Wednesday 11 June 2014

Back Home

Dear All,

Last night at a quarter to eight, I shut the door to my flat behind me from inside and heaved a bigh sigh of relief. 

It had been a great holiday but a rather long and tiring trip back home. To get from Sheffield to Stuttgart shouldn't take all that long, but we were on the road (or in the air) for ten hours. While still in England, everything went smoothly, and all our means of transport (taxi, train and plane) arrived and left on the spot. As soon as we landed in Germany, the "fun" began: There was utter chaos in Frankfurt at the station, with massive delays and many trains cancelled. As usual, the reasons given were varied, and information not always reliable. There had been heavy thunderstorms in the northern half of Germany, we heard, but that was the day before. Also, some trains were cancelled because of "technical issues with the vehicle" - obviously, they were not able to provide replacement trains. For a while, we were unsure about when (and if!) we would be able to make it to Stuttgart on that same day.
And while the time difference between England and Germany is only 1 hour, temperatures in Germany were well above 30 Celsius, as opposed to somewhere around 20 Celsius in Yorkshire. Although we had known about this and came prepared, it didn't make dragging luggage across the airport and train station any nicer.

Anyway! The holiday was great, it was lovely to see the family, we went for nice, long walks and hikes, saw some beautiful places and had nice meals. I brought back five books, one dress, some chocolate and other little gifts.

In a few minutes, I will leave for the office - hoping that trains today won't be as chaotic as yesterday! It will take me some time to catch up with everybody's blogs, and of course it will also take a while to write up my travel notes and choose the best out of the 300+ pictures I have taken.

Watch this space :-)

(Picture of yellow poppies from my parents' allotment, courtesy my Mum.)

15 comments:

  1. Welcome back home, Meike. I'm so sorry your trip was so difficult, but "all's well that ends well". I'm really looking forward to hearing about your time in Yorkshire and seeing photos.

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    1. Thank you, Kristi! I hope you won't regret what you said there (about looking forward...) when the flood of Yorkshire-related posts will start to appear :-)

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  2. Glad you had a good trip and finally made it home safe and sound.

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    1. Coming home always feels good, even if the holiday itself was so great, but this time the exhausting trip back made me even more glad than usual.

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  3. Welcome home! Pictures of walks you took will be a treat, i know.

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  4. Glad you had a good holiday, but sorry it ended in such a tiring trip back home. In Sweden too we had a very hot day yesterday - and from the news I know we have our share of travel trouble lately too, especially with trains, as there is both a strike going on, and also technical trouble in other places. So I'm actually quite glad that did not even make any plans to go anywhere... :) Welcome back, and enjoy your holiday memories.

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    1. Thank you, Monica! I know I will enjoy very much writing up my holiday posts; they are a good way for me to relive each day.

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  5. Glad you had a good holiday. I'm currently in Austria and finding the heat quite something. Had 3 am start and it's now

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    1. Oh dear, a 3 am start would make me walk around like a zombie for the rest of the day! I hope Austria is treating you well and the heat is not too much.

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  6. ...oh dear the internet isn't what it should be either! Sometimes it's simpler to stay at home but just think what we would miss! :)

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    1. You are so right there, Jenny. I like my life here very much, but I would not want to miss my annual Yorkshire visit.

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  7. Welcome home!
    I read about the bad weather in Germany and I wondered if it might affect your travel.
    Look forward to your photos of your trip to England!

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    1. Thank you, Kay! None of the really bad stuff hit my part of Germany, all we got so far are high temperatures (which I am very much OK with) and high humidity levels (which I can deal with, too). There was something on the news on telly last night about the damage further up North, though, and I am sorry for those who were injured or had their property damaged.

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