Chris de Burgh Concert in Dortmund -

25. November 2006

The weekend around the 25. November was another special weekend, an exciting weekend with only a few hours sleep - but we had to enjoy every second of this weekend……


Friday, 24.11.06

This time it was Melanie's turn to come over from Liverpool to Dinslaken and stay with me to see Chris de Burgh! We had planned this trip already 1 year ago, when I had bought our tickets, but when we first arranged everything for this weekend we didn't yet know, that we would meet even twice before (in Liverpool and Birmingham). So now we even met for the third time within 6 weeks!

We don't have an extra guest-room in our house, so my daughter Lena was so kind to sleep together with her brother Thomas in his room for 2 nights and Melanie could use Lena's bed and room - even with FC Liverpool-bed-covers!!!

It was a nice surprise of Phil Easton at Radio Magic 1548 Liverpool to play a get-up-and-go song extra for Melanie, as she was meanwhile at Manchester Airport waiting for the plane, which would bring her to Germany. He said, she wouldn't be able to hear it, but he knew someone who was - I assume he meant me - listening online like every morning. Then he played the song "Airport" for Melanie! Soon I had to leave to pick her up at 9.40 a. m. at the Airport Düsseldorf. She arrived in time, so we were at home in time to tell Phil before the end of his show, that Melanie now was with me in Dinslaken. Only 3 minutes later Phil told his listeners, that Melanie now would be with me to see Chris de Burgh on Saturday, and what about him….? He was still over there in Liverpool. Amazing, Melanie had breakfast in Liverpool and lunch in Dinslaken……!

Yes, and as Melanie should get to know as much as possible about Germany I cooked something typical German for her: Sauerkraut with "Kasseler", "Mettwürstchen" and mashed potatoes. Meanwhile Kurt and his sister Heidi also had arrived at the hotel Gambrinus in Dinslaken, just a few hundred metres away from our house. They also came over and had lunch with us. Heidi had brought a cake with her. We really didn't have to starve hungry that weekend. I also had baked a cake. We had some coffee and cake right after the dinner, and afterwards I showed Kurt, Heidi and Melanie Dinslaken. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very good. I suppose, they all come back once again in spring or summer, when everything looks a bit brighter and nicer……!

At 17.00 p. m. Melanie and I had to pick up Lena and 2 of her friends from their handball-training. Melanie was amazed, when all the girls (not only Lena) started singing along the "Storyman"-songs, which of course was played in the CD-player of my car. Well, I'm their handball-chauffeur once or twice every week, and so they all heard the CdeB-songs in my car already rather often!

Back at home we had some time to get ready for our long planned CdeB-evening. We expected Kurt and Heidi and my friend Birgit at 19.00 p. m. It seemed that they all enjoyed watching the latest TV-appearances from England (thanks to Chris W.!!!!) and Germany and also the video-film of our Birmingham-trip. Instead of going to bed early to be fit for Dortmund we stayed awake and watched CdeB untill late at night!


Saturday, 25.11.2006

Saturday - the great day of the concert including fanmeeting and after-show-party!!!!!
We had a lazy morning, listening to Magic during our breakfast and getting ready for the events which should happen.
At about 11.00 a. m. our strict schedule started: We first had to pick up the pre-ordered roses, which we intended to give to Chris in the evening during the concert. We got the roses for Melanie (a yellow one of course!!!), Nicole (a bunch of 3 red roses!!!), Heidi, Kerstin and me (just one red rose each - but the most beautiful roses of the world!!!).
During the morning Kurt and Heidi had picked up Malcolm, Linda and Katie (who had come over from Torpoint/Cornwall) from the Airport Dortmund. Malcolm and his family had booked a room in the same hotel, where Kurt and Heidi were staying, so we had them all near to us in Dinslaken! After having checked in they came with us to my parents' house, where my mother had prepared lunch for us. I guess she was interested to see, if other CdeB-fans are as crazy as her own daughter. Unfortunately we had to hurry. We quick had a look around the house to see the homing-pigeons, canaries and the fish-pond, then we had to drive back to our house, where Melanie and I changed our clothers.

Birgit meanwhile had arrived, and after a short stop at the hotel Gambrinus we finally started our trip to the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund at about13.45 p. m. Heidi, Malcolm, Linda and Katie drove in Kurt's car, Melanie and Birgit came with me.
When we arrived at the Westfalenhalle there were already a few mailing-list-members standing in front of the venue, but we couldn't reach the car park - at least not on the normal way…… , as the barrier was closed. It was too early in the afternoon for the concierge to collect money for parking. BUT there was no barrier at the gateway which you usually use to drive out of the car park. There was already another car using this way to drive in, and so I did the same - I drove backwards through the way out on the car-park!!! Birgit and Melanie thought I was crazy - but you know - I AM!!!! I would have been willing to pay the 4 EUROs parking-fee, but I didn't want to drive away and search for another car park far away!!!!

When we left the car Kerstin, Anke, Michael and Nicole came to us! It was so nice to see them all again!!! Malcolm, Linda and Katie didn't stay with us in the afternoon, as they wanted to see as much as possible of Germany during the short time they spent here. So they went to see the Christmas-market in Dortmund. We went to the entrance of the venue, where I met some people for the first time face to face (like Eberhard etc.), and others, which I hadn't seen before even started talking to me, like Beatrix and Maarten, Judith, Cora from the Netherlands Franziska Huber with her husband from Switzerland and even Luis Costa from Portugal! He introduced himself, his daughter and his brother and took a photo of us together. They were all so friendly and told me, they had read my blog, had seen my photos or had read my mailing-list-messages! I felt a bit like being famous!!!! But of course it was the same with all the others. I also found it great to meet people, which I only knew from their messages at the mailing-list, even if we only changed a few words. Angie, who had bought 2 of my Block 4 tickets had a belated birthday-gift for me: a mug with 2 CdeB-photos on and birthday-wishes "Doris Happy Birthday - Angie xxx" written on it. And a little CdeB-button (mirror). Also Kerstin had a little Santa Claus out of felt for me. Thanks so much. It was so nice to arrive in Dortmund!

At 15.00 p. m. we about 150 crazy fans could enter the Westfalenhalle, where Astrid, Tina and a few others sold the name-buttons. After 30 min. we all were inside and then went together to the room, in which our afternoon-fanmeeting took place, which contained a karaoke competition, where 10 singers sang their songs for us. They were accompanied by Cesar (from Spain) and 2 other guitar-players, and we finally had to vote for them. The prize for the winners was to sing their song in front of Chris de Burgh himself after the soundcheck. So Anke and Heike had the pleasure to sing "St. Peter's Gate" later again….. .


Time had passed rather quickly and we all were looking forward to 17.15 p. m., as the soundcheck should take place at that time, and we all were allowed to watch the soudcheck. We were told to take place in the first rows of the middle-block in front of the stage, but not in row 1. We saw Chris, the band and Kristyna Myles, who sang the whole song "Raging Storm" for us 150 visitors in the audience. Chris also sang "Sailing away" and a few other songs, but only half songs…., and much too soon everything was over.
Astrid and Alison gave Chris our gift: a big poster with all our Storyman-photos, which we had taken in March 2006 already for the video, which is shown now during the song "Living in the world" at the concerts.
Then Chris was told to sit down in the front row and watch Anke, Heike and Cesar singing their karaoke song "St. Peter's Gate".
Before Chris left he signed a few things, also an album for Alex Schestag, who unfortunately couldn't come to the concert, as he'd got ill and had to stay in hospital!


Then we had enough time to eat something. Doors were opened for the public, and soon the Westfalenhalle was full of people. Malcolm & Co. also had arrived back.
Very soon it was 20.00 a. m., and the concert started in time. The atmosphere was wonderful - much better than in Birmingham! Chris got so much gifts. Nearly after every song somebody went to the stage to bring him flowers or a bottle etc. Maybe also because so much fans from the mailing-list were there altogether! We (those people, who had been at the fanmeeting in the afternoon) had some colourful lightsticks, which Angelika B. had organized. It looked magic (I could overlook it very good from my seat in row 6. Row 6 was ok, and this time we were sitting all together, which was much nicer than sitting alone (you're never alone at a CdeB-concert, because there are always people with the same taste in music sitting next to you at a CdeB-concert) - like at the concert in Birmingham. Of course I anyway don't notice a lot what's happening around me, when Chris is on stage, but being together with friends simply is nicer. Angela (also from Dinslaken) arrived just in time before the Storyman theme started. Nicole and her "chauffeur" Dirk even had seats in row 2 just next to the aisle. Dream-seats!!! At the beginning of the concert Chris even said welcome to the Chris de Burgh-fans from the mailing-list!
We went to the front with our roses after "Spirit" again, and I even managed to thank Chris for his birthday-card. "No problem" was his answer.
This time we already stood up from our seats and ran to the stage during "Lady in red". One song earlier than before. A surprise was, that Kristyna Myles also was with Chris and the band on the stage during "Say goodbye to it all", and she obviously enjoyed herself! During the standing-in-front-of-the-stage-part, when Chris sang "Living in the world", our Storyman-photos were shown again.

Time passed so quickly again and after 2 hours and 50 min. the concert was over!
But the evening was not yet over. Now we went to the Parkhotel, which was just next to the Westfalenhalle. There the After-show-party took place. When we sat down and had a drink I thought I'd fall asleep and never wake up again. I was so tired. But after about 1/2 hour a man entered the room, and with him there came Kristyna Myles. Later I got to know that this man was Kenny, Chris' manager. I never had seen him before. Kristyna was very happy about being able to be on tour with Chris, and we all love her and the way she sings the song "Raging Storm" together with Chris. She signed a lot of things for all of us, posed for photos and was smiling all the time. Later she sang another song for us and accompanied herself at the piano. About 30 minutes later Kenny entered the room again - this time with the boys from the band! They also signed T-shirts, tickets, CD-covers etc. and posed for photos. Time passed so quick, but I think after about 30 minutes they left again. We went on singing CdeB-songs while Cesar and the other 2 boys accompanied us with the guitars and Astrid played the piano. It was a wonderful evening. But at 2.00 a. m. we had to leave, as the restaurant was closed. After saying goodbye to Nicole and Anke, who had booked a room in the Parkhotel, we wanted to drive home, but all the doors of the hotel/restaurant were closed. So we ended up in the bar, where we met Nicole and Anke again, and also a few others, even Chris Andrews and some bandmembers. They posed again for a few photos, and it was 3.15 a. m. until we finally managed to drive home - after having spent 12 1/2 hours in Dortmund!!! I was so tired that I wanted to drive quick home - too quick, so that I drove into a radar trap!!!!! Usually I can't sleep when I come home from a concert, but when I was in bed after 4.15 a. m. that night I fell asleep immediately!

Sunday, 26.11.2006

After 4 hours sleep I woke up again on Sunday morning. The last day with Melanie. At 12.30 p. m. Kurt, Heidi, Malcolm, Linda and Katie came and we went together to an Italian restaurant not far away from our house. Birgit and her husband Olaf already were waiting there for us. So we had an after-show-lunch altogether. Malcolm gave to me a little ironing-board (for ties and sleeves) for my famous ironing-room! They had too much - but nice - gifts for us, including a calendar with pictures of the beautiful scenery of Cornwall, where they live.
As the sun was shining in the afternoon we decided to make a trip to Götterswickerhamm, where we showed our English guests the river Rhein, before we drove back to our house, where we had some coffee and cake. Soon it was time for me to bring Melanie back to the Airport Düsseldorf, where her plane started at 20.30 p. m. Kurt and Heidi meanwhile showed Malcolm and family Dinslaken.

Monday, 27.11.2006

The next morning they all visited me once again, before Kurt and Heidi brought Malcolm & family back to the Airport Dortmund, which was just on Kurt and Heidi's way back home to Wildflecken. And the wonderful weekend finally was over.
It has been a great weekend once again.

What I liked very much was, that now my CdeB-friends which didn't all know each other before this big fan-meeting all got to know. They exchanged e-mail-addresses and hopefully will stay in touch. It's like a little fan-group within the big mailing-list-group.
It was great that even Nicole from Eisenberg finally managed to come to Dortmund, even if she didn't have enough time to visit me in Dinslaken. 2 years ago she listened to the whole concert via her (and my) mobile-phone, and in the end she had to pay nearly the same prize as for a ticket!!! But it has been something special! We had met twice before when I visited her during our summer-holidays in Bavaria, but we never before had been together at a concert.

Michael lives in Dortmund, and I got to know him 2 years ago at the 6th of Nov. 2004 at the CdeB-jubilee-concert, where we were seat-neighbours.
Also Kerstin from Bochum is a friend, which I first met on that special date 2 years ago. She had been the first person which we could identify wearing a "Read my name"-T-shirt, and so we got in touch.

And Chris de Burgh is the reason....... !

Thanks to Michael, Birgit, Melanie and Nicole for their photos, which I also used in my links!!!!!!!

My journey to Birmingham

- 18./19. November 2006

Photos

Everything began in October/November 2005, when the tickets first were sold. I had got to know Melanie from Liverpool short before, and I'd bought a Dortmund-ticket for her, so she didn't have to bother with ordering a ticket via a german website, as she doesn't speak any German. She had bought a Birmingham-ticket for herself, but after she had ordered the first one she thought, she might get a better seat and organized another ticket. So she now had one spare ticket and asked me, if I would like to take it. I never before had flown abroad to see a concert! So I thought - no, I will never do it! But the more I thought about it the more did I want to see the concert over there in Birmingham. My birthday approached, so I told everybody, that my only birthday-wish was ticket-money. At the beginning of December I attended a Runrig-concert with Michael (got to know him in Dortmund 2004, he had been my seat-neighbour at the CdeB-concert there) and told him about the Birmingham-concert. He simply said - why don't you fly? I'd like to accompany you. Ok. I was a bit worried about what my family would think if I'd fly with a "strange man", so I asked on the mailing-list: "Who wants to fly with me to Birmingham?" Claudia answered immediately. She just had booked a flight from Düsseldorf, "our" airport. Fortunately I managed to persuade my husband Arno, that I simply HAD TO fly there!!! He finally agreed, even if he couldn't really understand it, and soon before Christmas I booked the same flight, that Claudia took also for Michael and me! And Melanie bought another ticket for him. In March my friend Birgit finally also decided to accompany us. So we were already 4 - 5 CdeB-travellers!


Travelling from Dinslaken to Birmingham

On Friday, 17.11.2006 I tried to go to bed early, as our flight started at 7.00 a. m., which meant, I had to wake up at about 3.00 a. m. - in the middle of the night! Of course it was not very easy to sleep - thinking of such an exciting weekend ahead! But who cares…? Soon it was Saturday morning, 4.00 a. m. and Birgit came to pick me up. We arrived at the Airport at 4.35 a. m., where we soon met Claudia and Michael. Time passed rather quick, as we all were looking forward to the concert and had a lot to talk about. Then it was time to enter our plane - and you could hear 4 rather enthousiastic CdeB-Fans laughing, when we saw the sign next to the door of our small (54 seats) British Airways plane: a blue spot with the words: "One World" - So we could be sure to have found the right plane! The flight went well. We arrived at Birmingham Airport at 7.40 a. m., drove with the sky-rail to the NEC, where we already saw several Storyman-posters. Always a good reason to stop and take photos of each other in front of the posters.
When we came near to our hotel, the "Crowne Plaza", we already could see Melanie through the breakfast-room-window and she came out, said hello and helped us to check in. She already had driven from Liverpool to Birmingham the afternoon before.


Birmingham

As it was still rather early in the morning we had much time left. Claudia stayed in the hotel - she needed some sleep. But Birgit, Michael, Melanie and I drove by train to the City of Birmingham. We were rather surprised to find a German Christmas-market (Weihnachtsmarkt) there. It was like at home. How funny, that we had to travel to England to show Melanie (from England) a German Christmas-market. The weather was lovely - sun and blue sky all the weekend! We enjoyed drinking some Glühwein (mulled wine). Then we drove back and had a rest at the hotel in order to be fit for the concert in the evening.

We met again at about 17.00 p. m. in the hotel-bar. Meanwhile Col had arrived. We only knew him from chatting and met him for the first time "live". He had brought some Kendal Mint Cakes for each of us, as he had promised us to bring them already months ago! Also Malcolm and his family were on their way, and after a few phonecalls we managed to find each other. It was very nice to meet them finally after so much e-mailing and chatting. I felt like knowing them all already very good, because Malcolm had sent me so much photos of his family during the last months! Unfortunately we couldn't spend much time together, as we had to leave to go to the NEC, where the concert took place, soon. But we'll have more time together next weekend, when they all come over to Dortmund and Dinslaken.



The concert

We were very nervous about if we would be allowed to take our photo-cameras with us into the venue, as it was said, they were rather strict in the NEC and we would have to lock our cameras somewhere instead of taking them into the venue with us! So I had hidden my camera in a big bag. I even took a water-bottle with me in order to distract the security-people. But it was vice versa. They didn't notice the bottle, but found the camera. My heart stopped missing a beat, but it was ok, I was allowed to take the camera in with me.
I had planned to meet a lot of listmembers in the venue, but time passed so quick, that I didn't manage to find them all. We had a drink and the cue at the toilet was rather long, so it soon was 19.30 p. m. My mobile phone kept on ringing, and text-messages flooded in. It was most important to find Angie, as I had 2 Dortmund-tickets for her. As we knew her seat-number we found her. Another nice experience to meet somebody for the first time, which I only knew from chatting and a few e-mails - and a photo, which she had sent to me some days before. I even got to know her father. Another person I intended to meet was Shenna, who had also bought some Dortmund-tickets from me, but I didn't manage to find her before the concert. And unfortunately there was no time to meet Lyn. But of course I met Chris and Stewart Williams, and Claudia introduced Yogi and Marietta to us.
We all took place. I had a seat in block A, which was left in front of the stage, row D was the 4th row, and seat 11 was rather in the middle of the row. So it would not be easy to walk out of the row to bring my gift to the stage and later to rush to the stage to celebrate there. My friends were sitting far away.
When the Storyman-theme began the light was still switched on, only at the end of the song it was switched off and the music became louder. Chris appeared during the next song: "Where we will be going". Then followed, as far as I remember "One World", before Chris said good evening and also mentioned, that his family would be there. He also welcomed his oldest fan, who was there. Her name was Nora, and I think he said, she's be 94 years old. And his youngest fan …., and all the birthday-children…! Then followed "The Storyman", "Sailing away" and "The Traveller".
As Melanie and I intended to bring our roses together to Chris we had planned to go after the song "Spirit". How excited I was when the song began after about 35 min.! I must admit, that I couldn't really enjoy the song, I was always thinking about how and when I'd get out of my row. Of course I didn't like to disturb my seat-neighbours = the whole rest of the row, but I had to. And it was worth it!!!! Melanie and I met in front of the stage. The song was over, and Chris was looking at the audience. We already were afraid, that he didn't see us, because the stage was so high. So we waved a bit with our roses below him! He first asked, if we had some wine for him. Maybe he expected something containing alcohol after a song like "Spirit"!!! But unfortunately we had only roses and a book. I hope it pleased him in spite of this. Then he said: "This is Doris"!!! I didn't hear what else he said anymore…..!!!! This was my "High on emotion"-moment of the concert!!!!
Two songs later Chris sang my favourite song of the Storyman-album: "The mirror of the soul", and I must admit, I loved it, how he said: "Wait, wait, something awful happened" to the band, when he forgot the words. Those moments always show, that he's simply human - and we could enjoy this wonderful song for about 1 minute longer….. .
Then Chris introduced the young singer Kristyna Myles, she appeared on the stage and they sang the duet "Raging Storm" together. She has a wonderful voice!
The next stressful moment came, when the batteries of my photo-camera were empty. It was when Chris was singing "Leningrad". No problem to find a new package of batteries somewhere in my big bag. But already opening the photo-camera in the darkness was not very easy. Then I had the problem to find out, how to put the 4 new batteries in (which pole in which direction). It was very difficult, and I tried it several times. So I missed "Leningrad" and "The grace of a dancer", but then at least my camera was working again!
My poor seat-neighbours had to suffer again, when finally the first people stood up and went to the stage. I had waited for this moment and intended to hurry to the front then, too. But it was not so easy from my seat the middle of the row. I hope I didn't hit the foot of the people next to me……, if I did - sorry!!!!!!! By the way, it was "The words I love you", when we got up!
It's hard to believe how difficult it is to find somebody in the crowd in front of the stage. I couldn't find Melanie nor Michael or Birgit or Col. Afterwards I found out, that Melanie had only been about 2 metres away from me.
It was a great moment, when our "Storyman-photos" finally were shown during the song "Living in the world". It was no morph-video as it had been planned, but the heads were shown one after the other. Sometimes there was a break, then we could see the audience. A filming camera-man was standing on the stage. It was very nice to see several friends - also those who were not at this concert - in the video! The faces were very, very large, so that the chins and even parts of the mouths of the faces disappeared behind the drums. (The members of the Chris de Burgh-Mailinglist had taken photos of their faces and sent them in for this video already in March 2006.)
The only 2 songs of the "Storyman"-album, which Chris left out were "The sweetest kiss of all" and "The shadow of the mountain".
The concert lasted 3 hours, but it was so great and wonderful, that it seemed to have only lasted 1 hour, when the last song, "The snows of New York" had ended. Well, the sound hat not been as good as it could have been, but I didn't really care about it.
When the concert was over I met Melanie and the others again and suddenly somebody was standing in front of me, smiling at me and saying "Hello Doris, nice to meet you finally!". It was Shenna, accompanied by her family. The whole family was so friendly! We took a few photos together, and they told me, how happy they were to come over to Dortmund the next weekend!

Setlist (as far as I remember):
- Storyman-theme
- Where we will be going
- One world
- The Storyman
- Sailing away
- The traveller
- Spirit
- The same sun
- The mirror of the soul
- Raging storm
- A spaceman came travelling
- Spanish train
- The leader/The vision/What about me?
- In a country churchyard
- Lonely sky
- Where peaceful waters flow
- Borderline
- Leningrad
- The grace of a dancer
- Love of the heart divine
- The Lady in red
- Moonlight and Vodka
- The words I love you
- Bal masqué
- Living in the world
- My father's eyes
- Say goodbye to it all
- Don't pay the ferryman
- High on emotion
- Band introduction
- Patricia the stripper
- The snows of New York



My birthday

It was about 23.15 p. m., when we arrived in our hotel. Suddenly my mobile-phone rang: A happy birthday-message from Germany! It already was my birthday in Germany, as they are 1 hour ahead! So my little birthday-party could start! Melanie, Birgit, Michael and Col celebrated with me, and Melanie was the party-service!!!! She had organized everything. Not only wine, beer and a birthday-cake, she also had received birthday-cards of wonderful people, which she had to hand me out at midnight!!!!! I never before got sooooo exciting and "magical" birthday-cards!! - Even one of Chris de Burgh!!!! Of course I also got a few nice gifts. Thank you very much! But before I was allowed to enter the party I was forced to stay in the bathroom until the preparations were ready. I left the bathroom at 23.30 p. m., halftime between midnight in Germany and midnight in England. We even listened to CdeB-music in our hotel room. At 1.15 a.m. the party was over and we were glas to be able to sleep after such an exciting day.

Sunday

Already at 6.15 a. m. the next morning I received another birthday-message. I didn't know, that my mobile-phone could be so loud!!! So we both - Melanie and I - were awake. Thank you in spite of this, Judith! Judith just was at the airport in Kopenhagen, she had seen Bruce Guthro live the night before, while we saw Chris!

At 7.50 a. m. our "real" telephone rang. As I hesitated, Melanie picked up the phone. She went on speaking, so I didn't really care about the phonecall. I thought, maybe Birgit or Michael were asking her something. But then she said: "Just a second, I'll hand you over to my room-mate"!!! So the phonecall was for me. First I didn't recognize the voice, than the mysterious caller said, he was Keiron, and I would be live on the breakfast-show at Magic 1548!!!! What a nice surprise!!! I'm very glad, that it hadn't been me, who picked up the phone first, because Keiron wanted to make a joke with me. He intended to pretend that he was living in the room next to us and was searching for the naughty channel and didn't dare asking at the hotel-reception how to find this channel. As German is my mother-tongue and not English I'm not sure if I would have understood, what he had meant….. - I'm so glad, that Melanie picked up the phone!!!!!! So I only had to tell Keiron, how much I enjoyed the concert last night, he played a birthday-blast for me and then of course a CdeB-song: "When I think of you". But unfortunately I couldn't hear the whole song, as we were too far away from Magic's broadcasting-area! This birthday has been totally different from the usual ones. I'll only be able to celebrate with my family after the 3rd of December, when all the concerts I'll visit are over.


Birmingham-city

After having had breakfast we checked out, left our baggage in the hotel and drove once again by train to Birmingham, where we visiteed the City and the Christmas-market once again.
Back at 14.00 p. m. we met Claudia, Yogi and Marietta, and soon we had to start our way to the airport again. My bags never have been searched as often as during the last 2 days. I must have looked rather frightening - maybe like a terrorist!!! But all the security-men were rather friendly, so it be them forgiven. It's only their job!


Our way back home

Our plane left at 16.50 p. m., when it was already dark. It was nice to meet the same steward in the plane as on our flight to Birmingham the day befroe. He of course still knew us from our previous first flight!
We reached Düsseldorf in time, said goodbye to Michael and Claudia and then Birgit drove me home, where I arrived at 20.00 p. m. A big bunch of flowers was waiting there for me already……… !!! They had not forgotten my birthday!
It has been a great weekend!!!