My wake-up call was for 5am, because we needed to meet down in the lobby at 6am to catch our shuttle to the train station. Volkswagen graciously provided this transportation, but it would be the end of our concierge treatment this trip. While I'm thinking of it, I would like to thank all the people of Volkswagen who treated us so well on this trip, from our contact, Jill Bratina all the way to the drivers who gladly took us where we needed to go (when we weren't driving ourselves).

The driver took us to the train station in Berlin ... a massive multi-level transportation hub that was quite easy to navigate, even without speaking German. We found our gate and even had time to buy a few souvenirs before our train left. Lugging all of our equipment, our luggage and our tired bodies, Greg and I made it to the platform with several minutes to spare. We got on the train and I almost immediately fell asleep. Before I knew it the train was slowing down, entering Hanover.

We quickly grabbed up all our stuff and left the train. Standing on the platform, we were pretty much on our own for the first time since arriving in Germany. Looking for a representative of the train service, I used the phrase I had come to say with expert diction over the last few days ... "Spracken ze Englis?" (I didn't say I knew how to spell it). Thankfully, many people in Germany speak English and we found out that a city train to the airport would leave in 20 minutes, or a taxi ride in would take only 20 minutes. We chose the cab, fearing getting to the airport late and causing a chain-reaction of missing flights.

So, we started our day in a VW van, then a high-speed train, now a VW cab (Germans really LIKE das Auto) and we were about to board a small commuter jet to be taken to Paris where we would catch our Air France transatlantic flight back to Atlanta. I'm typing this on the commuter jet and plan to post this blog from the Charles de Gaulle airport.

So I guess that means it's time for a recap. Without repeating anything I've already said, let me just say that Europe has changed much since my last visit as a member of the U.S. Navy back in the late 70s. What I remember as a slightly backward, dirty, smelly place then is now a state-of-the-art technologically advanced union of nations that has come together to make positive changes for all their citizens. I will remember most the smells of the bistros along the Champs Elysee in Paris and the Bauhaus's in Germany. I will remember then helpful town-folk of Wolfsburg and the beautiful quaint city that VW calls home. I will remember the historic city of Berlin. And I will remember the camaraderie of working closely with Greg Glover under very trying conditions with multiple, tight deadlines. He was a true gentleman. Currently he's asleep in the seat to my right, getting some much-deserved rest. I calculated it. During this entire trip, from the time we hit the ground in Paris to leaving the ground from Hanover, we each got only 15 or 16 hours sleep (that depends on if you count when I nodded off during an engineering lecture).

I would also like to thank our boss, Derrall Stalvey for making this trip and our assignment possible, all the producers back at the station who kept their heads when we were waiting for a slow internet connection to deliver the story that was in their show with airtime fast approaching, online producer Mike Andrews for keeping our blogs posted and to all the people at Volkswagen's communications department who assisted us in getting to the places we needed to go and getting the footage we needed to tell the story.

If you don't mind, now, I'm going to close the laptop and get a few winks before we arrive in Paris. - Louis Lee