The saddest day of a holiday trip is always the day of the journey home. Which is actually a bummer because all enjoyable things should end on a positive note, such as an encore at the end of a concert.

But I guess there is no way when it comes to holiday trips and I can accept that. What bothers me is that for the third straight time, a journey home did not go smoothly.

A year ago, when traveling home from Dornumersiel, accompanied by our new friend Ludovika, we had an issue with the overcrowded replacement bus.

Back in spring, when traveling home from Spiekeroog, we had an unpleasant altercation with a bus driver.

This time, our ferry left Spiekeroog harbour 20 minutes late and after arrival at Neuharlingersiel harbour, our luggage was in the last container unloaded so that we missed our bus to take us to Norden central station.

From the ferry, Harry had called the bus company to announce that we might not be able to catch the bus we had originally booked for. Turned out the bus company had made a mistake with the reservation, anyway.

Luckily, an hour later, we got to hop on a bus to Norden with no complications. And thanks to some smart adjustment to our traveling plan that Harry made, we still caught our train and arrived back home as originally scheduled.

We plan to come back twice next year. Here’s a handful of shots from our journey home, including a last view over to the island from the ferry.