After arriving safely in Frankfurt, I collected my luggage and hung out in the Lufthansa arrivals lounge for about an hour till George came and collected. Fruitful hour in which I managed to reach one offspring via Viber and sent message to a couple of others.

Yes, it is true. I won’t even spend a night at home before George and I are off for the holidays. Unloading the duffle bag, I tossed back in those items which will be going to the US in Jan plus some sweets for the kids. Leaving the large bag packed with warm weather clothing, I took the smaller and put in all those warm sweaters and wool pants which have just been waiting for an opportunity to see the light of day rather than the shelf of the closet.

Not being stupid, we are taking the train rather than driving. The journey looks to be about 4.5 hours and involves one train change in Frankfurt HBF. Of course, waiting till the last minute to buy train tickets meant that it was not possible to reserve seats. In fact, it was hardly possible to reserve a return train at all. If we hadn’t been boarding the connecting train at its origin in Frankfurt we might not have had seats. As it was, we grabbed two of the only three non-rerserved seats in our section of the train.

It was after dark when we arrived in Passau. I was completely wiped and went to bed. The ten hours from Sydney caught up with me.