Goodbye Berlin

Well all good things must come to an end.  After 46 days of travel, it was time to return home.  The main airport in Berlin is very old & overcrowded, so I decided to get there a few hours before my flight. I checked out of the hotel at 6:40 am & headed to the bus for the airport 1.5 blocks away.  The airport is only a 30 minute bus ride with buses leaving every 10 minutes for the airport.  I arrived at the airport at 7:30 am, just over 2 hours before my flight.

Then I got my boarding passes for the 3 flights that I needed to get home & checked my bag.  I am glad I got there early, later on there was a very long line at my gate to get a boarding pass.

Unfortunately things did not get off to a good start.  I boarded the plane 15 minutes late & then after landing, we had to wait 15 minutes for a gate.  Then just as I am getting ready to exit the plane, an alarm goes off & the exit ramp door closes.  It takes 5 minutes for it to reopen.  This day is not starting well.  

It takes about 10 minutes to get to immigration & the immigration guy spends about 2 minutes going through my passport trying to figure where I entered the EU.  I had 8 passport stamps in the first 2 weeks of my trip & I tell him it was Slovenia.  I get my passport stamped & board the plane for my 8.5 hour flight from Frankfurt to Washington DC.  After everyone is on the plane, the pilot announces a 45 minute delay in departure due to heavy traffic at the airport.

Shortly after we takeoff, the Asian woman in front of me reclines her seat all the way back into my knees & rocks back in her seat a few times.  I decide that I am not dealing with this for the whole flight.  After a few knees to the back of her seat & a little push to her seat, she turns around & looks at me.  I say nothing, but start thinking of this scene from Seinfeld.  She decides to return her seat to the normal position.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x41kvs_seinfeld-s8e04-the-little-kicks-you_shortfilms

I watch 3 movies & a documentary to pass the time.  We arrive about 35 minutes late & have to go through immigration, customs, & security again which takes 45 minutes.  I then have to walk through 2 terminals to get to my gate.  They announce a delay to a flight at my gate because the plane was hit by lightning, luckily it was not my plane & was one going to Texas.  We board on time for the 1.5 hour flight to Charleston.  After we board, the pilot announces that he needs to set up a new flight plan to avoid some storms.  Eventually this turns into a 50 minute delay on the runway as the airport is very busy.  There is a 6 year old girl crying because she thinks our plane is going to crash & she wants off the plane.  Can this day get any worse?

We finally take off & the little girl eventually shuts up.  We make up some time in the air & arrive 30 minutes late.  After claiming my bag, I contact Uber for a ride from the airport & arrive home around 8:30 pm (20 hours after checking out of my hotel!!).  Unfortunately even though I am exhausted, it will take 3-4 days to adjust to the 6 hour time difference.  I am up at 3:30 am the next day.  I pick up 7 weeks of mail at the post office, run some errands, & get a much needed haircut.

I noticed during my trip that my pants were looser & I had lost a little weight.  I weighed 185 lbs when I left for my trip & was shocked to see that I had lost 17 lbs.  I have not been under 170 lbs since 2011. I guess my pizza, kebab, schnitzel, perogi, octopus, & bratwurst diet must have been the key to losing weight.  Although I am sure the 4-5 miles/day of walking, 25 miles/week of running, & not much snacking between meals also helped.  Hopefully I can stay at this weight for awhile or something close.  Maybe I could market this Eastern European diet & make some money from it.

I took 4,000 photos on my trip & plan to upload some of my best ones to a photo sharing website over  the weekend.  I am going to do a post in the next few days of my top photos.

I already have a few ideas for another trip sometime over the next 12 months. The Baltic region along with Russia, Finland, & northern Poland are places I want to visit.  Greece, Albania, & Montenegro also interest me along with Ecuador & the Galapogos Islands.  Additionally there are some National Parks out West that I want to see in the next few years.

Potsdam

Potsdam is on the outskirts of Berlin & is known for its palaces and gardens.  I decided to do a day trip there which takes just over an hour by commuter train from Berlin.  I got there around 10:30 am & purchased a day pass to see the palace buildings.  There were some nice gardens plus Sanssocui palace is the main reason most people visit this area.

I did a lot of walking since all the buildings are spread out over a large area.  I visited the new palace, Chinese house, a church plus a few other buildings.  I headed back to Berlin around 3:00 pm.  Here are a few more photos from my trip to Potsdam.

Berlin

The train ride to Berlin was very nice with only two stops in Dresden, then direct to Berlin.  The train was not very full & the ride was fairly smooth.  The main train station in Berlin is huge & very modern.  I picked up a 5 day welcome Berlin card for $45 which covers all transit in town plus discounts on tours & to museums.  After that I headed to the Park Inn in the eastern part of Berlin for another free 2 night stay.  The hotel is a short walk from the metro train.  I had a regular room in the hotel which seems a little old & the area is a little rough with graffiti on some of the nearby buildings. 

Down the street from my 1st hotel in Berlin.

Over the next two days I visit the DDR museum, the Berlin cathedral, Checkpoint Charlie museum, the Berlin Wall, & the Eastside Gallery which is a graffiti art wall on another section of the Berlin Wall near the river.  I also went on a 4 hour walking tour, very informative & only $12.  

I didn't realize when I decided to finish my trip in Berlin that it was the same weekend as the European soccer championships.  I am not sure how I was able to use my points to book a room.  The Berlin transit system is very complex, so I had been using an app to figure out which trains to take to get from place to place.  It worked great until I needed to get from my first hotel to my second hotel.  There is a streetcar & subway stop with the same station name, but I found later that they were in two different parts of town.  I chose the wrong one & ended up on the outskirts of town, it took me more than hour to get back to the right place.

My last hotel is the Art'oel on the west side of Berlin.  It was in one the nicest neighborhoods in Berlin.  I had 2 nights free plus one night that I paid for ($65) & took advantage of a promotion to get 35,000 points.  This is enough for 2-3 free nights.  The hotel had an Andy Warhol theme with his artwork in the hallways & in the rooms.  I wasn't happy with my stay there, the AC didn't work, wifi was very slow, & they didn't clean my room on the final day.

I decided to do some people watching on the day of the soccer game.  There were tons of fans all over town.  The Barcelona fans seemed to outnumber the Italian fans by about 20 to 1.  While I was watching the fans, they had two old guys performing skateboard tricks.  They were really good.  

I am sure the blonde policewoman strikes fear in anyone up to no good.

There was also another area with people bungee jumping from a high rise hotel. I watched the game on TV, it wasn't very close.  Barcelona won 3-1.

I wanted to visit the Olympic stadium, but unfortunately it was closed to tours because of the soccer game.  I did get a few photos from outside the stadium.

I did get in a few runs at Tiergarten park, which is where the Berlin marathon starts.  The park is huge with lots of runners.  I went to the Bradenburg gate a few times, but couldn't get any good photos since the soccer fan fest (for 5 days!!!) took place there.  I also visited Charlottenburg palace on my last day & walked around some different parts of town.  

Even though I had been to Berlin 15 years ago, a lot had changed & it was a cool place to visit.  After having lots of German food over the last week, I decided to go to an American themed restaurant for my last dinner on my trip that was a few blocks from my hotel.

I noticed that even though the 80s punk rock style has gone away in the USA, many people in Berlin still dress that way.

My flight from Berlin to Frankfurt is at 9:45 am, then I go from there to Dulles, & on to Charleston arriving at 7:00 pm ( I hope).  I don't have any tight connections, so hopefully things will go smoother then they did on my trip over.  I really don't feel like running through any airports this time or spending an extra 6 hours stuck somewhere.  The Berlin airport is very small & outdated, so I am going to get there at least 2 hours before my flight to give myself plenty of time to check in.  Overall this trip has been a great experience, I visited 11 countries & stayed in 19 cities over 47 days.  But it will be nice to be home & to take it easy for awhile.

Here are some photos from my 5 days in Berlin.