INTO THE FREEZE

My journey back to Germany today coincided with the news being full of "snow chaos plunges nation into travel misery" stories. I checked in online last night, only to find that my flight today had been cancelled (along with around 350 others from Heathrow) and I'd been transferred onto another, leaving a couple of hours earlier. Ominously, when I printed my boarding pass there was no seat number, so I planned to arrive early in case of a scrum for seats. I always used to catch transport by the skin of my teeth, but have got fed up of the unnecessary stress of not knowing till the last minute whether I'll make it, and these days I'm a bit more organised. So I left plenty of time for delays on the tube, and packed extra layers and food supplies in my hand luggage. At the German end I've taken to using the train from Frankfurt airport to the clinic rather than coming by taxi, and although there are 2 changes it doesn't take that much longer. However, the last leg, the local train, only runs once every 2 hours, so I was a bit concerned about missing my connection if there were any weather-related delays, and getting stranded.


But I'm glad to say it was all fine - the replacement flight was an hour late, and completely full, but I didn't have to punch anyone or burst into tears to get on it; and (of course) the trains in Germany were all running perfectly, in spite of it being minus 15 here (thank goodness for my skiing thermals). So I arrived in Bad Salzhausen, about 8 hours after leaving my flat, to bright moonlight and a wonderful clear starry night. It might not be worthy of a news story (or even a blog post, come to that!), but I'm happy to have bypassed the drama and to be safely in my cosy guesthouse.