Flashback Friday

3 years ago this week Michael and I went to Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic with our friend Brendan. We travelled together for the first week, then Brendan went to stay with friends and Michael and I went to stay with Michael's brother and his family who were living in Germany at the time.

After one of our planes caught on fire and we had to have an emergency landing in Atlanta (that's a whole story of its own) we finally landed in Brussels.

Here's a picture of the Manneken Pis (the pissing little boy) in Brussels. He was smaller than I thought he would be and I was surprised that the Belgians like to dress him in costumes.
After we left Belgium we spent the night in Trier, Germany and then stopped off to see Michael's family in Wiesbaden. From Wiesbaden we were supposed to have a nice liesurely drive to Berlin. The only problem was that it started snowing. Hard. Trucks and cars were flying off the road and getting stuck in the embankment. We were driving a rented BMW with summer tires. What should have been a 4 hour drive took close to 9 hours.

Here's my attempt to take a picture of the blizzard from inside a moving car on the autobahn.
We finally made it to Berlin at close to 1:00 am and, after a police officer almost hit us while he was driving too fast on ice, we collapsed into the hotel room. Brendan literally collapsed on the map we had been using.

The whole time we were in Berlin it snowed if we walked outside and stopped if we went inside.
This is just my artistic photography inside of the Olympic Stadium.
After we got home from this trip I wrote a fake article about our experience driving from Wiesbaden to Berlin. Obviously this is fabricated and did not all really happen. These are the things you need to know before reading this article:

1) While we were at the airport waiting to leave Phoenix I did a phone conference IEP meeting and then carried that paperwork with me for the next 11 days.

2) Everywhere we went on this trip we were hungry and wanted to eat the chocolate that we had left in the trunk.

3) We got some bratwurst early in the trip and somehow managed to not throw away the mustard packets- ever. We flew back with them.

4) My favorite store for bath and body products is Lush (http://www.lushusa.com/shop). One opened in Scottsdale a few years ago but before that I had to buy all my Lush products while travelling. I dragged Michael and Brendan to quite a few on this trip.

5) I shipped all of my clothes home and filled my suitcase with Polish pottery, Czech crystal and blown, decorated eggs from Nuremberg.

6) Brendan lives in Queen Creek.

7) 45 minutes into the trip we got separated in Brussels when a subway guard wouldn't let me and Michael on a subway train that Brendan had already boarded. He was quite rude about it.

Here's my fake article:

Threesome in snowbound BMW rescued after 17 days
'We had chocolate and mustard, but we were running short'

Leipzig, Germany (AP) -- Inside their snowbound BMW, their chocolate, mustard and fuel were running low, and news reports indicated that a search for the three missing people had been called off.

"We had fuel, single serve mustard packages and Belgian chocolate but we were running short. We were rationing," said J. Brendan “Kroner”, one of the missing. “We really could have lasted a few more days, but the rest of the chocolate was in the trunk and we couldn’t reach it.”

The threesome decided to send two members out for help, hoping to end more than two weeks trapped in the snowy wilderness located between Frankfurt and Berlin. It worked. On Tuesday, 17 days after they first vanished during a trip to Berlin, they were rescued.

All three – Natalie, 26; Michael, 28 and Brendan, 37 - were reunited at the Berlin Lush, about 3 miles west of the Brandenburg Gate.

"I'm so proud of my co-workers," Maryellen said. "They stuck together. They didn't lose it. They did lose all their fingers and toes to frostbite, but they didn’t lose “it” "

The threesome's trouble began when they rented a BMW with summer tires in Aachen, Germany. After lunch in Wiesbaden they began what should have been a four- hour drive to Berlin. On their way they slid off the road and got stuck in the mountains in up to 4 feet of snow at about 3,800 feet.

After the three friends were reported missing, rescue teams from Belgium, Germany, Poland, Queen Creek and the Czech Republic scoured the two closest routes from Erfurt to Leipzig. But police didn't know exactly where they had been heading, despite having numerous copies of their itinerary that had been e-mailed to family members, and they eventually called off the search when there were no leads.

The three passed the time by calculating and recalculating how long it would take them to drive to Berlin at various speeds. They also made lists of flat and non-flat trinkets they would like to purchase once they made it to Berlin. They lived through the ordeal on Belgian chocolate and small packets of mustard. They did have a cell phone but could not figure out how to call for help in Germany as the emergency number they had was a number to call from America.

Brendan and his co-worker Natalie, also known as Lady Kroner, decided Monday morning to go seek help. They left Natalie’s husband, Michael “Lord Kroner” in the car with instructions to retrieve the chocolate from the trunk. The two set out on foot dragging two suitcases through the snow behind them.

On Tuesday morning, the two stumbled into an abandoned train station desperate for some food and warmth. Brendan barely made it through the door when an off-duty worker stepped in front of Natalie and said “no” while blocking her entrance with his hands. After weeping for thirty minutes Natalie was able to board a train full of decorative eggs and crystal.

Later, rescue workers in a helicopter made contact with Michael, who had by this point retrieved the chocolate from the trunk. Snow machines were sent to pick him up.

"They were in pretty good shape for being out there as long as they had been," Chief German Licious told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. “I think it was all the spicy mustard. It also didn’t hurt that they had IEP paperwork to burn.”

Natalie, Michael and Brendan were reunited at the Berlin Lush late Tuesday afternoon, where Natalie proceeded to purchase soap that smells like milk immediately prior to boiling. Brendan and Michael rolled their eyes. All three are expected to make a complete, albeit fingerless, recovery.
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All my pottery, crystal and eggs.

Our nephewsMichael and his brother, Ray.