Now I know it's my last night here in Bad Homburg, Germany. I know I have to fly back home in mere hours. But, because a big part of me doesn't want to accept that I am actually leaving, I'm going to leave most of the details of my final week until the next blog post. So let's remain upbeat and positive! After all, due to the time lag with my posts, it's still the end of week 7 in my mind!

Still reeling from the awesome weekend spent in Berlin (yes, I said "awesome" in a post that can be read by potential employers - Berlin is THAT good) I started my week by running my now operational project system. Although by no means perfect, it was a good start knowing that my efforts were visibly paying off! With the system now working better than ever I set about ironing out the kinks and tweaking values within the software to ensure that I had complete control in case anything went wrong - it's not great when a component breaks and you end up soaking wet! I swear sometimes my colleagues and I are just working on the world's most expensive water guns ...

Since I had Friday off to relax on my last full weekend here the week flew by in no time! Badminton was a fast and furious hour requiring lightning quick reactions for Sebastian and I to beat our opponents! Unfortunately we didn't have reactions quite that quick and so ended up getting "tagged" several times before losing - but it was still fantastic fun! Socialising with colleagues after work has definitely been one of the highlights of my placement here, as you get to see another side to them that's not always revealed in the office. I think it creates a greater sense of community and it's certainly helped me feel welcome!

My weekend travels were the last use of my magic train ticket as I went to visit Zurich, meeting Rhona in Basel on the way. My choice of city didn't disappoint - we saw the university, climbed up the Grossmunster and took pictures from the top of one of the towers, walked all around the old town and enjoyed a couple of brilliant Swiss hot chocolates. It's times like this that I wish we had hot chocolate that good in Scotland ... course I would never leave the coffee shops which sold them!

And so, with my travelling at an end, I have seen many interesting and wonderful places on my weekends - towns and cities spanning 3 countries! I think that my location in Bad Homburg has been perfect for exploring Germany and Europe, in any direction, and this has then allowed me to learn so much more about the German history and people - something I have really appreciated. Thank you to Saltire for placing me here!

I wish everyone safe flights home, and will see you all soon! Cheers for reading,

Iain