Neumünster, Hamburg, Dubai, Home

Normal start, then a serious debate about hotel breakfasts. These are the topics that capture the greatest minds on tours like this. The winner, based on atmosphere, is… Bamberg.

It rained as we had breakfast, but the road was dry when we walked to the Bahnhof and bus. The HH airport bus came early, left on time, went down Roonstrasse on the way to the autobahn (sad that the trees on both sides and cobblestones were ripped out in the 1980s or 1990s to make it a main thoroughfare), past windfarms, solar farms and a few deer, and arrived at Hamburg Airport 5 mins early… 45 mins before Emirates opened its counter.

It was cool and sunny again when we arrived, so went up to the airport’s observation deck. From there we saw a luggage-loser Air France plane. Poor passengers. I am sure the flat truck behind it as it taxied was collecting - or not - the cases dropped from the hold.

We leave at 1530. It is 6h25m to Dubai, 2h20m stopover, then 13h50m to SYD, arriving Monday 20 May at 2205. The trick is to convince ourselves it really leaves Hamburg at 1130 pm.

The plane landed 15 minutes ahead of schedule, but the real excitement on the way was a bottle of Korn handmade by Tschorsch in Boostedt. At Hamburg airport they wanted to confiscate it (over 100ml) - but it was okay if we went through a different scanner, so Anne went through German customs twice. At Dubai all hand luggage was hand- searched, and it was given its own sealed cardboard box and taken in the hold. It was a simple collection in Sydney, but then the box was left on the train when we changed at Central. Lots of talks with helpful passengers and staff, who knew the same train was back at Central 20 mins later.. but when the carriage returned, a Sydney Trains man on the seat we had had said it had just been handed in at platform 1 at Town Hall. So we went to Town Hall … and there it was. Only effect in the end was that we were home a little later than planned... but it was still Monday.

12,800 steps, 9 km and 2 flights. End of journey.Read more