Maybe they decided to the some vacation. Standard vacation time in Europe *starts* at about double what is typical in the US.
See, that's the problem with this guy.
If that's the case he could just say that. Instead he makes it look like yet another very weird event.
I didn't read it at all like that. First thought was they're probably staying longer for vacation. Didn't even occur to me he might be implying anything weird had happened to them. You read what you want to read, I guess.