Monday, March 8, 2010

Munich, Brussels and Birmingham

The flight from Singapore to Munich was equally uneventful – always a good thing for any flight! We filled our time by watching movies and catching the occasional hour of sleep here and there. It was fairly comfortable but noticeably smaller seats than the Singapore leg. A larger woman sitting in the seat behind me liked to grab my seat and shake it violently whenever she would get up and sit down which would stir me from my slumber.

It was still dark when we made our descent into Munich. The landing was the gentlest landing I’ve ever experienced, improved by the fact that we had no idea that we were about to land at all. Stepping off the plane was a stark contrast to Singapore as we instantly saw our breath when we were talking, almost like a cartoon character – just without the words! Outside it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit, which meant nothing to me until I converted it on my iPod (-10.5 degrees Celsius).

Movies and shows watched:

Where the Wild Things Are, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Invention of Lying, Old Dogs, The Informant!, Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars, The Big Bang Theory



We had a short amount of time to get through customs and go back through security to board. All was going well until we were told that the Duty Free alcohol we had bought in Christchurch would not be allowed in hand luggage as New Zealand is not part of the EU (although Singapore is). We hadn’t been told any of this despite mentioning our flights, going through Singapore with no problems and being sealed in a tamper proof bag!

With little time to spare, I quickly unpacked most of the easier to carry items from my hand luggage leaving a bit of room in the hard case. I had to pop back through security, take it to first class check-in, and make it back through security and to my plane – and we were due at the gate nine minutes ago! Fortunately, everyone made it so easy and I was back on the other side of security five minutes later.

The flight to Brussels was beautiful as the skies were clear, the landscape was incredibly flat, and the snow and frost were steaming as the sun rose. In virtually no time, we were making our descent into Brussels which was basically a long, slow sweep over the whole city. After landing, we quickly discovered that our BMI flight had been cancelled due to the plane failing an equipment check, and that Lufthansa was rapidly trying to fix the problem. After a short delay, we were given tickets on a plane to Birmingham, we let Pete and Lynn know where we were landing, and we had swapped our rental car from East Midlands to Birmingham airport.

While waiting for the plane, we stumbled across a Tintin shop with books and toys. I couldn’t resist buying a Snowy dog for William and a copy of ‘Asterix in Switzerland’ in French. It was amazing to deal with the airport and shop staff as they switched between four different languages without going ‘Um...’



We arrived in Birmingham and soon met up with Pete and Lynn waiting for us at the Rental Car desk. Lynn had done something to her back in three places and she looked in quite a lot of pain – apparently she twisted it simply getting out of bed. We all hoped that she would get better soon. We picked up our car, a brand spanking new Ford Focus with only 8 miles on the clock, and headed back to Derby in convoy (Lynn with me and Mum with Pete).

We arrived at the turn off to Breadsall and it was funny how familiar it was even though I had never been there before; the wonders of Google Street View. We climbed out of the car and settled ourselves into Pete and Lynn’s new house. It was great to hear about what they had done to it, and the trips that they had been on since we had seen them last (having just arrived back from Morocco a couple of days ago).



Over the course of the afternoon, Craig arrived with Layla and Seth, Rob and Lucy arrived with their new baby boy Charlie, followed finally by Lorna. I don't think Layla and Seth remembered me, but I soon made friends with them again once I showed them my iPod Touch. Seth loved running around swinging the lightsaber, just like my William. It was great seeing them all again, and meeting Charlie for the first time!



After 39 hours of travelling with very little sleep, followed by 9 hours of daytime, our eyes were getting heavy and our heads light, but we had a great night relaxing and chatting until the family gradually trickled away just as they had arrived. Not long after, Mum and I collapsed into our beds and slept soundly.