Saturday 14, March 1964
5:00AM. The alarm awakened us to the start of our new adventure. Limousine arrived at 6:15AM for our bags (Lindgren’s limousine came for our overflow of bags) and for us. Dave and Rich came to take Sue and Cynthia to airport. Had breakfast with the Fowlers and Marge and Harry – really too excited to eat though. Jet took off on schedule. (AA-American Airlines)…
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…Wonderfully smooth flight (9:00AM) to New York. Weather lovely all the way. We all enjoyed the flight. About 45 minutes late landing at Kennedy field. We had to circle waiting our turn as planes had stacked up due to an earlier snow. This was a most unpleasant sensation. Even the stewardess disliked it.
Esther, Rick, and Vickie met us at the airport! Peck came later. They all looked so good and we talked fast and furious. It was rushed at airport to change bags from AA to Pan Am – fill-out forms. Pam Am took our Picture for papers back home – etc. Pan Am was late on take-off, too. After takeoff 8:30 PM EST there was a cocktail hour dinner and a miserable night’s rest. No place to stretch out. Glad I had slept between San Francisco and New York. Sun was up at 11 PM WST— never did find out what time it was — and breakfast was being served. A very confusing night!! (Sunrise!! 10:30PM; Breakfast 11PM)
Arrived in Frankfurt, we were informed that we had to disembark for customs inspection. The head of the family could go and would have to take all and begs that were carried on board. Someone said, it was not necessary to take the bags. So off I went to meet the merry customs man. We were herded.
We arrived in Stuttgart at noon (German time). This is nine hours later than Montezuma time. Pat was sick by the time we landed. Put him to bed in the hotel and went to lunch. Very nice hotel – Graf Zeppelin. Dining room very formal and we got our first taste of luxury European living. The service is so slow!! Our hotel is one of the nicest here. The bathrooms are immense. Two giant sized wash basins with mirror down the wall. The tub is giant size and has fixtures in the center instead of end. Much more convenient. Also equipped with the European Bidet which has not enticed me as yet. All beds are single — the double bed has two single mattresses and separate covers. These are magnificent down quilts with a removable sheet covering. Each bed has two pillows — one over-sized (square) and one small. The rooms have curtains and drapes (both draw). There are slanted blinds (quite heavy) that lower on the outside. All of this keeps the room dark and at all hours. We had dinner and a Hofbrau – not a family type place but just across from the hotel and better than the formal dining.
