Arrival in Germany

This was due to be my first trip to Germany or Holland, my first overseas trip this year and my last overseas trip until I go away in September.

The main reason for going there was to meet up with a long standing friend who I had somehow fallen out of touch with, and although she was born and raised very close to where I grew up, was now living in Germany following the marriage to a soldier now posted in Germany on the Dutch border.

Through the powers of the Internet we had caught up with each other again late last year, and with the mutual desire to get re-acquainted mixed with the thrill of adding yet another country to my list, this was enough for us to arrange my long weekend break in Wegberg.

About a month or two ago I booked the tickets online and was pleasantly surprised when, with barely a week to go, I found out that I was due to fly out from the newly constructed Terminal 5 at Heathrow, which had not even opened its doors to the public yet.

However, surprise and excitement quickly turned to disappointment and frustration as I read in the evening papers that the terminals first days flights were a complete and unmitigated disaster, and I had the nerve wracking dilemma of whether or not to risk losing my luggage, cancel the trip altogether or even to travel extra light only taking hand luggage.

I decided that to give up without even trying would be letting not only myself, but my friends down too, and so I resolved to turn up at the airport with only hand luggage and risk any last minute cancellations or delays, relying on the fact that as long as I could get back to central London by 11.30 I could always just catch the train home and go up early on the Saturday morning to try again.

The new terminal 5 displayed all the elements of a brand new complex. Stylish modern appearance, open planned design, comfy seating areas, litter free were its good points.

Delays, inexperience, confusion, disputes, delays, lost luggage and a myriad of other teething problems were its major flaws.

On the whole I did fly on the same day as planned, and I did arrive in one piece so a part of me feels that I should be grateful, but with almost no general announcements and the fact that I arrived and cleared customs nearer to midnight than to nine pm meant that I was far from overjoyed.

Happily there was one thing which did make the journey much more bearable, and that was that I had switched my seating location during check-in to be much closer to the front of the plane and in doing so I had fortuitously placed myself next to a wickedly funny guy called Steven.

Owing somewhat to the delay in the flight, I chose to strike up a conversation with Steven and by the time we landed in Dusseldorf we were thick as thieves and laughing genuinely and openly over such bizarre topics as laptop sizes, marriages, dual languages and exchanging compensatory hotel vouchers for cash to get a little T.L.C. from a member of the fairer sex should the plane eventually be diverted to Cologne and we be forced to spend a night in a hotel.

To my mind I felt a bit like Steve Martin out of Trains, Planes and Automobiles, just without the angry outbursts or the Hollywood slapstick element of being stiffed for a cab that I never got to ride in.

By the time I had cleared customs and began wandering Dusseldorf International Airport, it was almost midnight and I was worried if my friends had been able to hang around long enough, knowing as I did that they had probably taken along their nine year old daughter who must by now be both tired and irritable.

However, much to my delight my friend spotted me before I saw her and her loud shouting out of my name brought my head up in a snap and I barely had enough time to hold my arms out before she launched herself at me in a welcoming hug that was almost a decade in the making.

After un-entangling myself from her embrace I was introduced to her husband and daughter and was instantly relieved to find out that her husband was both understanding and not overly upset about having had to waste a few hours in an arrivals hall for a complete stranger to arrive before driving us all back again.

On the way back to their place we did a lot of chatting and laughing and this first hour or so set the flavour of the whole trip :- relaxation, good conversation and a large dose of merriment ... oh, and we also drank quite a bit when we got back too.