Day 1 - Luton to Berlin

The Kirkwood parents, it's well documented, are not great in the air. We're also pretty bad at early mornings, and I hate motorway driving, especially in driving rain. Add a prolapsed disc into the mix, and you can pretty well imagine the stress of this morning's 3am start. By the time we arrived at the Luton car park in a biblical downpour, we were all nervous wrecks. (No fun for Andy having to be the navigator.) Thank goodness it's not further away.
Those who know us well will also understand my frustration when our progress through security was delayed by Andy's bloody man-bag - yes, AGAIN. The Swiss army knives had come out, but he'd forgotten the several screwdrivers in another pocket. However, my horse wasn't as elevated as it might have been, given my underestimation of the broad definition of the word "liquids" - apparently these include nail varnish, roll-on sunscreen, sanitising liquid and hand cream, all of which I'd failed to remove from my bag. We made it to the gate with minutes to spare, poor Andy on two sticks throughout. The flight itself was actually fine, and definitely helped by Thomas smuggling on the pain au chocolate (although no-one seems worried about food now?) He was sound asleep within 5 minutes of landing, which made getting him off the plane interesting! Very hot and sunny here (which we're also not very good at - some people are just hard to please). Happily German security is more sympathetic than British - we were fast-tracked due to Andy's predicament. Took us a while to work out how to buy underground tickets, and then where to go from - it was busy! Long walk in the heat to our huge apartment, where we collapsed in a heap! Forgot to take any photos...Read more