If you are planning a trip to Germany and you're a coffee drinker, then wean yourself off it because you won't find a decent cup if your life depended on it. If you are happy with Starbucks, you don't really drink coffee, so you'll be OK. I only ever drank Starbucks once and that was in Frankfurt after three days when I was desperate.

Here I began the day a little after 6.00 with a cup of instant coffee. By comparison with the brewed coffee, it's preferable. I then had a gym workout and then headed to the railway station around 300 meters away. I bought filled bread rolls for breakfast and while considering ordering a cappuccino, made the mistake of ordering a Latte. It was only when I was served a long, long black that I looked at the board and didn't see anything resembling a Latte. I added as much milk as would fit in the cup and returned to the hotel. Here I tried several mouthfuls and eventually after adding two sugars it was drinkable. It's the first time I've had sugar in coffee in thirty years or more.

An uneventful trip to the airport, which is about the size of the Gold Coast airport. Still kicking myself. At the airport duty free, there were bottles of Asbach (German Brandy). On our cruise in 2015, they had served it, and I became addicted. It's the "Brandy" served in the British officers mess. As we only had 5 minutes to spare before boarding, I reasoned that I'd be able to buy it at Amsterdam airport where we had a 3 hour layover.

Amsterdam airport: "No sir, we don't sell German spirits" he said. OK, how about Gin instead. Well, Bols isn't really Gin, its Genever. Both Genever and Gin use juniper berry as a flavoring agent, but Gin's base is a neutral grain spirit mixed with botanicals, whereas Genever is made with a mash of malted barley, rye, and corn. More like a white whiskey. Then again, I bought the Corenwijn, which translates as "grain wine', which appears to be, well, I really don't know but I like it. Whatever ….. as I made my way to the checkout, two staff reminded me …. "Make sure you put it in the freezer". So, it's kinda like a whiskey/gin/vodka wine and some say best drunk as a sip followed by a sip of beer (it accentuates the flavor of the beer). I'll let you know later.

Bols in hand I returned to Ches and discovered that there was a clock above us that appeared to have a cleaner inside. Watched for a while. Not a cleaner but someone painting in the minute hand, then wiping it off and painting again. Turns out it is a video clock with image of a painter changing the minute hand every minute. NOW, to return to the present (Sunday in London), we will be going to the Tate Modern this morning.

Christian Marclay's acclaimed installation The Clock 2010 has captivated audiences across the world from New York to Moscow.

24-hours long, the installation is a montage of thousands of film and television images of clocks, edited together so they show the actual time. It is a thrilling journey through cinematic history as well as a functioning timepiece.

Following several years of rigorous and painstaking research and production, Marclay collected together excerpts from well-known and lesser-known films including thrillers, westerns and science fiction. He then edited these so that they flow in real time. When watching The Clock you experience a vast range of narratives, settings and moods within the space of a few minutes.

Clocks seem to be featuring in this holiday as we saw numerous sun clocks throughout Germany and Austria.

Back to the journey from Nuremberg to Southampton.

We flew from Copenhagen to Southampton in a small commuter jet operated by KLM. They have a fleet of these 80 seater jets that fly from Copenhagen to many smaller UK airports. The flight was uneventful but the welcome wonderful. With Drew's foot in a boot, I took on the driving as we ventured in the dark down to Bournemouth for the Christmas Carols concert that we have already reported, and then back to Southampton.

That was the day that was: Nurnberg to Copenhagen to Southampton to Bournemouth to Southampton. If I was a piece of fruit, you'd complain about my mileage.