Planes, Trains and Automobiles + Snow

Dear Family and Friends
Wishing you still a blessed New Year 2011. We hope that you've had a peaceful Christmas and a wonderful start in the New Year.

We were delayed from the start, the first TGV we took from Paris broke down several times, before the popular decision was made and we had to return to Paris. A new TGV awaited us on the opposite platform, we left Paris again 3 hours late, and then at the first stop on route which was Strasbourg, an announcement was made that the TGV would terminate here, another popular announcement leaving most of the passengers not where they had booked tickets for. The compensation was a packed lunch, which comprised of a bottle of water, two bread sticks, pate and a bag of nuts, whoopee hundreds of miles from where we should be, but we had lunch! After 6 more trains we arrived at Jutta’s mothers it had taken many more hours than it should have, in total 13 hours travelling but many more people had it a lot worse than we did.

The snow was really bad and when we wanted to travel to Jutta’s brother by car on Christmas day the snow had closed most roads. We sat still for the day and enjoyed the warmth and watched Mama Mia on the TV, then took the train the day after.
Jutta’s brother lives in Thüringer Wald, they are used to having snow, great machines for clearing pathways to each shop and driveways, one snow drift was as high as Andy but a pathway had been cut between so someone could get there car out of their garage.
We left Jutta’s brother at the station looking rather sad as the next time we will be back will be about two years time. Then we only just made the Easyjet from Berlin to Bristol after allowing three hours grace we arrived just before they closed the check in, running from the station to the airport terminal, only to get to the gate to find out the plane is delayed, snow, snow, snow. Jutta worn out needed another sleep at the airport.
Andy celebrated his Birthday with lots of cards. Thank you to everyone.