Day 2

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!!!








We did have some shopping to do but we had such a perfect table that neither of us were keen to leave - but shopping had to be done


So we left the table, did our shopping, went round duty free and found a seat and that took……8 minutes


We really aren’t shoppers


That left us still with an hour before we found out what gate to go to so we went back to the pub and got an even better table!!!


Hattie had a juice this time but my pride had been so hurt I had to have another beer…..


Queuing up, it was fun to see those that hadn’t paid for the luggage get turfed out of the queue but unfortunately the flight did set off 40 minutes late





On the plane they said the stewardesses had lanyards round their necks with a QR code that would show what Black Friday offers they had.

I refused - I know that if I went up to a woman with my camera and focussed it on her chest I’d end up on a register - they won’t catch me like that again….👀


Unbelievably the flight only took 40 minutes and as we landed and turned our phones on, Hattie got a text saying our taxi was ready


Security/customs was next to nothing and we soon found a bloke holding up a card with Hattie’s name


He then grabbed Hattie’s bags and we had to run to keep up with him as he took us to a waiting lady taxi driver


She couldn’t speak much English and we couldn’t speak much German but she really tried to point out the good places around


Unfortunately I didn’t see many of them as she drove like a maniac. Almost all the journey was on roads 2-4 lanes wide and there wasn’t a lane she wouldn’t straddle or car she wouldn’t cut up


I gave her a big tip on arrival as I was honestly glad just to be alive


The hotel had an automatic check in  system so we didn’t have to butcher the German language and the room was very nice







The only downside is the shower and toilet is separated from the main room only by some opaque glass and half a curtain - fine if you are with your other half and want to create a “tales of the unexpected “ moment but quite problematic when it comes to Father/daughter - unless you’re from blandford of course





The view from the room was very exciting as it marked the way to the market 




After a brief rest we decided to get the tickets printed for the match tomorrow (as instructed) at reception and it was a NIGHTMARE

No matter what she tried, Hattie could not send it to this very helpful receptionist in a format she could print. 20 minutes of panic until one final idea came to send it direct from the website and thankfully it worked - phew!!!

Then we fulfilled one of Hattie’s bucket list things, and went to McDonald’s 

We both had a cranberry rosti burger and curly fries. I also bought the pocket things of pizza

I assume that everything in Germany runs like clockwork but the guy serving made an absolute dog’s dick of it and ended up with 4 orders spread randomly over 5 trays

I pigeon-German’d my way through getting most of my order but gave up with the curry sauce

I have to say the curly fries were excellent but the burger was so sloppy I fear the floor saw more of it than I did



Then we walked through the myriad of Christmas markets and I have to say added together they were pretty impressive




















We also had a brief wander around a massive indoor shopping mall but we thought we’d do that a bit more tomorrow







Then we googled “sports bar” and went to watch the Munich game



It was at this point that Hattie started looking ropey and said that she had a stress headache over the printing of the tickets

I more than anyone knows how it feels when something looks like it was going to go spectacularly wrong and no number of “but it’s all right now” affirmations gets you back to where you were.

We decided to call it a night, although I did buy some beer and chocolate just in case she got a second wind in the room - which she did 😊

We also worked out how to get a free underground ticket for the duration of our stay so that puts pay to the 40 minute walk in the rain tomorrow 🎉🎉🎉

Tomorrow has all the hallmarks of being a very good day 







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