Day 4: Suhl, Germany

Today was a VERY early morning! We were up by 2:30 am in order to get to the airport on time for our morning flight. We had to have full stomachs and be packed by 4 a.m. in order to catch our taxi rides to the bus terminal (which would take us to Keflavik Airport). The boys did better than I expected (considering over half still weren't asleep by midnight...must've been too excited!!! ;) ), but they still pulled it together! We left the church with plenty of time. The bus trip back to the airport was pretty neat. It brought us through the Icelandic Countryside allowing us to see it's full beauty. You always knew when something cool was outside the window because they all suddenly got loud... The bus took us through the lava fields and past what was once a NATO base situated just before Keflavik Int'l Airport (which I had visited as a Choirboy back in 2004).

We arrived at the airport about 5:25 am, and we boarded the plane around 7:30--it was a pretty smooth process. The boys are starting to get the gist of what is going on in airports, which is good considering we still need to do it again!

The flight was about three hours from Iceland to Frankfurt. It was a pretty smooth flight until the landing where we were hitting some pretty intense turbulence in our descent. It was the sketchiest landing/descent I had ever been on, but the pilots are professionals and I'm sure they have had worse in their career! The boys LOVED it though! I had white knuckles clinging to the armrests and they have their hands up like they were on some roller coaster!!! Crazy kids...but they seriously loved it...haha

We exited the plane and made our way to find our luggage. After that, we went to go find our bus. We waited for about an hour until Francis called the bus driver. It turns out the bus was at the wrong terminal! It was only about 15 more minutes until the bus came to pick us all up. We loaded the bus and left Frankfurt still in good time to reach Suhl by 6:00 pm.

The drive to Suhl should have taken about 3 hours, but we made a pit stop to get the boys a bite to eat. We stopped at a local Bistro to get the boys some authentic "European food." We got the boys a Turkish meal, Kabobs. It was a HUGE sandwich filled with chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage and a special sauce. The boys loved it and about half of them actually finished it--I couldn't believe it!!! I couldn't even eat all of it--they must have REALLY liked it! After dinner, we continued our trek to Suhl where we were welcomed by a big fan club and the local newspaper. The boys posed for pictures and were immediately split into host homes to allow them ample time to talk and rest for the night. Tomorrow the boys share a concert with the Suhler Knabenchor. It should be a lot of fun and a neat experience for the boys!

Keep checking back for updates!