Fairytale-Agro-International-Airport

Some may remember the wedding we attended on 18.08.18 of Angie's nephew Tobias and his wife Ramona. Today they were due to be with us as they were flying off on holiday for two weeks from Memmingen's "Allgäu (International) Airport.

For Tobi & Ramona, it wasn't a honeymoon trip. They had sort of had that when Tobi proposed on a beach on the Maldives during a cruise they did from Singapore to Dubai. Last year they had the civil marriage on 17.07.17 with only very close family and friends and have been spending all their time and money building a house about 70km north of Munich, where they both work, but close to where both sets of parents live. And of course this summer the second big wedding. Holidays and a fancy honeymoon have not been in the budget. Purely by chance, a friend in Majorca offered them a very cheap holiday flat for two weeks and despite initially rejecting it, the months of mixing concrete, heaving bricks. managing craftsmen, litres of paint, kitchen planning etc. finally got to them and they looked for a cheap flight,  Ryanair and Memmingen meeting the criteria.

Initially, Angie had understood they had an early morning flight and would be staying overnight but at the weekend learnt it was an evening flight. Tobi phoned on Monday to finalise plans saying departure was at 9:20 pm and so they wanted to be at the airport at 7:00 pm. They are well experienced international jet-setters and well versed with the procedure which at their home airport Munich (same passenger size as Gatwick) includes a glass or two of "Airbräu" beer from the only brewery based in an airport, the quality of which can be attested by Blipers Nogbad, Ianit and Mildly Offensive.

However, they haven't yet experienced Allgäu International Airport!

From the many flights my children have done from Memmingen I knew the "wish" arrival time was totally unrealistic and said the very earliest we needed to be at the airport was at 8:00 pm and thus leave our place at 7:45 pm. To his credit, Tobi, said if I said so then fine and this despite his tendency to do everything perfectly and stay on the side of caution.

So in the afternoon they arrived and we were able to enjoy a couple of hours of proper chatting (had not been possible at the wedding), coffee/beer and cake and then Angie cooked us an evening meal which we sat down to at 7:00 pm. And very casually we continued the evening. And then I started to get a bit nervous but nobody else was looking at their watches.

Eventually, we all got into their car and set off at a very relaxed pace, Tobi explaining one or two of the technical bits and pieces of a modern car such as lane assistant which didn't seem to like our country tracks and slurry covered white lines. Despite the horrified tones from the poor SatNav lady trying to correct our route over farm tracks, we did manage to get to the airport and although brimming full and having to park at least 100m from the terminal, we were through the entrance doors at 20:15, 65 minutes before departure.

Farewells were casually made and the two of them proceeded to the security check queue of three and a minute or two later they disappeared into the realm of Allgäu International Airport's airside shopping and gastronomic delights. Thanks to the wretched EU, there was no Duty Free to be had and while Tobi did manage to get a bottle of local beer to drink out of the bottle, Ramona looked at the shop special offers of a key ring with plastic brown cow, the 50ml bottles of finest Allgäu "Eau de Slurry" and the shelves of 1 litre Tetra-packs of organic hay-fed-cows milk.

We left and I fought all of the 10-minute drive home with the Audi steering wheel constantly vibrating a warning and trying to take over control as I wandered over the lanes. I suspect my daughter would love me to have a car with all such "assistants", especially the speed one.

As I had some PC work to do, I tracked their flight to Palma. Somehow felt that as the family person who had last seen them, I ought to make sure they got to their destination safely and pass on the news to the parents and wider family. Today was after all the 17th anniversary of 9/11.

They made it punctually at just after 11:00 pm, landing in front of an Easyjet from Bristol. I WhatsApp'd Tobi who confirmed the safe arrival with a photo from the plane. I haven't flown for decades but gather that as virtually nobody has luggage in the hold and the Brits have to go through a different passport control, there was little danger from a Kraut/Brit punch-up over the baggage trollies. So I went to bed happy knowing they were OK.

In the extra some impressions of their stay.

A note for my diary: being Tractor Tuesday, I should have Bliped today's silage making on the field next to our house - it was the 5th cut this year and I am sure there will be one more this year.