Wednesday 6th June 2018

And here we are, for the main reason, the only reason for being in Hamburg, so we had better get on with the day, make myself looking presentable.

Despite being able to lay into half seven, when I had set the alarm for, was awake at half six, and ready for the day.

I go down for breakfast, and find they had just about everything a person could want for breakfast. I settle for caramel muesli followed by a morning roll smothered in nutella. And a coffee. A pot of coffee of my very own.

All there was to do was pack, clean my teeth and I was set. Downstairs I check out and grab the taxi that was waiting outside. Now, I had been practicing what to say. So I say the address in German, and the guy says something, so I try to say the road name again. But he indicates me to get in and we pull out onto the main road.

Beside the large lake, we get stopped at a series of traffic lights, and the bloke tries to apologise for the dreadful traffic in the city. When in fact it felt like a quiet Sunday morning in London, and traffic was light, so I says no worries.

He drops me off outside the office, and from being rushed I find I have half an hour to kill, so I watch trains come and go to the U bahn station, which is overground here. And there are people, always people. I stand on a bridge, looking at the wind creating ripples.

Kate arrives and a guy working at the street cafe was a colleague. So we sake hands and she get us coffee.

And we talk.

Come ten o'clock, Tim having arrived, it was showtime.

We talk for the best part of four hours, so I am free to leave before two, giving me three hours to get from the office to the airport. I was sorely tempted to go to the hotel opposite to get a taxi, worth €50 for peace of mind, but there was time for the U and S Bahn. Lets do it.

Up on the platform, I have a couple of minute wait before the train comes, I get on and I can feel there is no air con on board, so when the doors closed, it gets hot. I change at the main station, and follow the signs for trains to the airport, and four minutes later the train arrives, I sit in the right part as it will divide on the way north, so I can sit and relax, and look out of the window as the graffiti lining the line, on bridges.

From when the train arrived at the airport station, climbing the escalator and again up to the departure lounge, get through security, less than 5 minutes had passed.

O know its a ten minute walk to passport check, and there was a bar the other side, so I walk past the lines of designer shops, I try the Jura malts again, but I get through immigration, I have enough change in my pocket for a large beer. I settle down at a desk only for the first of the drunken bums to come.

Each one was already half cut, and each ordered at least one more large beer, they sear and shot at each other, and I find out this is a crew from a turbine installation vessel, they had endured a bad two week shift, and were letting their hair down.

Their flight left at four, and the last one was poured on the flight at five to. I guess they all made it. It was certainly quieter once they had left for sure.

We wait our turn to get on the flight, I have an empty seat next to me, so I can stretch out, and sleep, but I snooze only, looking at the clouds over Holland the the North Sea.

We circle above the Home Counties before turning over Reading and onto final approach. Home at just gone five. But we arrive at the B gates, needing to get a shuttle to the main terminal. I saw an endless line of delays, so I call Jools saying I'll be home after half eight.

But the shuttle comes, takes us to the main terminal, and after going up two flights of escalators, we come out at the passport scanners, I am at the front of the line, get through and take the shortest route to the car hire office through baggage reclaim.

All I have to do is flash my preferred card, I get a set of keys and pointed to the car, so by five past six I am on the road, going from jam to jam on the motorway.

But I am home, the sun is shining, and with the radio on, its all pleasant. And once the M23 exit, traffic flows well, me getting to Folkestone at just before eight, so I go to Burger King, buy half the menu, and drove the last ten minutes home.

Done it. We put the burger, fries and onion rings on plates, Jools makes a brew. And I realise how tired I am suddenly. BUt we squeeze in an episode of the sci fi before we go to bed just before ten. Where had the time gone?