Its mid October and whilst a few trees are starting to turn, others are stubbornly hanging on to their greenery here in the UK.

Not only that but the temperatures are still firmly in the 'shorts' range, mid teens centigrade although thankfully we are getting some moisture to top up the water supplies.

So, i'm back in Brizzle now, how did two weeks go so quickly? They did and i'm here with plans for the next trip already percolating through the grey matter, but that's gonna be next year, for now its a return to being the best Maddy i can be (grin). Okay, maybe not perfect, the trip for a set of acrylic nails is on hold due to food being a more important use for what remains of this months resources after my trip, ditto a return to a more Maddy hair colour! After a fairly drab summer i'm getting back into Goth mode, i know its not to everyone's taste but to be honest, i've always been more Trixiebell than Gaby on the style front!

Oh the blue / purple hair - a nod to the darkness of Halloween - and it was in the cupboard!

Before i left for furren parts, i did promise you all a sort of travelogue, there's too much to put into a single post so i'll split it into bite size chunks starting from today. There will be pictures and background where appropriate so i'll start at the beginning.

The coach north was late, no idea why but we departed Bristol over thirty minutes behind schedule which was further compounded by an incident on the M5 which left us 50 minutes in arrears by the time we reached Birmingham. My plans for the afternoon were shot but it wasn't the end of the world and i reached my brothers abode by tea time. Of course, he wasn't there, no, he was having a 'lads' weekend on Jersey so i'd be on my own until the evening before departure.

The following day, Sunday, as i previously mentioned from Germany, i went for a long hike in the Sheffield uplands then on Monday, a shorter walk closer to base, all in all, @ 30km across the two days - remember this for later! So my patron for this trip returned from the Channel Islands Monday evening, after a quick meal we sorted his luggage for the longer trip and made a reasonably early night of it.

Our flight wasn't until two but the trip to Manchester International using public transport is best part of three hours, walk, bus, walk, train, train, walk. We left the house before eight, arriving thirty minutes before check in after a remarkably uneventful journey. A late breakfast courtesy of Greggs (iykyk!), bag dropped and a whizz through security, we only had an hour to kill before being called to the Gate! I know we could have left later but any hiccup along the way, a missed connection, the usual long queue for security - i, we prefer to be early just in case.

The flight departed pretty much on time, the journey east smooth and soon enough we were descending into what is now Berlin's only operational airport, Brandenburg International, what was Schonefeld. Of course we now had the Brexit induced malarky to get out of the airport, the line shuffled, time ticked by and despite having done this last year i had to do the whole fingerprint / photo thing all over again before i could proceed. I have no issue with doing it but surely the idea is that all the entry portals use one data base?

Anyhoo, the case was already in my Bro's hand when i reached the baggage hall, we were soon outside waiting for our onward transport. Although we could've got a train to within half a click of our accommodation, said accommodation offer free airport transfer on arrival so we were soon ensconsed in a plush Mercedes and winging our way into the German capital. Of course, with the time difference, it was pretty much dark by the time we were dropped off just turned six pm local, glad to arrive after a nine hour journey.

We quickly settled in to our room for the next eight nights, pausing but briefly before heading out into the city for some food, food that we found at a restaurant we'd used on previous visits under the TV tower.

Yep, we started our culinary journey with Schnitzel and fried potato and the first beer, a nice dark Duckstein! I'll leave this here, the tale of our first day in Berlin is long and interesting and i'll give you that next time. Just to reiterate, this trip was only possible due to my brothers generosity, i only had to find spending money for snacks/souvenirs etc, special thanks to everyone who helped on that score, i really am an impoverished writer, barely scraping by.

Having travelled back to Brizzle on Monday, Tuesday was my first opportunity for a bike ride in over two weeks. You don't want to push these things and some early wet meant that my ride was short, under 50km down to Bath and back. It felt good to be on two wheels again, my legs taking a while to get used to what was needed after the break from riding. They say a break is as good as a rest and in this case, i agree, despite a stiff headwind on the return i was riding faster than i tend to without noticing.

As for the rest of the week, well the forecast continues mild, i see a return to longer rides interspersed with a return to writing, hopefully i'll have new Gaby out on Patreon by the next post here.

So i'll see you again Sunday but for now,
Tschuss,
Madeline Anafrid