Saturday 23rd August 2014

Thursday.

And so time to pack and head home.

I wish I could say nice things about the hotel in Esbjerg, but they don’t have to try too hard to get guests due to the shortage of rooms for those of us who work in the town, so they don’t work hard. I gave up eating there ages agi, doubly so now there is a branch of Flammen open opposite it. In the morning, they were relaying the floor in the restaurant so breakfast was in a tent in the car park. A tent in Denmark at the end of August is going to be interesting, and it was breezy and I image the cooked food, mostly cold. I have a coffee, a roll and hit the road.

A drive up to Arhus, some 75 minutes, is not a bad way to start the day, especially with me having an A3 to throw about on the motorway. I pointed the car north and pressed the accelerator. And vrrrooooommmm we zoomed off. However, for the most part, I did keep to the limit.

It is odd that in a country as mostly rural as Denmark that they have things like traffic jams, but in the morning and afternoon, Arhus can be jammed, so that was why I was not busting a gut to get there much before half eight, to give time for the morning rush to die down.

And so to work. And meetings. And more meetings.

And then time to leave to head for the airport. I worked right through lunch so was hungry as I walked back out to the car for the blast to Billund where I hoped there would be a snack and a tall frosted glass waiting for me. Traffic was light, and the weather bright, so driving was a pleasure, heading down the motorway with the speedometer reading 130, even if it was in kmh, it still felt pretty darn fast.

I park the car, hand the keys in, check my bag in, go through security, through the shop and up the steps to the gastrobar where although the beer was not waiting, I order one along with a salmon salad and settle down to watch the comings and goings. At least with the end of the holiday season, the airport is returning to normal, with plenty of seats and room, although there are people wandering around dressed for the beach already thinking they are on holiday.

I snooze on the way over, once we had climbed through the small thunderstorm that covered the airport and into clear non-bumpy air above the clouds. Over Essex I could see that the harvest is almost in, and on field you could see a harvester making short work of the ripe wheat.

From the moment I got off the plane to the time I was on the DLR heading towards Stratford in less than 5 minutes! My case was first off the plane, and as I entered reclaim there it was just on the carousel. Lucky me.

I missed the ten to seven train, so grabbed a coffee before the next train was due at quarter past. And I got a seat, facing the right way next to a window and all by myself. My lucky day still. It was nearly dark by the time we pulled into Dover, the lights of ferries heading to France showing bright in the gloom.

Jools was waiting for me, and so we headed up the cliffs to home, where on the table a new computer was waiting for me. But there was not enough time to set it all up, so something else to look forward to during the weekend.