Day 1 - Sunday, June 11th
June 11th was officially the last day we would be in our wonderful German house that we’ve called home for 4 years now. For the last month I’ve been cleaning, organizing, shipping, & getting everything ready for the big move back to the US, & this was the tail end of it all.
It was a stressful day because not only was it our last day in our house, but it was also the day we left for our big 11 day cruise to Italy, Turkey, & Greece. We were rushing around trying to get everything out of the house & into the garage. The kids were running around trying to get their cruise suitcases packed. Trek was trying to get the FMO furniture to the garage (the base loaned beds, table, & wardrobes). Once we left the house, it would be empty so our landlord could paint it while we were on our cruise. He said we could store our extra moving luggage/supplies & the FMO furniture in the garage until we got back. And of course in the hustle & bustle of it all, Trek somehow managed to drop the FMO dining room table directly onto his foot. The minute I heard the crash, I knew something was broken. He immediately sat down & took off his sock only to find an instantly purple & green big toe. It was definitely NOT GOOD. He managed to limp around the rest of the morning as we finished up the cleaning, packing, & storing, but I could tell he was in a lot of pain.
We got it all done, put the suitcases in the van, & headed to church. It was a rough Sunday. Most of my friends (& the kids’ friends) were headed on vacation to the states by the time we got back from our cruise so we knew this was our final farewell for a lot of our friends that have literally become like family to us. It was HARD. Many tears were shed. We left that church building a complete mess. This move is going to be hard for all of us. One of our sweet friends brought us a delicious candy cane shaped cherry pastry to church because they knew we were leaving on our trip. The kids devoured it. It was SO delicious. I swear we have the best friends in the world.
Now our vacation had officially begun. We hopped in the van & drove 2.5 hours to Cologne, Germany where we’d be flying out of at 6am the next morning. We decided to leave a day early & sleep at the hotel at the airport so we didn’t have to wake up quite so early. It was a great plan. Trek was still limping, & I could tell he was sore. His toenail was starting to lift (he’s going to lose it completely). The kids were hungry so we decided to find the nearest fast food place & grab a quick dinner before going to bed early. The ONLY place we could find open was a sketchy Subway Sandwich shop in the ghetto area next to the airport. We were slightly terrified. The windows had bars on them, & the entire neighborhood was covered in graffiti. There were gangs of teenagers prowling the streets with loud music on & we were slightly terrified, but starving. The sandwiches/food turned out to be really really good. That could be because we’ve been eating cold cereal & ham sandwiches for the last 2 weeks straight, but these were good sandwiches. Once our bellies were full, we found our way back to our hotel (Hotel Leonardo) at the Cologne/Bonn Airport. Everybody went straight to bed so we could get up at 3 & be at the airport by 4 am. Our trip had officially begun.
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