We were all ready to leave home this morning for 9.30am, but I have to admit it was a bit stressful! I do sometimes ask myself it it's worth all the hassle to go away! I was dreading the flight and the chaos that is Luton airport, especially as there were major works going on.
Anyway, we were on the road and arrived at Luton at 10.45am, fifteen minutes before our arranged parking in the Long Term car park started. It didn't matter, though, as there were 2 hours free so we drove in, found a space and battled our way to the shuttle bus with all our luggage. Again, I wonder why we feel the need to take so much? We'd booked a large suitcase into the hold and at home we'd had to take stuff out of it as it had already gone over the 20kg limit! Luckily Sophie and Mike had managed to get all their clothes into their hand luggage which was great as there is no weight restriction on cabin bags!
Just as we reached the terminal on the shuttle bus, there was a lot of commotion and we realised that Andre Rieu was at the airport, along with his orchestra, I presume, as there were several large coaches holding up all the shuttle buses! Keith actually saw Andre Rieu getting onto one of the coaches, but of course, I missed seeing him! I always think he looks like an older version of Mel Gibson in Braveheart!
Once all the coach drivers had sorted themselves out, we went in search of the information boards and were a bit dismayed to see that our flight was delayed by about 45 minutes. The terminal was a bit chaotic and there were very few places to sit but we found a table near Burger King and sat down to wait. All of a sudden we saw two armed policemen come along with a dog and they asked us if two cases nearby (and left unattended) were ours? Did we know who they belonged to? We said no and they started to look a bit alarmed. There were several armed policemen about and suddenly the luggage owner appeared to claim them, He received a right earful from one of the policemen, and quite rightly as well. He was stupid to leave them and we hadn't even noticed! The dog was in and out and sniffing everything and we learnt he was an explosives dog, so that was very reassuring!
By now, our flight had come up on the information board asking us to go to bag drop, so we rushed off and had our bag seen to by a very friendly easyJet staff member who showed us how to use the automated bag drop machine. There were no quibbles over weight so we felt very relieved!
As soon as we were rid of the case we went through to Security and more hassle. Luckily none of us were searched (we've learnt our lesson there, mark my words!) and we walked through into Departures which was teeming with people. There is a lot of work going on here at the moment and absolutely no seats to speak of, which I found very annoying. We had an early lunch in Frankie & Benny's of pizza, beefburger (Mike) and chicken wings but as the service was so speedy we were soon back out into the melee.
Luckily we managed to find some seats and whiled away the time until we could go to the gate and board. When we arrived the plane wasn't even there and we found out that we were late because of a knock-on effect of problems earlier in the day. The foggy conditions at Luton might even have been to blame. We were informed that there were too many cabin bags to go on the plane and that we could check in bags into the hold for free. We took advantage of this because our bags were just full of clothes, although Sophie did take her little bag of rings out as she said she couldn't replace them. We were given a receipt for the bags and told to leave them by the steps when we boarded.
Our seats were in the very back row and Keith sat in the aisle seat opposite us. When a couple got on with their baby (about six months I would guess) we looked at him in horror as they asked if they could have his aisle seat as it would make it easier for them. He agreed and I said to Sophie that this could be a difficult flight with the baby being so young...
In fact, the baby was a pure delight from start to finish! He smiled, gurgled and was very happy sitting on his parents' laps, playing with a paper bag and a rattle. He was so gorgeous I could have taken him home with me! The flight was great and seemed to be over very quickly, which was a bonus!
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| The obligatory "on the plane" photo! |
We arrived in Berlin at about 5pm and sped through passport control and baggage reclaim. As it was later than normal we'd all agreed on taking a taxi to our hotel, the Wall Street Park Plaza, which was a very short walk from the hotel we normally stay in.
Once outside the airport we joined the queue for the taxis and were allocated the next one in line. He turned out to be a mad driver and the (thankfully) short drive to the hotel was a bit hair-raising! Once our luggage was in the boot, he screeched off at speed and we joined the autobahn. He then proceeded to dodge in and out of the traffic and went far faster than was reasonable. I sat in the back with Sophie and Mike and felt very anxious indeed. At one point he nearly hit a car in front as he was dodging in and out so quickly. I heaved a huge sigh of relief when we turned off the autobahn and his speed was dictated by the heavy traffic.
Just before we reached our hotel we passed the Jewish museum and he suddenly came alive, pointing it out to us and then telling us that Checkpoint Charlie was nearby. Bizarre! Up until then he'd barely spoken (except for a phone call) so that was a bit strange!
We checked into the hotel feeling very thankful we were still alive and went up to our rooms on the first floor. We were delighted to find that our rooms were next to one another (Sophie was sharing a twin room with Mike) and that we also had a little foyer with another door leading to the corridor. It meant we could close this outer door for privacy but still have our own doors open. This was great as we unpacked and put everything away.
Keith went downstairs to the bar while the rest of us freshened up and I had a good look at the room. We had a big bed, a spacious bathroom, a safe, mini bar and plenty of storage space for our clothes. There were Wall Street references everywhere - the carpet was a dollar note - and a quote above the bed about stocks and shares. The other good thing was that we had access to BBC1 and BBC2 and the ITV and Channel 4 stations.
We found Keith in the bar with a beer and I was a bit disconcerted to see the prices. Mike was still getting ready so Sophie and I had a beer and Keith had another small one and the bill was almost 15 euros! A small beer was 4,90 e which I thought was really steep.
Mike joined us for a beer and then we walked over to the Nikolaiviertal but we popped into the Grosser Kurfurst on the way to see if their bar was open. It was ! Typical! There were still a lot of roadworks going on outside the Grosser Kurfurst and it seemed to concern the bridge over the river. We walked along to the main thoroughfare and crossed over, noticing that there was something missing on the other side of the road...we could see the Television Tower already...was it a building?
It was a cold night and we had a look around the cobbled streets first before heading to the George Brau restaurant for dinner. There didn't seem to be that many people about but the brewery restaurant was busy with people eating and drinking. Keith led us to some high stools at first but I found them very uncomfortable so we ended up sitting at the same table as last year!
We were a bit worried that nobody had noticed us at first, but then a very friendly waiter popped up and gave us some English menus. We ordered beers all round, but I went for a darker beer which was delicious.
We are certainly creatures of habit as we went for almost the same meals as last year! Sophie had to have her potato and sausage soup while Keith, Mike and I went for the tomato and meatball soup. The starters were delicious and served with crusty brown rolls. Sophie, Keith and I opted for the pork schnitzel for a main course while Mike chose the hearty goulash served with potato dumplings. There was a constant stream of people in and out of the restaurant but the cold air cooled us down a little as it was a bit warm in the building.
The food was filling but unexceptional and we certainly didn't have room for dessert! As we were all a bit tired we decided to head back to the hotel for an early night. When we got back I went into the loo and suddenly Sophie came running in saying there'd been a terrorist attack at one of the Christmas markets in Berlin.
I was so shocked by what she said - about five or six weeks ago I'd read in the newspaper that the Christmas Markets were a target for terrorists and I'd felt a shiver of fear run through me, but I never believed it would happen in Berlin. I felt sick about what had happened and the news certainly put a dampener on our evening.
I quickly called my parents to reassure them that we were fine but they hadn't seen the news yet as it had only happened about an hour ago. We then had a flood of worried friends trying to get in contact with us on Facebook, which was nice. We learnt that the market by the Kaiser Wilhelm church had been targeted by a hijacked lorry who drove into the market killing twelve people. It was sickening. It felt like we were in a bad dream.
Rather than have an early night we stayed up to watch the news and find out what was going on. At first the police didn't know if it was a real terrorist attack or just a tragic accident but we all felt that there was something sinister going on. Poor Berlin - our hearts go out to the people involved.
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