On April 30th, in the evening, I took off from Chicago O’Hare Airport on my first European adventure and my first international flight.  I hope I didn’t appear too goofy in my excitement as I pulled and tossed my luggage around, lol.  I arrived early at the airport, so early I had to sit and wait a few hours in order to check my luggage, yet it provided opportunity to talk with other international travelers and learn of their adventures.  One fellow was going to Hong Kong, after a 24 hour layover due to tornado warnings in the Midwest and another fellow was going to India!  And I thought I was taking a long trek!  Once through security, I purchased some snack goodies and plopped myself down, waiting for KLM Dutch Airlines to prepare our pretty baby blue airplane.  Before too long, we were climbing aboard!  Buckled in and taking off, I met my seat partner, a fellow mom, returning to her homeland of Germany after visiting her son & daughter-in-law.  It was all I could do to keep myself from constantly opening the windows on the plane as the sun went down and then came back up on the other side of the world.  The stewardesses and pilots encouraged us to try to sleep after supper, but, as you can see, I wasn’t very sleepy & I sneaked a few photos of the event.   My next day in Hamburg proved to be the jet lag test, lol.  The flight was as smooth as could be, one could almost forget one was on an airplane, except when one needs to get up and use the facilities!  There was a line all night long, I think!  As the sun was coming back up, we came over Ireland, Wales and Great Britain and then onto Amsterdam Airport.  For some reason I don’t have any photos as we came in, but the clouds and fog were rolling in and that’s what I remember of it.  I think we were probably being served breakfast at the time we were approaching Amsterdam, hence distracting me from my camera.  Amsterdam was pretty foggy, but I did glimpse some canals as we landed.  I had a short wait before boarding a short flight to Hamburg where I sat next to an elderly German lady who gave me lots of advice on dating the second time around and also about the rough winds in that area (the winds coming off the two big seas cause for a bumpy ride, but I really enjoyed the clear view of the German farmland below) and the last photo is of the Hamburg Train Station.  More to come! ….