Time to go home

Thursday 14th June - the last day of my time away. At last I slept as I was not worrying about the presentation! I went down for a leisurely breakfast about 9.30am and joined Debbie and Franck. It was good to have a chance to say goodbye properly to Debbie and arrange to meet up in a months time.

I decided to try and get Heather's German sausage and some German beer for Andrew. I went into the shopping arcade opposite us and found a clothing shop. I picked up some German football shirts for Heather and Jim (wasn't sure if they would appreciate them!) and a t-shirt for Helen. However, when I came to pay they did not take cards and so I had to leave everything and go to the cash-point on the station and then go back and collect my purchases. I visited the small supermarket and eventually found some German sausages and then tracked down beer that I could buy singly rather than in crates!

I then sorted my luggage - transferring from my battered Estonian case to me lost property case. I took them down to the concierge for weighing. Then I spent time in the lobby transferring more stuff into my newer case as the other one was still well over limit. Between the two cases I had about 40kgs of luggage! The limit was 23kg for each. I managed in the end and then placed both cases in the hotel store and went back to my room to tidy up and make sure I hadn't left anything. In the lobby I managed to say Goodbye to Cesar and Lorraine and I sent an email to Dian as she had caught an early train back to the Netherlands.

I met up with Steve and took my case over to the hotel where he was transferring. I was in his hotel room when my phone rang and it was one of the community matrons telling me that they hadn't got any lunch at their meeting! Already work was sucking me back. I found it very funny and she was very apologetic when she realised I was still in Berlin as she had thought I was already back. I didn't even start to explain that I was in Steve's hotel room!

I went back to collect my hand luggage to find that my room card no longer worked so I had to get that cleared. I then checked out and Steve came and helped me to the station with my luggage, which was so kind of him and we arranged when I would collect my case from him and Jane.

The train journey was easy and then I went straight up to the road and caught the bus to the airport terminal. I was so excited to be going home, the time could not go quickly enough. I was one of the first in the queue for the Lufthansa flight. Eventually I checked in and handed over my hand luggage case to go on the plane so that meant I didn't have to carry that round or put it in the overhead lockers. It was only the next day when I was unpacking it that Helen found a letter in German and then translated into English to say that it had been searched! Thankfully it all seemed to be OK and nothing had been taken.

I spent my last few euros and looked out at the aeroplanes waiting to be called for boarding.

Great to see a BA plane fin!

My plane

I boarded the plane and found that my window seat was almost at the back of the plane but I had no one sitting in the other 2 seats (maybe all those cakes had taken a bigger toll than I had realised!). I looked out of the window and saw the last few cases going onto the plane and spotted mine! I did wonder if that meant they would be first off in that case and indeed they were. The flight went very well, although there was a strange noise whilst we were taxiing but the captain said that this was because they had shut down engine number 1 while we were waiting but it would be started when we were ready to take off! I settled back and read some of my kindle during the flight. the flight went very quickly, especially as I gained an hour and soon we were landing in Birmingham in the rain. I came off the plane and the luggage came through very quickly. I couldn't get through quick enough, rushing through with my cases and a great big grin on my face.

I came through and all of the family were there to meet me - Andrew, Helen and Jim, James, Heather and Robert - this was the biggest surprise as I thought Andrew and I were going to pick him up the next day but Andrew had collected him that morning.

I left in tears and came back to tears - it was all really emotional. It was so great to be back with them all. When I got home I unpacked all the gifts and they seemed to be well received. The reindeer caused a lot of interest.  Our cat, Cally, had apparently been acting quite strangely while I was away and she certainly seemed pleased to see me!

We had a really good evening together.It was so nice to be back in my home with my family.


I shall probably write one more blog reflecting on my time away and then it will be time to end Tales from Tampere.