For the first time in 9 months we finally had a holiday booked and flew on the 1st April to Berlin. Originally Richard & Mark were supposed to be going too, but sadly was just the two of us in the end. Getting away anywhere at Easter time can be chaotic and very expensive but we managed to get a good deal online. Of course I didn’t really look at the flight times very carefully. Even worse, a few days before we flew we received an e-mail telling us that the flight had been bought forward half an hour and was now departing at 0615AM. Not too bad if you happen to live near Luton Airport.
I called a local taxi service and ordered a car to take us there. Couldn’t be fussing around with a taxi to Kings Cross and then relying on the public train network. The taxi picked us up at 330AM and after checking in and an uneventful flight we were landing on German soil.
Taking the train was easy enough and took us into Berlin, where we should have connected to the underground and found our way to Zoologica Underground Station. But with a foreign tube map on the wall, some 300 stations and them all looking remarkably similar sounding. Something Strasse or Somethingplatz. We couldn’t even find Zoologica on the map. Tired, irritable from lack of sleep and standing in a foreign city with luggage not sure where to go I decided to grab a taxi. Which proved to be very wise. I don’t know that we would even have found the hotel with no map at that stage.
The lady at the desk of the hotel kindly let us check in albeit only 10AM, however, our room would not be ready till around 1400. We checked our luggage and made our way to a local cafe for a coffee and some brunch.
Having eaten, we found our way to the tube station and bought a daily travelcard (known as Tageskarte). We jumped on a couple of tubes trying to find one of the gay districts to no avail, until by noon we were both tired, exhausted from the journey and just wanted to shower and rest in the room. So we headed back to the Hotel where I fluttered my eyelashes and asked if there was any chance we could access our room earlier. We were in luck.
We were unpacked in a short while and then decided if we were to get the most out of our time in Berlin, best bet would be to have an afternoon nap before we hit the town. This proved a winner. By 1800 we were much refreshed, showered and headed into one of the gay districts, which now that we had a tube map & visitors guide, proved easy to find. Indeed it was only 2 stops from our own station.
Over the weekend we visited several of the gay bars around town and of course some of the obligatory things you do when in Berlin. Enjoy a beer (Usually I dislike beer but when in Rome, or Berlin for that matter), visit Check Point Charlie, The Brandenburg gate, go see the East Side Gallery at the remains of the Berlin Wall. It was almost hard to picture how things could have been back in the days of the wall and hard to believe it was only 1989 when the wall came down.
A few meals, a few bars, a few bits on the scene and before you know it our long weekend was coming to a close. Another early taxi drive in the morning had us at the airport by 730AM and by 0800 we were in the VIP lounge. Thank goodness I have a card for the lounges. Dusan says I am a snob, but I can’t bear the hustle of it all and feeling like you are in a sheep pen. At least with the card we can sit in a quiet lounge, enjoy free alcoholic beverages and snacks and relax in quiet.
When they called for our boarding we had to cram in with everyone else and despite the plane being completely full, they only offered two groups for boarding on sleazy jet. Priority Boarding and everybody else. Well you can imagine the stampede when they called general boarding. I have always said there are only really two things I don’t like about Easyjet. Their open boarding without a seat reservation and the ghastly orange colour. Nothing beats Virgins Upper Class Cabin, but sadly for short-haul, you have to make do with airlines that offer the flights.
All in all a ver gutten time.
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