I have split my sabbatical into two different trips. Now it is time for the four week Europe trip which will cover a little bit of Germany, Belgium and Portugal. We flew from Portland to Frankfurt through Iceland. We left Portland an hour late and eventually we missed our connection in Iceland. Lucky for us, the airline already booked us on other flights before we even landed. We would have to fly to London and then on to Frankfurt. The trip would take an additional 4 hours but it was no big deal.

Once we landed in Frankfurt, I got a text message that our luggage didn’t make it. We went to the service desk to report our luggage didn’t arrive but the person said they had information that it did. We were told that before we could file a report, we would have to go wait for all the luggage to be delivered before we could report our missing luggage. So we had to wait an additional 30 minutes for the board to say they were done unloading and then we filed our report. They said our luggage was still in Iceland but we could have it the next day. We arranged for our luggage to be delivered to our next hotel in Brussels, Belgium.

After a good night sleep at the hotel by the airport, we picked up our car and started driving west towards Brussels. Halfway between Frankfurt and Brussels is Cologne, Germany. I have some family friends that live near there and arranged to meet them at their son’s soccer game. We watched the soccer game and then headed into the city to see the cathedral and have some lunch at a typical German pub. We then drove to their house and watched the final Bundesliga match of the season and ate homemade cake. It was great to visit even if it was such a short time. It is hard to believe that I haven’t seen them since 2002.

We got back in the car for the second part of the drive which took a little longer than expected due to a freeway closure and then roads closed in Brussels. We made it here a bit before 10 PM so it was a very long day. Luckily our luggage arrived shortly after us so everything was good.