International Flights, Unplugged, and First Impressions

It is Sunday morning in Munich. The doors and windows are open letting the cool morning air flow through our Villa. The kids have finished up their German version of Coco Puffs cereal and are playing Mine Craft waiting for our next excursion. I was sitting here thinking about our first few days and wanted to share.

First International Flight:
I would give British Airways a B+ rating for the flight experience. This was my first experience on a 747, and while it looked huge on the outside I was expecting it to be larger on the inside. Maybe my perspective changed when I sat in my very small seat with the person in front leaned all the way back for the duration of the 9 hour flight. We sat in the middle four seats with Cindy and I in the very middle. The flight attendants were not as attentive as I would like, but it is understandable considering the number of people. The big issue was the cabin temperature. There was a problem with the system that took them more than half the flight to finally figure out. We were all a mess during the long flight. Katherine tried to go to sleep early, but could not and got upset a few times. David did good, but tried to stay awake as long as possible. He did finally go to sleep for about 2.5 hours and still argues that he never went to sleep on that flight. Cindy and I would drift off occasionally but did not get much rest. The time passed very slowly but we made it through.

London:
I thought Heathrow was a great airport. We got off of the plane and just followed the the pack not knowing exactly where we were going. We were in Terminal 5 C Gates area and finally figured out that everything leads to the A gates. That is where we passed through border patrol and customs and found our Heathrow Express train to Paddington Station. The express train was extremely clean and cool and got us to Paddington quickly. We were then planning on taking the Underground to get to Trafalgar Square. I had researched this before leaving and knew we needed to take the Bakerloo Line to get there, and that we needed a day pass for zones 1 and 2 (which are relatively inexpensive for off peak use). The problem is that I could not get the stupid machine to work. It would take my credit card or my cash. The attendant finally came over to help and had no luck either. The only thing he was good for was to tell me that my Euros were not going to work in GB, I needed English Pounds (stupid American). We did go through the "queue" (line) to be able to use my credit card and we were off. The Underground was older and hotter but still an effective means of transportation. It was really cool walking out of the Underground and seeing the tall tower in Trafalgar Square.
The weather was overcast and cool, but this was Friday in the tourist part of London so it was super busy. After walking around for a while David was bending over acting like he was about to pass out from hunger. Coincidentally this was just after seeing a McDonald's. I was determined to not have my one meal in London to be McDonald's. Well, I won, but only because Cindy and I did not eat. We gave in and went to get the kids some food. This place was NUTS! They have cash registers side by side with no gap across the entire counter. It was not possible to get to the counter, you had to scream your order over the people in front of you. I got Cindy and the kids to leave the area to finish paying. As soon as they left their spot an older lady moved in front of me, man she was quick! I tried to tell her that I was trying to pay but she was not having it. Eventually I got my two happy meals and turned away to find a dude in my face asking me if I was "in the queue". I showed him the two drinks and two meals I was trying to balance and he would not move out of the way. He was irritated that I was in his way, alas I had nowhere to go. We made it out of there and the kids ate next to the fountain at Trafalgar Square. We realized we were out of time and had to get back for our last flight.
We quickly got back to Paddington as if we were old pros at the Underground and made it to our express train back to Heathrow. It was close to time for our flight to start boarding. We looked at the main board, found our flight...........no gate info. A little panic set in as it was possible that we needed to ride another tram to get to the gates, but we had no idea where to go. I saw a sign saying there was a British Airways help desk near gate A10. After a few minutes waiting we found out our flight was at A21 just down the way.
The flight to Munich was good. There was a delay getting off of the ground and once we got there we did not have a gate so we just unloaded on the tarmac. David and I sat next to each other with Cindy and Katherine behind us. David fell asleep for the entire flight soon after take off. We sat next to a man from Greece who has lived in Houston since 1994. He is an engineer for United and was on his way to Crete for some sort of family gathering. He still had another 2.5 hour flight after Munich.

Unplugged:
After turning in my company computer and getting rid of my cell phone before leaving I have been device free for several days. This morning I have the television on BBC World News because my only other English speaking option is CNN. I am getting used to not having a device beep or buzz every few minutes. Since Cindy now has her cell phone and internet connectivity I am starting to feel the need to check FB and Gmail but I am not missing television that much. Granted that may be more due to circumstances but I am not feverishly searching the internet to find shows.

I think that is enough for now. I want to next share my impressions on Munich and the people here.