From Apple Village to St. Pete Beach in 26 hours

The adventure began at 4:00 a.m. We wanted to leave early so that we wouldn't have any stress at the airport. Traffic, parking, baggage drop off, security check - everything went smoothly. So we sat at the gate and still had three hours to spare. We wanted to go from Munich to Frankfurt and from there on to Tampa.

The announcements that a police operation was causing problems in the internal processes didn't worry us at first, as we had already gone through all the checks. An innocent glance at our cell phone made us switch from relaxation mode to stress mode: the flight from Munich to Frankfurt had been cancelled. We still hadn't understood what was going on. The line at the service desk was already incredibly long and there we found out the reason for the cancelled flight: climate activists who had stuck themselves to the plane 😬.

We had already lost hope of getting anywhere on the same day. Rumour had it that there were no more flights leaving in the morning - we had already ruled out the train or car as alternatives - we were at a loss. The line at the service desk was still long and would have meant another 1-2 hours of waiting at the same time. At the same time we had contacted Lufthansa via chat and telephone hotline. When it was finally our turn to chat, we were told that they could only help us on site and not via chat!

Benedikt had forgotten his headphones at home and so - when everything was still OK - we had bought Bluetooth headphones, which he now wanted to charge. While Flo stayed in line and I continued to try to get through to the hotline, I went with Benedikt to the nearest gate to find a USB socket. As luck would have it, the 8 a.m. flight to Frankfurt was just boarding at this gate. My friendly question as to whether they still had 4 seats was - logically - denied. The next flight would leave at 10 a.m. (our 9 a.m. flight was obviously the only one that had been canceled). However, the lady was unable to rebook. 😬 Flo did not want to accept this and tried again directly at this gate - thank God with another lady. She then made it possible for us to get four seats on the 10 a.m. flight - albeit separately. So Flo and I sat individually and the children sat together next to a very nice Lufthansa employee who provided them with painting materials, chocolate and Sprite. Mastered the first flight alone…

If the flight had been on time, we would have had a chance of making the connecting flight. Unfortunately, we were 30 minutes late. And when we landed, I had already received a message that we had been rebooked: to San Francisco! And then, after a 2.5-hour layover, 5.5 hours back to Tampa. Unbelievable! Nevertheless, we wanted to give it a try (also on the recommendation of the stewardess next to me on the plane) and ran as fast as we could. We rushed through passport control and security (why again?). Flo and Benedikt ran ahead, Maxi ran bravely and cheered on his mom, "come on, mom, run quickly one more time." In the end, we arrived at the gate completely exhausted and sweaty - it was a really long way. But there was no plane there... In retrospect, we suspect that the plane had left from a different gate.

And again we were referred to the service center. So back again. With Airtrain. At the same time we tried to get something through the hotline. I was told that since the trip had already started, they could - again! - only help me on site. 😡 First service counter: completely unmanned! 😡 So we continued to the B area. There we wanted to get a different flight than the one to San Francisco. The first employee (Eurowings) was nice but incredibly slow. Thank God he put us on to two colleagues who actually rebooked us onto the flight to Orlando. While Flo was finalizing the discussions, I called Check24 to rebook our rental car. Thank God that was relatively easy. Again we had to go to the slow Eurowings employee. The children were already completely exhausted. Although Maxi was still positive. After another 10 minutes, still without a boarding pass, the nice man said we had to hurry to get the flight. And the rush began again... this time the security check didn't go so smoothly. For a moment nothing moved forward. Nobody seemed to be working. After already frayed nerves, I lost a bit of patience with the employee there... Finally through, we ran as fast as we could to Gate C15. Done - we thought. Change gate! Run on to Gate C20. Suddenly an airport employee calls from behind. "Has anyone forgotten their cell phone?" Unbelievable, I had left my cell phone in the box at the security check. All bookings etc. were saved on it. Just in time for luck! Made it, at the right gate! Unfortunately the lady said that our seats were far apart. 10 hours with two children, that's not possible. Whatever she did then, we had four seats 2/2 behind each other. Just as we had booked! It works 👍 Why did she say "oh dear"? 10 hours later we knew... So, we got on the last bus to the plane and finally we were on our way to the USA (although to Orlando instead of Tampa).

The flight was pleasant, the children loved it and neither of them slept for more than an hour. The food was also completely fine.

9.5 hours later: yeah, arrived!

So there we stood at the baggage carousel and waited and waited… and our next nightmare came true: not a single suitcase was there!

So we went through immigration without our suitcases. No problems and without really having to wait. Another attempt to contact a service center. Once again we were sent through half the airport. All Discover employees (our flight was operated by Discover) were checking in a flight. So first we went to the rental car counter. By now we had been on our feet for over 21.5 hours. And we had to queue again... but otherwise everything went well. I used the time I was waiting to open a "claim" with Lufthansa for our 4 pieces of luggage, or rather 4 claims. And of course I had no idea which number belonged to which suitcase, which made describing the suitcase a guessing game. At least with the car everything went well. As soon as we were in the car, the children were asleep. But we still had over 2 hours ahead of us. A quick stop at McDonald's (where something went wrong again: the self-service machine didn't print out a confirmation). At 11:15 pm local time and after about 26 hours of travel time, we finally arrived!!! That was an odyssey and the suitcase rhyme will continue to keep us busy…