Covid-19 = Creative Traveling

Nothing ever seems easy when it comes to our dogs. But boy do we make some pretty crazy memories. What originally started as a solo trip for Ryan to pick up a male pup from the "F" Litter vom Streitberg. And me importing a puppy from a different Kennel in Germany which would be shipped to Miami. Turned into an amazing race style adventure for both of us, complete with planes, trains, and an automobile. As well as a handful of countries along the way and 2 puppies from vom Streitberg making it back to America.

   Travel for Americans to the EU was pretty  much at a stand still at the beginning of 2021 with positivity rates on the rise all over the world. I wasn't sure if we could pull off this adventure but we had to try. A week before I was booking Ryan's flight. I had to back out of the puppy that was to be imported. The costs were already getting outrageous and there was no guarantee from the shipper that the puppy would make it to America. Then Italy announced "covid free flights" between the US and a few destinations in Italy. So then the planning begins with a small window to make it happen. I message the breeder in Germany to confirm the travel dates would work before booking Ryan's flight and they replied with a yes and they had a female pup that was available if anyone in America was interested, a buyer had backed out due to needing surgery. This definitely seemed like when a door closes a window opens situation. So with a few modification to the plan I booked a trip for 2.

   We started off with our first covid test 2 days before our flight, Then driving to MSP where we flew to JFK where we took a covid test at the airport and then after a negative result we boarded the plane for Milan, Italy. The flight wasn't overly full but everyone on the plane was ready for their own adventure. Once we landed in Milan we headed to the covid testing station where we needed another negative test and then we were free to travel with out quarantining.

   Negative test 3 in hand we headed out for a day in Milan before we were due to board the Night Jet to make the trip to Munich, Germany. We had lasagna, visited the Museum of natural history and took turns napping in a  park and enjoying some fresh air. later that evening we hoped on the Night Jet which took us from Italy to Austria, and then to Germany. I highly recommend the Night Jet. We showered has some wine and went to sleep, in the morning we were served breakfast. As we were finishing up breakfast the train stopped at the Austria/Germany border where the federal police checked our passports. At the time we were traveling, Germany was not open for tourism. Because of our short timeline we where considered "in-transit" therefore allowed to continue on our way to Munich, Germany and then to Frankfurt. We then took the ICE train from Munich to Frankfurt where Anja picked us up in her car and brought us home for coffee and pastries. Followed up with some tomahawk steaks for dinner.  We played with the puppies and then went off to get some rest before the trip home in the morning.

   In the morning we did the paperwork for the puppies and then headed to the Frankfurt Airport. After the confused gate agent got everything sorted with Anja's help translating. We said our goodbyes and headed off for our first flight to Portugal, We grabbed a bite to eat at the Portugal airport played with the puppies in the mother's room and then head back to America. By the time we got to Newark, NJ it was too late to catch a flight home so we got a room for the night and flew out in the morning back to MSP.

We enjoyed memorial day with puppies at Zorbaz for some pizza!