I recently told a couple friends about the "misadventures" of our grand family Christmas adventure.
"Wow, you can't see all of that in the pictures!" the first exclaimed. "I like your Facebook version better!" said another.
Then a few days later, I saw a link about why we shouldn't feel bad when our life doesn't match our friend's "facebook lives." I didn't read it because I didn't have time but the timing of just seeing the title struck me.
Its so true..the lives others see are not always the reality...especially in light of today's social media when we only share our best.
And to be clear from the start, our "misadventures" may have put some challenges in our path, but the joy and love that radiates from any photos of our trip, more than makes up for them so that even now, at such a short time past, we are able to just smile and shake our heads at them rather than let them take anything away from our wonderful memories.
So here you have "the rest of the story."
Prior to arriving or upon arrival, one of these characters had pink eye (as did her fiance) and the other had strep throat. Clone had had the flu and there were sniffles galore among the bunch of us.
On their way here, the flight for these 4 was cancelled...after they had waited 4 hours at the airport. They were told 3 of them could fly the next day....maybe. After some more waiting in line and dealing with airlines, they were rerouted and arrived 24 hours later than expected. (As this was Belle's second flight to England and second cancelled flight to England, the moral to this story is: its probably best not to book international travel with Belle in your group!)
12 hours prior to our 0'dark-thirty scheduled departure for Germany, we went to pick up the rental van which would convey our large entourage and were told..."we have you down for pick up tomorrow." Thankfully that little heart stopping announcement was quickly rendered a non-event when they informed us it was just a matter of going to get it from their other lot and we'd have it shortly.
Saturday evening, we arrived at our lovely rental apartment to find no one there and no keys. Upon review of the contract, I realized I had missed the part that said we were to pick up the keys at the office....about 30 minutes back the way we had come. Thankfully after several attempts we were able to get in touch with the managers who let us know where they'd hidden the key for the goofy Americans who can't follow directions.
Upon arrival we learned that local ski conditions were so horrible that "the kids are learning to ski on grass" so it appeared that MWC and the others who were dreaming of their opportunity to ski the Alps wasn't going to happen. Thankfully, they found a resort a couple hours away and decided to make the drive to ski. A mere 2 days after their engagement, Swan and Tiger Tamer had the terrible misfortune..and greatest joy ...to see each other hit ice and slide crazily close to a cliff's edge. I'm sure in those brief moments they knew fear and overwhelming relief and gratefulness to God like they'd never known before.
On Friday we were delighted to have a belated "White Christmas"
It made for a beautiful, magical day. However, it also did not bode well for our long trip home, especially since another storm was behind it and expected to drop even more snow on our travel day. We made the painful decision to leave a day early and just lose our rent for the day. We planned to drive a few hours north to get out of the mountains before the snow hit and to be several hours closer to our Chunnel crossing for Sunday.
Belle's dream was to see a castle so we opted to stop at Neuschwanstein on the way to our Saturday night destination.
Because of the miserable weather conditions, no buses were running up to the castle so while the rest of the crew decided to hike the hill to the top, Sweetness and I waited at the bottom for the horse and carriage ride up to the top. After waiting a frigid, snow pelted 1-1/2 hours in line, we missed our scheduled tour time and were not able to join the rest for the tour. We opted to stay at the bottom of the hill in the warm hotel lobby and enjoy some coffee, hot chocolate and cake.
Later in the afternoon we headed to our hotel..about 2 hours north. Or what should have been 2 hours north. Terrible weather and traffic conditions turned our 2 hour drive into 4-1/2 hours. Thankfully our new GPS (our old one recently died) has a traffic feature on it and diverted us around 5 traffic accidents.
Sunday morning we woke up to more snow and began the last leg of our journey home in the snow over slushy, snowy and icy roads. We finally cleared the snow about 3 hours into our journey. Unfortunately, we did not clear the below freezing temps or the very salted roads. Our windshield wiper fluid was frozen so we had to keep stopping at rest areas along the way to throw water on the windshield and run the wipers to clear them.
We arrived at the Chunnel 3 hours and 5 minutes before our departure time. Policy was no one was allowed to enter before 3 hours but because the lines were so long, they let us in. After checking in and being told no earlier departures were available, we inched forward to the border control. After waiting over 30 minutes in line for our turn, we arrived at the agent who took our passports and told us there were too many of us and we needed to go into the bus line. A bus arrived just before us so we had to do landing cards and wait for about 40 people ahead of us. Thankfully we made it through immigration with minimal issues and made our way to the waiting area.
We ate our dinner and read a notice that all trains were running 30 minutes behind. Our own train went from "awaiting call to board" to "final call" within a matter of minutes so we raced out to van and headed to board. After boarding, our train started, and then stopped....technical difficulties. Blessedly, it was only a slight delay and we were soon on our way.
Finally, 17 hours later we arrived safely at home. Tired, with a few more acquired colds along the way, but happy to be home.
The last days of everyone's visit were blessedly non-eventful. Swan, Belle and I enjoyed a day of wedding dress shopping just as we'd dreamed of. Belle and Clone made it to their flight, and aside from being told erroneously that they didn't have reservations and a no-show pilot which delayed their flight a wee bit, made it home with relative ease. A welcome relief after the events of their incoming flight.
Tiger Tamer and Swan were not so blessed. They arrived in the US to discover that their reservation on their connecting flight had been cancelled and they were stranded in Dallas. They got it remedied, but still ended up arriving home a day later than scheduled. Just think of the stories they have to tell their children one day of their "engagement trip."
So you see, our pictures tell one story of love, joy, happiness, and smooth sailing. Behind the scenes though..reality reveals a few troublesome waves here and there. However, thanks be to God, the love, joy and happiness are still very real and make the choppy seas and annoyances along the way mere funny memories.
"Wow, you can't see all of that in the pictures!" the first exclaimed. "I like your Facebook version better!" said another.
Then a few days later, I saw a link about why we shouldn't feel bad when our life doesn't match our friend's "facebook lives." I didn't read it because I didn't have time but the timing of just seeing the title struck me.
Its so true..the lives others see are not always the reality...especially in light of today's social media when we only share our best.
And to be clear from the start, our "misadventures" may have put some challenges in our path, but the joy and love that radiates from any photos of our trip, more than makes up for them so that even now, at such a short time past, we are able to just smile and shake our heads at them rather than let them take anything away from our wonderful memories.
So here you have "the rest of the story."
Prior to arriving or upon arrival, one of these characters had pink eye (as did her fiance) and the other had strep throat. Clone had had the flu and there were sniffles galore among the bunch of us.
On their way here, the flight for these 4 was cancelled...after they had waited 4 hours at the airport. They were told 3 of them could fly the next day....maybe. After some more waiting in line and dealing with airlines, they were rerouted and arrived 24 hours later than expected. (As this was Belle's second flight to England and second cancelled flight to England, the moral to this story is: its probably best not to book international travel with Belle in your group!)
12 hours prior to our 0'dark-thirty scheduled departure for Germany, we went to pick up the rental van which would convey our large entourage and were told..."we have you down for pick up tomorrow." Thankfully that little heart stopping announcement was quickly rendered a non-event when they informed us it was just a matter of going to get it from their other lot and we'd have it shortly.
Saturday evening, we arrived at our lovely rental apartment to find no one there and no keys. Upon review of the contract, I realized I had missed the part that said we were to pick up the keys at the office....about 30 minutes back the way we had come. Thankfully after several attempts we were able to get in touch with the managers who let us know where they'd hidden the key for the goofy Americans who can't follow directions.
Upon arrival we learned that local ski conditions were so horrible that "the kids are learning to ski on grass" so it appeared that MWC and the others who were dreaming of their opportunity to ski the Alps wasn't going to happen. Thankfully, they found a resort a couple hours away and decided to make the drive to ski. A mere 2 days after their engagement, Swan and Tiger Tamer had the terrible misfortune..and greatest joy ...to see each other hit ice and slide crazily close to a cliff's edge. I'm sure in those brief moments they knew fear and overwhelming relief and gratefulness to God like they'd never known before.
On Friday we were delighted to have a belated "White Christmas"
Belle's dream was to see a castle so we opted to stop at Neuschwanstein on the way to our Saturday night destination.
Later in the afternoon we headed to our hotel..about 2 hours north. Or what should have been 2 hours north. Terrible weather and traffic conditions turned our 2 hour drive into 4-1/2 hours. Thankfully our new GPS (our old one recently died) has a traffic feature on it and diverted us around 5 traffic accidents.
Sunday morning we woke up to more snow and began the last leg of our journey home in the snow over slushy, snowy and icy roads. We finally cleared the snow about 3 hours into our journey. Unfortunately, we did not clear the below freezing temps or the very salted roads. Our windshield wiper fluid was frozen so we had to keep stopping at rest areas along the way to throw water on the windshield and run the wipers to clear them.
We arrived at the Chunnel 3 hours and 5 minutes before our departure time. Policy was no one was allowed to enter before 3 hours but because the lines were so long, they let us in. After checking in and being told no earlier departures were available, we inched forward to the border control. After waiting over 30 minutes in line for our turn, we arrived at the agent who took our passports and told us there were too many of us and we needed to go into the bus line. A bus arrived just before us so we had to do landing cards and wait for about 40 people ahead of us. Thankfully we made it through immigration with minimal issues and made our way to the waiting area.
We ate our dinner and read a notice that all trains were running 30 minutes behind. Our own train went from "awaiting call to board" to "final call" within a matter of minutes so we raced out to van and headed to board. After boarding, our train started, and then stopped....technical difficulties. Blessedly, it was only a slight delay and we were soon on our way.
Finally, 17 hours later we arrived safely at home. Tired, with a few more acquired colds along the way, but happy to be home.
The last days of everyone's visit were blessedly non-eventful. Swan, Belle and I enjoyed a day of wedding dress shopping just as we'd dreamed of. Belle and Clone made it to their flight, and aside from being told erroneously that they didn't have reservations and a no-show pilot which delayed their flight a wee bit, made it home with relative ease. A welcome relief after the events of their incoming flight.
Tiger Tamer and Swan were not so blessed. They arrived in the US to discover that their reservation on their connecting flight had been cancelled and they were stranded in Dallas. They got it remedied, but still ended up arriving home a day later than scheduled. Just think of the stories they have to tell their children one day of their "engagement trip."
So you see, our pictures tell one story of love, joy, happiness, and smooth sailing. Behind the scenes though..reality reveals a few troublesome waves here and there. However, thanks be to God, the love, joy and happiness are still very real and make the choppy seas and annoyances along the way mere funny memories.
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