Berlin Airport

I am sitting in the Berlin airport at the moment. My parents wanted to arrive early to be sure that we would have decent seats on our domestic flight to Munich. It turns out you only need to be an our early for a domestic flight, not 3. But how were they to know right?
We are sitting in a little room waiting to board our plane, we still have about an hour and a half wait.
While going through customs I was checked very thoroughly. Anything on me that was metal set off the detector. In the beginning they didn’t make us take off shoes or jewelry or anything like that. Of course I wore shoes that had buckles and zippers and jewelry so I had to be taken aside and frisked to make sure I was not smuggling anything.
I have had a lot of fun in Berlin. I am hoping that Munich will be just as nice. Berlin is an amazing city. It has so much history to it I wish we could have been here a little bit longer. The city is a mixture of old and new. Much of the city was leveled during WWII so there are many places where beautiful old building are standing directly next to modern skyscrapers.
We left Dusseldorf on Sunday at about 9 in the morning. We arrived in Berlin a little after 13:30. We had taken the train which was a little longer then flying. Our hotel was only about a 5 minute taxi ride from the Berlin main train station. We stayed at a Marriott Hotel. It was very nice. We were staying on the executive floor so we were allowed access to the upstairs lounge which included free breakfast, and snacks and small food throughout the day. This was really nice because it helped to save money. We could eat breakfast in our hotel and then go out and get something in the city for lunch. Most of the days none of us were very hungry for a large meal in the evening so the evening snacks were great. For the evening snacks there was soup, salads, pasta, fruit, bread, cheeses, and many other things. There was also wine and beer set out for you to take.
We didn’t do much when we arrived in Berlin. We were all exhausted. We went to lunch at the hotel restaurant downstairs. The food was pretty good. I had a Caesar Salad which I thought was really good because there really aren’t many salads in Germany. After that we went back to the room and I fell asleep.
I was really tired because I had not slept at all the night before. There had been something moving on my floor at about 23:00 and it was so big I thought it was a mouse. I was wrong, it was a giant German spider. I went to go get a shoe so that I could safely remove it (squish it), but when I returned it was gone. The fact that I couldn’t find it freaked me out the most. I kept the lights on all night. I could not stand the thought of a giant spider crawling around me while I was sleeping so I did the most reasonable thing. I stayed awake all night watching movies with a shoe right by my side. Needless to say the spider was never seen again…
After my much needed nap in Berlin I joined my parents in the lounge. We ate our dinner there and stayed until about 22:00. We were all still exhausted so we went to bed.
In the morning we caught a city tour bus. It was a hop on hop off bus which allowed us to get off of the bus at any stop we wanted and get back on again at anytime. I thought that this was a great idea because it allowed us to see all of the big sites as well as listen to information about the city through the headphones that were provided at each seat.
We didn’t get off of the bus all that often. Many of the museums were closed and it was interesting listening to the rich history of the city. We did get off at the Charlottenburg Palace. There is a museum there, but of course it was closed so we got back on the bus and finished our tour.
The next time we got off was at the Brandenburg Gate. This was a really neat area. We decided we had been sitting enough on the bus so thought we would walk back to our hotel. This was nice because it was not such a long walk.
We walked around a bit and decided to get lunch at a German brewery restaurant near our hotel. The food was ok. Dad and I got a meter of beer to share. After that we went back to the hotel room and of course all of us fell asleep again. Mom and I on the two beds and Dad in the chair.
In the evening we continued our pattern of going to the lounge, eating a small meal there and then going back to the room to watch a film. It would have been nice to go exploring the city some more in the evening but it was just too cold. None of us really wanted to bundle up again and head out into the cold. Also we did not really know where to go in the evening. We were also quite content just staying in the room.
On Tuesday morning we got up early had some breakfast and headed out to the Berlin Zoo. I of course love zoos and am glad that my parents don’t mind going to them with me. It was a bit chilly in the morning but it was no where as cold as it had been when I was in Paris or Amsterdam. I thought the zoo was great. We got to see a Giant Panda, Lions, lots of different types of penguins, and of course the famous Polar Bear Knut. The zoo was huge. It was the biggest zoo that I have ever been to.
After we had been to the zoo we decided to go to the Alexander plaza. This is a large shopping area. I was amazed at how many shops there were. I of course would have loved to do some shopping, but dad was hungry and there was only a food court in the mall. We left the mall and headed back towards the Sony Center which was right next to our hotel.
We decided to eat at an Australian restaurant. There was Kangaroo on the menu. I did not realize you could eat kangaroo but it was later confirmed by my Australian friend who also told me that it is very high in protein with 2% fat, it became legal to eat in 1993, and it tastes a bit like deer. Although convincing, these facts did not persuade me to order a meal with kangaroo meat in it.
After lunch we walked around the Sony Center a bit and then went back to our hotel room. We followed our same routine for the evening and watched another film before going to bed. Although it was the most excited super intense trip, I had a lot of fun in Berlin. I would however like to go back again sometime when it was warmer.