Arrival home

"Moons and years pass, but one beautiful moment lights up life." (Franz Grillparzer)

It is December 9th, 2023. We returned from our trip around the world earlier than initially planned.

Yesterday evening, shortly after half past six, our plane landed in Frankfurt. Overjoyed, we waited the minutes until we got out. We knew from our last flights that it always takes ages for our luggage to reach the baggage carousel in Frankfurt. For this reason we took our time. We were all the more surprised to see that Chris' backpack was already doing its rounds on the luggage carousel when we got there. A short time later, Madlin's backpack arrived.

We excitedly ran towards the exit. We knew Madlin's parents were coming to pick us up. Lots of thoughts ran through our heads.

• Are there more of our loved ones there to greet us?
• What will the first night in your own bed be like?
• Will we settle back in quickly?
• When will we see everyone again? Can we make it before Christmas?

So many thoughts for such a short journey.

We walked through the exit and couldn't believe our eyes. Almost all of our loved ones were there. They held balloons and a large banner that said "Welcome Home." Madlin immediately had tears of joy running down her face and Chris was also overwhelmed. We didn't expect something like that.

Chris's parents and our friends Marcus and Jasmin came all the way from Munich to welcome us. Laura and Andre had to organize care for their sick child at short notice. Of course, Madlin's brother, Martin, and his girlfriend, Anna, didn't miss the opportunity to greet us. We were totally overwhelmed and didn't know who to hug first. Madlin's parents, who organized all of this, stood at the back and watched the emotional greeting with tears in their eyes until we finally hugged them too.

Up until this point, no one knew that we had a surprise in store...

After the great and overwhelming welcome, we all drove together to dinner. Madlin's mom had organized this in advance. Our friend Mali even joined us later.

We sat together with delicious schnitzels and good beer, laughed a lot and told our first stories and our experiences. Everything was so familiar - as if we had never been away. Our arrival couldn't have been more perfect.

We will never forget the moment when we walked through the exit and everyone was standing there to greet us. We are grateful to be surrounded and loved by such wonderful people!