we made it!

Travel days are rough no matter how you slice them, but luckily that part is done for now.   It looks so simple on paper: L.A. to London to Berlin.   We traveled here with my brother, his wife and their three kids so there were 8 of us total, 5 under the age of 9.  The toughest part of the trip was trying to get a taxi back to their apartment from the airport.  Kids need carseats here up to age 12!!  Even though the airport in Berlin had at least 50 taxis lined up waiting- it took us a good 15 minutes of negotiation with them, outside in the freezing drizzle to let us into their cars!  We had two carseats for the 2 and 4 year olds but since the 3 older girls also needed one we ended up taking 3 taxis home because each taxi only had one 'babyseat.'  Finally it worked out and our 10 suitcases and 8 carry-ons were all dropped on the sidewalk outside of the apartment, which only required a windey trip down a gravel path and 2 flights of stairs left to negotiate before we were inside, toasty warm and ready for some real slumber.  zzzzz.....