as quickly as we could and ended up with the last two seats that were together. 
And my seat was lopsided. Like it really was slanted so I was leaning into the window. 
I have never 'felt' the actual flying through the air at tremendous speeds in this way before. My sister described it best when I was talking to her later and she told me that she had also had a recent bad flight with Southwest when she said it felt like flying through the air on a lawn chair. 
I was terrified the entire flight so thankfully it wasn't a really long one. 
We landed in Salt Lake and I was tempted to kiss the ground.
We went through customs and then met my dad who was there to pick us up. 
We were sad to say goodbye to Europe but so happy to be home. 
They drove me home and I went in to wake up my littles to say hello to them and kiss them all over their cute faces. It was so wonderful to see them again. 

So that is it!
It has been almost a year since my mom and I left on this journey and I have finally recorded it all. 
It was an amazing trip that I will never forget and I am so glad we did it. 
I will post again soon with my tips and things I think everyone should know before doing a trip like this.

1 comment:

The Kings said...

Good to get home...but hard to have our trip come to an end!