Leaving on a jet plane...

After much planning, chaos and preparations, Kelly and I officially began our adventures into far-away lands on Friday, September 4th. Though, despite all that planning (!) we, inevitably, hit a German roadblock along the way.

This blog - which I'd like to think of more as a journal - is meant to be a link between us and our family and friends while we live in Doha. (More on "where" and "what" is Doha in the next post). Also, Kelly and I will both take turns posting. We'll do our best to identify ourselves along the way, but those who know us well will probably figure it out on their own!

(This first post is a long one... forgive us.)

We left Margaretsville, NS at 10 am with a van filled with bags and a couple nervous kitties. Stella and Hendrix checked into their comfy space with Air Canada Live Cargo on the flight before ours, headed for Montreal (to give their handlers plenty of time to ensure they boarded the next flight to Frankfurt). Our first indication that there might be trouble was at the AC Live Cargo desk, when the attendant scratched his head, let out a big breath, and said "well, I hope this works". My anxiety level increased from a mellow 4 to about an 8 in the matter of seconds!

Before finally disconnecting from the digital world (buh-bye Blackberry!), I confirmed plans with Qatar Airways - who would be taking us and the cats from Frankfurt, Germany to Doha, Qatar. No, I did not need to take them through customs. Yes, they know what flight we are coming in on. All I have to do is pick up the cats from baggage and check them in with the Qatar Airways desk. No problem.

Right.

The pills the doctor gave me for the flight were a god-send at this point! However, neither of us slept on the over-night flight: me worried about the fur-kids, and Kelly sneezing and coughing from allergies.

Arriving in Frankfurt at 8:55 am local time (or 3:55 am NS time!) on Saturday, hopped up on anti-anxiety drugs, we warily asked the advice of an Air Canada attendant in the airport. Yeah, looking back now, we should have known better. We head to the baggage claim area, getting our passports stamped for entry into Germany on the way (me: worrying whether this will create any issues). No cats. We wait in line to talk to a baggage agent. The first guy had NO idea what he was doing and spoke only a little English. Then came our first German angel: short, stocky and full of energy, she took our information and started making phone calls. She brought me into her office in the back and got me on the phone with Air Canada Cargo.... the place the cats were. "Big problem", she said. Air Canada Cargo is 20-30 minutes away from the airport. And it would probably take 45-60 minutes to get them checked by their vets, do all the paperwork, and hand the furry ones over to us. Then another 20-30 minutes back. Then check them into Qatar Airways, have the handlers get them onto the next plane while getting ourselves through security and onto the plane.

Did I mention we had a 3-hour layover in Germany (from arrival time to departure time)? And we had already used up about 40 minutes of that.

I waited there while Kelly tried to find the Qatar Airways desk to see if there was something else that could be done while I stayed with Angel #1. Eventually, I extended my sincere thanks for her help and joined Kelly. Thomas at Qatar Airways made a few more calls. "Big problem" he said. And re-iterated the same scenario.

And the next flight to Doha is tomorrow. "You'll have to stay here overnight".

Fun. (is there a font for sarcasm??)

Thomas booked a hotel for us and took care of arranging our flights for the next day. I was too tired and defeated at the time to realize that he was German Angel #2.

Off to the bank machine to get some Euros to pay for the taxi and the hotel. We made it to Air Canada Cargo and taok our driver into the office with us to see whether he should wait or not. "Ah. No. This will take a while." And then... they pay the driver for us!! First unexpected "wow" moment. Next, we meet Astrid, a Colorado-born lady who has a farm with lots of animals and has been living in Germany for 30 years. She's our German Angel #3. She took us `~(and our scads of paperwork) this place and that, doing all the talking, increasing the load of paperwork (working title: "Stella and Hendrix: Volume 1"), even driving us in the "work car" - a mid-nineties VW Golf that probably hasn't been cleaned inside since it was bought. Neither of us cared.

Cats finally in tow, Astrid drove us to our hotel: The Steigenberger Airport Hotel. The place was impressive: clean, modern, trendy, comfortable, and they even had a message on the tv screen in our room welcoming Mrs Devoe (we used MY credit card on check-in). Housekeeping improvised a litter box for us: a plastic bin with fine gravel... likely from the gardens around the hotel. The food was good, but we were more interested in getting to sleep. It was about 7 am Nova Scotia time (noon in Germany) when we crashed. Aside from the movie (English, dubbed into German) Kelly watched at about midnight-3am local time, we slept through to the next morning. Stella and Hendrix cuddled with us on the bed all night.

Having decided not to take our 6 large luggage bags with us when we left the airport, we showered and put our same clothes back on (with fresh underwear of course! - something I always take in carry-on, along with a toothbrush! YAY!), and headed back to the Airport.

It took us an hour to get us and the cats checked in (Thomas was there to help again when they told us they couldn't board two cats in the same kennel), leaving us just enough time to stop at a McCafe for some yummy breakfast - MacDonalds in North America should take a few cues!!

After another 6 hours in the air, we walked into the Doha heat and humidity Sunday evening (afternoon in Canada), picked up the cats with our baggage (unexpectedly easy! - though our oversize bags got stuck in a back room for an extra 30-45 minutes), and met Beth and Doug (our new "boss" and her husband) who drove us to our temporary home. We slept a few hours, got up, and went to work for 8:30 am (2:30 am NS time) and have been going ever since.

Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to finding a chance to go back to Germany.

Next post: Why/what/where is Doha?!