We had a 10am flight from Stockholm > ORD which got us into Chi-town approx 12pm. Surprisingly very smooth entry back into the states. Customs, passport checks, getting our bags, etc all took us only about 15 minutes. Ger was there to pick us up30 minutes later. Thank you Ger! We came home to beautiful Chicago drizzly weather but it felt great to be home. One of the first things we noticed on the drive home was that as much as we love America, people really cant drive here. No one knows what the left lane is for and people are just generally clueless, unsafe and disorderly on the roads. No we've not turned into one of those "everything is better in europe" snobs, as in fact very LITTLE is better, but we need to face it: people do drive better. We loved every minute of our trip and would/wouldn't do it again in a heartbeat. It was a love/hate trip--basically when you are somewhere for more than a month, you are living there. You encounter ups and downs (computer crashing with all our pictures, car broken into, etc) but you love every minute of it at the same time. We do come home much more patriotic however. You do get a bit tired of the "American bashing" and you find yourself wondering why there is such ignorance and dislike towards americans, considering what we've done for the world in the last 100 years. People obviously have short-term memory and think of us as the oil-hungry bullies. What you have to do to get through the day is remember that more Europeans actually like and appreciate us than don't like us. For every 1 anti-american, you'll find 3 who appreciate tourists and appreciate america. Scotland, Sweden, etc you'll find some of the nicest people. Even in Italy, if they know you, they'll bend over backwards for you. It's amazing how meaningful it is to you when a random lady on the streets of London says to me "I really love your country". I think/hope that the people we've met in Europe enjoyed meeting us and that we were good representatives of America. We loved every friend we've made on this trip. I hope that everyone reading this can get a chance to go back to any of these countries and keep reminding them that Americans are good people. Just try to learn a little of their language, don't use the term "Americanized" (yes this is just my personal opinion), don't be loud and obnoxious and importantly, ask about their culture and history......they love to talk about it and they love knowing that Americans are there not for the baguettes, pasta, tapas and museums but also to learn about the people and the history. We will be posting some final lists and pictures soon. We are definitely here for advice and tips should you ever find yourself in Europe or going to Europe soon. We'll end with a picture of what we missed most about home. This is what we came home to (after she and her tail settle down a bit).