Leaving home...

After a day of getting things done at work it was time to go home, finish the packing and head off to Luton airport after dinner.

We left at about 7.45pm and drove down to the Ibis Hotel in thick fog - not at all pleasant! There were roadworks all around Luton so we had to be diverted through the town. I'm just so glad we decided to stay in a hotel overnight rather than brave the traffic in the morning. I would have been panicking like mad as the diversion added about another twenty minutes to our journey.

Keith dropped us off at the door of the hotel and then left to go home which was a bit sad. I felt guilty that we weren't going as a family, but the opportunity to see Ben Howard in Berlin was too good to miss and I don't think Keith and Mikey would have appreciated seeing him as much as Sophie and I!

The Ibis is a great little hotel, but achingly hip and trendy. It reminded me of Ikea with lots of modern furniture, dark paint styles (on the ground floor) and waitresses wearing Converse baseball boots! If you really wanted, you could download some sort of App, and in the morning a drawing would appear on your iPhone, inspired by your sleep...hmmm!

We checked in and went up to our room which was small but very clean and functional. We'd noticed a bar on the way in so we hurriedly had a quick freshen up and then went downstairs for a glass of wine. There were lots of businessmen dotted about and almost everyone was glued to their phones... We sat by the window which looked out over the airport car parks and did a good bit of people watching! I just hoped that the fog would clear by tomorrow as I really didn't want to be delayed on the flight out to Berlin.

After just the one drink we went back to our room, mindful of our early start the next day. The alarm was set for 4.30am...Arrggh!