Long journey home ... but we made it home safely

As soon as I have a chance I will post links to our photos from our amazing trip to Barcelona.

We had a great time.

Curt posted a photo here and there on his blog, you can check those out here.

Coming home was rough ...

Our flight out of Barcelona left three hours late. So we knew we would miss our flight from Frankfurt to SFO. But we figured when we landed in Frankfurt, United would have us booked on a later flight. (Which they did last year when our flight out of Amsterdam left three hours late and we missed our connecting flight in Chicago when the whole Volcano thing was happening.)

We got to Frankfurt and looked for a monitor for our gate to find out where we should go. All we saw on the board was that our flight was cancelled. Cancelled?

We went through passport and tried to find the United terminal, which was nearly impossible. There was no signage. So we just kept asking and they kept pointing us in the direction of Main Hall B, which we never actually saw a sign for that. We finally came to the United counter where there was no one to help us, just other stranded travelers.

Curt started wandering around and got a little info. There was like a 3-hour wait for our luggage. So we knew we likely wouldn't get it. We were given some toiletry kits and Curt and I headed to the Luthansa ticket help desk. We were given No. 808 and they were on 599. We decided after 30 minutes to just head to the hotel they were going to put us up in.

We got to the hotel and had dinner. And then waited for a shuttle to take us to another hotel, which ended up being super fancy.

Curt was able to get ahold of United via phone. When he checked online there was still no info about what was going on. But I had heard from another passenger that they saw on CNN that United was having computer issues. Then once in the hotel I saw on the CNN crawler that United's computer glitch stranded thousands, but that was it.

We got rebooked for several flights to get us home by midnight Sunday night, 28 hours later than we should have gotten in.

The shuttle picked us up the next morning at 6 a.m. We got to the airport about 6:30 and headed back to the Luthansa counter. We had our bags rerouted and boarding passes for our first two flights. Our ticketing agent found that we could get an earlier flight in LA and not have to have as long as a layover. Great! Especially since our layover in Munich was 5 hours.

Our flight from Frankfurt to Munich was short and no problem. In Munich we found a restaurant called Airbrau to have lunch and beer. It was good and filling. Then we wandered to another bar to have more beer. At some point I hit the wall and was super punchy.

We eventually were on our flight and ready to go. As they were doing final safety checks they realized the air conditioning needed minor maintenance. We were told it would take 10 minutes and then another 10 minutes. And then since we were waiting we better wait for passengers from another flight. I think we took off about an hour late.

We got to LA about an hour late. We had to go through passport, grab our luggage and go through customs. Curt's suitcase didn't arrive. So we rebooked my bag and got our boarding passes. We were in Terminal 3 and were told we had to go to Terminal 7. We booked it. Once we got to United it was mayhem. We were pretty confident we wouldn't be making the 9:20 flight.

When we were waiting for our flight from LA to SFO I am pretty sure I started hallucinating. We got in a little before midnight. Mom and Fred picked us up. (They came out for the week for their own mini-vacation and to take care of the house and furbaby.)

I got to bed about 2 a.m. and was awake about 6:3o or 7.

Curt headed to work. I hung out with Mom and Fred until they had to leave for the airport. I did laundry, went through the mail, paid bills and received Curt's suitcase when it arrived this afternoon.

Curt and I just finished eating tacos my mom made for us over the weekend. Delish! Our goal is to stay up until at least 8. We are both pretty tired. But I think we will make it ... since it is almost 7:15.