So the big day arrived and we had arranged to meet outside Wolverhampton High Level station for the first leg of our journey up to Derby where Anna (Mrs Jordan) had kindly offered to run us to the airport. Ollie likes to arrive in good time so despite the fact we were not flying until 21:40 we would be taking the early train. Having once taken nearly two and a half hours to reach Birmingham International on the train due to a breakdown by ARRIVA blocking the line north of Wolvo I could understand this and besides hanging around waiting was driving me nuts.
Everything was going smoothly. The bus turned up on time and deposited me a short walk from the station and I arrived in good time to meet up for the onward leg to Derby. Waiting for Oliver to arrive I indulged in a little ‘bird’ watching and was amazed at the amount of good looking women pass through the station. It was hard to remember I was still in Wolverhampton but, the occasional ugly tub of lard helped me remember.
The train was nice and clean and we sped in some comfort towards Derby at least an hour ahead of schedule. Anna picked us up as arranged and despite a few hairy lane changes got us to the airport safely. God bless Anna, she would prove to be a most thoughtful hostess on our return journey.
So EMA was more modern than I remembered, perhaps it had been updated. The long time awaiting the booking desk to open so we could dump our luggage, needed for carrying booze back, was alieviated somewhat by discussing our plans for the week. Not surprisingly, neither of us were too bothered about specific details other than Oliver wanted to visit Krumme Lanke and I thought we could check out the mysterious Onkel Toms Hutte, the station before the end of the line. I had also found the location of three different WW2 flak towers I wanted to see. I was hoping to find the one I saw with Andrew, where the block of flats had been built over it, but he could not remember where it was and I could not find any pictures of it online to confirm the location.
Eventually we made it through to the waiting area and duty free lounge. Duty free??? I think it should be renamed ‘Added Tax’ as the prices for the majority of items is now far in excess of any major supermarket chain in UK. However, as the security forbids the taking through of any liquids and we still had about three hours before reaching the land of ‘Wurst & beer’ I did purchase an overpriced bottle of water; 99p with 10p going to some drought charity or other. Well it would certainly be cheaper than buying a drink on the flight.
Having paid the £4 queue jump fee we happily let everyone else scramble for a place in the line and then calmly walked to the front to be amongst the first to board. I do think, despite all my tight fistedness, this is money well spent as you get to pick a seat with leg room and avoid the aisles where you are continually jostled by fat arses walking past. The flight was a few minutes late taking off but, as usual arrived on time. Ryanair cannot afford to keep their planes on the ground so they avoid delays like the plague, which suits me nicely.
Baggage claim was a little slow as the flight from Stansted arrived at the same time and such luggage as there was, was all mixed up. this did mean we missed our ten minute connection and would have time for a beer before the next train 15 minutes later. It was good to be back in Berlin. Thanks to Ollie’s route planing we arrived safe and sound at Heerstrasse at shortly before 00:30. It was quite an eye opener as the six lane highway was still busy with traffic travelling at considerable speeds and we were forced to await the ‘green man’ before crossing.
Rotdorn had the look of a comfortable old chair and the welcome of a long lost friend. It had changed and yet remained familiar. I had alerted the owners we would be late and they had left the room open for us and we buzzed them for the door code, all very relaxed. We were in room 02 on the top floor, nice and comfortable but, at the front and close to the road noise, not that that proved much of a problem after a few beers and a days walking. We were back!