From Paris, Day 31 Part 2 was to be a three leg trip. It was a flight to Frankfurt and a change to Bremen. For me the passenger, it was about a 3/4 of a kilometre to walk but I made it. The flight from Paris was held up above Frankfurt owing to other traffic.

So onto Bremen and a wait for my luggage, but it did not turn up. Yes, it could not make the journey across the tarmac. After meeting Volker, it was a visit to the lost baggage place to register the bag. They promised it would be in Oldenburg by 8pm.

Volker and I then went to his ground floor flat on the Southern edge of Oldenburg. There we met Volker's wife Zorica and had a very nice home-cooked meal. A little while later we met up with two others, Sven and Andreas at the University and headed for a local bar for a couple of drinks.

We talked a little about EEFL and my trip. Alike a number of managers I met so far, they didn't say much. We went outside and I took some pictures of us all. Then it was back to Volker's place to meet his wife, Zorica, have some dinner and chat for a while.

Day 32 and after lunch it was tourist time. We went for a drive around town to look at some of the sights and then went for a walk to the older part of Oldenburg. There were some nice places and although I could not pick up a t-shirt, I bought some picture postcards.

We did some more driving to get to the Uni to check the mail and clean up things. There were a number of people ahead to mail. Meanwhile I chatted to a fellow in Exeter and we agreed to meet after I left Bristol. This meant a lot more driving as I was travelling about an hour in the opposite direction to which I really wanted. Still to me a lot of this trip was meeting people.

It was then back home to watch some TV and get ready to go to the party next door. Volker's next door neighbour, Inez, was having her 30th birthday and as Volker and Zorica were invited, so was I.

Having been to gatherings where everyone spoke a different language, I knew this may become interesting. Inez spoke some English, but her husband was from Texas, so that helped.

When I went to mingle I found a few others who spoke some English including Inez's step-father who spent five years in Australia and one of her brothers who was going to travel to the US.

The venue, well what can I say. The guy who owned the whole house was only 28 but he had done a great job. Basically we were down in the basement. There were two rooms, one like a hallway and the other a sizeable room.

The main room was all set for partying with full bar facilities including lighting and music system. Small round tables with bar stools, a lounge area and all. And the owner, he did the music.

The party went quite late and we left at 2:30am knowing there was a jouney ahead the next day. This kept up my consecutive after-midnight finishes.

Owing to the blinds being closed Day 33 didn't begin until 11am. It was quite impressive how much the blinds kept out the light. A quick breakfast and it was off to Aurich, NW of Oldenburg.

We arrived at Volker's sister-in-law Gabrijela's place. It was the same as a town-house back home. Only two children were there, but Gabrijela arrived later. We had a BBQ for lunch, steaks and sausages.

The six of us then hopped into two cars and took the drive to Benserseil on the coast. The tide was in and with the sky blue and just a little wind we walked out to the water. It wasn't as cold as I expected and with little or no waves it was easy not to get wet. We took a walk along the shore before making the trip back to Aurich.

After returning Volker and I took a trip into Aurich town to have a look around. We first went to his grandmother's place where his father still spent time. The house is still showing the results of when a bomb fell nearby as the middle is sloped down from the sides.

Next it was a walk through the town, which was practically deserted. We searched for a cafe that would serve cakes, but nothing was open. This was a Saturday night!

After a little drive we found where most of the people were. There was a fair in town which included things for all the people. Avoiding this we went to visit Volker's uncle. He was a very nice man and we chatted for a while. Before we left he presented both of us a gift of a box of chocolates.

Apparantely he fought in the war as a submarine driver and after the war he had to help with getting ships to Australia for the Brittish to test their nuclear devices.

So it was back to the sister-in-laws house for some dinner and watching the football highlights before leaving to return to Oldenburg.

Day 34 and another long day of travel. I said goodbye to Zorica and Volker dropped me off at the station. It was Oldenburg to Bremen, Bremen to Hamburg and finally Hamburg to Kobenhavn. The last stage included a 40 minute ferry trip to get to Zealand.