Farewell Turkey

 Monday 29th May

Our original flight to Germany was around midday and given how early you need to get to the airport (they recommend 4 hours here) and to allow time to return the car, we chose to stay much closer to the Airport than Gallipoli.  That Lufthansa flight was changed to be about 4 1/2 hours later, meaning we would get to Germany very late, so we cancelled it and are now on a Turkish Airlines flight at 3:35pm.  What all of that means is that we probably could have left from Gallipoli for the airport and added a day in Bodrum or somewhere else.

No matter, we stopped in a seaside town on our way today and had a short walk along the beach.  The beach had sand, but the sand looked dirty and not terribly inviting - to us anyway.  There was small marina with a bunch of fishing boats so we went and had a look.  In the water near the boats were hundreds of jellyfish just floating around.  Back in the car we stopped at another beach about 5kms further along.  This was a much nicer beach with a lot more sand.  

Driving through one town (Tekirdag) we noticed some very funky traffic lights.  As well as the 'normal' lights, these had LED's up the vertical pole and across the arm holding the higher light.  These LED's are the same Red, yellow or Green as the 'normal' lights. Impressive. 

We arrived at our hotel in Corlu early afternoon, and after checking-in, headed back out to a shopping centre we had seen on the way in. Had to go through an xray machine to enter!  It was 5 stories high and had a cinema, a couple of play areas for young kids - including a sandpit - and a TimeZone for older kids.  In the basement was a Decathlon store and we were going to buy some protein bars for tomorrow but then realised our Aussie membership card probably wouldn't work - and we didn't have them on us anyway.  We had seen a supermarket called Migros and noticed that some are called MM Migros.  Today there was a MMM Migros, clearly the more 'M's the bigger the store.  This one had electrical goods, clothes and supermarket items - including protein bars. :) Trace bought a windcheater that was 60% off - except when we got to the check out it scanned at full price.  The check-out person didn't speak English and we don't speak Turkish, so Trace took a photo of the ticket showing the discount.  Turns out you must have a 'Migros Money Card' to get the discount :(  The guy in the queue behind us offered his card though and we got the discount, so we were very appreciative (We can say "Thank" You in Turkish) 

Back to the hotel after a minimal 5842 steps and 246kms

Tuesday 30th May

Today was a long and tedious one.  We were awake before the alarm, so after checking social media and emails we got up and got ready, leaving half an hour or so before we originally planned.  The car had become quite filthy over the past few weeks so I wanted to give it a quick wash before handing back.  We found a service station that has a do it yourself car wash and I gave it a quick once over, removing some bird poop and some of the bugs. We filled up with diesel just short of the airport and arrived about 5 hours before our flight.  (The recommendation here is to arrive 4 hours before an International flight) There is security at the front entrance which we cleared and then checked our bags in before finding a coffee shop for some hot chocolate.  We bought a little duty free and found some lunch before wandering to our gate.  It wasn't long until we found out that the flight had been delayed by 30 minutes, which became an hour.  As we were meeting friends this was frustrating.  Arriving in Frankfurt, another flight arrived at the same time and the queue for customs was several hundred metres long., taking around 40 minutes to get through.  We had a couple of trains in mind that we wanted to catch and they were all slipping away.  Our bags were then some of the last to come out, but we made it to the station and had 5 minutes to get down to the platform for the next train to Frankfurt Central, where we had to change trains for the one to Kassell.  Just to add to our day, that train was delayed by about 15 minutes due to an 'Unauthorised person on the track'

The ICE train though was quite smooth and seemed fairly fast. Got up to 130kms.

10296 steps today and 93kms  - for a total of 3353kms 

Wednesday 31st May

Jurgen and Elisabeth met us at the station last night and took us back to their place where Laura and Mila (the dog) were waiting, which was a lovely surprise. They had Prosecco waiting for us, and Elisabeth had made mini pizzas, so we ate, drank, and chatted before going to bed around 1:00am Turkey time (Midnight Germany time)

 Breakfast was a lovely spread of rolls, cold meats and cheeses, then we all headed off on a two hour drive to the 'Rappbodetalsperre' dam.  The dam is one of the biggest in Germany, but the reason for going there was the 458 metre Titan suspension bridge next to the dam wall.  We walked across the bridge which swayed nicely as you went :) The view was pretty good and the structure impressive.  There was also a Tower, a flying fox that reaches 85km/h and a giant drop swing from the bring.  I was interested in the flying fox and swing, but no-one else was so I passed.  We had lunch there and then headed back to Kaufaungen. It was a very long day in the car, but nice to see some different parts of Germany.  A BBQ for tea, outside, as it was a balmy evening, along with more drinking and chatting was lovely.  Jurgen and Elisabeths English is way better than our German but Laura's English is very good, meaning the conversation flowed fairly well.

5455 steps today

Thursday 1st June

After another lovely leisurely breakfast we headed to the town of Halle, where Laura has lived for the past 11 years.  This time I drove 90% of the way there and all the way back.  The roads are very good and the Autobahn mostly unrestricted, though there are quite lot of roadwork going on. The roadworks are interesting in that it normally reduces the road to 2 lanes only and the trucks are only allowed in the 'slow' lane, so you get a huge line of trucks slowly following each other.  In the unrestricted parts there is a bit of a mix of people doing about  120-130 and others doing much more.  Trucks and cars with caravans/trailers are limited to 100 and do generally keep out of your way.  I mostly sat on 130-140 but did hit 171 at one point 

In Halle, Laura took us for a walk around the backstreets and through a very big park.  The park had a large lake and a river running through it, with people swimming, kayaking, and paddleboarding. After winding our way up a hill and back to Laura's flat we met Thimo, her partner.  He is an English and History teacher and spent 6 months in Ireland as part of his 'English' course.  Not sure why you would go to Ireland to learn English and even he said it felt at times as though he was teaching them rather than the other way around :) We stopped at an Ice Cream shop, which is extremely popular.  Laura and Thimo said there are often queues around the corner, but we seemed to time it just right as we walked straight in - and had time to make a decision - no easy task.  I ended up with Banana-Nutella and another flavour that I don't remember the name of, but I had had a taste test and it was nice.  As we stood outside and ate, a queue did form and there were also lots of young children as school had finished. 

Laura stayed in Halle as she and Thimo had a pre-natal class to attend (Laura is due in August).  We arrived back in Kaufaungen around 7:00 where we freshend up before going out to a restaurant for tea.  I had schnitzel with mushroom sauce and Tracy had a Currywurst sausage, both very nice.  Back at home we chatted for a little longer whilst having an aperitif - Ouzo for Trace and Obstler for me, before a relatively early night.

12814 steps and around 420kms of me driving.

Friday 2nd June

An early 6:00am wake up as Jurgen was a little concerned about traffic.  The train station is around 30 minutes away and our train was due at 7:37 to take us back to Frankfurt.  We made it to the station around 10 minutes early so all good.  The train took just over 2 hours to get to Frankfurt, then another train around 10 minutes to get to the airport.  Our flight leaves at 12:30pm and it will take us around 24 hours to get home, arriving at 8:15pm Saturday night. (12:15pm Germany time)  Lauren has very kindly offerred to pick us up.

3281 steps as I write this, but many more to come