Hello from Germany!- Part I

Warning: This is a long post so it will be split into two posts.

Hi everyone! Well, my dog and I made it safely to Germany! And boy was it stressful! I never ever want to travel alone with my dog overseas again. I'll explain below what happened but overall, I'm just so happy we are finally here and that the traveling is over with.

PART I: DAY OF THE FLIGHT

My husband's friend was nice enough to give me a ride to airport the day of my flight. We dropped my dog off at United cargo (which broke my heart because my dog was crying!) and then I was dropped off at check-in. Everything went smoothly on my flight from Seattle to Chicago and from Chicago to Baltimore. I made sure I asked the flight attendants to let me know when my dog was on the plane and they did, which I was thankful for.

View of Lake Michigan from the plane, flying into Chicago

When I arrived in Baltimore, I picked up my bags and my dog from baggage claim. I had never been so happy to see my dog! I had to find a man with a large cart to help me load all my bags because little ol' me couldn't do it all by myself. We went to the AMC terminal and the man had to take the cart back to baggage claim, so I was left with no cart for my stuff. I'm not going to go into ALL the detail about what happened but basically it was really hard to handle my dog and all the luggage I had by myself. The regular luggage carts at the airport couldn't fit my dog and my bags so I tried loading two luggage carts and maneuvering them myself which proved to be quite difficult. I won't lie...there was some crying that went on and some soldiers took pity on me and helped me out a bit but it was really hard. I really needed an extra hand to help me out.

The flight went well pretty well. It was a two story plane and there had to be a couple hundred people on my flight. When we landed in Germany, I was able to get my bags and my dog had to be inspected by a vet before he was released to me. My dog was so excited to see me when I let him out of this kennel. He was so excited...that he peed on me. Yes, HE PEED ON ME! Oh man, I was SO upset! And it wasn't just a little pee. He soaked my jeans. On top of having a stressful time doing this by myself, now I had urine all over myself. Again, I cried. Everyone else had their spouses with them helping them out and I was the only one struggling to do this myself. Some people just stared at me while I was trying to load my dog and the luggage by myself, but there was one lady who helped me load my luggage on the cart and I was grateful for her help.

Across the street from the Ramstein flight terminal is the Ramstein Inn. Nick had reserved a room for me so I could spend the night and it was supposed to be a pet room. But when I checked in, they told me it wasn't a pet room and there were no pet rooms available, therefore no room for me. I felt like my day was just getting worse but after some begging and prayers, they were able to find me a room. Ahh, finally I was able to relax. It was hot and I smelled like urine so I was glad to be able to take a shower and lay down.

Part II to be continued...