We zijn hier!

   Above is a picture of the courtesy bags that I made for our flight to the Netherlands. As it turns out I should not have bothered; Both Leif and Klaus were excellent little flyers.  I was worried at first. Both of them were super energetic at the airport- running/crawling all over the place. I was afraid that they would be too excited to sleep and would get all strung out. As we sat down in our seats, Klaus was doing flip flops in my arms to try to wiggle out of my grasp and onto the floor. I could feel the dread in the passengers around me.  But not to worry- we settled Leif in with a few Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer videos and Klaus fell asleep with a bottle of milk. Success! 

    Now for take off. We taxi to the runway. Leif is giggling with excitement, his nose glued to the window. Klaus is snuggled in my arms and softly snoring. 

  And then an announcement comes on. 

  It was given first in Icelandic (we were flying on IcelandAir). I don't know any Icelandic aside from takk (thanks to Sigur Ros) but I caught what sounded like the words "forty minutes". Then the announcement was given in English. Sure enough it was "forty minutes" - a forty minute delay in the take off time because of a storm in New York. Argh! Panic panic panic! Our connection time in Iceland was only an hour. What are we going to do with two already wigged-out kids if we miss our flight? Also we have a taxi reservation. Plus the landlord's brother is waiting for us at the apartment with keys and we have no way to contact him except to email his sister who is in Africa and hope that she can relay the message. Plus even if we somehow make the next flight there is no way that our luggage will make it. No no no! This delay cannot happen. I am about ready to pinch Klaus hoping that his screams will spurr the captain to take off or throw us off the plane and let me go home to my beautiful house and forget about this whole silly adventure.

 Then a miracle of aviation happens! The plane actually takes off in forty minutes as promised.  To ease the fears of anyone with a connecting flight, the captain announces that we will make it to Iceland before any departures are even scheduled to leave. 

    The rest of the flight was great. Klaus slept the whole time. Leif was easily convinced after several videos to lay down and go to sleep. I didn't sleep at all thanks to an ill-conceived dinner at Chipotle but I did enjoy snuggling with Klaus for 6+ hours. 

    The landing in Iceland was a bit bumpy but that made Leif love it all the more. He asked to go on another plane and we happily said yes. The plane let out on the tarmac (Classy, IcelandAir. Real classy) and we quickly shuffled inside to escape the wind and rain. We checked the boarding pass and followed the signs to our gate. When we reached the escalator there was a line. We waited our turn only to realize that the line wasn't actually moving. There was a gate across the escalator entrance. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation but I couldn't seem to process the situation. "Why would someone put a gate there? And why are we all obeying it?" I started looking around for alternative roots. Kurt kept me in line and eventually some airline official removed the gate. We all proceeded upstairs and found out that the reason we were waiting was because the customs office had just opened. Oh no I forgot to factor in customs! We are going to miss our flight! Isn't there a special  line for people who need to run to their next flight?!?!? With true Icelandic brevity the line moved along and we made it to our flight. 

   Again Klaus slept and Leif watched videos and napped. I didn't even bother handing out the courtesy bags I had made. These kids were not going to be a problem.      

   We landed at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport with no problem and proceeded to the baggage claim area where we picked up most of the baggage on the flight as it was all ours. We loaded up two carts and put the kids in the stroller and then struggled across the airport to the taxi service, patting ourselves on the back all the while for giving up our silly plan to take the train to Leiden. 

  After a quick drive we arrived at Maresingel  57 and were greeted by our landlord's brother. He helped us get all our luggage in and showed us around. The place is absolutely wonderful. I will write more about it later. 

For now- we zijn hier!