Waking up at 6:30am meant that I’d had 9.5 hours of sleep, waking twice during the night. The first time was at 10:22 — I thought that the clock in the room must have been wrong, but it wasn’t!

After Michael’s morning run, we headed down to the club room for a long breakfast. We didn’t actually leave the hotel until about midday, having made the decision to visit the Botanical Gardens — I thought it would be a cool and relaxing thing to do on our last day. Unfortunately, I too readily agreed to Michael’s proposal that we walk there! Whilst his estimate of 5kms was spot on, my estimate of one hour was short by 50%. In this sort of heat and humidity, I go at a snail’s pace! The 90-minute walk took us down long, busy roads with tall buildings — nothing particularly interesting to look at. I almost gave up a couple of times, but persevered. Unfortunately, by the time we reached the gardens, not only was I physically exhausted, but time was running out. Michael was anxious to head back (via the subway). I tried to make it to the orchid garden, but every step was a step further away from the subway station, and feeling pressured for time, I decided it wasn’t worth paying to visit it. (It will leave us something to do next time we’re passng through!)

The subway trip back was only $1.70 each — if only we’d gone there the same way!

Back at the hotel, I showered and changed, and then joined Michael in the club room for some afternoon tea — and promptly consumed all of the calories I’d spent the last few hours burning up! With a 4pm checkout looming, we returned to our room and finished packing our bags. We checked out at the club room reception, and then sat for a while longer in the club room, both working on our iPads. 

Michael’s nerves eventually got the better of him — he decided we should get going to the airport. At the nearby subway station, we purchased our tickets and then headed down the escalator where there was a train about to pull out. Michael raced on board, leaving me bringing up the rear — I had no choice but to try to get on, despite the red lights being illuminated on either side of the gate to the train door. The doors closed on me, with half my body in the train and my bag still on the platform. I think Michael tried to pull me inside whilst I tried to push the two lots of doors open (there are automatic doors on the platform, as well as the train doors. Eventually, some other passengers pulled the doors apart for me and I thankfully dragged my bag inside with me. I was not very impressed! We could have waited 4 minutes for the next train, but apparently Michael just assumed that, like the trains in Sydney, the doors would simply open if they detected someone in the way. The man who had helped open the doors suggested to us that it would have been a good idea for Michael to get off at the next stop and wait for me to come along on the next train. Had we had such an emergency plan in place, that would have been great! We’ll know for next time! I’m sure that what we did was an offence that could have incurred a fine, but in the heat of the moment, you don’t think logically — all I could think was, “Please don’t leave me behind!”.

The rest of the journey, including a change to a second train, which we just made with just a little more leeway than the with the first, went relatively smoothly. At Changi Airport, Michael ensured that I was checked on to my flight in Terminal 3 before he took the connecting skytrain to Terminal 1. We are booked on different flights home, as we didn’t have enough frequent flyer points with either Qantas or Virgin to go with the same carrier! Michael is now winging his way home via Melbourne, whilst I’m not scheduled to leave until 23:10 on a flight direct to Adelaide (my preference any day!). I’ll arrive in Adelaide an hour ahead of Michael, and will wait for his flight to come in so that we can catch a taxi home together.

To those who have followed our adventure from beginning to end — thank you! And to those of you who have hopped on the virtual bus for portions of the journey, it was great having you on board too. 

My highlights were catching up with all of our special friends, discovering the natural beauty of Slovenia (particularly the gorge, Kozjak Falls and the caves), the ‘wow’ experiences of getting high up in the Swiss Alps and seeing those awesome panoramas with the incredible glaciers, and the charm of the colourful villages in the Alsace, particularly Colmar and Eguisheim.

And now time to fly home...