We had our farewell dinner in a delightful restaurant in the Bavarian forest. Our main meal was Pork knuckle. Not really a huge fan of pork but figured I would give it a try as it is our last night in Europe so I should at least sample a local dish. The knuckle was huge and the crackling cooked to perfection. I simply couldn't eat it all though. Not a fan of the dumplings which appear to be congealed balls of dough. Love the sauerkraut . Dessert was Bavarian Cream which to all intents and purposes was whipped cream with fine sugar through it. Too rich for my taste, but the wine was good! There's that recurring alcohol theme again... Have also developed quite a taste for Schnapps so I'm sure there will be a future Princess occasion where they will be on the drinks menu.
So after very fond farewells and much photo taking amongst our group we head back to the hotel. It was lovely to have a room to myself - albeit when we first arrived at the hotel there wasn't a room booked for me, and then they gave me a room that was already occupied. Finally sorted and I was able to ensconce myself into a lovely big room and re-pack my suitcase which is sadly already just over the weight limit. I'll worry about that later...
Final breakfast in the morning and then checkout and on the coach at 8.45 to the airport. Arrived at Terminal 1 just before 9.30. As my flight doesn't leave until 2 p.m. I am now sitting in the front departure area waiting for the Iceland Air check in counter to open (2 hours before departure). Thankfully there is free wifi so I am currently ensconced in the waiting area near the check in counters penning these ramblings to you.
Weather this morning is cool, grey skies and intermittent rain so good timing to be leaving. I've had a great trip and met some wonderful people. As I have the time, I shall now enlighten you on some of my travel companions.
Mike and Barbara are a retired Jewish couple from New York. They are absolutely wonderful people and totally hilarious, especially when they start telling stories and keep interrupting each other. They should have their own television sit com. We will definitely be keeping in touch. I'm going to work out how to include New York in my visit to the States next year for the WPF Games as they have invited me to stay with them. Dianne and Richard are from Fairfax Virginia so we have booked to catch up during the Games as they live in Fairfax. Ginny and Fred live in Wisconsin and have suggested that if I'm going to New York then I also need to come and see them. Fred thinks I am wonderful as I have been giving him my Vitamin C tablets each day as he has a shocking cold - I somehow seem to be all things to all people!!! Darlene and Gary are from Toronto and figure if I'm visiting the others for the Games in the States next year then I need to visit them in 2019 when the Games are held in Toronto!!! Phil and Walter insist that I stay with them the next time I am in Ireland, and they also want to take me to Jersey where one of their daughters live. Not sure when I'll be back to Ireland but it is definitely on the list to re-visit (along with Scotland and the Whiskey trail). So many other nice people too, so it will be interesting to see how many end up keeping in contact via email. Ursula and Koonst ((not sure how to spell it) from South Africa are thinking of visiting Australia so I've offered to host them in South Oz if they make it that far. No surprisingly Marianne and I are probably not going to keep in touch. She really was a nice old thing, but quite dipsy (her words, not mine) and is not used to having to share. She was clearly lonely and insisted in saying everything that came into her head at the time, thinking that I would want to know it and be suitably interested every time. Many of you would know that I am not a morning person and I actually am quite content with my own company a lot of the time. Marianne never got it. We didn't have a cross word between us, but she was hard work. Thankfully we had our own seats on the coach so we weren't in each others' pockets 24/7. I mustn't moan though, as that's the chance you take when you don't pay the single supplement.
So that's probably about it for my Imperial Europe tour. Time to go and grab a cuppa and then attempt to wait patiently for the check in counter to open - just hope that blasted volcano has settled down as I haven't been checking its status - as I simply don't want to know any bad news while on holiday...
Unless there is a drama of some sort, my next epistle will be from Iceland. Hope to be able to upload some more photos to the site too as I have some great shots.
Auf Wiedersehn...
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