Today we are headed back to Europe for 2 weeks! I vividly remember leaving it two years ago as if it were yesterday – looking out the airplane window with tears silently streaming down my face. I'm so excited to be returning together as a family!
Incredibly busy at work, I haven't been able to wrap my head around committing to blogging the adventure – but I'm sure once the stress of work is behind me, the descriptive words will start flowing through my head, begging to be put "on paper." Since picky Google already recognizes this existing Europe blog, hijacking it seems like the best place to share our journey.
Our travels will take us to four countries: Ireland, Netherlands, Germany and Czech Republic. The inspiration for our trip is to celebrate Chris graduating from high school this past month with the honor of receiving the Seal of Biliteracy in German … too bad we aren't seeing our Rhine apartment host who last time could only speak to Chris (in German) and left him with, "You learn more German and I'll learn more English." Kate, completing her 1st year of German, announced she will not be speaking any German on the trip, to which I promptly replied, "Da" - a family joke that I love repeating.
The other major contributing factor to traveling to Germany, other than that we all loved it last time, is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's Reformation – which has attracted the likes of my brother Glenn's Colorado church. He is leading his choir group there this week, including my mom who is tagging along with them. Originally targeted as a family trip, our favorite travel companions Craig and Reene committed to joining us. Unfortunately we don't actually get to meet up with Glenn, as his travel plans curiously developed into a route different than ours – missing each other by a mere 24 hours in Munich!
Finally managing to pull myself away from work last night, I arrived home to see our rental car in the driveway … a Jaguar (I've never been in one!)! Good thing someone remembered to pick that up! The pieces are coming together: Jeremy arrived home safely from college, the obvious transition of Work Greg to Vacation Greg, and having picked up our ride to SFO and checked into the flight – just like that, our adventure is beginning!
