He's Back On U.S. Soil

My baby boy is back on U.S. soil!!!!!!!

Their flight from Frankfurt landed almost an hour earlier than anticipated. I've turned on the cell phone just in case he tries to call and touch base with me.

At the moment, I'm sure they're still trying to make it through customs. I've never experienced such an event before since I've never traveled outside the U.S., but from what I've heard it can be quite a lengthy and drawn out experience.

I do have to admit that I'm a little concerned that he is able to get back into the country with all of his spoils. One of the shops in Rothenburg that he made his last purchases at is a decorative weaponry shop, with swords, armor, etc. Since my son collects swords and such, and his transaction was rather large, I'm wondering if the crazy kid bought himself a sword.

Only thing is he's not eighteen, and I've no idea how security and customs will respond to him bringing in a sword, decorative though it may be.

Then again, he may have purchased other things completely unrelated to swords and the like, so I may be concerned for nothing.

But I know my son.

Anyway, worse comes to worse, they'll hopefully arrange to mail the thing to me or let one of the adults claim it through customs. I've been praying that whatever he bought, he'll be able to get home with all of his plunder from the Europe travels.

Regardless, I'll just be glad to hold him in my arms again. Just a few hours remaining and he'll once again be home.

That's the main thing to be thankful for.

The Time Has Come

Well this is going to be my last post on my son's Europe adventures until his return. I'm leaving this afternoon to go up to Kansas City to pick him up tomorrow night.

My old choir buddy has lived in Kansas City for almost two years, and she's invited me to spend the night tonight and hang out tomorrow until my son arrives Saturday evening. It's going to be so nice to have time to chill and talk about life in general. I've really missed her.

We used to wreak havoc together in choir, but in a good way. Sometimes church needs a little pick-me-up of energy and excitement. She and I rather bounced off of each other that way when we got to going. Always so much fun and rambunctious. There's really no one else right now that I can do that with in the soprano section, so I'm on my own except when she comes for a weekend visit.

So anyway, I'll be staying with her until time to go pick up my son at the airport. My goodness, it is so hard to believe that sixteen days have almost been wiped off the calendar already. The time has flown this week especially.

Last we left off, they just spent an absolutely fantastic and glorious day in Venice, Italy. Thursday they awakened to prepare for another departure into Germany. On their way to their respective village, they stopped off for a couple of hours at the Dachau Concentration Camp and Museum. What a sobering experience that had to be. Quite a change from the previous day's excursion in Venice.

They had a special Jewish song in their repertoire to commemorate their visit to Dachau. What a haunting moment that must have been to stand in the gallows of hell and sing the song of the Jewish peoples who were snuffed out there. Gives me goosebumps just to think about it.

That evening they arrived in the village of Rothenburg, an ancient walled city of Germany where portions of the old wall still stand today. Wow! Their hotel was in the heart of the old city near these ancient ramparts. After dinner they had time to explore the history of their final stop-off on their European voyage.

Today they've presented an early afternoon concert in historic Rothenburg Market Square, and at this very moment they are finishing their late afternoon final concert at the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church). I wonder how it feels to be giving their absolutely last concert of the tour. Makes me feel a little sad just thinking about it, though I'm sure there are many who are ready to get it over with and come home.

Market Square is where their famous "Christkindlmarkt" or Christmas Village is located, a spectacular area that is Christmas year-round (I hope he plans to purchase a memento from here, we do love our Christmas after all). Another interesting tidbit of Rothenburg is that it was a defensive position, built high upon a plateau above the Tauber River. Therefore there are numerous ancient fountains and wells dug around town. One sounds especially interesting - St. George's Fountain. Located near where their early afternoon concert took place, this fountain has supplied water since 1446, topped with a figure of St. George complete with a dragon.

I remember that movie about St. George and the Dragon! How funny that he goes to the village where this fabled event took place. :-)

Shortly after dinner tonight, they'll be having their last Farewell to Europe party at the town hall. Will they dance the night away, or will they be so tired that they'll just go back to their hotels and crash? For tomorrow, they load up the coaches one last time to transport to the airport in Frankfurt. Then it's back home to Kansas.

I'll be anxiously waiting for that first glance of recognition.