JacksGirlz
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2007
- Messages
- 662
PREDAYS
My DD14 and I left our home on the west coast on Monday, June 17th and spent the first 2 nights in Manhattan. We got in the Disney mood by going to see the Lion King and visiting the Disney Store in Times Square.
We boarded our international flight from JFK at 5:30pm on Wednesday, June 19th. It was an uneventful flight on Aer Lingus lasting about 5hr 40min before landing in Dublin for a 2-hour layover.
We boarded our next flight to Frankfurt, Germany and landed in Frankfurt at approx. 10am local time June 20th. We were greeted at the luggage carousel, directly after going through passport control, by an ABD representative and an airport security employee. They handled our luggage and then took us out to meet our taxi. Our driver, Barb, gave us a bottle of water and this was our introduction to sparkling water (more on that later). Construction on the highway caused delays on the way to Heidelberg so it took about 1hr 15min to get to the Crowne Plaza in Heidelberg. Check in was simple and at the front desk we received our ABD compact duffle bag and a welcome letter from our ABD guides, Nadine and Kimberly. Our room #350 was ready and our luggage was brought up to our room while we were being checked in.
Since it was only the afternoon, local time, DD and I took a walk around the city center and found ourselves heading down the long main shopping street called Hauptstrasse. It was cloudy and hot with intermittent showers so we weren’t out for long. We stopped in a café and ordered some pretzels and tried to figure out how to order bottled water that was not sparkling. The young girl at the counter finally asked “no gas?” and this ended up being regular water. YEAH!! On our way back to the hotel we stopped across the street at a Rewes supermarket and purchased some bottled water (no gas). Just a heads up, the deposit on plastic bottles in Germany is 0.25 euros, compared to the $0.05 in the US. The cashier at the Rewes nicely explained, in English, where I could bring back the empty bottles to recycle them and get back the 0.25 euros per bottle.
Since we were exhausted and had flown overnight, DD was a little cranky and not willing to pose so I don’t have any city pictures from that first day. We only made it for a couple more hours before falling asleep. DD and I both woke up around 10pm and decided to call back home. I paid for wifi and I used it to call via Facetime on my iPhone. We were able to fall back asleep off and on through the night.
DAY ONE to follow...
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3139365
My DD14 and I left our home on the west coast on Monday, June 17th and spent the first 2 nights in Manhattan. We got in the Disney mood by going to see the Lion King and visiting the Disney Store in Times Square.
We boarded our international flight from JFK at 5:30pm on Wednesday, June 19th. It was an uneventful flight on Aer Lingus lasting about 5hr 40min before landing in Dublin for a 2-hour layover.
We boarded our next flight to Frankfurt, Germany and landed in Frankfurt at approx. 10am local time June 20th. We were greeted at the luggage carousel, directly after going through passport control, by an ABD representative and an airport security employee. They handled our luggage and then took us out to meet our taxi. Our driver, Barb, gave us a bottle of water and this was our introduction to sparkling water (more on that later). Construction on the highway caused delays on the way to Heidelberg so it took about 1hr 15min to get to the Crowne Plaza in Heidelberg. Check in was simple and at the front desk we received our ABD compact duffle bag and a welcome letter from our ABD guides, Nadine and Kimberly. Our room #350 was ready and our luggage was brought up to our room while we were being checked in.
Since it was only the afternoon, local time, DD and I took a walk around the city center and found ourselves heading down the long main shopping street called Hauptstrasse. It was cloudy and hot with intermittent showers so we weren’t out for long. We stopped in a café and ordered some pretzels and tried to figure out how to order bottled water that was not sparkling. The young girl at the counter finally asked “no gas?” and this ended up being regular water. YEAH!! On our way back to the hotel we stopped across the street at a Rewes supermarket and purchased some bottled water (no gas). Just a heads up, the deposit on plastic bottles in Germany is 0.25 euros, compared to the $0.05 in the US. The cashier at the Rewes nicely explained, in English, where I could bring back the empty bottles to recycle them and get back the 0.25 euros per bottle.
Since we were exhausted and had flown overnight, DD was a little cranky and not willing to pose so I don’t have any city pictures from that first day. We only made it for a couple more hours before falling asleep. DD and I both woke up around 10pm and decided to call back home. I paid for wifi and I used it to call via Facetime on my iPhone. We were able to fall back asleep off and on through the night.
DAY ONE to follow...
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3139365
