I learned a valuable lesson today...always bring your keys.

Our day started as usual. We had a quiet morning then went out to do some shopping and explore. We met up with Brit for lunch at our new favourite food stand. The little Smithster was in a good mood and had his first taste of lentils; he loved it! Then we headed home and that's when our day had a bit of a detour.

So, our apartment is up four flights of stairs on the second story of the building. When Tyler is here, we carry the dude in the stroller together up and down the stairs. But when it's just me, we have a different routine. I'll strap Smith up in his Baby Bjorn bouncer chair, take the stroller down to the lobby then run back up to take him and my purse down. We do the opposite when coming home. Not an ideal setup, but it's been working out just fine.

That is until today. It turns out that the doors into apartments don't have twisting knobs, so if the door shuts you still need a key to get in even if you didn't lock it. Well, I'll blame the sleep deprivation and jet lag, but I hadn't figured that out until Tyler told me last night and it hadn't fully sunk in. The entire time I've just been leaving the door open when I'm going up and down the stairs.

Smith and I got back from our lunch date and so I did the usual routine. Packed up my purse, took him out of the stroller and walked up to the apartment. I got him settled and comfortable in his bouncer chair then walked out the door to grab the stroller. I went to close it slightly so it wasn't wide open and the wind picked up and slammed it shut. I stood there for a second then it sunk in - I was locked out of the apartment with my baby, keys, and phone all inside. Try as I might, there was no way I was getting into the apartment.

Panic-stricken, I went down to the lobby and poked my head into the Turkish restaurant which is right below our building. Looking the part of a terrified, panicked mother, a lady looked at me and I said 'I need help.' Her english was good enough for me to communicate the situation to her.

The restaurant owner also got looped in at that point, but his english wasn't as strong so he and the woman and communicated directly with one another. First things first they called the landlord who's number was posted somewhere in the lobby. They were able to get through to him but he didn't' have a key to the unit. And because I didn't have my phone on me, I didn't know the name of the owner of our Airbnb or have her contact information. At one point I tried to call Tyler because he has the itinerary with her details as well, but the restaurant's phone wasn't set up for international calls.

With the landlord not being able to help us, our next course of action (or should I say the woman's, because I'm standing there not doing anything except freaking out) is to try to call a locksmith. At this point, Smith starts crying. Loudly. You can hear him wailing right down to the lobby.

Now as stressful as this all was for me and for him, I knew that he was SAFE the ENTIRE time. He was in his bouncer with no way of getting out. It was still terrible hearing his cries and not being able to get to him, but I wasn't worried about him being in any danger.

Back to our problem solving, we weren't able to get through to a locksmith that could get there as soon as we needed them to. So the man asks me in german whether the door was locked. It wasn't because the keys were still in the apartment, we just needed them to open the latch. Together we run up to the unit and he pulls out a card to try jimmying the door open. The lady follows and the neighbour girls from across the hall also happen to be leaving their apartment. So now we have five people trying to figure out how to get into the unit.

After a minute or so of trying, there's a click and VOILA the door opens! I race inside, grab Smith and he instantly stops crying. I bring him out to show everyone that he's alright and he looks at them and starts smiling. I thank everyone as best I can and just like that the drama was over. All in all, it lasted under 10 minutes, but it felt like an eternity.

I got Smith down for his nap right after this and sat on the couch for a good half hour trying to calm my heart rate. I still feel sick thinking about it, but all is well that ends well. And I took a few things out of it: ALWAYS BRING THE KEYS AND PHONE, the people here are incredibly helpful and caring, and language barriers are easy to break through in a time of crisis. I got lucky in a lot of ways because the situation could have been far worse.

I was out of sorts for the rest of the day, but we had already scheduled a visit to Tyler's office in Schweinfurt with Brit so we met up with her later on to walk to the train station. We navigated buying tickets, finding our platform and getting on the right train all on our own. The train was pretty busy and even though we were in the stroller-designated place, it was still really cramped. It was the first time since being here that I've thought to myself that perhaps our stroller is TOO big. It was a short 30-minute train ride though and Smith loved it. He made friends along the way, of course.

Then we arrived and Tyler drove us to the office to get a tour. It's huge! A lot happens in the office, but of note, there's a test lab for drivetrains.

After our tour and a quick hello to Elayna, the five of us drove back to Wurzburg which took about 30 minutes.

We opted to get dinner out, so we went to a traditional Franconian restaurant and ordered schnitzel and pork shoulder. They came with some veg on the sides, but it was a meat and carb-heavy meal. Totally worth it though! After a quick stop for ice cream, it was time to get home, tuck in and get ready to tackle another dramaless day.

Remember...ALWAYS BRING YOUR KEYS!!