Rush back to Germany 2019

Saturday 13 July to Friday 13 September 2019

While a great deal of planning went into the family holiday to celebrate my 70th birthday, the next trip came as an unexpected but must do surprise. The announcement of our first grandchild was made when all the other planning was completed. Timing was good – arrive home from the birthday celebrations and an extended tour in May and visit the newest family member shortly after their birth in September.

Well, that didn’t happen. Just a mere 7 weeks after returning home, a disturbing phone call from Hayden alerted us to a premature birth due to complications with Andrea. We were assured all was well with the baby, “she” will just come out on the other side a little earlier than expected.

We scrambled to put all in place here and find a comfortable flight to Berlin as early as we could. So we were back at the airport, en route to Berlin via Singapore and Frankfurt on 13 July.

Our granddaughter had already arrived and was doing well. Her mum was struggling with the emergency C-section and early arrival, but both parents were over the moon with this new and wonderful little person in their lives.

Andrea’s mum had come from Granada to Berlin for a few days, but she was obliged to return home to Granada for her family needs.

Unfortunately, hospital food was not particular good for a new mum. While a wholesome diet with abundant fresh fruit and vegetables was recommended, little more than fried food, bread and cold cuts of meat were on offer at the in-house cafeteria. We tried to prepare as much fresh food as possible.

So our days were filled with visits to the hospital, shopping and preparing food, helping with laundry, especially the growing pile of ironing (not my forte) and some sightseeing.

While our primary purpose was to be in Berlin to support the family, we also made a couple of side trips. We hired a car and drove to Dresden, admiring the scenery around the Spree Valley en route. We also took a train journey to Lindau on Lake Constance to meet Denis and Martine.

Living in a city for more than a few days offers a wonderful opportunity to dig a little deeper into the culture. We returned to favourite cafes, walked familiar routes and explored out of the way places. We dug a little deeper for interesting sightseeing places. We also spent time on our computers – Bruce keeping up his freelance work while I delved deeper into our Family History.

It was hard to leave Berlin, hard to miss more development of a little person at close quarters. But how wonderful to see the family out and about, enjoying a drink or a coffee.

So this is how we spent our time:

14 July arrive in Berlin

23 – 27 July – Spreevald and Dresden

26 – 29 August Lindau and the Bodensee

12 September leave Berlin

13 September Singapore

We vowed to be back to celebrate her 1st birthday in July 2020…