Journey to Australia
Tuesday/Wednesday 26th/27th July, 2016
The flight over Singapore to Darwin went well. The biggest "disaster" were spilled beverages. The children wept only very few times. Jann was at times a bit active, but that was not extraordinary. With his charm je twisted a young lady from the row behind us around his finger. He answered her question: "What animals will you see in Australia?" very competent with "crocodile". OK, Petra drummed the crocodiles into Jann since a while. Question: "May you go to the water in Australia?" Jann: "No". "And why?" "Because of the crocodiles!"
After 12 hours to Singapore we had only two hours to change to the connecting flight to Darwin. We all were a bit groggy on this flight of less than 5 hours in the early morning hours of Swiss time. The children slept nearly all the time. After the arrival in Darwin we the parents were awake again, the biggest "disaster" so far awaited us: today is Wednesday and we only have booked accommodation from Thursday to Friday. Starting from Friday we have our camper van. Argh, a day slipped through! Well, I first called the motel if they would have something free already today. No, unfortunately not. OK, nowadays with free WLAN in the airport and booking.com it does not take long and now we sit in an apartment a bit too big for our needs on the tenth floor with nice view and despite high season for a reasonable price thanks to last minute booking discounts. When we arrived at the building we meet the Australian working hours. It was half 4 and the reception closes at 4 o'clock. There was a small box labelled "Late Arrival Guest Phone". It said "dial 4", but was empty. There was an intercom/outdoor phone. Well, I dialled the 4 and then spoke to a guest in a room. OK, it is only an intercom. In the little box there was probably one a phone, there is still a socket. And a notice with another phone number to call. Well, nowadays everyone has a mobile phone. But the number did not work, not with a leading 0, not with the international code for Australia. I looked at my documentation and there is the same number, but with a 08 area code for the Northern Territory. Now it worked and someone came and we could check-in. As we left at 6 o'clock there were two guys at the reception...
We made a stroll to the beach and on the way home we had dinner. Jann fell asleep on the stool. Back at the apartment he was not that relaxed anymore and wanted to go home. To fell asleep he required a lot of mama.
Tomorrow we will enjoy our unplanned relaxing day. At least after we move again all our baggage...
