Dortmund 2023

 We had a bit of a lie in today - much needed as I seemed to take forever to get to sleep We were out of the room for 9:45 and noticed our usual Starbucks was closed but no matter, there was another just 10 minutes away After a lovely breakfast we set off to finish our shopping and noticed that the nearby shops weren’t open We’d made a tactical mistake NO shops were open Dortmund closes on a Sunday - kinda makes sense why last night was so busy now… Bugger - oh well, back to the room to stare at our phones for a while - I was still quite tired so to be fair it wasn’t the worst of all outcomes … At 12 we had to leave our room so we waited for an hour in reception for the taxi to arrive Either Dortmund has a taxi deficiency or this guy is the busiest taxi driver in the world because it was the same guy that had met us at the airport 2 days earlier!! There were road closures so it took 30 minutes to get to the airport and our flight wasn’t until 5pm That was ok though because Germany ...

Another 7am start, another pillow to the head to wake that lazy so and so next to me As it turns out we needn’t have got up so early because most shops don’t open until 10 but we did camp outside Starbucks as we noticed it opened up at 9 Using my best German I got Hattie a falafel roll and I had an egg and bacon bagel, both with hot chocolates - delicious Then we went shopping I bought this little beauty for later on: Plus some things for Joss and Kieren but no clues here, they will just have to wait - but if Joss was hoping for Dortmund shin pads she may have hit the jackpot…. It was at this point (ish) that Hattie read to me an email she’d received from the company we’d bought the tickets from saying “obviously” they weren’t actually affiliated with Dortmund so if we had issues with the tickets it would be best if “we told the stewards we had gotten the tickets free from a friend and we should then leave the queue and phone an emergency number” Nothing says it’s all legit like having...

This morning we’d both agreed to set our alarms for 7am Mine went off to the sound of Big Ben and so I quickly turned it off Hattie’s alarm was “reflections” and second after second after minute I thought, “she’s going to turn that off” but she didn’t Good to know that a swift hit to the head with a spare pillow still works - who needs high tech solutions  I thought I’d have a shower but the bath was so deep that getting out, my foot slipped and I almost went arse over tit - that would have been a great start to the day It was just a short walk to the terminal and security was a breeze - there’s definitely something to be said for smaller airports From there we marched to the Wetherspoons and I thought to myself, in a contest between cholesterol busting tablets and a large fried breakfast, who would win? There’s only one way to find out - FIGHT!!! We started with juices but after the breakfast I had a beer and Hattie a cider. To my horror and astonishment, Hattie beat me to gold!!...