July 7 - Monday
In the morning, the daytime desk clerk (who spoke English very well) gave us 6 sandwiches, two cups of yogurt and some little cheese wedges. Since we had about 20 minutes before the taxi arrived, he got us some tea to drink. We had yogurt and tea for breakfast at the hotel. I asked the clerk to write the word for "airport" on the back of a hotel business card - it came in handy, since the cab driver knew no English. He was a funny guy, pantomiming an airplane taking off to show he understood. I paid him 30 zloty for a 26 zloty fare. After he took our bags from the trunk, he opened his wallet and asked, <<Ist gut?>> I motioned toward him and said, "You keep." He nodded and thanked me.

We didn't really need to arrive at the airport at 5:30 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. flight. The check-in counter didn't even open until 6:30. There were only 2 or 3 gates, with a brief security scan for our luggage. The flight was nice - the stewardess knew somehow that we spoke English - maybe it was on the passenger list. We had a nice snack with fruit, roll & butter and other tidbits.

When we landed in Munich, we had about 3 hours before our next flight, so we found the gift shop, then made our way to the gate. After a passport check and a quiz on: what we had bought in Germany (a small beer stein, a magnet, a thimble, postcards and a pfennig); whether we had been on any farms; or if anyone had given us any packages to carry; then, we were allowed to put our bags through the scanner. One of the guards asked us when our flight was leaving and joked that we were really early.

We sat at the gate and people-watched. The vending machine with the Ritter Sport chocolate was out of order but we were able to buy drinks (Fanta orange). I went to stretch my legs and found the Lufthansa newspaper rack (free!). I picked up a copy of Der Wielt and found an article on the Roswell aliens...all in German.

The flight to Chicago was long but pleasant. The crew was friendly (mostly American - it was, after all, operated by United Airlines). There was a constant supply of Toblerone and Walker's shortbread. We had a hot lunch (and a sandwich just before landing). At some point, we flew over Greenland. After we landed in Chicago, we walked and walked and walked, went through a passport checkpoint, picked up the bag I had checked because I was now carrying souvenirs, went through customs (friendly officer, very helpful), stopped at another customs checkpoint, turned over my suitcase again and took a train to the terminal. Whew!

I don't even remember the trip to Omaha. In Chicago, they changed our gate between the time we looked at the screen and the time we got there - only by two gates, thank goodness. I think our flight was delayed for some reason.

After we got to Omaha, we didn't have to wait too long for my luggage. The Budget parking lot shuttle was waiting at the curb - I think we were the last ones on. After we got in the car, we stopped for caffeine and Mike made it all the way to Hwy 50 before dozing off for a second. We finally arrived home after being awake for 24 hours.