RAISE Project: Departure, 25th April '09

Our departure day! Who would have believed that a week would go by so quickly, I remember just having landed in Altenburg together with the other 11 RAISE participants from 8 different organisations. It was this mix of people, interests, experiences and backgrounds together with a well organised programme that made this week a complete success. We appreciated each others knowledge and input during the workshops and each others company in the freetime - playing football, snooker, going for walks in the German countryside and having the occasional drink in the lokal restaurants.

This day started, as usual, with breakfast in the Parkgaststaette, our beloved accommodation run by Jutta and her husband. Only on this day, some people couldn't wait to get to breakfast. Theseus managed to be down for breakfast for 8am with the result of having to wait for a little while as breakfast wasn't until 9am. This really shows that we quickly became accustomed to the rhythm of Germany. Everyone else slowly emerged for breakfast around 9am.

Then we just had to pack our stuff, get out of our rooms for 11, take a few quick walks either into Lengenfeld 'town centre' to buy treats for those who stayed in the UK or go for walks in the nearby park. The weather was beautiful around 20C and we were both glad to go back home but also slightly sad to be leaving this beautiful and peaceful part of Germany.

At 11.45 Timo and Stefan came to take us to the train station in Lengenfeld. Some hearty goodbyes and 'we'll see each other again' were followed by the sight of our train which was ever so on time - something we all came to appreciate ;)

This train would get us Zwickau where we had a short stay to wait for our connecting train to Altenburg. There we waited for the shuttle bus but didn't want to jeopardise getting to the airport on time - and so took 2 cabs since the airport was around the corner.

Ryanair was well on time and we left Germany 10 minutes ahead of schedule. We even arrived in London some 30 minutes early, picked up our bags and made our journeys to where we have come from a week earlier. Simon and Steve went to Chesterfield (near Sheffield), Stefanie went to Milton Keynes and everyone else made their journey into London by Stansted Express with onward journeys using bus, tube and train.

We all have put a date to meet for next Tuesday in the evening to share some thoughts and enjoy some Eritrean food at Adulis Restaurant in Oval. I am looking forward to this very much!

I would have never have thought that such a diverse group of people would be the perfect ingredient to make this Leonardo Best Practice into the success that it was.

Thank you all who have contributed to this week by sharing their experiences and knowledge, a big thanks to Pscherer gGmbH in Germany (especially Timo, Mathias, Christian and Stefan but also Frau Wildgrube and the other presenters). A big thanks also to the Leonardo team for their continuous support for Embrace to facilitate these programmes in the UK.