f4f3 | There and Back Again

So, that's the end of the holiday, then.

Got back to the flat this evening, with the trip-meter just over 1,000 miles. Not a huge distance, maybe, in the days when we hop on the plane for a weekend in Prague, but it doesn't include 700 or so miles with the car sitting in the hold of a ferry. The car also didn't turn a wheel for most of last week, once we got to the cottage.

So, impressions then.

It was my first time in Northern Germany, and I shouldn't have been surprised that it had so much in common with the North of the Netherlands. Flat, in other words. And, since the last time I was there, studded with wind turbines. I was amazed at just how many, compared to the few we have here in Scotland.

I was quite taken with Emden. It's a port town, not as busy now as it apparently once was, with a lot of tourism and a nice walk around the old town moat and ditch system. It's also full of bunkers left over from the last war. This surprised me - instead of the back garden, one family shelters I saw a lot of in Newcastle, Emden has what seemed to be dozens of four or five storey cubes, with very thick walls and pitched roofs. Most of them seem to have survived, as did most of the people who sheltered in them.

The trip there and back was pretty smooth, and we had one night in Glasgow before heading up to the cottage, for five days of complete relaxation. New Year was quiet and fun, and this weekend we had psychochicken and zantic as guests, for good food and great whisky.

Tonight I had my last take-away for a while, and I seem to have enough time to chill tonight and get set up for next week at work. I'm actually looking forward to getting back, and getting back to the gym.

Must have been a good holiday then.