My three flights - Orlando to Philadelphia, Philly to Brussels, Brussels to Berlin - were all on time and essentially uneventful, but still ended up totaling 24 straight hours of traveling. Wow. And that only includes about two or three hours of sleep on the planes. Surprisingly, the overseas leg of the trip was on a pretty small plane. There was only one aisle with three narrow seats on each side. Every other overseas flight I've taken has been in a wide-body plane with two aisles. But at least I was sitting in the aisle seat next to two nice, slim women so I wasn't too squashed. The women spoke some other language, but I wasn't exactly sure what it was. It sounded like a cross between French and German. Finnish maybe?
After arriving in Brussels, I had a 6-hour layover until my flight to Germany. I spent some of my time taking pictures in the Brussels airport.
The international terminal had some interesting, industrial-looking architecture
Travelers heading to customs
Part of a Lego display at the airport
After an incredibly long, though successful, 24 hours I'm at the Transit-Loft Hotel in Berlin. The hotel is in a renovated factory on a quiet street near Alexanderplatz, which is a large plaza that was the center of the former East. Although I took a cab from the airport (hey, I was tired, and my bags were really heavy!), the hotel is right near the above-ground tram that takes you right to Alexanderplatz.
When I got to the hotel around 6 p.m. Berlin time (noon Florida time), the group had already gone to dinner at the famous, outdoor Prater Biergarten so I went to find the place by myself.
The walk was really nice even though I didn't know where I was going. I passed beautiful tree-lined streets with cute restaurants, shops, outdoor markets and parks. There were also a ton of dogs walking around. They all seemed to be with an owner, but barely any had leashes. They were very well behaved!
I was so relieved to finally arrive at the beer garden; about a 15 minute walk from the hotel. The place was really nice and relaxing - it literally was a huge outdoor space in the middle of the city with picnic tables, trees strung with white lights, a playground for kids and an outdoor amphitheater. Around the perimeter of the gravel covered Biergarten you could buy food and beer, and by 7:15 I was enjoying my first German brat and beer, mmmm!
After taking the scenic way home (read: we got lost) and showering, everyone is ready to pass out, and I plan to join them.
Goodnight!
No comments:
Post a Comment