Off to Germany!

We're all packed and ready to head down to Chicago to catch a plane which will take us to Stockholm, Sweden, and then catch another plane which will carry us to Berlin, Germany, and then catch a bus which will take us to Leipzig where we will connect up with James and Tabea who will then drive us down to Bad Schlema where the wedding festivities are going to begin.

Three weeks in Germany! I can't believe it. I haven't ever had a vacation this long. Especially one with so much activity packed into it.

Normally when I have any length of time off, there's a huge list of things to do around the house so that there isn't much time for really relaxing and doing nothing. I can't remember doing absolutely nothing (except maybe reading) since those long-ago days of high school when our family went down to Nag's Head NC to hang out at the beach and play in the sand and surf with brothers Craig and Kelly.

[Actually, if I count the times when the family - or just my dad and sister and I - went back to California to visit Grandma and Grandpa or go to Bible Camp - we may have spent three weeks doing it, but all those memories are a blur now.]

I'm really looking forward to the trip, although it makes me nervous to go someplace where my native language is not the primary language (although it is generally the lingua franca in much of Germany); I wish there had been more time to learn at least some basic German, but things have been too utterly crazy around here to allow that. I apologize to my German relatives in advance!!

Today we're driving for three hours to a hotel near O'Hare which will allow us to park our car in their parking lot; then we take the shuttle to the airport where we will catch our flight to Stockholm. There, we have a six hour layover before boarding the plane for Berlin.

Once we get to Berlin, we're staying overnight at a hotel next-door to the airport, then getting up early in the morning and catching the shuttle back  to the airport, where we'll catch a bus to Leipzig. Hopefully, James and Tabea will meet us there at the bus station and take us to their apartment. From there, we'll be taking a car down to Bad Schlema where the in-laws live, and hanging out there for a couple weeks.

I hope we don't run into a lot of traffic on the way!

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POSTSCRIPT

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It was a long drive, and then a seemingly longer wait in the airport before our plane was ready to board. But we finally made it! Now we're going to just kick back and enjoy the flight. Hopefully they'll have good food and good movies to distract us from being completely bored. I usually fall asleep in the first half hour of a flight, anyway. I really like being on planes (except for the lack of sufficient room and the stuffy, dry air).

See ya on the other end!