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I woke up around 8AM. I went down to the loo to find Dagmar had vanished and a note was on the floor. It seemed she had fled as the fly that had been buzzing around the last couple of nights was bothering her. (She likes spiders but hates mosquitos and other annoying flies.) So I relaxed until Renée woke up around 9AM and had tea and toast while waiting for her to reappear. Dagmar returned at 9:50AM. We finished breakfast, chased the fly out (boy was this one hard to get as it was hyperactive and very hard to get near - I eventually managed to get it to fly out a window into the fly net, then close the window before it could come back in) and got packed by 11AM.
At 11:10AM Renée and I went for a walk. We headed out past the station and did an out and return to Biskirchen, the next village along the road. On the way I photographed some butterflies. There wasn't much to see at Biskirchen so we didn't stay long. We returned to Dagmar's for 11:55AM.
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| Cyclists enjoying the quiet road through Stockhausen. | A nice Stockhausen building and flowers. | Walking towards Biskirchen. | A Ringlet butterfly. | |
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| Biskirchen. | Green Veined White butterfly. | Long range shots of a summer brood Map butterfly. | ||
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| Three shots of a Skipper butterfly. TODO: Is this a Small Skipper? | A cool looking beetle back in Stockhausen. | ||
Dagmar kindly made us a vegan spaghetti bolognaise which was very tasty. Then we relaxed until 3PM when we said goodbye to Dagmar and went to catch the 15:09 train back to Giessen. It was a few minutes late but that just meant a shorter wait in Giessen, where we arrived at 3:41PM. Then the 15:53 double decker train whisked us to Frankfurt Hbf, passing through the nice German countryside before entering suburbia and finally into the city. On the way pretty thunderstorms could be seen building behind us making the view even nicer. We arrived at Frankfurt Hbf at 4:37PM, bang on time.
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| One of the double decker trains. Our one looked identical to this one. | Spectacular cloudscapes on the journey to Frankfurt. | Renée enjoying the double decker train journey to Frankfurt. | Behind us big thunderstorms were brewing. | |
Then we soon found the platform for the S9 train to the airport due at 5:01PM. We grabbed coffee and pretzels, by which time the train was arriving so we sat on the train where we ate while we waited. The train got pretty cramped and crowded so we were glad we left on time and had only 3 stops to go and a 10 minute ride to Frankfurt airport, arriving at 5:12PM.
Once off the train at the airport it was a simple case of following the signs for Terminal 2 which led us through Terminal 1 and up several escalators to a monorail. This whisked us to Terminal 2 and to an almost empty British Airways checkin desk. We soon dropped off our bags and went through passport control. The shops were rubbish and food selection limited but we ended up at a Japanese restaurant called MoschMosch which was just like Wagamama. Then we went through another layer of security to the gate. Before long at 7PM it was time to board. A quick bus ride took us to the stand where the aeroplane was. Boarding was smooth and despite the checkin staff suggesting the plane was 10 minutes late, we actually appeared to complete boarding 5 minutes early. Meanwhile I was watching spectacular cumulonimbus clouds out of the window before we set off.
The cloudscapes en route were stunningly beautiful as we went past German hazy showers and then over Belgium in cirrus cloud there were nice optical effects, including a bright sundog and a complete parhelic circle. Out past Brussels and Bruge and over a calm North Sea the sky was clearer as we started to descend. Once we got to London there was thick cloud cover below but on top of it were lovely wavey clouds which again were epic to watch as we flew past and eventually down into before we landed 15 minutes early.
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| Building thunderstorms behind another British Airways jet. | The view of one of the thunderstorms as we take off from a hazy Frankfurt. | Between cloud layers. | The view above the upper cloud layer with shower clouds punching their way through the top is outstanding. | |
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| Higher up the haze and cloud towers and low sun makes for a very dreamy sight. | Flying through thin cirrus, a sun dog, 22 degree halo, a complete parhelic circle and a faint 46 degree halo are revealed. | Flying above virgae somewhere over Belgium. | |||
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| The sky clears dramatically as we approach and cross the Belgian Coast (Ostend is just in front of the engine). | Northeast Kent with Margate near the tip as seen from the Northeast. | The Isle of Sheppey from the Northeast. | The Isle of Grain, River Medway and Thames Estuary as seen from over Suffolk. | In the foreground is the River Crouch. Thames Estuary far left. Hanningfield Reservoir to the right. Looking Westwards towards a spectacular cloudscape. | |
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| Southend including its famous mile long pier from the North. | As we descend over North London the cloudscape just gets better and better. Lots of low cloud hides a spectacular wavey cloudscape from those below. | |||
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| More remarkable wavey cloudscape as we circle around allowing me to look into sun more. | Another aeroplane looks tiny against the big cloudscape. | More remarkable wavey clouds as we circle then descend into Heathrow. | ||
We were 10 minutes early at gate at 8:20PM. It only took 30 minutes to get out to arrivals though so that was nice. Then on home by car to end the trip.
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