Ireland is an island, so we needed to book a flight to get off the island and did so on Friday headed to London, with the intention of taking the Eurostar back through the Chunnel and on to Germany to travel to Ramstein AFB to try to catch a military hop back to the States.

But… that’s not what happened.

I seriously underestimated the popularity of the Eurostar trip from England to Paris and couldn’t find a trip on the fast-tracked train from London to the continent for the entire weekend. Unwilling to be stuck in London for our last weekend in Europe, I searched for flights and found a cheap fare to Luxembourg that would put us in the tiny country by 4pm Friday afternoon and booked two seats and then reached out to my cousins living in Luxembourg that I was coming through and would love to see them. They, in turn, graciously invited us to stay for the weekend.

The morning of our 6:30am flight to England, we woke up to a storm at 3:45am. The bathroom had water on the floor and I first thought it was coming through the opening at the top of the window, but it was raining so hard that the rain was dripping through the ceiling in the bathroom and through its light. Let me tell you, I was thankful it wasn’t a problem I had to deal with beyond telling the front desk about it. The taxi driver we had ordered the day before was right on time at 4:15am for the short drive to the Dublin Airport. An uneventful trip through security and customs had us in the air on time and landing at Gatwick by 8:15am.

Unlike most airports where connecting flights keep you in the secure area, this one didn’t. We ended up back at the airport’s entrance and would have to go through security and customs again. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because it did enable Steven to go outside and smoke. We found a nice and comfortable Airport pub and sat down for breakfast and then hung out there until it was closer to our departure time of 3:30pm… let me just say we did not partake of the European habit of beer for breakfast, but plenty others did… to each his own.

I’d never heard of the airline we were heading out on, a line called EasyJet, and I’m pretty sure they’d be the last possible choice before I ever pick them again. Talk about a fiasco… the flight was delayed 40 minutes before being told to head to the gate and then once there, we were processed through boarding and then kept in an extremely warm hallway for approximately 45 minutes before being allowed to board the plane. Once in the air, it wasn’t too bad. It was just a 50-minute flight, but we ran into bad and rough weather heading into Luxembourg. It was really choppy and the landing… totally sucked! It was one of the hardest landings I have ever experienced. We’re on the ground though in Luxembourg, although 90 minutes late.

But unbeknownst to us, the fiasco is not finished.

The pilot came over the intercom and told us that because of the rain and the close proximity of lightning strikes, the ground crew was grounded for the next 15 minutes until the lightning stopped. After 15 minutes, the captain comes on again with the good news that the ground crew was moving again and they were bringing a sky bridge for our exit off the plane. But that excitement was short-lived. The sky bridge stopped working halfway to the plane, and we were stuck for another 15 minutes while they fixed that.

Finally, the pilot comes on and says we can de-plane, but asked us not to walk too hard or jump in case the sky bridge breaks again. We were allowed off the plane and walked down the hallway leading to the customs area where a huge line is already forming.

Then we discover there’s another issue.

The passport/customs area is having difficulty with their electronic doors and they cannot process anyone until the doors are fixed. So we stand… and stand… and stand. And Steven and I are chastised by a French woman who asked if we’re “cutting” the line when we head past her to get into the “All passport” line. I’m not trying to start an international incident but I tell her there isn’t a line yet, it’s a crowd and no we’re just getting out of the EU “line” which I don’t belong in. Thirty – minutes later, the doors are working and we’re processed through.

Welcome to Luxembourg.

My cousins had been waiting for us and I felt bad because we were supposed to have landed around 4:30 and it’s now close to 7pm. But they dismissed those thoughts and were happy we were there finally. I hadn’t seen my cousin Tom since I was probably 11 or 12, and it was the first time meeting his lovely wife AnnMarie and their son, TJ, although, we’ve been Facebook friends for years. A short drive to their home, a delicious dinner, and conversation until midnight ended the day on a great vibe even after the frustrating challenges of the day.

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The next day, we went sight-seeing around Luxembourg. The morning brought a 12th-century castle, a Luxembourg cemetery, a wonderful military museum tour and lunch at a local carnival where Steven and TJ battled each other with bumper cars. We ended up in Trier, Germany in the afternoon, where visual evidence of Roman walls and the recent discovery of ancient Roman baths validate the influence of Roman rule dating from 200 AD. We found a nice little German Italian gelato café and enjoyed dessert before heading back to Luxembourg for dinner at an Italian restaurant where the pizza was amazing.

Back at the house, we talked poor Tom to sleep around midnight after a long day of driving. We started talking genealogy and you know how I get with that subject… AnnMarie mentioned she couldn’t find a lot on her father’s family and then it was on! We started researching and ended up discovering new relatives on her paternal side of the family. Steven hung on until around 2 a.m., then gave up and went to bed. AnnMarie and I continued, going back seven generations before realizing it was 4 a.m. and we needed to get to bed. It was a wonderful evening!

Sunday, we awoke to a wonderful German pastry spread for breakfast compliments of Tom. After we finished, we drove to a bread vending machine that actually dispenses fresh, baked French loaves for roughly, $1.50 a loaf. It smelled delicious! It’s next to the French border town of Mondorf, so we also stopped so Steven and I could take a picture of each of us standing in a different country, I stood in France, while he was in Luxembourg.

We then headed to Saarbrucken, Germany, where Steven and I were staying for the night before taking a train to Frankfurt to catch our 3:30pm flight to New Orleans. We had decided not to chance Space-A because he really needs to get back to work by Wednesday and I managed to find us a great fare on Condor which got us back to the States on a more stable timeline. The 11+ hour flight wasn’t too bad, although next time, I will definitely spring for the business class seats and lay-down bed! We did opt for the entertainment package on this leg of the trip and both spent the time watching multiple movies and TV shows which made the time pass much faster. We left Germany around 3:45pm Monday afternoon and touched down in New Orleans at 7:15pm Monday evening… and it was an 11-hour flight… gotta love time changes!

Flying into Memphis is expensive, so we picked up a rental car in New Orleans to make the drive back to Memphis and home. After one more night’s stay in a hotel, we’ll be home Tuesday afternoon.