In Dusseldorf

I had been to Dusseldorf a couple of times previously, way before babybear came on the scene. Both times I rather enjoyed it, wandering round the aldstadt, drinking alt beer and generally enjoying the good life. It was a rather different experience this time round.

First off the flight. Full of business people and one babybear. An evening flight on a day when I was very tired indeed is never a good thing.

I am pleased to say that I am no longer flying phobic (and some friends of mine can testify to the fact that I was absolutely TERRIFIED of flying, fainting, hyperventilation, complete and utter panic), but every now and then when I'm tired and have to fly I get a little nervous. And this was one of those times. The flight was incredibly bumpy, the bumpiest flight I've ever been on - we were rolling around all over the sky, not very nice at all. Anyway, horrendous flight over with we checked into possibly the smallest hotel room in the world.

Having asked for a bed for a baby I was dismayed to find a camp bed that was about a foot off the floor - to sleep a 16 month old in?! No travel cots available that day or for the next 2 days. Babybear, who is never a very restful sleeper even when confined to a cot, could not sleep properly at all and would get up and run round the room at various points in the night. Apparently it's hilarious to make your exhausted parents leap out of bed at 3am to catch you as you run off towards the glass cabinet door you love to open and slam shut!

To add to this the other guests in the hotel included the attendees for the 2009 International Conference of Sour Faced Business People. These were the charmers who were happy to watch me struggle to drag a highchair across the floor at breakfast holding a struggling babybear in one arm without even offering to help, but managed to find time in their busy schedules to voice their 'concern' that I let him run barefoot through the (carpeted and superheated) hotel corridor. Ho hum.

To top it all off, babybear cut a molar whilst we were there. At the end of it we all needed a holiday!