My Travel Woes!!!

My little MC has always been a very adjusting girl. She rarely throws any tantrums and is generally a very cheerful kid. After we boarded the plane, MC was not happy being confined to a small seat and she started showing signs of discomfort. I tried putting her to sleep but she could not sleep with the lights turned on. She was crying initially and then it gradually turned into howling. I was at my wits end. I tried distracting her by showing her cartoons on the in-flight entertainment but she was still howling. My co-passengers were looking at us in a concerned manner. Those poor people might have been thinking that they have to put up with this howling kid through out the 8 hour flight. MC refused to sit on the seat and was sitting on the floor of the plane, howling on top of her voice. The flight attendants patiently asked us make her sit on her seat else the flight will not take off. Me and Sagi plumped a howling MC into her seat and held on to her. My one hour ordeal came to an end when the flight finally took off and the cabin lights were switched - off. MC finally went off to sleep within 15 minutes of the flight taking off. 

Phew!!! What a start to a vacation!

I woke-up at around 7 am (IST). MC is, thankfully, still sleeping. When I checked the in-flight monitor, we were cruising somewhere above Iraq. The in-flight entertainment option was very limited in Lufthansa. I settled down to watch "Noah". Half-way through the movie, MC showed signs of waking up. I went to the pantry to inquire about the baby food that I had pre-ordered for MC. The baby food was a bottle of pureed fruit. I dreaded at the thought of how I am going to make my girl eat it. MC woke up in some time and was thankfully in a good mood. We tried feeding her by distracting her with cartoons. She had few spoons of the baby food but was clearly not happy with it. We finally reached Frankfurt by around 10.30 am (IST). MC was happy to be finally out of the confines of the airplane and was gleefully running around saying "Germany" :)

Our connecting flight was an hour later. We cleared the immigration process and waited for our connecting flight to Stuttgart. As we waited at the airport lounge, we tried feeding the fruit puree to MC, but with limited success. I braced myself for another high altitude tantrum.

As we boarded into the flight, I realized that Sagi was assigned a seat which was couple of rows apart. I had to manage MC all by myself!!!!. Though the flight was barely 40 min, MC was in no mood for patiently sitting on a seat with a belt. She was on the floor. Even when the plane was landing at Stuttgart airport, MC resolutely refused to listen to my pleas and started screaming when I forcefully tried to pick-her up from the floor. When we finally landed at Stuttgart, I vowed to myself that I will never ever travel late night with a child. Just never. 

We then proceeded towards collecting our luggage, which never came. Oh yes, the Lufthansa rep at Stuttgart airport, kindly informed us that the connecting time between our flights was too short for transferring our luggage and that it will come in the next flight scheduled in the evening. So, we finally arrived at Stuttgart with a two year old and only couple of diapers, and a single change of cloths!!! 

Cousin P, like a good German citizen, was dot on time at the airport. Godfather and godchild had a lovely reunion at the airport. P spoke to the airline staff and shared his address with them so that they can drop the luggage. He then drove us to his place and we got our first view of the beautiful city of Stuttgart. 

And that's how we began our most memorable vacation!!!