We had a great journey down to Luton and left home at 9.30am. The traffic was light and we were pulling up at the Long Term parking by 10.30am.
I was dreading all the security procedures and bag drop but it all went very smoothly. Our big suitcase was just a tiny bit over, at 20.1kg, so not much room to manoeuvre coming home! The security was very thorough - the alarm went off as it normally does - so I was frisked all over but the check was soon over and we were free to go into Departures.
We decided to have brunch in Frankie and Benny's as there weren't many places to sit and relax. Keith and I shared a ham and mushroom pizza while Sophie chose chicken strips and Mike had a whole smoky pizza to himself.
Sophie treated herself to some jewellery in Accessorize and then it was time to go to our gate for boarding. We'd pre-booked our seats both ways and the flight was full. As we were taxiing to the runway it was pouring with rain - the earlier blue skies and sunshine had disappeared while we were inside the airport but as I had a window seat I was soon able to take some photos of the gorgeous realm above the clouds.
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| From this... |
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| To this! |
Coming in to land I saw acres of dark woods and lakes, an area outside Berlin I'd love to explore. It all looked so pretty in the setting sun.
We landed at 4.15pm Berlin time and we were through passport control and baggage reclaim very quickly. When we emerged from the airport it was dark and although not cold, the wind was quite brisk. We trudged over to the station with our bags, a new experience for Mikey who had only ever been in a taxi to the hotel. I'm not sure he was impressed! On the way a very friendly man gave us his day pass tickets for the train so we only had to buy two single journey passes.
We returned the good deed by helping a very bewildered Japanese couple and explaining to them that they needed the exact change for the ticket machines and that they mustn't forget to get them validated.
We had just missed the 5pm train so we had to wait until 5.45pm for the next Airport Express to get to Alexanderplatz. We amused ourselves by taking photos and trying to keep warm in the, by now, cold wind!
Alexanderplatz was very busy with commuters going home and the usual assortment of beggars, homeless people and strange individuals. We made our way to the U2 line and very soon we were at our hotel, the Grosser Kurfurst. The last time we'd stayed here we said we were going to try somewhere new but we decided to give it another chance as the location is so good.
The woman on Reception wasn't the most friendly of individuals and made Keith and I fill out a form with all our details. Keith asked about breakfast and whether the hotel would accept a deal with us to pay 8 euros per person, per day rather than the 16 they were asking for. We would have paid them 96 euros upfront but she was having none of it and said we could go over to their sister hotel, the Henriette, where breakfast was 9,50 euros.
We were briskly handed our room keys up on the fourth floor and that was it...we had been dismissed! The hotel seemed very quiet and we were dismayed to see that the bar was closed.
Beers all round!
After quickly unpacking (luckily our rooms were next to each other) we ventured out into the night to the Nikolai quarter. Our plan was to go to Otello bar for a drink and then eat at Reinhard's but Otello was closed as well! Not a great start! A notice on the door of Reinhard's said the restaurant was closing at 9pm for a private party so we went in and booked a table for Tuesday night. Phew! The best laid plans!
We looked at a few menus before going to the Georgbraeu, a pub and restaurant with its own brewery. The place was quite lively and we perched on wooden stools around a table. Keith ordered beers all round, much to Mike's delight!
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| Daytime view of the Georgbraeu |
The beer was lovely and just what we needed after our long journey. The waitress brought us an English menu and we took a table near the main entrance door. We were glad it wasn't cold as there was a constant movement of people in and out. We chose soup for starters - potato and sausage for Sophie and me, pea soup for Keith and tomato soup for Mike. The waitress warned us they were big portions and they were! They were very delicious though and soon disappeared!
For our main courses we enjoyed pork schnitzel (Sophie and I) while Keith and Mike chose half a duck served with potato dumplings and red cabbage. The men just about managed to eat the duck, let alone the cannon balls of potato!
We certainly couldn't manage dessert and all of us were now happy to head back to the hotel and bed. On the way we passed the open air cinema that was there last year and saw people enjoying Gluhwein and crepes while watching an old black and white film. All the shops and restaurants were lit up for Christmas and the whole area looked beautiful.
We walked back to the hotel and before long we were all in bed!
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