I woke up this morning after Chris, I was so tired I got 6 hours of sleep. I wasn’t even done with sleep but had no choice but to rise and shine as we had made plans to go to the Great Wall Of China, wow, just wow.

I got ready and Chris and I left for the train station to meet with our guide, the walk to the station has to be said it’s nothing but interesting, to say the least. Our hotel is defo off the main road and down a couple of streets and alleyways, the ground is littered with dog mess and rubbish. Cycles and vehicles of all types at the sides of the road create a single passageway for cars to navigate through. A lesser driver would easily be smacking into a few, not here though, they are skilled in the ways of the road and skilfully manoeuvre through various gaps and angles and leaning on the horn at any chance possible.

On the main road we walked along the path, you also had to contend with cycles, not normal cycles noooooo, bloody electric ones that exceed 40mph with ease. Beware they really don’t care, and as far as they are concerned they are entitled to be there so deal with it.

We found the station and this is where Chris started getting frustrated, nobody spoke English at all, well it’s their country you say and quite right too, but when you use Google Translate and they still don’t get it something is very wrong. It was proving to be nearly impossible to get a ticket, the ticket machine wasn’t playing ball at all and when we got to the point of buying the ticket it asked for extra info that we didn’t have.  Chris was seething and we tried to find someone to help us with purchasing two tickets, this was a load more trouble.

We did eventually manage to get our tickets and we were on our way, this was nothing like the Japan we had been used to for the past 2 weeks, we caught the train and stayed on this for 3 stops, changed and went to our final destination, on exit we came straight out to the Mubus which was lucky to be fair. We checked in and was given number 4, this number represented both Chris and I for the whole trip. After about 10 minutes of waiting for a few more people to arrive, we made a short 10-minute walk to the bus.  Chris and I got a seat each for ourselves and enjoyed the views whilst we made our journey, around 1 hour.  Chloe did the introduction and then started talking about dinner and certificates etc, Chris and I opted in for it all and it ended up costing us £37 each, this was a bargain all things being considered. About 30 minutes into the tour guide Chloe came and sat with me, we had a little chat and she spoke excellent English and was very knowledgeable about the Great Wall and the history of China.

We arrived and all were taken to the main hall, where we had a debrief about times and lunch and where to go onto the East and West routes, We were advised to take the East route first as this was going to be the quickest at around an hour to get to the point we needed too. And the West route takes around 2.5 hours to complete if you were to go to the furthest part of it that they recommended. We all moved out and made our way onto a shuttle bus to get us to the entrances of the East and West, when we pulled up there were already several other tour operators and we had a couple of Russian ladies pushing and shoving Chris and myself, yeah nope wasn’t putting up with that and moved swiftly out of there way so as not to have anything kick-off.

Now to get to any kind of part of the wall you first need to go through checks, on each East and West they have cable cars to take you to the beginning of the wall, to return you can take the cable car down or a toboggan ride down instead but this was only for the East not for the West, so you get to the barriers and have your passport scanned, this then lets you through, Chris went through however when they scanned mine it kept getting refused, no worries Chloe came running over and started to converse with the guard when they checked the booking creds and my passport it appears that Chris had got the last 2 numbers the wrong way round oh great, not.  Chloe did something on her phone and entered the number that was registered on the booking and then said to take a picture of it, which I did.  She stated that my passport could not be used and to use this picture, yeah joy as it wasn’t that simple and caused confusion for the rest of the times I needed to get anywhere, Cheers Chris, don’t think I didn’t notice you smirking!

We moved onwards and queued up for the cable cars and again the Russian lady made an appearance I ignored her and walked past her to queue up, moments later her friend skipped under the rope walked past and stood behind me and Chris, she then started tapping on my shoulder and was muttering at me and pointing to my bag on my back, I said what’s wrong she just kept pointing at my bag, I said yes its a bag and shooed her away with a dismissive wave.  The woman tried pushing into the queue and then started hassling me, yeah no go away love I am not entertaining you.

We slowly shuffled up the stairs and got on the cable lift, one each, Chris had his camera on his chest mount and I had mine on my extension rod, I got some amazing footage and I bet Chris did as well, we pulled into the carriage house and jumped off quickly, these things stop for no one but it did make me laugh.

Onwards to the first of many steps, we were warned of the steps and how exhausting it was and boy it really was a hard slog, I got a hard workout along with many other people that were climbing this. Here our guide was pointing out the general’s quarters which seemed like 10 miles away, it wasn’t but it was far enough. This was said to be the best vantage point for taking pics and since Chris and I had signed up for the certificate which confirmed we had climbed the Great Wall I also needed a picture to complete it.

So many pictures were taken to try and capture this moment in my life, I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime event and would never return here again. I wanted to look back on these pictures and remember the time, the laughs, the moans and groans from walking these gargantuan steps.

We did it, we climbed the steps and got further than the guide had said to go due to time constraints. It was quite the achievement and I knew at the age of a young 52 that I was doing well. Now completed we needed to go back down, Chris went down on the cable lift but I opted for the toboggan, I hadn’t bought my chest strap with me so Chris lent me his and I set up the GoPro for the ride down. The queue for this was long and our guide said in the afternoon it was really busy, this was considered light, yeah not in my book, and it moved soooooo sloooooowly. At the barrier I had to produce the ticket, I frantically searched but was unable to find it, for a moment I thought I had left mine with Chris but I knew I had it, after a few minutes I eventually found it and passed through the checkpoint.

What a pain, I was now behind this lady who obviously thought going more than 2 mph might spoil her bloody make-up, I wanted to be pelting down this at breakneck speeds instead at most points I almost stopped because we were going so slow. At one point I deliberately stopped so that I could get some distance between her and myself, I then released the brake and went hurtling down the slope only to be told to slow down, yeah no fella, like I had a choice, I had caught up with this woman AGAIN. We got to the bottom and the lady was getting off and turned to me and said “It felt like I was going really slow”, I said “That’s because you were going slow to the point you stopped” She, apologised but I was pretty hacked off as I wanted to do that at a pace.

I left and met up with Chris just outside who was casually sitting enjoying some snacks and a drink, he had saved me some so I let him off, he then pointed out a sign that displayed drinks on offer, one was a beating pulsation ha ha ha, yeah no thanks I will just have a bottle of water. At this point we had both decided to tackle the west entrance and again took a cable car up with us both going in separate cars, I did this as I wanted to move about in the car and record video and Chris really doesn’t do well with that. At the bottom we had already decided that we were not going to walk as much as we did on the east exit, we went up to the first set of steps, climbed these and entered the wall. Chris took a right and I took a left and walked to the first tower to get some pics etc and made my way back to Chris. We both took a few more pics hung around the platform a bit and made our way back down by cable car, this time we shared the car but I was sat so as to not tip Chris over the edge.

By this time the pair of us were starving and ready for some food, we made our way to the hall where the buffet lunch was being served and we placed our bags down and grabbed a plate each and started to browse the choices, I grabbed and I quote “Spaghetti Bolognese” Beijing style some spare ribs and some sweet potato. I sat down at the table and took a mouthful of the spaghetti bol, NOPE, it was cold, the spare ribs were mostly bone and the sweet potato was so boiled it was no longer sweet, it tasted like a boiled potato. I did go back for a second chance even though I had left the first plate and decided to grab some chips and some chicken bits, the chips were warm at best and the chicken was cold, there is a theme here. On a scale of 1-10, I would give this a 2. The food was very poor and yet there were still a lot of the foreigners piling up their plates like it was the last meal they would ever have.

After this we both left and just walked about for about 20 minutes as we were scheduled to catch the return coach, we waited in the muster hall and collected the certificates that we had purchased, they used a picture that I sent to our guide earlier in the day one each of Chris and myself. We paid £3 each for them and to be fair they were excellent value for money. We all got called by our numbers, ours was 4 and we had a short video of the tour and thanked us for using them which was then followed by bingo using our table numbers, mine was 18 and Chris’s was 19. However we decided last moment not to sit in this particular place and someone else sat there after we chose the table next to it, not good as they called out the table number grrrrr. Chris had a moan and said it was my fault, I said yes Chris of course it was, I made you sit elsewhere didn’t I ha ha ha.

We left to board the bus and on the return journey back it was a very different atmosphere, everyone was knackered and a lot of the people were asleep, to be fair it was a full-on day with a lot of climbing and walking and I for one was happy to watch out the window.

This morning was a kind of lay-in, it was enough time to get up, get ready, and have a little breakfast. I left Chris getting ready and went outside, in the main courtyard area they had a few breakfast items such as bread for toast and a few pastries and fruits. I opted for 2 slices of bread for some toast and the lady asked if I would like some coffee of course that was a yes.

I toasted some bread and sat to eat this, Chris joined a few moments later, he had a couple of items and we grabbed our bags and left for the day. The walk to the station, and getting the tickets for the subway was a lot easier today, not sure why as we did nothing different. We arrived at the station and made our way out, chris said we needed exit 2 and when we came out it appeared we were on the wrong side, back down under and up and this time we were on the right side of the road. We rounded the corner and walked up about 100 yards and a lady approached us, introduced herself as Vivian and asked if we were going on the tour, she showed us a list of names and our names were on this so all good and relatively easy, to say the least. Shortly after another couple joined us, the woman was from Germany and the man was from Spain, another 5 minutes passed and we had two more German guys join us. We only needed one more party to wait for and we were off, about 20 minutes passed and we eventually left for the start of the tour.

Having been part of a tour group we got to skip the queues and let me tell you they made a UK theme park queue look like a queue in your local supermarket. This time round I had no issues with the security barriers and managed to get through, lucky you Chris. We walked down a few steps around some barriers and onto a long wide path/road, the amount people were manic, I mean I have been to places where it’s been densely populated but not in one place to see the same thing. We walked for about 10 minutes weaving through the crowds all of us following our guide, it was very much like a mother duck and its little duckling struggling to keep up, Vivienne led us over to the left-hand side and we all stopped to listen to her talk and explain that we were unable to go to Tiananmen Square as they were having dignitaries from other countries attend a meeting and so they closed it for all the public. I was a little disappointed if I am honest as I wanted to walk around this but alas it wasn’t to be, after a talk about Tiananmen Square, and the building structures that had been demolished to make way for new ones, she said she felt sad that so much history had been lost and there were so many buildings that were around 600 years old. Every 10 years they have a big event and the square can hold around 1 million people, I am trying to remember precisely but she said the square was roughly 45 hectares in size.

Moving on we all stopped briefly to buy a drink and snack if needed, I bought a bottle of water and a packet of strawberry Oreos which Chris is very fond of. We then set off again and made our way to the entrance of the Forbidden City, again we passed through the security checks and were with ease due to being in a group. So up until now things had gone well and had no issues at all, until as we were walking along some guy was walking to my left only slightly ahead of myself on my left, I could see his partner coming from the right, no keep in mind we were all still walking he reached out his arm and then grabbed my hoodie on my stomach, and I mean a handful. Okay so now I draw the line, I threw his hand off me, I looked and said “fuck off”, he then started shouting at me in a foreign language and I looked at him and said, “Don’t touch me fuck off”. The guy was shouting and I waved my hand off at him and said whatever, his partner was mouthing off as well but I gave no care to it. A few moments passed and he appeared from nowhere again with his partner and was mouthing off, this time our guide was with us, she said a few things to him and I said to her “ he was grabbing me and I threw his hands off” she dismissed it and said don’t worry don’t worry, I said “I ain’t, don’t you worry”, it did wind me up a little I can’t lie and I was more than ready for round 2, just as well I never saw him again.

We entered the Forbidden City and the name was given this as only the Emperor and his family and dignitaries were allowed to enter it. Chris and I connected with the German lady and the Spanish fella, Chris because he gets to talk countries, and myself because they mentioned dumplings, mmmmmmm DUMPLINGS! The City was huge and of course, crowded which made it very difficult to sometimes get pictures and also hear our guide. The guide said quite a lot and if I am honest my memory is crap at the best of times, she did say that the last Emperor had 1 wife and 3000 concubines, I mean how on earth could anyone need that much attention?

It was said that becoming a concubine meant your life was over and you dedicate it to the emperor and stay in the palace grounds for the rest of your life, you cannot see your family or anyone else from your life. It was an honour to become one but only if you were free from imperfections like a scar on your face or not pale-skinned enough, if you failed you were sent home.

There was also a female emperor and the people had given her the nickname of the Dragon Lady because she was cunning and manipulative and a spiteful ruler. Vivienne also mentioned that when the emperor died his concubines were all moved to a different part of the city and were retired, she never went into much detail other than the mother of the emperor lived in the same area. We went into the gardens and there were various sculptures and trees and places where you could sit, It was a little difficult to take this in due to the number of people that were present but was nice all the same.

The tour should have lasted a total of 4 hours but ours exceeded 5 hours, and bearing in mind we skipped Tiananmen Square, we would have easily surpassed 6 hours, on the whole, this was a worthwhile tour and I would recommend this to anyone visiting Beijing. Chris was also in favour of the tour but was tired and had a headache, so I think he was relieved that it had come to an end. We said our goodbyes to the group but stayed with Vivienne as she was heading for the subway and passed the station, we wanted to go to for some of the dumplings that had been recommended earlier in the day by the Spanish person.

We followed Vivienne to the subway and had a little small talk with her about various things, we headed down to the subway and boarded the train, the station we needed was only 3 stops away, and unfortunately, Vivienne had 1.5 hours to go before she would reach home. We said our goodbyes and promised to leave good feedback as this would help her gain more work and it’s only fair, she was good at what she did. We made our way to exit G of the station, crossed the road, walked up the street around 300 yards and arrived at the place.

Chris and I went in and sat down, the menu was clear and displayed an English translation of each dish under each choice, I wanted dumplings, so that’s what I ordered, Chris decided to order as well which was good and I was pleased about that. Chris ordered sweet and sour pork no vegetables, chicken, a bowl of boiled rice and duck. All sounded yummy I have to say. The first dish out was the chicken swiftly followed by the sweet and sour pork, Chris and I dug into the chicken and the pork, and it wasn’t until Chris went for some chicken that I noticed something was off about the piece he had picked up. I quickly said to Chris no no no no no, he looked down and then realised what I was saying, it was half a chicken head, I mean half, beak, eye, well you can imagine the rest can’t you? Chris was quick to eject this from his plate, which pretty much had done him for the chicken and if I am honest it was for me as well. Chris said “Wonder what the duck will be like”, I knew what was coming trust me.

We didn’t have to wait long to see what it was going to be like, although I did pre-warn Chris that it was most defiantly going to have the head on the dish, there it was, staring at me from the plate with the beak intact, I think it was mouthing at me “I hope you’re happy”, Chopsticks in hand I quickly grabbed the head/beak etc and placed it on the plate of chicken, I figured the two of them could have a chat. To be fair this was Chris on a fast track to stop eating and finish a little more of the boiled rice and sweet and sour pork. I had given the rest of the food a wide berth now and had made a start on the dumplings that had arrived during the surprise dinner guests.

My dumplings were very fresh in taste and piping hot, with no heads or beaks to be found anywhere. I managed to sink 14 in total and I was done, both Chris and I were ready to leave so we got the bill, paid up and left. Lessons learnt and it’s safe to say I was impressed with Chris, he gave it a real go and even though he could have gone to the McDonald’s that was practically next door he still came in with me and did his best to join me for a meal.

The day was a good day to learn and see the rich culture that Beijing is steeped in., the food is sometimes questionable, but all the same varied and has something for almost all tastes.

It was our last full day in Beijing and to be honest, we had no plans to do anything with the day except chill out and rest, this whole holiday there hasn’t been a day we haven’t done something and today well we were going to do this, or at least I thought that was going to happen. We had a bit of a lie-in and managed to get a little breakfast, I had toast and Chris had some toast and croissants. Whilst eating, we discussed about the possibilities and if we should stay in or go out, not do anything over the top but to explore the area around the hotel locally. It seemed like a waste of a day and I really didn’t want to do that, so we finished up breakfast and got ready to go out.

We never left the hotel till late morning around midday I think, we walked along the main road and looked in several store windows and weaved our way through the pedestrians, the crossing of the roads is certainly no joke either, you wait for the green light to walk but of course, a red light doesn’t mean for the traffic to stop nooooo, it means if there is a small gap, a margin of any possibility of getting that car around they will take it. I said to Chris to be fair now I know what the frog feels like in Frogger the arcade game, he chuckled and agreed as well.

We walked along the street and soon came to a control box with a guard standing on it, here we had to show our passports, and with a glance, we were through, communism at its finest, there must be a billion cameras checking everyone’s movements, you are watched 24/7. We crossed the road a few yards up as we couldn’t go any further the pathway had been blocked off and there were guards there. A little way up from where we crossed was a large gateway leading to the Beijing Library’s Former Site, we walked through the gates and were greeted with a beautiful-looking building in front of us with large ornate carvings on the front of the building, to the left was a row of five or six magnolia trees in full bloom, they looked beautiful and reminded me of my own in my garden. There was a group of 5 adults playing some kind of recreational sport where they had like a badminton net stretched across and a large shuttlecock that they had to kick back over the net to one another. To be honest, it looked fun and I wanted to get involved but it would have been rude to impose upon them.

After spending a few minutes taking a few more pictures we took our leave and carried on back up the road, several shrines came into view now and they were located in a place called Behai Park, Chris wanted to go in and I thought yes why not so in we went, the cost was xxxYuan so very reasonable to say the least. We took a few pics and made our way to the left of the park, now this park had a huge boating lake in it and Chris said “Let’s do it”, I was like “Really are you sure” yeah yeah it will be a good laugh he insisted and I am never one to pass up on a good laugh and agreed to go on them.

Now, there were two options, pedal power or battery powered, guess which one we went for, battery right, wrong, pedal power. Noooo I hear you cry, but yes, we are both a pair of dumbasses and don’t have a bloody clue. Chris went for the tickets and it was a 600 Yuen deposit, and 120 Yuen for an hour that’s a bargain. Tickets in hand an elderly man had a hook and secured the front of the boat whilst we boarded, Chris beckoned me to go first so I did, I didn’t care I jumped and laughed like a three-year-old child. Chris got in and all I could hear was oh my god, I am laughing away and so was Chris although very nervously, he took his seat and we both started to pedal.

I have to say I think we both started pedalling like nutters and we were not going very fast at all, more of a walking speed at best, laughs were had all for about three minutes until Chris said his legs were killing him and my back was raging, the bloody plastic seats on this boat were awful and my back was informing me so. We carried on like this for another five minutes and decided that we had had enough and to return the boat and see if we could get the battery-operated one. We made the epic journey back to the bank and they were a little surprised to see us back in record time, Chris went to the ticket office with his Google translate to hand we swapped out our tickets for the battery boat, and we were back on. Swiftly in the boat, Chris wanted to steer, what the hell I didn’t care fill your boots fella as long as he didn’t ground us or run into anyone I was okay with it.

I sat back whilst Chris steered and he was happy as a pig in shit I tell you, all I cared about was that my back was no longer in the pain it was in, so I relaxed and pulled out the egg sandwich that I hadn’t yet eaten from the day before. I was munching on this watching the people along the bank side taking pictures of two older Englishmen acting like kids, I of course was waving like a lunatic and Captain Chris was laughing away. We spent a good 30 minutes on the water just milling about, by this time the rain had started and it started to get heavy, we had a canopy over the boat so we weren’t getting wet but it was ruddy cold and the smog was particularly bad today. We made our way because of this otherwise we would have used the whole hour but we were both satisfied and both needed the little boy’s room as well. With the boat docked safely and Chris collecting his deposit we made our way to the loo, Chris jumped into the disabled toilets like he always does and I made my way into the normal one. As normal someone was in one of the cubicles smoking, you cannot smoke in the park anywhere but it doesn’t stop people from doing it in the ruddy loo. I went as quickly as possible so that I could minimise the breathing in of the smoke, it doesn’t do my asthma any good taking that in.

We both made our way to the gift shop and this one had several souvenirs for Chris to look at, he loves these shops and was hoping to find a flag of the country that has managed to elude him so far. Well, no dice I am afraid, no flags again but they had some amazing fridge magnets, to be honest, some of the best I have ever seen, Chris had his fill of the shop and bought a few bits. After exiting the shop the rain was coming down hard and I was lucky I had my jacket with me that had a hood, Chris had left his hoodie and umbrella back at the hotel, luckily I had my umbrella and saved Chris’s life from getting chronic Pneumonia and let him use it. I mean what are friends for, he now owes me his life but I am sure he doesn’t see it this way to be honest, GIT.

We started to make our way back to the hotel in the same direction we had come, still raining we spoke about what a good laugh it was being on the boats, oh and I forgot to mention that at one point in the boat, I gave it a little rock, yeah that didn’t work for Chris and he got a little grumpy, after a bit of ridicule from myself he got over it. But all the same, he was fine with it and held no grudges, at least I don’t think he does, mmmmm. We walked on the opposite side of the road on the way back as Chris had seen some shops that looked interesting and wanted to see what was on offer, well a bakery was one of them and we popped in where Chris couldn’t resist a couple of bits. Further along, there was a supermarket so we both headed in, we were both gagging for a drink and went in to see if they had anything decent, I bought some drinks and Chris bought a few items of confectionary and drinks. From here we crossed the road and were back in the hotel in under 15 minutes of walking.

Time had run away from us and it was about 16:30, we were on the last part of the day and both sat outside in the courtyard making small talk and updating our blogs. I enjoyed this time of the day as it was so peaceful and the noise of the city was blocked out and safely in the confine of the hotel itself. We both stayed up talking about the holiday and the highs and what we loved most about the trip to Beijing, we both agreed the Great Wall was magnificent and both happy to have seen it and climbed it, the forbidden city was also amazing although somewhat crowded it was well worth the visit. It had been another good day and although not as busy as the other days we have had, it had still turned out to be a busy one. I woke up not wanting to do a great deal but the great time I had I am glad I did.

Tomorrow is going home day and to be honest, I have had the best of times but I miss my home and my girls, oh they are the ones I miss the most.

I really couldn’t sleep the last night and was wide awake till way 00:30 in the morning, Chris had fallen asleep hours before me and was snoring quite loudly, this isn’t the reason for not sleeping, I just wasn’t tired. I woke about 06:00 this morning by Chris using the loo and laid there until he came out, I flipped him the finger, the normal greeting that we are both used to giving each other. I laid a little longer and checked out Facebook etc and got up at about 06:30 for the loo and shower.

All dressed and ready I packed away a couple of more things that I had out like chargers and PJs etc and had a quick check that I hadn’t forgotten anything. I have stayed in enough hotels to know the drill and it’s ingrained in me now. I popped out into the courtyard put a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and placed a couple of croissants on the top to warm up for Chris, I look after the boy don’t I? I went and let Chris know about the croissants and sat down with the toast and quickly ate this up as did Chris when he came out. It was finally time to leave the hotel and we collected our bags from the room and made our way out saying goodbye and paying thanks.

Turning down the alleyway we could see the driver at the end and got a shift on, we were about 5 minutes early so he was very early and also blocking the street completely making the driver of a car stuck behind him annoyed and he kept on sounding the horn. Our driver showed no care to him and behaved as if he couldn’t see or hear him. We quickly got the bags in the car and got in the car, there was a pungent odour in the car and a little overwhelming that Chris had to wind the window down for some fresh air.

The car started to move and carefully and slowly made its way through the narrow street with only just space for a car to pass through. The smell had cleared but there was an overpowering smell of garlic, it was awful and Chris kept the window open for the whole duration of the journey, if he hadn’t I think I would have had the breakfast make a comeback. About half an hour into the journey the driver just randomly pulled over got out of the car and went to use the public loo, when you got to go you got to go, when he came back he simply just started driving again. At one point in the journey he held up what I can only suggest would be some kind of sweet, we both declined the offer and said thanks, there was no chance that either of us would be eating them. The roads were gridlocked and bumper to bumper and it wasn’t until the last 30 minutes of the journey did things started to ease and soon arrived at the airport.

We both headed to get the bags checked and that went smoothly no hitches at all, I looked at the panel that showed the weight of the bags but it didn’t show the weight and the guy didn’t seem that bothered about the weight of them. Who cares we got our boarding passes and made our way to Starbucks for my first brew, after drinking this we made our way through the security, and this was a fiasco two long ass queues with two checks only. We waited for ages and finally got to the scanners where both Chris and myself had a nightmare they kept on saying to me about something in my bag and I hadn’t got a clue what he was on about, he then reached in and pulled out my Ventolin, I said “yes that’s mine I have asthma”, he kept saying two, I said no only one. I gestured to him to check only for him to pull out my pill bag with another inhaler in there. I had forgotten about these but to be fair he knew what he was on about yet still wanted to see them in the bag, he never even took them out. Grrrrrr it was a waste if I am honest and no I am all about safety and protection but, well I think sometimes it can go a little far.

Chris was just as annoyed as myself as he was getting the same hassle as well, but we got through and were now clear to go to catch a train to our gate, again we had to go through more checks but this was thankfully much quicker and hassle-free. Once through Chris wanted drinks and sweets, he also wanted to use up what little cash he had left. I found a seat and waited for Chris to return, and about 10 minutes or so he did with a bottle of water for me and a cheeky Kitkat, ahhhh aint he good? It was only about another 20 minutes and the gate was open for boarding so Chris and I queued up and boarded the plane, we both had aisle seats behind each other. The doors closed on the plane and what a RESULT, neither Chris nor myself had anyone sat next to us or on the row for that matter so three seats each to sprawl across, lovely.

I was starving and about thirty minutes into the flight the food came around, we both opted for chicken teriyaki and both asked for an extra roll. The food wasn’t bad at all to be fair, well at least it was hot which is a blessing to be fair, and I was ruddy starving as well. The flight was pretty uneventful, there was some turbulence especially on coming into land but nothing major. As soon as the plane landed I got up to grab my hoodie from the overhead locker as I was freeeeeeezing, I swiftly got told to sit down as the plane was still moving to the terminal, I did of course but I was really cold, as soon as the plane stopped I was up and grabbed that hoodie to put on as I wasn’t going to freeze any longer.

It wasn’t long until the doors were open and people were moving off the plane as soon as we were off Chris and I were heading as quickly as possible to passport control, I was in the zone and was gone and by the time I reached control I had only just noticed Chris wasn’t with me I was obviously going a little too quick and to be fair he was looking like the walking dead. I got through the passport control and headed for the baggage claim, about five minutes later Chris arrived and as the baggage still hadn’t started to arrive we both needed the loo. It took the best part of 40 minutes for the bags to arrive but once we had them we went through declarations and I hit the duty-free for a quick stop. Having purchased a bottle of the perfume I hadn’t got but wanted we made our way through to arrivals, Matthew was there waiting for us and to be honest it was a welcome relief to know that we were finally back on home ground. Chris nipped off quickly to grab a meal deal and we swiftly left the airport.

So we landed a little before 15:00 but didn’t reach home until 21:00 due to the ridiculous amount of traffic on the road, and road works on the A1 as well, it was just awful. We did make two stops and these were brief, one for a brew, and trust me that was such a welcome thing to have and the next was a loo break. On reaching home my beautiful girls were waiting to greet me, damn I missed them so much, and of course Ron and Reggie.

Glad to be home at last, although been an amazing time there is no place like home.