We Say Goodbye to our Niece and Our Friend and Hello to the Marathon Runners

We got an early start to the airport to get Colleen all checked into the Continental Airlines for her flight home. She is flying as an “unaccompanied minor” which requires special assistance and allows me to stay with Colleen at the gate til the plane leaves. We asked each of the kids “What will they miss most about Colleen?” Pearse said “the jokes”, Seamus said “ How we did everything together!” Dad said”the fun loving and easy going personality.” Mom said “having another girl around who likes to shop like me, get in and get out.” and Eamon said “someone that likes to sleep as much as me.”
It was a fun 3 weeks. I think we have the country count at 6 (Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, and Sweden). We saw Churches, castles and old cities mixed with fun “tours” and not so fun “tour guides”. We visited great museums and royal palaces. We saw a band on horseback and a changing of the guard. Team Glavin agreed that the changing of the guard at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, VA is much better no matter how romantic it might be to see one done in Europe!
We had many meals in many different places and some were great and some not so great. Note to visitors to Krakow, don’t get nachos with “dill cheese sauce” it went right to the trash can. We looked for internet in 6 different countries and we had some success but many failures. You can’t assume a nice hotel has good internet. We exercised in 5 of the countries so running shoes weren’t packed for naught.
It was a sad goodbye at the airport but I think there was a late night in room 374. When I ask, “What time did you guys go to bed?” I get the blank stare and quizzical look from all 3 kids and an answer in unison “I don’t know.”
We will miss our travel mate! Now we are off to see really skinny guys run really fast for a really long time!