The final leg......

Well it seems getting started on our long journey home is proving more of a challenge than I thought......the best laid plans and all that!  But as we have found so many times on this trip already.....anything can happen when you are travelling and you have to roll with the punches a bit or you'd get very bitter and twisted!

But to back track a little.....

Our last official day of the tour was very pleasant. We spent the morning wandering around Heidleberg, which we had already been to, but were very happy to return to, as it so happens that the very best apple strudel can be found there! So we all indulged in some of that (again) before heading to Frankfurt.

Our group once again diminished in numbers as we said goodbye to four fellow travellers who are staying on in Europe and the UK.

So we are now down to seven of us who are returning to NZ. We had a very long afternoon at Frankfurt airport yesterday before boarding our flight to Singapore - due to leave at 10pm.

However!!! At around that time a freak electrical storm broke over Frankfurt which did not feel very nice! We were all boarded in the plane waiting to take off and the wind was buffeting us around, then the thunder and lightning started! Then the dreaded voice over the intercom......" Hello folks, this is the Captain......"the bad news....we couldn't take off right then, but the good news was we could in a couple of hours! So we stayed on board....and sat....and sat.......

When the storm finally eased and we had clearance to fly, there was a long queue of aircraft waiting to do the same......Frankfurt is an incredibly busy airport!

Sadly by the time it was our turn it was too late!! The airport closes at a certain time after midnight for a few hours and we had missed the window of time.

It was then decided to disembark! They didn't even take us back to the terminal....we were parked off somewhere in the back blocks of runways and lights.....so they brought a whole bunch of buses to the plane....go figure that! Back to the terminal we went then onto different buses and out into the streets of Frankfurt bound for who knows where! Our bus driver certainly didn't because we travelled for over an hour into the deepest darkest countryside.....no hotels in sight.....not even street lights! After some wrong turns and a couple of reversals (yes, reversals) we arrived in a town and pulled up outside a hotel. The other 2 bus loads were in bed by then!  I can't remember the name of the town or the hotel .....but by 3am I crawled into bed.....yay!

I must admit though, Singapore Airlines did their best for us under difficult circumstances and the hotel was very nice:-)

We had to leave our suitcases on the plane so only had our hand luggage, which doesn't really have the stuff you need like toiletries! We were given a toothbrush and toothpaste by the hotel thankfully. I should have asked if they had 'essential kits'........for those Brian Regan fans out there:-)

Midday today we were picked up and bused back to the airport......and here's the funny bit.....it took about 15 minutes!! Ha.....so heaven only knows where we went last night!

It took a lot of palava to get everyone organised on new flights today and the airport was crazy busy.....people....planes....insane!!  Never mind, we are finally winging our way to Singapore. Might try and get some sleep......hmmm.....fat chance huh?

It is now early afternoon on Saturday and I'm sitting in a hotel room in Singapore.....courtesy of Singapore Airlines.  We are due to continue our flight onto Auckland this evening as long as the smoke doesn't overtake us! It's everywhere here, quite thick and strong smell, evidently from fires in Malaysia.

The drama continues....... I just hope and pray we end up on the plane that is also carrying our luggage....now there's a thought!!

So I think it's time to sign off for now. I will probably continue to write my blog in the future which will no doubt include more reflections of my time away. It certainly has been eventful.....what with floods, storms, heat waves, fires.....and that's just weather related! But of course, it has been so much more than that, I have seen so much......so much to think about and ponder on, learnt more about myself and the world around me. Nothing is wasted in this life so I know I will draw on these past few weeks somehow and someway.

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for His love and protection over me (and all of us) these past weeks. There have been moments all along the way where I have felt His nearness and well...His thumbprint....and that makes everything OK! Such a faithful God, 100% trustworthy!

Looking forward to standing on home soil tomorrow :-)

Till next time........