We Made It!

A hearty hello from Luxembourg! Or better said 'Moien!'

Leaving Alexandria - Man we got a lot of sh#t

The trip over was exhausting, and happily no one is terribly bad off after the 30+ hour marathon. Things were going so smoothly as well. Fortunately our worst nightmares weren't realized, but our greatest frustrations were. We loaded up around 1:30pm EDT on Sunday October 8, and headed out to Dulles International Airport to have the boys pre-boarded as freight on the plane we were taking to Geneva, Switzerland (pay attention here because this will be on the quiz). This process only took about one and a half hours. All the while our wonderful cab driver, Josef, waited patiently. Yeah, United, I'd really like some of that money back...yep I'm calling them out. United Airlines really bites.

The flight over was uneventful, and we heard no yipping or howling from the hold of the plane. Kind of makes you wonder if the dogs even made it on board...anyway, the flight would have been nearly perfect if it hadn't been for the Coven in the tail of the plane cackling over their bubbling brew. These harpies were ruthless and cold. If there were any issues in the cabin, nothing was the fault of Weird Sisters. Our neighbor's radio was not working - tough, 'I'm not an engineer'. Can you make sure my dogs are on the plane? - Sure let me glance at your seat assignment, and never get back with you. They gleaned their greatest pleasure in telling passengers in the loudest most obnoxious unison, 'The seat belt sign is on!' Anyone whose flown long distance knows the captain leaves this on overnight as a precaution. These horrible people just wanted us all to suffer. The worst customer service I've ever seen from an airline, and that's saying a lot...but I digress.

We landed in Geneva, and, as it was, United never printed (or planned to print) boarding tickets for the second leg of our journey. Nevertheless the great folks at Luxair (and Swissport - the real heroes) gave us a pass code with the instructions to haul ass to our awaiting flight and 'insist they let {us} on board'. We did as we were told and navigated the Geneva Airport like a couple of sleep deprived and half drunk OJ Simpsons. We made it with plenty of time to spare. Now all we had to do was hop on the bird and fly right into Luxembourg. I did mention things were going smoothly didn't I?

...the trouble I've seen.

As we queued up to board our 8:40am CET (now October 9) flight, we were pulled out of line. Apparently the baggage personnel at Luxair could not locate our dogs. Huh. After a desperate shuffle of papers and a few phone calls, everything became clear. True to their word, the JACKASSES at United shipped our dogs freight, and now Toby and JoJo were sitting in a Swiss loading dock about a mile from the main airport terminal. What's really mind-numbing is the fact that the dogs had to be driven right past our gate in order to be dropped off at cargo. Needless to say, they asked if we'd like to pull off of the early flight to wrangle our dogs. Of course we did. This was, however, no easy task. We could walk there and lug the crates back...that was a sh#t plan. And besides, you'd have to go through the shadiest and darkest tunnels in all of Geneva (sorry no photos - stress factor +10). No cabbies wanted to drive a mile away from the airport

Not CDG - but might as well be

and loose their spot in what was quite honestly the most chaotic scene this side of Charles De Gaulle Customs. After spending hours trying to navigate this terrible situation, I finally plead our case to Swissport, and they agreed to drive the dogs across the tarmac and let us pick them up in the arrival area. We finally rescued the boys and were promptly booked on the next flight to Luxembourg...at 5:50pm CET. For those of you keeping score, that's NINE HOURS at an airport with all of our luggage, two dogs and shipping crates the size of small Euro-sedans. That sucked.

Arrival at Luxembourg Airport a mere 30 hours after we began!

We finally arrived around 7pm CET, and to our surprise the boys were in great spirit. We thought for sure the crates would be full of liquids too nasty to describe here. Or that they'd had cut their gums and/or paws to shreds trying to escape. That was not the case. The dogs proved to be quite good little passengers. Not that we'd subject them to this again in a loooong time. One bright spot was dinner last night. After the trials of intercontinental flight with two dogs, we just decided to order in. These Luxembourgers can cook a mean meal...an Omelette with French Fries for dinner? Genius!

oh, yeah...that is a cheese tray with local wine to boot.

Day #1 has been a day of getting our bearings. Poor Jeni had to report to work first thing this morning...more to come on that :) The boys and I walked quite a bit. This city is really lovely, and we can't wait to explore more. Here are a few photos of our first day in our new home.

The view from our room!

The Cathedral - again from our window.

The Petrusse River - more or less a drainage gully to prevent further erosion

The Alzette River - The glass and steel building at the top center is our hotel!

The Viaduct from along the Petrusse River