Hi everyone.
The trip to Sydney has been an ordeal. The flight itself was "only" 18 hours but we spent the same amount of time in airports additionally. That's because the flight from Frankfurt was delayed by 23 hours. 7 of which we spent in an "enclosure" near the gate to the plane. Something was wrong with the navigation system on the plane and they let us wait because they hoped to get it fixed in a couple of hours. The flight had been scheduled for 12 pm and by 7 pm they had us ushered into the airport Sheraton for the night. Unfortunately we missed one night in the Mandarin Oriental in Kuala Lumpur (KL) that way. The plane finally took off at 11 am the next day and we arrived in KL at 6:30 am the next day. As our flight from KL to Sydney would leave at 10:40 pm, we had 16 hours and 10 minutes in KL. For the sake of the kids and due to already serious sleep deprivation, we decided to accept an offer from Air Malaysia to spend the time in a 5 star hotel with pool near the airport. The Pullman Hotel was beautiful and we enjoyed relaxing hours of sleep in a giant bed, had fun at the pool and were rewarded with excellent Asian cuisine in the hotel restaurant. All provided for by Air Malaysia.
The flight from KL to Sydney was in a Boeing 747 which is always impressive but was eventless aside from that. Apart from the fact of course that we all added to our sleep deficit.
In Sydney we picked up the camper van which was brand new and are now "sleeping" on a campsite somewhere in greater Sydney. Of course we all woke up at 3 am because that would be about lunch time in Germany. Aiden was hungry, ate some cookies and is now asking why we can't go home to Marburg right now. Charlotta filled up her diaper and even soiled her pajamas. I am writing this blog and Trish is desperately trying to sleep... As you can see, our first night in Australia is a great success ;o) But in order to look at the bright side: We are all healthy, together and the rest of the vacation will probably be a lot better.