German Trip - Days 8 & 9 (Return to Leeds)

 Yesterday and today were mostly just driving back home. We had breakfast at the hotel in Aachen then set off for France. We were planning on visiting a WW2 museum in Dunkirk but turns out it was closed for the winter so when we finally arrived we just went for a little walk along the beach instead. We saw lots of jellyfish washed up, but there wasn't much else of interest there so we decided to just continue on to Calais.

When we arrived in Calais we had an hour or two to kill before we could check into the hotel (and we planned on just sitting around and relaxing for the evening), so we went to a shopping centre called Cité Europe to have some lunch and look around. We had some nice sandwiches in a café and then went to an arcade to use some of our remaining coins. We took it in turns on the pinball machines and did pretty well on the heavy metal fantasy style one called 'Black Knight'. After we'd been beaten by the Black Knight we gave a western-style light gun game a go. It was alright but it doesn't hold a candle to Time Crisis or House of the Dead!

After saving the generic frontier town from classic western antagonists like witches, armoured skeletons, and balloon-riding banditos we decided to head to our final hotel of the trip. This time it was a Best Western in Coquelles - situated a convenient 10 minutes from the EuroTunnel. The room was tiny, and pretty pricey considering, but it was fine. We stayed in and watched Star Trek & X-Files for most of the evening.

The next morning we left and went straight to the EuroTunnel. We were allowed on a slightly earlier train home and so went immediately to boarding. Laura was asked some innocuous questions by the border security ("Where did you visit?" & "What do you do for a living?").Laura answered the questions with a minimum of suspicious behaviour and so we were let through.

The journey back to Leeds was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a Tescos along the way in order to have some breakfast. I finally got a pot of black tea instead of earl grey (although I do like earl grey) and we ate some acceptable English food. They never give you enough butter for your toast in this country though! I'm sure the Baggins's would have a word or two to say about that.

When we got home we unpacked our bags immediately, knowing that to delay it would be folly. Then we shortly returned to our old habits. Playing a computer game with a friend and drinking lots of tea (well, I did anyway). Laura looked through the various presents she received and I played with some of the miniatures that Rick gave me. We are now home and cosy, very tired and glad to not have to drive around for ages. It was definitely fun having the car while in Europe (we wouldn't have found Drachenfels for one thing!), but it was also pretty exhausting. Next time we'll probably fly and just use public transport.

It's now 00:37, which is a German 01:37, so I'll leave it here.

If I'm looking at this again in 10 years time: Hello Tom! How are you? I'm the younger less cybernetic version of you. Enjoy the future!

German Trip - Day 7 (Travel to Aachen)

 We popped into Nürnberg for breakfast, and had a somewhat disappointing pretzel & pain au chocolat. Laura got a strangely shaped carton of juice which was nice though! 

After our breakfast we discussed what to do and where to go. We were originally planning on heading to Heidelberg and staying the night there, then making our way through France via Saarbrücken. However we changed our minds at the last minute and went North-West towards the Rhineland.

We stopped at a McDonalds for lunch and Laura was excited to note the little differences, like curly fries and fried shrimp. 

At the McDonalds car park. I think I'm trying to work out what Laura's doing

Along the way we saw signs to Drachenfels, which as any Warhammer fan knows is a happening place. We found a car park near the base of the hill and popped out for a little stroll up to the ruins of Castle Drachenfels.

It was already fairly late in the afternoon when we got there so we didn't have time to check out Drachenburg, but we still got to see some great views at the top of the Drachenfel, and of course the ruined keep too.

We stopped for the night at a hotel in Aachen, near the edge of Germany. We attended our German lesson from my phone and then had a tasty dinner at the hotel bar, followed by another episode of Voyager!

Tomorrow we plan to head to Dunkirk to check out some museums, followed by staying at a hotel in Calais ready for our return to England.