When we first started planning our trip to Germany to see Hanna and to meet her family, they suggested that we come in May, which would be after the heavy Spring rains and before it heated up in the Summer. We learned that Hanna had a two-day break from school on Thursday May 13th and Friday May 14th, then she would be back to school from Monday May 17th to Friday May 21st, followed by a two-week break starting on Monday May 24th. So we thought that since we would be in Germany, and we had no idea when we might ever get back to Europe again, why not also GO ON A MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE as part of our trip. We love Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, so we checked and found that there was an RCCL 7-day Mediterranean cruise from May 16th to the 23rd, departing from and returning to Barcelona, Spain, which fit perfectly into the week Hanna was in school and her parents were working. We decided to start the trip by flying out of Portland on Tuesday, May 11th, arriving in Stuttgart in the evening on Wednesday the 12th. That would give us a few days with the Reisch family when we first got there to relax and acclimate ourselves to the time change, go on the cruise from the 16th to 23rd while Hanna had school and her parents were at work, then have the next full week with the Reisch family after the cruise, and then Monday the 31st with Hanna and we would leave for home on Tuesday June 1st.
Our vacation-of-a-lifetime adventure started at the Portland International Airport (PDX) on Tuesday, May 11th. Everything went very smoothly and clearing security, at least for me, was easy. However, when I looked around for DeeDee, who had gone through a different line, I saw she was still in the screening area opening her carry-on bag for a TSA inspector. When she finally caught up to me, she told me that they had confiscated the two jars of peanut butter, Skippy Extra Chunky and Jiff Chunky, we were taking to Hanna and her mom as gifts - I guess since the jars were more than 3 oz each, TSA was worried that DeeDee might be planning something nefarious with that much peanut butter. We left PDX on Delta/KLM at 12:30 PM on the first leg of our journey on a 2 1/2 hour flight to Minneapolis/St Paul. There we had a 1+ hour lay-over until our 6:30 PM Delta/KLM flight to Amsterdam. The flight to Amsterdam was supposed to only be a little over 8 hours, but was actually about 9 1/2 hours as we had to divert farther north around Iceland due to the volcano ash cloud. We landed at Amsterdam's Schiphol International Airport just after noon on Wednesday May 12th and had 8+ hr lay-over until our flight to Stuttgart. So we had plenty of time to stretch, walk around, read books, walk around, read books, get something to eat, walk around, people watch, walk around, and just plain wait. Finally, our KLM flight to Stuttgart was ready and we finally met Hanna, Dieter, and Sabine at the Stuttgart Airport around 10:30 PM. With the 9 hour time change, three flights, and long lay-over at Schiphol, it was a LONG LONG trip and about 26 hours getting there.
And, oh yes, we did have to go through Passport Control at Schiphol. We wanted to go from the C Terminal, were we had come in and were to get our next flight, to the B Terminal, but to get there had to go through a Passport Control. We had left our bags in a locker, so it only took about 30 seconds each to go through the check point. And of course, when we went back into Terminal C, we had to go through the check point again. That was the only passport/customs check point we went through on that part of the trip from the USA to Europe. What a difference from passport/customs controls coming into the US - more about that later.
The Reisch's live in a beautiful home in the village of Schopflenberg, which is part of the City of Göppingen, about 40 km east of Stuttgart, in the Federal State of Baden-Württemburg, located in southwestern Germany, bordered by France on the west, Switzerland on the south and the German Federal State of Bavaria on the east.
