UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

00.17 We are back on Abu Dhabi time. The reason for this is the fact that we’ve landed on Abu Dhabi International Airport. We will remain here for about an hour. There might be some shopping, perhaps some coffee?

00.57 Well here I am, once more sitting in a gate chair. We had some coffee at Segafredo before I sat down to write this. We didn’t find any useful stuff to buy here.

01.14 We are back inside a plane. It is flight EY 001 to Frankfurt. This is the lowest flight number I ever have flown with. The heat from outside can also be felt inside. A female passenger has brought with her two vuvuzelas. By the way, there is something familiar about her but I can’t recall where I’ve seen her before. The time has come to set our watches for German time.

CHANGING TIME ZONE

00.15 The crew is bringing us headphones. One of them (in the crew that is) is, according to the information in the loudspeakers, able to speak Swedish. We and the other passengers have been informed that we are supposed to call a doctor if we fall ill in the week to come. I guess it is related to the H1N1 virus.

03.59 The light of dawn shines red by the horizon. We can see the lights from the Bulgarian city Varna beneath us. Imagine that it is seven years since we went there.

We discovered another plane flying in the sky above Austria.

Sunrise somewhere over Germany.

05.59 We are flying at a height of 5638 metres above sealevel. Beneath us there are clouds and a red horizon. It is quiet around us. I am looking forward to get to Frankfurt. I wonder what has happened to my backpack this year. Someone had looked through my toilet kits last year. There was shampoo in one of them and no travel radio in the other.

GERMANY

07.11 We’ve sat down in an area of the airport where we’ve been sitting before. I’ve opened my backpack and realised that the bottle of wine which I had packed didn’t remain where I had put it. I feared the worst for a while. I did some more searching and found it. It had been placed by the one of the sides/walls of the backpack. The girl with the vuvuzelas was behind me in the queue to the passport control. We’ve found out where we’ve seen her before. She was the one who sat dressed in a quilted jacket on the flight Abu Dhabi–Johannesburg earlier this summer.

08.12 One shouldn’t exchange rand in the airport. The rate is poor and there was an extra fee. We searched without any success for a restaurant. We had to settle with a Snickers and a Lion (chocolate bar). We are now going with the train towards the central station in Frankfurt.

08.52 We’ve just had our breakfast. We are at Burger King in the railway station. We are about to head for our final home. It is actually an old “friend”.

09.21 We are in room 22 at President Hotel (http://www.presidenthotel-frankfurt.de). We stayed here at the hotel last year as well. This room is almost the spitting image of that room. Have we been given the very same room? That has as far as I know never happened before.

12.21 We had a late sleep in. early siesta, little sleep or whatever the right word is. Whatever the right word is, we have slept. It is time to run the final errands.

13.01 Some things have struck us. The people here in Germany are white, they drive on the right side of the road and speak German. That is more or less everything what we’ve observed so far. We’ve met a man in a shirt and tie holding an icecream cone. We are having a bench break in Taunusanlage. It is a park area.

The opera house "Alte Oper".

Pedestrian street, Frankfurt am Main.

Römerberg, Frankfurt am Main.

13.33 We are having some coffee at Starbucks at Große Bockenheimer Straße. It sure is expensive here in Germany. They wanted 4,42 euro for a coffee and a muffin. Before this little break we have seen the operahouse Alte Oper.

14.35 We kept on walking and passed Katharinenkirche and reached the river Main. We are as of now standing on a bridge, Alte Brücke, over Main. On our way here we´ve seen a bus from City Sightseeing. It is the same bus company which took us around Cape Town. We’ve also seen the square Römerberg. We are about to find a peaceful place down by the river. We are planning to take a break and read in our crime novels.

The river Main in Frankfurt.

Birds by the river.

Frankfurt am Main with its high bank buildings.

A floating restaurant near the Eiserner Steg bridge.

15.14 A chugging sound just disturbed the birds singing. I looked up from my book and saw a silver coloured canoe with an outboard motor passing us. Right now a laughing, breathless biker is coming. Enough of reflections, time to get back to the book.

16.02 We closed our books and headed back to Römerberg. Here we will try a sausage, Rindwurst. We were disappointed as we tried a sausage here last year. A frankfurter was more or less the same thing as an ordinary boiled hot dog. We are drinking a Henninger. I don’t think this beer will make us disappointed.

Peter is enjoying German culture, Henninger beer and a rindwurst.

Christer on Römerberg Square.

17.09 There is a church behind of me, a church which I have a thing in common with. It isn't the height but the name. It is Peterkirche. Oh I almost forgot, the sausage and the beer were tasty.

17.57 A pigeon is sitting not far from the bench we are sitting on. The pigeon is sitting on the head of the German poet Goethe.

Eschenheimer Turm.

18.43 We’ve been visiting doubtful stores like Lidl and Plus. We also went to the kiosk ”Point shop to go” at the railway station buying something for this evening, beverages, beer and breakfast. Now we might head for an internet café and later dinner.

19.06 We are sitting by the same table (unless they moved it or changed it) and same restaurant, Fennischfuchser as last year. We had Schweinehaxe then. We also saw a Japanese man trying to eat the same dish. We saw a rolling pub in the traffic on our way here. It was 4-5 metres long and 2-3 metres wide and it was pedalled. Look for yourself at www.bierbike.de

Have you ever tried drinking beer and riding a bike at the same time. Try the beerbike.

20.16 The food would have been enough for others than us. I had a hearty pork chop and Christer had a Hunterschnitzel. Five Asians sat by another table and had Schweinehaxe. It wasn't one each, they shared two.

20.47 We went down to the computer in the lobby. Christer logged in using his VISA-card. He then went to Ryanair’s site to check us in. This must be done before you get to the airport. It went smoothly and we prepared to print out the boarding cards. The printer refused to follow our commands. We copied the link and sent it to the hotel’s e-mail as suggested by the lady in the reception. We also mailed a copy of the unwritten boarding cards. It wasn't possible to open the link and the other mail was gone. Christer had to enter the reception computer to get the cards printed. There is an extra fee is you forget to bring the printed boarding cards to the airport.

22.53 We are watching a German top-50 list regarding songs in Eurovision Song Contest. Songs are played and commented. We remember some and haven’t heard others. I guess we should sleep but are to curious about which songs are at the top.

23.58 The TV show has reached the top. The winner is ABBA with Waterloo. They also got the fourth place with Ring Ring. We are about to get some sleep before our cellphones goes Ring Ring.

Christer having dinner at the restaurant/guesthouse Fennischfuchser.

Saturday 15th of August

03.53 After some sleep we are up and running again. It is time to get ready before we board the airport bus.

04.44 A light green tram and a bus speed away in the early dawn. We are standing still outside of the airport bus, standing with a will to enter it, sit down and sleep.

06.56 We are preparing our backpacks for the final flight. For the fourth day in a row we´re going to fly abroad.

07.40 We were among the first to check in to the flight to Skavsta airport. Behind us there was a man from Stockholm. He was complaining about the fact that he had to show his boarding card at the check in. Well it isn't a check in. It is a baggage drop. We are satisfied. We’ve had Frankfurt breakfast. That was coffee, two pieces of bread and slices of cheese and sausage. Now we are just going to take it calm. My backpack had a weight of 15 kilo. That is exactly on the maximum limit. Will my vuvuzela male it through the security control?

Passengers waiting at Frankfurt Hahn airport.

08.20 Yes, I will bring my red horn with me. The female controller looked sceptic. One of her colleagues informed her about what it was. I’ve promised him to not blow in it on the plane.

08.56 People are trying to do the same thing as we’ve done, to sit down. There are several questions flying through the cabin. Who should sit by the window? Who shall take the passports? What should be placed in the overhead compartment?

Ryanair will take us home to Sweden once again.

We´re taking off from Frankfurt Hahn.

10.51 It is getting closer by the minute, our return to Swedish soil. Everyone are nicely seated and talking about different things. We just broke through the clouds and the captain asked the staff to take their places before landing.

SWEDEN

11.37 Our backpacks were among the last on the luggage carrousel. We bought one bus ticket valid for two (a special offer). We are sitting on the airport bus to Stockholm and wait for it to start.

12.59 We are in yet another capital, Stockholm. We just drove through a long tunnel which ended by Värmdö gymnasium near Gullmarsplan. We just entered another tunnel.

14.08 We are back outside Erato Café just next to City Hall in Stockholm. We are sitting here with a geisha each. Well it is the icecream Geisha. Just as we did in the beginning of the trip, we´re looking at the City Hall. We are surrounded by pigeons, sparrows, jackdaws and ordinary, common tourists.

14.32 There is a linden, under us there is a bench and in front of is the church of Kungsholmen. It is time for some literature studies. We are going back to our crime novels.

Spending some time in a park in Kungsholmen, Stockholm.

16.09 We’ve walked around on Kungsholmen. We’ve bought something to eat on the bus, this evening and for tomorrow. We are currently having a bench break.

16.42 We had pizza for dinner. We are at Pizzeria Corella at Kungsholmsgatan 9. We will soon return to Cityterminalen and our lockerplaced backpacks.

17.12 We’ve just boarded yet another bus. This one is the last one for this trip. We will head north with the Y-bus.

23.12 We’ve reached Sundsvall and have some things to do now as we’ve returned to Christer´s apartment. We are going to look through our photos and perhaps we will have some rum. Thanks for reading!

Epilogue:

We didn’t stay in the same room as last year at President Hotel. We were in room 17 last year.

Christer realised that he had been charged 45 euro instead of 4,50 euro on his VISA-card for using the computer at the hotel. Everything was corrected after he had mailed the hotel.