The journey begins...

Nb. Click on any photos to see larger versions.

well, it's not really a beginning, more of a resumption after all I've been to Korea pretty much every year since 1995. You'd think mum would be getting used to it by now. And to be fair, she was more restrained than usual despite having to say goodbye to two grandchildren as well this time...
But surely it was me that should have been glum, for it was me that was facing 11 hours on a plane with two children. Never mind snakes on a plane or Passenger 57, this had the potential to be a disaster of epic proportions.

Of course you always have to sit through a a few previews before you get to the main event, and so it was that we had a short and uneventful hop over to Frankfurt and a quick transfer on to the main flight. We were ushered on first, which always kind of annoys me as I'd rather keep the children out of the confined space of the aircraft for as long as possible. Still we strapped ourselves in and come 6pm we were thundering down the runway. It was the usual routine on the flight, drinks then dinner, then turn the lights down for a few hours, switch lights back on, serve breakfast and land. The children managed to grab 4-5 hours sleep each although unfortunately they overlapped rather than sleeping at the same time.

Anyhow, somehow we made it through the night, the kids weren't at all grumpy to be woken up in the morning and come 11:30am Korean time (GMT +9) we were gliding in to land at Incheon airport. Alex wasn't at all impressed saying:

"I thought we were going to Korea"

"Yes, we are in Korea"

"No, we're just back at the airport again."

Anyhow, my thoughts on Lufthansa:
The stewardesses were much kinder than last time I flew with them. Maybe they felt sorry for me having the children.
The food was ok, they had special childrens meals which the children turned their noses up at in favour of my adults meal.
They didn't have seat back individual televisions which I had last time I went with Air France and Korean Air. Being able to watch back to back films really makes time pass much quicker and I'm sure there would have been a kids channel as well (sometimes it is ok for the kids to watch ten hours of tv...)

Next post: the reunion.