LAS →FRA

Wow, that was interesting…and at times, in momentary spats, fun.

Sasha and I traversed one continent and one ocean yesterday.

We took our dog which added more interest than fun. But we made it.

The trip started at 2pm in Las Vegas, Nevada. We got our boarding passes and posted up for one more stateside beverage. I had a shot of bourbon and a Sam Adam — ‘Murica. Sasha had a glass of wine. We also ate chicken wings because well, ‘Murica.

We boarded the flight and hit our first lottery of the trip, three seats in a row with nobody in between. Leão had his own seat and a lot of floor space to spread out.

The in-flight safety video on German airline, Condor, was more of a highlight than usual. They used Elvis and Native Americans to communicate with Americans about the right ways to fly.

An hour into the flight Leão ate his doggy Ambien and dutifully went limp. Sasha and I mostly stayed awake.

After 8 hours of 11 Leão began to stir. He was hungry. We didn’t want to feed him in fears that he’d stink up the cabin. We bargained with water but he wanted no part of it. No deal was brokered.

He fell back asleep and as we were landing his slumber was cause for concern. It wasn’t the only cause. There was a national labor strike in effect at our destination airport. Hundreds of employees, thousands of planes and tens of thousands of passengers were displaced for the day.

Luckily we were allowed to land. We got our half zombie, half dog up and sprinted to the front of customs. We expected hours long waits. And somehow, we were through with bags and rental car keys in 20 minutes. German obsessive compulsive disorder at its finest.

The customs agent didn’t ask for one piece of paperwork either. Proof of rabies vaccination? No. Confirmation he wasn’t a heroin smuggling mule? Nope. Fine by us.

Our rental car was too small for our luggage so we were upgraded to a BMW M5 sedan. Holy shit are the rental cars here nicer than in the United States.

Sasha quickly briefed me on the ins and outs of German driving culture and we were off to the Autobahn.

Wow — the Autobahn. At once a chaotic scene from arcade Cruisin’ USA and a model of interstate driving efficiency. In English it means “car train” which sounds bizarre but is oddly fitting.

If you aren’t too familiar with the Autobahn there are many stretches that have no speed limit. Go anywhere in between 0-infinity — your choice. Naturally I chose faster. Got all the way up to 200 kph (120 mph) before my nerves intervened.

I’ll post more observations about this in the future. Two more for now.

One — the left lane is as infallible as the Pope. You only get into the left lane if you’re going to pass the next 10 cars by an average of 30 kph. Otherwise, don’t even look at it.

Two — Semi-trucks are painted much more creatively than in the US. Here’s one example.

A couple hours after leaving the Frankfurt airport we pulled into our temporary AirBnB home in Bonn. We met Sasha’s mother shortly thereafter, a warm and emotional reunion.

She made us borscht for dinner. Let me tell you something, I’m a big borscht convert. Maybe it’s the authentic Ukrainian recipe but I love the stuff. Warm soup felt good on its way down as our journey was winding down.

Even better than the meal? A Bayern Munich Champions League game to fall asleep watching.

More initial impressions about our apartment, and surrounding city in the coming days. Here’s a sneak peak of our area…