To Berlin

ooohhhhhh--It was E-A-R-L-Y. 4:30am. The kids had stayed up all night. Why bother going to sleep when you can sleep on a plane. Only eight of us went to Berlin, the rest of the family needing to get back to the real work and their lives...



It's never fun to leave one of the Crystal Girls behind..but when no one is stirring, it's just a touch easier....



but work never really stops.....

Because no cruise line ever wants its travelers to miss a flight, we got to the airport early...even before we could check in. Sleep came easily to the party bunch in the "under 20" set...



And, when the "grown-ups" moved the luggage...most of the kids stirred, but not all.



We considered outlining her body with chalk, like a crime scene investigation...



I guess now would be a great time to mention that, should you be an international traveler with two pieces of luggage....you only get one freebie domestically in Europe....20 kilos. Not knowing this in advance, we learned it the HARD way....After a giant hoo-haw back and forth between Air Berlin ticketing, Swedish luggage handling, ATMs, Currency Exchange (remember this is all at 6am), we handed over an average of $100 EACH to get our luggage to Berlin.

Grumpy Guy and I landed in Berlin with heightened emotions. When we were last in this beautiful city, it was 1985 and there was a Cold War raging. The divided Berlin held so many memories for us, as we traveled there many times while we lived in Germany. But I wasn't prepared for the flood of joyous feelings at returning to a city celebrating the 20th anniversary of its reunification.

I've never experienced such speed of deplaning and luggage retrieval. Seriously. Every airport agency should study the procedures of Tegel Airport. We were in the van with our luggage in under 15 minutes from stepping off the plane.

The obligatory explanation to the kids that President Kennedy called himself a jelly doughnut....





And we arrived our WONDERFUL hotel...Grand Hotel Esplanade. The kids were exhausted (go figure) so GG, CruiseGran, Larry and I took off for a stroll and lunch.

The guys move faster than the girls do...



and we settled down at the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz for lunch at Josty



Wierd feeling number one---Potsdamer Platz of my memory was an empty field next to The Wall...not some magnificent modern bit-of-everything that surrounded me.





I could tell it was going to be a wild five days.

We cabbed it home due to rain.


After consulting the concierge, we chose an Italian restaurant, Sorriso, within walking distance to the hotel for supper. The park along the way had some interesting sculptures...one of which couldn't help but remind us of the Arkansas Razorbacks....



and the food was so good at Sorriso, we went back the next night as well!!!


We were tired, and ready for a good night's sleep to be ready to tackle Berlin (version 2.0)!


Something about the trash bins in Berlin just cracked me up...there are about ten different versions, but here's the first one that caught my eye...