Normally, this day should have bee a well organized travel day. Indeed, until 10:00 one could not foresee that I would undergo a major breathtaking run around the world in order to make it in time for the first Florida-show. Due to my long absence for the first three weeks of the tour, I had told my secretary that I would accept every biz appointment in order to make up for lost time. This had brought me to Ulm (a small city with the highest steeple in Germany (if not Europe)) on Monday and Tuesday of the present week where I delivered one of my various XML-trainings. I had already received a message from Marcin whom I wanted to meet in Miami Beach about his arrival in Miami. This astonished me a little bit because he seemed to be a very early riser but this could not raise any suspicious thoughts with me because I was occupied with my work.

Well, I was sitting in front of my office computer and I wanted to print our second tour itinerary which I had prepared for the second stay in the USA when I began to wonder why the calendar was boasting about the 30th when the concert was on the same day in the evening. I expected to arrive one day earlier in order to be in time, but apparently - that was my thought - the early flight and the time shift would bring us to Florida in the afternoon. In addition to that, it was fine that I had not to wait until the next day for the show because I was eager to see Tina again.

Suddenly, the table of contents with the various dates and entries for each day caught my attention and I felt somewhat like thunderstruck, paralyzed and frozen (all at the same time, of course) because there was one very clear and very first entry: 29.11. - Departure. It was not necessary to compare the date in the plan with the one of my watch on the wall above the office door. And it was not necessary to think about the adjustment of summer and winter time during the last weekend. It was completely clear that I had simply forgotten our flights yesterday because I had overdone my strange and for outsiders mostly not quite understandable mixture of holiday and biz travelling. Of course, I really do not expect you to understand why I could forget my own holidays (only supervisors are capable of doing so) and why I could forget Tina. Throughout the whole day I kept asking myself what had gone wrong in the past to conjure up such a mess.

At first, I went to Marcus to tell him that there were problems with our holidays. To be honest, I felt so cold that I could only say that there were no holidays any more. Somehow I could remember that Airberlin was not going daily to Miami but only three times a week. But he remained much cooler than me, opened the website, picked up the receiver an booked our DUS-MIA-flight once more. To be precise, he booked his flight by phone and mine online. Then, we went to the airport, and I was beginning to calculate when we would be in Miami. As the flight always departs at 14:10 and arrives always at 19:00, and as the show always begins at 20:00 it was easy to prepare for the worst. I might not miss the whole show but at least the first part of it. At the airport in Düsseldorf, there was no time for further investigatins in this matter or even better calculations because we had to make several stops at the ticketing and the check-in until we finally landed on the red carpet for super-luxury customers. I had booked the first flights, Marcus then by phone and online the second ones but, of course, without return flights as we wanted to use the flights I had already booked. To put these various puzzle pieces together proved to be such a difficulty that we were busy with this arrangement for surely an hour. As soon as we were airborne, I was already relieved that there weren�t any further delays. As we had to wait for a lady from Vienna who finally showed up before we lost a minute, I was getting more and more nervous. Can you imagine how it feels to be in a plane and to have to estimate the number of songs you would miss in a Tina-concert? - But suddenly, the screens with the flight information informed us about being in MIA at 18:00. I could now remember the pilot explaining somewhat about 8 hours something in the air while I expected it to be 9 but it was only now that I expected the day to show its sunny side. I asked one of the stewardesses and she informed that our tail wind was so intense we would gain one hour. It is - as I learned - very rare to benefit from tail wind on an outgoing flight from Europe. As I have seen it myself on inbound flights, it is possible to be earlier at home when you leave North America. But indeed, we had tail wind and reached Miami at 18:02. During our flight I relaxed again, read lots of papers in a book and had fantastic views of the coastline with Jensen Beach as especially interesting. I did not know that it was Jensen Beach but I scanned the coastline once more with GoogleEarth until I found it in order to book our last night there.

I feared again a long delay and a loss of time due to my lack of finger prints and me having to undergo the special interview for the immigration I decided to tell the poor lady my sad story when I reached her counter. I had already seen that there were different machines in use than in New York or in Detroit. Here, you had to have scanned all your fingers which is in my case even more ridiculous because I could only provide her with one index finger and one thumb. The skin on the other fingers was still missing. She assured me that everything would be very easy, took the photo and then asked me to lay my hand on her machine - all lights went red -, then my two thumbs - all lights went red again. "Oh fine", she said, stamped everything and then: "Here you are. Good-bye." I could not understand why it was possible to enter the USA when the finger print machine showed only red lights but I was really relieved tha we had no further delays.

As even our suitcases were already waiting for us next to the belt in the we only had to spend a few minutes for the baggage claim and then set off for the taxi stand. This proved again to be very easy. I had thought about picking up a car but the transfer to the car rental station, the booking process and then the way to arena and maybe even the hotel seemed to be too long so that a taxi was the easiest way. I told the driver to let me out at the American Airlines Arena and to bring Marcus to South Beatch. So my first impression of Miami was only a mixture of amazement to be there finally and the hope that the way between airport and venue was not too long and that we would not be caught in a traffic jam. But in the end, the ride was short, the driver brought me exactly to the will-call-window by not noticing a "do not enter"-sign so that I could pick up my ticket.

Then, after this strange day with so many calculations, fears and hopes, something even stranger happened. I entered the venue alone. There was no one in the hall except for staff. I could already hear Tina singing "Typical male" when I went up the stairs. She began "River deep, mountain high" when I entered the hall and rushed down the stairs to the main floor. Without any purpose or reflection, I had used the door which was very close to the curtain so I could be seen by nearly everyone. But who would care about you if you are 8000km away from home and Tina is singing? When I then turned left to find my row 15 I could hear my name, turned around, and there were Elle and Dave - two empty seats next to them in row 8. It was such a strange and unexpected situation after my long voyage to see them both. Apparently, they already knew that I would be late because I have sent text messages to Marcin about my whereabouts. And indeed, after saying hello to them I learned that they already had been informed and that apparently all the fans from the fanclub were knowing that someone from Germany is somewhat too often away from home so that he does not know where to go and where to stay.

Annemie, her friend and her mother were ready to take us to Miami South Beach with their enormous car. In case you did not know Annemie, you only have to imagine a very small girl just like in the One-last-time-video while her mother is even smaller. Both women together could form a standard-size adult (yes, yes, I am just joking, of course, you only need 1.5 portions of them but it is difficult to decide whom to sacrifice) who were now sitting in a van for eight persons. Moreover, Andreas, Karin and Ingrid also stayed in South Beach and - coincidence, coincidence - in the same hotel as Marcin which was directly next to mine and Marcus�s and which was run by the same management.

November, 31 - Sightseeing

What is so funny about travelling with Tina around the world is always the many coincidences. As you can expect other members of the fanclub being in the same city where you are dwelling, you can really expect to meet them somewhere in the street, in a caf�, in a music shop. Sometimes, you can even meet them in the same hotel and - which is now very rare and only available on special occasions - at the same breakfast table. Marcin and me, we had found it already asthonishing to hear that they had booked the same hotel as he did. But I was sure that we would only meet after breakfast. But when I came down to the front desk with Marcus, the receptionist handed out the breakfast voucher and informed us that we had to leave the hotel, to turn right on the pavement and then to enter the next building which happened to be the next hotel. Then we realized that they had nearly the same name and that they were sailing under the same flag. Therefore, I went to the front desk and asked for Marcin�s room number in order to use the phone. He was pretty astonished to hear my voice but was quick "downstage" when being told that we could share the same table for breakfast. In the end, we were sitting every morning on the patio of the hotel. Because Ingrid had to smoke her cigarettes and because we needed a huge table, we took advantage of the good weather and sat around the two immense tables on the patio. Nearly every day, the breakfast was extended until we managed to consume every tiny drop of coffee and orange juice. Oh, besides, in case you have already read our story from the first three weeks of this tour, you might know that certain European fans (ahem, ahem) were not too delighted with the breakfast. Well, to make it short, they offered real cutlery and avoided plastic completely. But the choice was even more restricted. Not that I fancied the false and always wet blueberry muffins which directly came out of the freezer but our hotel only offered only two types of m�sli/cereals, oranges, white bread and salty butter with two flavours of jam. The coffee was good, apple and orange juice acceptable, but not one bagle, not one wet muffin.

After all the stress the day before, we made a long walk along the beach to the south, went back to the hotel by bus and then in the afternoon by bus to the city. Finally, I had found a beach in the USA which suited me. There was indeed a promenade, and there was indeed only a small street (later on, I learnt that this was the famous Ocean Drive) with caf�s and restaurants like it should be on the beach and the coast. The beach itself was very broad, the waves very high, the water warm - even in November. I could not complain about anything so this could be the only complaint. Our promenade lead us to the southernmost spot of Miami Beach, then along the yachts and finally back to the hotel. As there were many tourists and not so many inhabitants, it was difficult to find a supermarket. There was one small market just around the corner but we had expected more - esp. lower prices. Neverthelees, we spent some money on fruits, nuts and sweets, had lunch and then set off for Miami itself.

One cannot say that it was a complete disappointment but, of course, the city is shaped like any other city. The promenade along the coastline with yachts, bending curves and palm trees is very enjoyable. But the so-called shooping area only offered small shops without any special decoration or much taste. Maybe we did not find the best mall in town or the malls we found in the consecutive days are simply more interesting and entertaining than this area. Nevertheless, this afternoon was the only afternon we spent in Miami itself.

November, 1 - Over the ocean to Key West

When I had planned the trip to Florida I was scanning the coast up and down and zoomed in and out of the state with the aid of Google Earth. Therefore, I discovered the chain of islands leading to Key West and found out that this was the southernmost spot of the USA and that the ride over the Overseas Highway needs to be included in every vacation in the southern part of Florida. Marcin had also discovered this very spot so that it was clear that we wanted to go there.

We decided that it was not necessary to go all the way down to Key West. I explained everything very clear: there is no need in going further ahead just for the going itself, if it is boring we can turn and go back and blabla. Of course, if three men are in the same car and the general aim of the mission is to reach the southernmost point of the USA and finding another point on the map resp. even on a standard terrestrial globe you can only pretend to be reasonable and to be willing to turn around before reaching this magic point. The complete journey surely took three hours in only one direction and one has to admit that the last few miles were not as interesting as the first ones but nobody even thought about giving up. No, what had to be done, was done, and we only went south-south-south. But, of course, the bridges were the highlight of the whole day because they led us in bends and sometimes like a launching pad to the next island. The sky was blue and even cloud-less, the sun bright but not glaring and we found spots with a very unusual perspective as if the whole world only consisted of the marine blue of the ocean and the celestical blue of the sky.

It was easy to find Key West and the last island itself because there was no other way. To find the city-center or the most interesting part was a little bit more difficult because we did not make any special preparations. It was therefore a mysterium that we finally parked at the historic port, found a nicely decorated restaurant and then nearly stumbled over Duval Street which is THE entertaining street in Key West. It is very long, offers a huge selection of historic (short note for the European readers: US-historic which means that no house is older than 100 years) houses which really reminded us of a coastal city which was abundant in fishermen a long time ago.

The overseas highway was indeed an absolutely spectacular experience. After a long road which only went straight ahead across a huge area of green grass which already belonged to the Everglade�s national park and seemed without end we finally entered the first island and therefore the first bridge. It is not only interesting to go over the 40 bridges but also to stop somewhere and go to the ocean. We both found little beaches and small landing stages which one could sometimes see from the street and which were sometimes hidden behind trees, a small street or bushes.

I somewhat feared the way back. It would have been better to check out at our hotel in Miami Beach, to take our belongings with us and to stay one night in Key West instead of going back during the night. As you can imagine, I was somewhat tired and needed a rest but not a 3-hours-drive back to Miami. But we did not want to pay an additional night. But it was funny: Marcus went to sleep within minutes. I think he was already fast asleep before we left the city itself. Marcin and I, we had all the time of the world to discuss Tina-related subjects as "do you have XY in your collection?" or "when did you first hear a Tina song" etc., all topics we had not talked over during the last years which is somehow astonishing. Time went by very quickly, and suddenly we were driving on this long road among the green grass. As there were only a few cars to be seen, we were nearly alone in the dark and could see that the sky was filled with stars. The firmament arched over us and off the top of one's head we made use of a small parking lot or a street entrance which led to a path and an iron gate which protected the national park. There, I switched off the lights, we left the car and stood there beneath the black sky and the glimmering stars. Europe is so densely populated and we both live in metropolitan areas with millions of people so that we really have to make an excursion in order to see the stars. It was a beautiful sight and very unusual to see several of the constellations in a different angle than at home. As it was completely silent, Marcus woke up, did not quite understand our standing outside the car and steering into the sky in the first moments and then left the car, too. He brought the magic moment to a sudden ending after several minutes when he said that he had heard something. Okay, there was this "Alligator crossing"-sign. In Europe, there are so many signs with falling rocks, jumping fallow deer and crossing army vehicles that it is boring to pay attention to objects which never appear. But Marcus insisted that there was a sound in the high grass, only a couple of meters away, to be precise, that it surely was an alligator, a pure miracle that we were still alive. Concerned but still not completely believing that we could be captured in a horror movie ("Three aunties and the alligatty"), we turned to the vehicle and left the place.

November, 2 - Show in Sunrise

One can only say: christmas shopping and Tina on the same day is a very fine combination. One has to admit, that it feels strange to visit nicely decorated malls in bermudas and t-shirts but christmas is christmas, even if real snow would melt within minutes. We could not quite understand why it is necessary to use winter decoration when there won�t be any winter at all in Florida, but apparently, the traditional image of christmas consists of white coniferes and colourful decoration. Apparently, we used our new car in order to go around shopping and spend some money during the first two thirds of the day. In the afternoon we relaxed a bit and went then to Sunrise.

November, 4 - Long road without exit

We had to leave Miami Beach in order to reach our next destination: Orlando. Our friends from Europe were either going by plane or by car like us but one had to admit afterwards that a plane is surely more recommendable than the car. It was interesting to see Florida�s Turnpike, i.e. the whole highway, and the state itself but there is no need in undertaking this adventure more than once. At first, we followed the long road to the north of Miami Beach and crossed the bridge. Then, we continued without taking the highway but more secondary streets in order to see more of the city and its outskirts. Due to heavy traffic we were too slow so that we soon looked for the next ramp of the highway.

Apart from a general view of the Miami and its surrounding, the day offered nothing more until noon. We had a coffee here and a burger there and continued without paying too much attention to the time which provided us indeed with this general view mentioned above.

We crossed Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale again like for the show in Sunrise and then came to Port St. Lucie. I had booked a hotel in this region but I only connected the Jensen Beach city where the hotel was situated and Port St. Lucie when we crossed a bridge over a very long lake whose other shore seemed to be the very small landhead which I had seen from the plane. This region is difficult to describe and therefore an interesting spot to visit. It seems as if someone had cut off a very long but small piece of land like a crumb of a loaf of bread but has forgotten to throw this crumb away but left it on the table next to the loaf of bread. After Fort Pierce we continued on highway 91 resp. Florida�s Turnpike.Here we reached the first of two climaxes this day: a two-lane-in-one-direction highway with a broad and green gap between the two directions, sometimes wide enough to home a little forest. This is a paytoll road which continues for an eternity, and eternity is a distance of 150 or 200km without any exit and only a very small number (maybe 3) of service stations. We travelled and travelled and travelled, on both sides we could see green land, bush, maybe a whole forest, maybe another road and sometimes the blue water of a lake shimmering in the sunlight. Then the sun went down and only our own lights and the lights of the few other cars on the road were visible. Sometimes, we travelled nearly alone in the oncoming night, sometimes there was a lorry or another car. I always wanted to see such a road because this was a feeling or a perspective I could not imagine beforehand without any real experience. As we had skipped Minneapolis during the first leg of the tour because of the bad travel conditions (plane too expensive, way by car too long) we had missed such a long highway across a vast area of corn and wheat fields. But on this afternoon and early evening I could get a bite of North America which is so unusul for us Europeans. Such a road is nearly impossible to find. Maybe you can be lucky in the Eastern regions of Germany to find 10km of the same nothingness but, of course, not ten times these 10km.

We reached Orlando in the early evening after we had luckily escaped this long road: the fuel light was flashing red for nearly half an hour while we were still on the road with the next gas station being many miles ahead of us. Marcus assured us that there must be still gas for 100 miles but I was not too sure if this rule (red light means 100km at home) was also correct here and valid for this particular car. But the next gas station was only 30km away from Orlando which means that you have to ride two thirds of the whole distance without any service station at all. Well, of course,we reached the gas station in time, filled up the car and had enough for the rest of the ride and the next days.

Something was strange about Orlando: there was no real downtown, and we had booked a hotel which was very close to Disne World and other attractions in an area which conisted only of restaurants and hotels but did not offer real pavements but only two-lane roads. It was surely very typical both for the USA and Orlando itself but for us a disappointment because we expect more of a city or a neighbourhood than only restos and hotels. But well, we had dinner, checked out the pool and went to bed.

November, 5 - Show in Orlando

Normally, our itinerary offered us a visit to Mickey Mouse and friends on this day which was the reason why I had chosen this hotel in the first place. But on a day where you can attend a Tina Turner concert you are not that keen on visiting amusement parks. And as we had to pick up our tickets at the will-call booth and were curious about the "city without a real downtown" and the venue we went to the Amway Arena. We found a side street which offered free parking with we used twice or three times this day because we went to the venue several times in order to ask for better tickets and an upgrade. To make it short: we came here later on before noon and then again before the show but there were no better tickets available. An upgrade would not have been a problem but without better tickets, the poor lady could not help us.

After a little visit of the neighbourhood which consisted of nearly perfectly round lakes and mansions around it and a stop at an incredibly decorated shopping mall we saw again the venue from the car without having planned to go there again after an hour, parked the car and assured Marcus to be back in only five minutes. Suddenly we heard our names and saw Dave standing at the street corner of the venue�s block. Well, he did not only called us but really laughed about me and Marcin because we nearly flying about the street to the venue as if we had an appointment. It must have been a very funny image we delivered the world, nearly running to the venue in order to check for better tickets. We persuaded Dave that it was better for his moral life and entertainment if he accompanied us in the afternoon.

The plan was very simple: we only wanted to go shopping and were interested in a music store but we only had the street name and not the house number. After the experience that followed we knew that both pieces of informations are required in order to avoid making only a huge sightseeing tour of the city. This one showed us fenced neighbourhoods with decorative walls, hedges and huge entrance gates as well as immense chess-board neighbourhoods with big wooden houses and surrounding gardens. This was all very interesting but - I have to admit that - some people were making fun of my strong belief in finding this music store just around the very next corner. But all�s well that ends well, we suddenly understood where we need to go and we needed to enter into the nav system but as soon as we had found the address, we could already see the (I hope I get the name right) Disney Marketplace Shopping Mall Center For Tourists. We were so astonished to see it that I missed the entrance and only at the next block we could not believe that we were already familiar with the houses. But this turned out to be no surprise as we were simply just fifty meters away from our hotel. As if this coincidence was not enough, Dave remembered that this Safari Sheraton hotel was the one he had booked for tomorrow and that he and Marcin would be in the same hotel for the next day. This was much too much for my nerves but very practical because this gave us the chance to stop at the next restaurant (finally a Chinese all-you-can-eat), check for better tickets online, change for the concert, drop Marcus somewhere in the wilderness of Disney, and change for the concert.

When we arrived finally with Dave at the car park of the venue, we followed him to his hotel, could benefit from his super-guest-status in his VIP lounge and then came back one and a half hour before the show. We all wanted to check a last time for better tickets but there were none. But just before our visit to the ticket booth we crossed the gate of the venue exactly in the moment when one of the tour buses approached it. All the three of us were standing directly in front of the front window of the bus, only three meters away. "Tina will already be inside", said Dave and then we saw her. She was sitting in the bus on one of the first benches, looking curiously out of the windshield. Both she and our small group were astonished, and she was surely astonished to be recognized so quickly. We had kittens and could not really explain what kind of psychic momentum forced us to jump up and down in front of the bus within the glimpse of a second after we had spotted her. We must have looked like little children in front of the Christmas tree. Well, she ducked away and pretended not to be there. We were polite after our jumping and let the bus pass inside.

We had the best seats of the whole US part of the tour on this evening. For the first half, we had our normal row 15 as we had always a row 15 in the beginning. During the intermission there was much running and jumping in the rows. Dave came down from this far-back seat with Karin�s ticket and sat next to them in row 10 while Macin and me were informed about seats in row 5. Karin and Andreas had seen that there were vacant seats at such a good position and even directly in the middle before the stage. Of course, we immediately left our row when we heard about these seats. It was only during "Let�s stay together" when I had the time or rather took the time in order to look around. And suddenly, I spotted the back of the chair next to me which was still empty like the next one after this and read MAYOR. I feld somewhat awkward because sitting in row 5 with tickets for row 15 is one thing but sitting in VIP-rows without being...well, of course, we are VIPs but not the ones required for a whole row of MAYORs. I don�t know what this M-thing was and if it really referred to the administration of the city or if it was only a synonym for a nicer word than bigwig. Professional as I am, while I was still uncomfortable with this M-thing I was sure that we were very safe in this row: first, Marcin was wearing his luxurious new 80-dollar-shirt from today�s shopping event and it could be very dangerous for a security ward to ask an M-guy about his M-status which meant that noone would dare ask us. The M-thing was than very strang during the two encores because Marcin and me found us completely alone in the whole row 5 of the left block because all other M-people had already left the venue.

November, 6 - To Jensen Beach

On the day after Orlando, we said goodbye to Marcin as we had said goodbye to all the others on the day before. I had cancelled the second hotel in Miami Beach because I had booked a new one at Jensen Beach. This was the name of the region I had seen from the plane and which attracted due to the long thin island which was very close to the coastline and seemed to offer nice beaches. This was true, indeed, because we tested two or three of them in only one day. But first, we had to go there. Marcus and me, we left Orlando around 10:30, stopped at two shopping malls within vicinity of the hotel and bought that many stuff that we had only one pound left when the suitcases were weighted at the check-in on the last day. As we were in the Chinese buffet and ruined the cook while eating up his buffet, we had to look for another victim. This time, it was the Italian pizzeria whose advertisement had interested me yesterday. On a Tina-day, it is only possible to see restos within the next block and not the ones which are situated two blocks ahead. Therefore, we could not see this pizzeria on the day before but only today. In fact, it was even cheaper then the Chinese buffet which caused raised eyebrows as we could not understand how they really earned money - apart from whitewashing narco-dollars, of course.

After lunch, we finally headed for the coast again. To our own amazement, it had taken nearly two and a half hours for moving two miles away from the hotel due to the shopping areas and the pizza buffet. Therefore, we reached Cape Canaveral during the afternoon, went around the huge place, saw rockets and the exhibition halls but did not enter because many of the attractions were already closed. To be honest, we weren�t as disappointed as ordinary tourists. On the one hand, it could have been interesting, but on the other hand, the standard price was too high, and despite the lower price in the afternoon there were too many things already finished. Therefore, we decided to go to the advertised Cocoa Beach which indeed proved to be sensational. The waves were even higher than in South Beach which could have been due to some wind. Our spot of the beach showed us the the peninsula of Cape Canaveral and offered nearly the luxury of a private beach because there we only a baker�s dozen of people around us.

In the evening we reached then Jensen Beach after we had both used the slow which passed several small villages and then the faster interstate. We had already seen that the nav system did not know the street of our hotel but we could not do anything against it because we were already on the road. As it was on the highway, we hoped that the same house number in a neighbour city would be correct but this was not the case. In the end, two ladies working in the office of a gas station helped us out with a simple and traditional phone book. With the aid of the address in the book (or was it the phone number?) we could find the correct hotel in the POI-list of Holiday Inn hotels within the next miles. We arrived when it was already dark which made the peculiar situation without the correct address even more frightening.

When we opened the room window we could see a large pool and a small whirlpool, empty and shimmering in a blue light in the night. When we were down, we were not alone anymore (and yes, we could hear the voices and saw the flying saucer) but ended up in a round with American business men in the whirlpool discussing the new president and travelling in Florida. I am not quite sure if I would like such a situation in Germany, but - as you know: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Apparently, these Romans were very hot because they could stand the hot water much longer than me. While they were still talking about hotels, Obama and Tina Turner, I decided to take a refreshing visit to the icy-cold water in the regular pool.

November, 7 - Back to Germany

Our last day was filled with the typical elements of a Florida-visit. First, a strange breakfast encounter. It was the best we had so far in the USA with hot potatos, scrambled eggs and bacon but not a buffet and served by a lady who was constantly complaining about the working conditions in the Holiday Inn hotel (management: beware of this lady). She shuffeld among the tables, alone, having to serve everyone, clean up and arrange the cutlery, glasses and coffee pots. It was somehow sad to observe her but on the other hand, there were not many people and with all the energy she was putting in her complaints, she surely could have survived the situation. Suddenly, we were nearly alone with messy tables around us when she was thinking that loudly that another guest who entered the room left with even worse complaints. Then she was after him, beseeching him to return in front of all the people in the lobby, but he resisted her. It was quite a bizarre situation which even - I am sorry for that, of course - entertained us. In the end, Marcus had a super idea: we arranged everything in one mountain of dishes and cutlery, he raised and went for the kitchen saying "Oh, I will help you. Where can I put this?". Of course, she was shocked to see that a guest, a stranger, an ennemy was on his way to enter her realm, her kingdom, her complete messy situation. But when Marcus is in control of the situation, he cannot be stopped. As she was trying ("trying") to be polite and not too dominant, he reached his aim to enter the kitchen and could report a situation which could put certain hotels in critical situations.

Until lunch we spent the morning at the beach and even at several spots there. It was so interesting to see a place which I had spotted from the sky directly in natura. This was really the first time that I had booked a hotel in a place spotted from a plane, very funny, and a good choice. Again, the waves were high, the beach nearly empty and we could benefit from the decision to make a stop there.

Then we left the hotel and drove to the airport. Lars had put it very well when he had found out that "it is always tight in the end". Oh yes, in the end, it was somewhat tight. We had only seen MIA from the taxi - and some people were not themselves but looking constantly on their watch, ahem. Like in Berlin Tegel, you can go for rounds and rounds and rounds until you see that you have to pass something like a construction site in order to get to the car rental stations. Of course, it was not a real construction site but the road was both closed and open. Well, after two turns we were bored and sick enough to go ahead and finally found our very cheap Thrifty-station at the very end of all stations.

The flight back was not as beautiful as expected because we had no window seats. The only thing we could arrange were a whole bench of four seats for us alone in front of a TV screen. Therefore, we missed the lights at the coast and had no fine view of the Western coast. As we will come back in the future, we will have our AirBerlin-customer-card ready which can provide us with more windows seats than we need.