My week in 375 words or less

My wife, son, daughter, and I left New Orleans and flew to Chicago, had internet on the plane- nice, changed planes, flew to Helsinki, Finland, changed planes, flew to Copenhagen, Denmark, changed planes, flew to Gothenburg, Sweden, the airline lost our luggage, picked up a car at the Volvo factory, bought a GPS- good purchase, spent the night in Gothenburg- great city, cool weather in August, found our luggage, I complained that we brought too much luggage, drove back to Copenhagen, spent two days riding bikes around town, the weather was mild, fell in love with the city, my wife complained that she couldn’t get a good cup of coffee, I complained that we brought too much luggage, the kids argued about homeschooling, drove to Hamburg, Germany, ate a lot of schnitzel, I complained that we brought too much luggage, the kids argued about homeschooling, their mother threatened to return to the states (and not because of the lack of good coffee), suddenly remembered why I didn’t like most of the German people I met the first time I visited that country, drove to Rothenburg Ober Tauber, Germany, I complained that we brought too much luggage, my wife complained that she couldn’t get a good cup of coffee, cool weather was a distant memory, the hotel had no air-conditioning, the wife considered returning to the states again, enjoyed the town, the kids complained about home-schooling, saw a beautiful cathedral, took an interesting tour, ate some pretty good food, by this time hot weather had found cooler temps and beaten them into submission, in one day we ate breakfast in Germany, lunch in Austria, and dinner in Italy, to get there we drove through the Alps, Brenner Pass, and the Dolomites- it was the most beautiful drive I’ve ever made, my 10 year-old son thanked me three times for bringing him on this trip- beautiful, I gave up on the too-much-luggage argument, had an excellent dinner in Bologna, the wife said, “Gelato is what ice cream wants to be when it grows up,” she finally got a good cup of coffee, the kids stopped complaining about home-schooling, all is well, onward.