Week 6: Everyone Is Here!

Everyone is finally here!

Matt and the kids left last Monday night. I had been filled with so much anxiety in the days leading up to their departure. Mostly about the dogs. Currently, United is not flying dogs in cargo “due to Covid-19,” so their only option was to be in-cabin pets. Daisy is well within the size limitations but Slinky was questionable. It was all down to the ticket agent at check-in to determine if he would be ok to fly. In the end, she didn’t even give him a second glance so it was a lot of wasted worrying.

Matt’s Dad and Cindy took them to the airport and helped them get all nine suitcases checked in. Then Matt made it to the gate and onto the plane with both kids and dogs with no issues. Matt said the dogs did great on the plane and barely made a noise.

Since Matt was flying with the dogs, he flew into Frankfurt Airport, instead of Stuttgart so he wouldn’t have to make an airport connection with the dogs.

I left Stuttgart at around 5:30am on Tuesday to make the two hour drive to Frankfurt. Man, it was such a boring, long drive. I had hoped that it would be reasonable to occasionally use Frankfurt Airport if there was cheap airfare but now my hope is dwindling.

As I arrived at the airport around 7:30, Matt texted to say they had landed. I parked and waited about an hour for them to go through immigration and grab their bags. When they were close, I was able to go into the airport and help them out to the car.

We had also stressed, and paid a lot of money, to obtain a stamped German Dog Import form which required a vet visit, and a form mailed with two, same-day USPS envelopes to ASPHIS in Albany, NY. When Matt got to Germany, no one wanted to look at the form, even though he tried to show it to like ten people. I’m sure if we hadn’t paid the money and gone through the stress, we would have definitely needed it though.

We made the two hour drive back to the hotel. The kids fell asleep in the car and we had to fight to wake them up and get all the luggage and dogs inside.

After we got the kids and dogs situated, Matt and I ran all over base to get him his ID card, get gas for the rental car (a long process) and return the car.

The kids have to do a seven day quarantine. They have their own room, down the hall from us and we are allowed to make visits and bring them food. Brooklyn’s been making origami paper cranes and Ryan has been playing games on his phone.

On Wednesday, we took the dogs to the vet to get looked over and get registered in Germany. They passed all of the qualifications and got their own passports. Still, no one wanted to see the German Import form 😜

I had to go into work the rest of the week but Matt got out and explored base and the Post Exchange (our mall here). Out of boredom one day, he went to the barber shop. The barber is just a one-trick pony though and can really only do one cut, so Matt got his first military “high and tight.” 🤣 Matt also managed to get his drivers license finalized so he can have a little freedom.

Friday unexpectedly became a federal holiday so in the afternoon, we went into Stuttgart. We mapped out and tested Matt’s commute to the Stuttgart Golf Course and then went downtown.

We did some walking around and then stopped in a cafe for aperitifs. It was so hot- in the 90s and it felt every bit of it. Germans were in every fountain trying to cool off and we tried our best to stick to the shade.

We had dinner at Abacco’s where you cook your own steak on a hot stone. It was AMAZING!

Saturday we went to our new house for a walk through and took the dogs to a kennel for a trial day.

In the evening, Germany was playing in the Euro Cup, which is just about as important as the Super Bowl. Everything closes for the games and TVs are put up outside in town squares for everyone to watch.

We met my coworker and her husband in the Sindelfingen Platz to have dinner and watch the game.

Germany was playing Portugal and they were ahead most of the game. It wasn’t a nail biter but it was so awesome to be in the crowd. Everyone was so into the game and excited for the win- so much fun!

Sunday was Father’s Day. We didn’t really get to do any celebrating but Matt did meet some people online who invited him golfing.

On Tuesday, the kids will be out of quarantine and we will get the keys to our house the following Monday! Hopefully our household goods shipment will be here by then.