We were having breakfast at 8.30am again but it was still busy! We saw the French women and they looked a little worse for wear this morning!
Our flight wasn't until 9.30pm this evening so we had a full day to enjoy. We were determined not to just wander aimlessly about so we'd decided on a plan last night to make the most of our time. We still had our train tickets from yesterday, validated at 11am, so we decided to take the train all the way to the Olympic stadium and spend a few hours there.
We already knew that there was construction work on the line further up, so we took the U2 to Zoologischer Garten and then changed onto the S Bahn to Olympia Stadion. It took us a while to find the entrance to the S Bahn platform, but we managed it in the end and took a train that was headed, ultimately, for Spandau. The train was a bit worse for wear and scruffy, but it did an excellent job of getting us to the very quiet station. I should think, that when Hertha Berlin play here, it's rammed with people!
We emerged from the station and walked to the stadium. It was a beautiful day and the sky was blue. What a bonus!
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| Sophie recreating a pose from 2016! |
Although it wasn't as cold as the last time we visited, we still enjoyed a hot chocolate in the stadium restaurant before having a walk around.
It was very quiet with only a few people visiting, and Keith bought himself a Hertha Berlin hat in the Fan Shop. We walked around the entire stadium, gazing at the two pools with a shiver! The real problem today was finding a loo for women as they all seemed to be closed!
We stayed for about an hour and a half and then returned to the station. It was empty and we had a horrible feeling that no trains were running back to the city. We wanted to board a train to Alexanderplatz and we eventually found the right platform and a train arriving in about five minutes. The single train fare back was 3 euros each.
Although the wearing of masks was still supposed to be mandatory, it was a bit hit-and-miss. Some people didn't, and I have to confess that we didn't most of the time, as we had got out of the habit of wearing face coverings. However, we weren't challenged and as I said earlier, no one ever asked to see our tickets! The train going back was busy as it passed through Berlin's main station, Hauptbahnhof and then Alexanderplatz, where you can get a train to the airport.
A cosy lunchtime treat.
From Alexanderplatz, we walked towards the Nikolai quarter and I suggested a lovely pub called Zum Nussbaum. I'd always wanted to try it, and when we went in the barman said there was a five-minute wait for a table. The pub was surrounded by scaffolding, which was a shame, as it's a lovely "old" building (rebuilt after the Second World War) and this affected our views of the surrounding area, plunging the old pub into premature gloom!
We took our seats and had a look at the menu. Sophie and I chose the fried sausage with potatoes, while Keith ate his with bread. We all drank delicious dark beers.
We had a very pleasant lunch, and the atmosphere was wonderful, The room we were in had dark panelling and old pictures on the walls. At night, I should think it's lovely and cosy. I would love to go back, and in the summer they have a Biergarten where you can sit outside.
After we'd eaten, we wandered about the Nikolai quarter and had a look in a beautiful shop specialising in wooden Christmas decorations and lace. I picked out a gorgeous lace panel for the table at Christmas, and Sophie chose a little lace decoration for the tree and a lace hanging for her room. The woman who owned the shop was wonderful, and we chatted about our new King Charles.
It was almost 4pm by now so we headed back to the hotel, paid our bill and collected our luggage. Sophie called up an Uber as they were quoting 52 euros to get to the airport, which we thought was reasonable. He arrived within minutes and that was it! Goodbye to the hotel!
Homeward bound.
Our Uber driver was a strange fellow. He didn't want Keith sitting in the front with him, so all three of us were squeezed into the back. All the time, he kept up a running conversation with someone on the phone, muttering away nonstop! He drove carefully, though, and kept to the speed limit on the autobahn!
The new airport was certainly a huge improvement from the old one, and we were able to check in our suitcase far earlier than we'd expected. We made it through security without mishap and decided to go into the Templehof Lounge for a little luxury. The lounge was miles away, but it was worth it. It was my treat and cost 45 euros each, money well spent in my opinion, as we were there for about four hours.
We sat by an enormous window overlooking the "apron" and watched the planes come and go. There were lots of food and drink available - beers, wines, and all manner of spirits including Japanese whiskey, soft drinks and hot drinks. There was a hot meal available - meatballs with gnocchi-type pasta, salad, cold meats, soup, cookies and sweets. There were huge pretzels and everything was stocked up continuously by the staff.
We sat and read quietly for a while with a drink (I had a non-alcoholic beer) and then we moved to another part of the lounge to have something to eat. It gradually became busier, but it was never a problem and there was always room. It was blissfully quiet! At the old airport, there were never any seats and EasyJet had its own departure terminal which was always busy with people. What an improvement! We couldn't get over it!
At about 7.30pm our gate was shown but we didn't leave the lounge until about 8pm, and that proved to be too early. When you leave the lounge you can go straight through to passport control, and then the gates are after this. We left, had our passports stamped, and our gate was a two-minute walk away! Sophie was not happy as she said we could have stayed longer (I agreed) but as we'd never been to this new airport before, I wasn't sure how long it would take us to get to the gate.
Keith took himself off to Duty-Free and bought a bottle of Dornfelder red wine and some chocolates for my Mum. He said he was completely out of euros but later found a 20-euro note! We boarded the plane at about 9pm and once in my seat I fell asleep again, and slept for the whole of the flight!
Arriving at Luton was not pleasant. There weren't enough buses to take all the passengers from the flights that had landed, so we had to wait for about fifteen minutes. Then we had to queue up for a while to get through our own immigration desks, with some of them being manned by the army because of the strikes by officials. Of course, the machine didn't want to know when I put my passport into it so it had to be manually checked. Typical!
In baggage reclaim, it was a total scrum and there were loads of cases sitting waiting in corners of the large hall... I have no idea why unless they had been unloaded and the passengers were held up? We scooted through customs and were soon out and joining another scrum of people waiting for buses and coaches. We missed one Airparks bus and had to wait about twenty minutes for the next one. Next to us was a coach bound for London Victoria, and an argument erupted between a woman and the driver. I felt sorry for people who had to endure a journey into London at 11pm at night. Horrible!
Our bus driver was clearly a maniac who had been let out of the asylum, and at one point he nearly hit a car, braking suddenly so we all fell forward! As we neared the car park all of the interior lights went out, plunging us into darkness, which was quite disconcerting!
Back at the dark and very wet car park we found the car, loaded it up and gingerly drove out. I was expecting to pay another sum of money as I'd foolishly booked a space only until 11pm and it was now almost midnight. However, the barrier went up and we were on our way!
The drive home was dark but uneventful, and we arrived at almost 1am. We were all shattered but I had a mug of hot chocolate (stolen from our room) and Keith had a cup of tea. The house was freezing cold and felt strangely empty without our little Monty-cat.
We dumped the case in the living room and went to bed! It was so great to be back in our bed!
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