Flew back from Dusseldorf this afternoon- good flight, even if it was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on - or maybe because it was the smallest plane I’ve ever been on.

Great holiday - must put the snaps on flickr.com .

First things to do when get home; unpack rucksack, put passport away…and then turn on all these d*mn computers. Hotel we stayed in for a few days in Koln had good internet access - and it was free - so I did check my email a couple of times and post a couple of blog entries. But today when we got home, couldn’t get the internet to work until just now, it seemed to get better when I messed about with the router and switched a few things on and off, about the limits of my technical expertise with these things.

Travelled around the Ruhr valley a lot in the last few days. There are still huge factories and works but also some spectacularly large redundant former units of capital, be they steel mills, engineering plants or whatever. Some must have closed some time ago judging by the wild flowers that are taking over, the layers of rust and the extent of the coverage by graffiti. Former economic powerhouses now the playgrounds for disaffected and bored urban youth.