tackling stuttgart

We landed in early July and rented a large black Mercedes van to transport ourselves and our many pieces of luggage. To fit in a wedding it worked out best to fly into Hamburg and then road trip south to Stuttgart. We arrived safely and checked into our new home - an Air BNB apartment but only for the month. We move to a slightly larger one (same owner and same neighborhood) in early August after Georgie arrives. Enjoying the glorious long summer days. Sunrise about 5.30am and still light at 10pm.

A few final shots while jetting away from the beautiful island we called home for 3.5 years.

And we're off! House packed up, bags zipped and final goodbyes. We left our car behind (sold it to my successor) and with our 15 odd pieces of luggage we boarded a Thai Airways flight to Bangkok, then a Finnair plane to Europe. A bit sad leaving a beautiful house but we're looking forward to the experiences that lies ahead when we get to Germany.

Zara and Max finished the school year (Year 7 and 5 respectively) and bid farewell to the British International School Phuket. The school community was a good one and we will miss it. The new school in Stuttgart will be quite different: no big green grassy fields and no school uniform as examples.

A bit sad to go on my last bike ride in Phuket. The teachers I've been riding with made good company and it was a great way to stay fit and help forget about work. My trusty steed (push bike) will come to Germany with us on the plane in the big black and red bike bag in one of the pictures.

All of us (at various stages) got into running while living in Phuket. Seeing how popular the Parkrun concept has become around the globe, a small group of teachers at the British International School Phuket started a similar thing: a 5km run around the school campus once a month on a Saturday morning. Sometimes there was only half a dozen of us, other times there was 20 or so. It became a routine that we grew to enjoy despite the early start. Our last run with the group was memorable as we had the largest group in attendance and wrapped it up with a coffee and some snacks afterwards. The kids usually do one loop (2.5km) rather than two.

The moving company came and packed up our life into boxes that we won't see until January 2020.