Back on German Soil

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Thursday 25 June 2015

It was a short night in our hotel near London Stansted Airport, but when our alarm rang we were up and away to meet our 5.45am taxi, ready to catch the early Ryanair flight back to Menningen Airport in Germany. Stansted Airport was a sea of would-be or have-just-been travellers all moving through space at breakneck speed. We made an excellent job of keeping up at first, but ground to a halt in the queue for security clearance. Military manoevres or even stock handling came to mind as orders were spat out to try and control the flow of intending travellers. Yesterday's thorough pat down was a fond memory as the finer detail of almost every garment put on this morning was checked and shoes taken away for testing. Feeling quite relieved to make it through this process, we reminded ourselves that with the world as it is, we should be grateful for the vigilance shown.

No time to waste, we set off for Departure Gate 54, a bracing walk at that still early hour. With what we thought was plenty of time before boarding, we noticed people getting on a plane at our gate, so approached the desk just to check it was not our plane. Oh no! It was our plane and we were the last passengers to board. It was then we realised that yesterday's departure ahead of schedule must be the usual pattern for Ryanair. No problem, in no time we were seated, buckled in and awaiting takeoff. A lengthy wait with no action was followed by an announcement that due to some technical difficulties this plane would not be flying. A replacement plane would be towed across and we would all need to board that one. Immediately passengers were on their feet unloading overhead lockers and jockeying for position in the aisle. The fact that no replacement plane had magically appeared seemed to escape these hurrying people. In fact it was to be an hour before our transfer took place and we finally took off. We couldn't help wondering if yesterday's very rough landing may have resulted in today's technical difficulties...

Back on the ground at Memmingen Airport we found our lease car safe and sound, quickly had our first meal of the day and got onto the autobahn to make a start on the next part of today's journey which would end at a family hotel in the mountains near Berchtesgaden. Rest will be part of the plan for the next two nights.

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Photos

Weissback
A view from our balcony.

Weissback
The local church.

Weissback
Our lovely bed.

Comments

[Enny and Jolyon]

Co journyers
Dear Marilyn and Chris We have been so enjoying your fascinating comments and photos of your journey We unearthed Jolyon's 1950 world atlas that he acquired when his parents were doing their overseas tour and he stayed with his two sisters with his grandparents in Invercargill Needles to say we cannot find all the interesting places you are visiting but we get the general direction Just as we were getting anxious that our lack of feedback had struck us off the mail list these last two days we get two links in one day and can resume our cojourney though we have not found Weisback on our ancient map nor did we find Menninger town if such goes with the the Menninger Aiport My mothers half brother was reputed to be a psychiatrist in the Menninger Institute If there is no a township of that name Menninger must have been a famous person Thanks so much for sending the daily travellogue The energy you have to record it all daily and the traveling done daily .staggers us Thanks for sharing it all with us it hs become a daily fix Warm regards Enny and Jolyon

[Miltonrabbit]

Your daily fix
We are both thrilled you are enjoying our travels as much as we are. The blogs aren't always published daily. We get busy so publish when time allows, sometimes two or three at a time. Weissbach is not on our map either. Have you tried Google Maps? We like to name some obscure places so they get a mention and encourage tourists to visit. Memmingen is about 80 km due west of Munich. Seemed to have been an air force base before becoming a commercial airport. We are currently in Dresden and today looking forward to some wonderful sights. Thank you for your feed back, keep warm.