Got up freakin' early! We're talking 6:30am here! Me and Andy were going back on the same flight so we decided to share a taxi. Having been told it would take about an hour, flight at 10:30am, 2hr check-in, leave about 7:15am.

When I got to the lobby to check out, Andy was already there. We had no reason to hang around so by 6:55am we were in the taxi!

It was quite light already, so we passed the parks and public places were indeed everyone was practising tai-chi.

The traffic was flowing freely, which meant our journey time was a lot less than we had planned for; arriving at the airport just after 7:30am. One possible reason for this was less people travelling than normal early morning; tomorrow would be the National Day of China - a public holiday. In the centre of Beijing you could see things being set up in preparation; it was going to be a bit of a bash! Mirella and Daniel, I believe, were the only two of us still to be there to see it.

Speaking of Daniel, something struck me in the taxi. He had said that he doesn't like goodbyes. It occurred to me that we'd never actually said goodbye to each other! The last I saw of him was a swift "goodnight" before going to bed. Had to chuckle when I remembered that!

So we arrived pretty early at the airport - so early in fact that the check-in desk hadn't opened! We waited in line for about 20 minutes; a lot of those who joined the queue after us also seemed to have been to China on some kind of tour group!

Beyond check-in it was crowded, as we passed through emigration. Not for the first time, we had to fill in little forms to say who we were and why we'd been here! It seemed to take an absolute age to get through - although we were processed quickly -, obviously some people were being given the once-over (or more even!). Me and Andy joined different queues; he made it to the other side long before I did!!

We had some time to kill, so we looked in a few duty-free shops. Andy bought a couple of Chinese action movies, while I bought a box of "Peking Moon Cake" to take back to work with me - there is a tradition where I work to always bring sweeties back if you go on holiday! There wasn't much else to do; reasonably sized airport but quite dull; so we went to the gate and sat and read while we waited to board.

The flight back was similar to the flight over; the same entertainment videos were broadcast, and the in-flight radio was playing the same music. I spent my time writing the travel diary (!), ignoring the two films being shown (one of which was "About a Boy" which raised a few laughs amongst the audience).

After many hours we landed in Frankfurt; the airport looked quite a bit bigger than Munich had been on the way out - there was more space to roam around in. We wandered up to a large departure/connections board on the upper level; an old-fashioned type board with mechanical letters that flipped, as favoured by railway stations worldwide. It came complete with letters out of place and just simply wrong, like most of them do. Andy's plane was due to leave first and when it appeared on the board we bade our farewells. Seemed fitting that as he was the first person I met on the tour, he should be the last person I leave.

The flight back to Birmingham was again pretty non-descript - it also seemed to take forever (the last mile is always the longest). But I touched down on time - 5:20pm UK time or so; though my body was of the firm conviction it was just after midnight! Got the train to New Street station, where I was picked up by Leila in her car, and we went to a chippy on the way home. Real English sausage and chips; quite a change!!

Went to bed at 9:30pm. I was tired!! And I had to work the next day!!!