We had another quiet week until we headed back to Maryland. On Wednesday, Matt, Brooklyn, and I left to head back to the U.S. My cousin Mason, was marrying his dear fianceé, Rachael.
We had been planning this trip for a long time and had the flights before we even left for Germany. A few weeks before the wedding, our outbound flights were cancelled so we had to reschedule to depart a day earlier and then book a hotel for an overnight in London. Shortly after that, the U.S. was added back to the list of high risk covid countries. For us that meant that Ryan couldn’t come with us because he would have to quarantine and miss school when we got back. Luckily, our dear friends offered to let him stay with them while we were gone. Ryan was happy to stay overnight with his friend and go back with them to Salzburg.
We left Wednesday night and flew to London. I just have to say- what a racket they have going on with covid! They make you pay for a covid test to fly there, and then pay for a “day two” covid test, even if you’re not going to be there that long. Come on, U.K., get it together! That makes no sense!
Thursday we took our second flight back to the U.S. and we were back in Calvert County by early evening. We stopped and saw grandparents and friends and had dinner at Japanese Steakhouse, of course!
Friday, we ran errands all day- doctors appointments, hair appointments, and getting ready for the wedding. Then we headed for the Eastern Shore for the rehearsal dinner.
Saturday, we spent the morning getting ready and that evening was the wedding. Everything was so beautiful and we were so happy to be able to get there! Ryan even made an appearance 😉
Sunday afternoon, we headed back to Dulles. Fate was working against us and after several small delays in the airport, we missed our connection by about a minute. So frustrating because had any ONE of our delays not occurred, we would have made it. Anyways, I cried a lot, like I do when we miss flights and then we spent the next hour getting re-booked. This was a challenge in itself as there were no other direct flights to Stuttgart from London that day. This meant we had to fly through other countries on the way and we had to see which flights were available AND which flights we were eligible due to our quickly expiring covid tests that we had done on Saturday. Anyways, we made it home by 7pm (only 8 hours late) after flying home through Amsterdam. We grabbed the dogs and Ryan and we went to bed early, so exhausted.
Ryan had a busy weekend too! He went to Munich for one night and went to the Hofbrau Haus and the Van Gogh Exhibition. In Salzburg, he went on the Sound of Music Tour and into the Salt Mines. We definitely missed our buddy, but he came home and could not stop talking about how much fun he had, especially at the Salt Mines.
Looking forward to a week at home, catching up on rest!
Gilcrests Abroad 