Sept. 1---3 planes, 2 trains, and 1 taxi

With oldest daughter Christine's help, Brandi and I got to the airport with 100 pounds of luggage, a heavy backpack, and Brandi in her crate. Naturally, we got the UNITED fellow who had never dealt with an in-cabin dog traveling internationally. Finally, we were assured that all was well. The cost for Brandi was up in the air because I got different answers whether I'd pay UNITED $125 and then also have to pay Swiss Air, which would be $200, or just UNITED the $125. Neither thing happened---I paid UNITED $200 for an international flight, and that was that!! After all the hassles with Brandi's paperwork for the airline and the German/English forms that had to be express mailed to and from a USDA/APHIS office in Lansing, NO ONE on the airline or in Switzerland or in Germany, checked any of it!! Oh, well.

The flight from Mpls to Chicago was fine and we had just enough time for a quick restroom stop and continuous walking to get to the farthest terminal and almost the farthest gate. I now know that although it is possible to use a toilet wearing a backpack, getting your pants pulled back up is tricky! The flight from Chicago to Zurich would have been better if somebody probably 10 feet from me didn't have his headphones so loud that I could almost understand the words of the TV program he was listening to. The stewardess brought me earplugs; she couldn't tell which person's TV was so loud. The man sitting next to me was originally from Poland but has lived in Chicago for 8 years; he had trouble with English. I asked him how old his daughters were and he told me how many thousand miles he drives his truck each year!! He nicely carried my backpack off the plane for me. The plane from Zurich to Dusseldorf was much smaller; we walked up the steps to the plane after having been taken in a bus to the plane.

The "fun" began in Dusseldorf. I bought a ticket (38 euros) for the train to Bielefeld. First, however, we had to get on a sky train from the plane terminal to the railway station. We were supposed to buy a ticket, but the machine wouldn't take my credit card. Switzerland does not use euros and I hadn't yet gotten euros. The young man helping me suddenly said the sky train was here, just jump on. I'd taken my backpack off but managed to get both rolling suitcases, my backpack, and Brandi in her pack onto the train. I had put the straps to her crate through the handle of one of the suitcases. We made it onto the train (nice that the floor of the train and the station floor were the same height), and just as the doors were shutting, the whole suitcase that Brandi's crate was on tipped over, and her crate hit the floor right where the doors were trying to close. She looked a little startled but didn't say anything. The doors just opened until I got her moved out of the way. Whew!! Getting on and off the train to Bielefeld was a mess because there were 3 steps up to haul everything, and then obviously, 3 steps down to get off.

I hadn't been able to get online in Dusseldorf as Henrich and I had planned, and so I thought that we'd get on the train and somehow contact him from te Bielefeld train station if we had to. I saw a young man using a computer, and asked him for help. His computer had some kind of gizmo that it would access connections everywhere; he said it was expensive and he wouldn't have it except he works for the railroad and they provide it for him as part of his job. This fellow, Christian, told me a lot about trains in Europe; he is an engineer (mechanical kind, not driving the train kind!) and works particularly on freight trains. He nicely looked up Henrich's number on his computer, dialed it on his phone, and handed me the phone. Henrich was rather startled to hear at 4 that I'd left Dusseldorf at 3 and would be in Bielefeld by 4:30!! He met us at the station. Two young men, Christian and another young man, helped me get the suitcases off, and Henrich and I located each other on the platform. We got everything above ground and took a taxi here.

At that point, I was hot, stinky, and tired. I cleaned up, we had tea, and Henrich showed me some things around the neighborhood while we walked Brandi. I went to the nearby wiener schnitzel place which has a Mediterranean flair and had Hawaiian schnitzel---meat with the schnitzel coating, plus cheese and pineapple!! It was quite good and came with French fries and a salad.The French fries tasted different with a familiar spice, and I suddenly realized it was paprika!!. I came back home, thankful that I already know how the toilets flush (more on this later), how the locks work, euros and cents, and so forth. Brandi and took another walk, I took a shower, and we went to bed!! Although the time here is 6 hours ahead of the US, we'd still been traveling about 24 hours total. Brandi is a good little traveler, but her waving tail seemed to show that she was happy to be out, walking, and able to potty whereever she wanted.