A very warm Brummy welcome...

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A few tears as we left Vreni & Raymond's place in Witterswil and headed to the airport. It took us an age to find the correct carpark to drop off our lease car, which eventually entailed driving back into Basel, across the border, and back to the French side of Basel-Mulhouse airport. Good thing we allowed plenty of time. We left our "Robbie" with 5,600 more km on the clock than 6 weeks earlier.

A quick layover in Frankfurt, then on to Birmingham, where my brother Andy picked us up and took us back to his house in Lichfield. We received a very warm welcome from Andy, Maggie, Kate & Harriet (Jennie was still studying at Sheffield). They talk funny here - must be a new variant of Swiss-German!

We had a nice day out at the local canal with the family plus Maggie's mum Joan, watching the narrow boats negotiate the lock-gates as we enjoyed a cup of tea in the sun. We invaded Maggie's class at her primary school and her kids impressed us by asking Katrina & Jackson some very inciteful questions about our lives in NZ. One evening Kate & Harriet took Katrina & Jackson to see the latest Harry Potter film, and another evening we shared a superb Chinese meal out with friends of Andy & Maggie who also had NZ/AU family connections.

Good food and hospitality here - we'll be back...

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