Day 83: Hello, London

We checked our bags for flight (the biggest one weighed over 29kg, which is over 63 pounds. Oh my. But, the gentleman at the counter didn't really bat an eye. He weighed the rest of the bags (one was 21 kg, and the two smaller ones were just over 11kg) and since, together, they weighed within our limit, it was all good. Phew. No penalty fines.

We go through security. As usual, some are anxious. And this time... we forgot some items. I forgot to mention the laptop in Venice's bag. So her backpack was "caught" and they had to take out the laptop and run that through separately. She also beeped and had to get "wanded" and patted. I beeped AND I forgot my Fitbit was on me. So that device had to go through again and I got "wanded" and patted. But, we all make it through, in the end. It wasn't too stressful, as the people were very calm and nice about everything (again, I guess there were just some grumpy workers on the day we went through Frankfurt that first day).

By this time, we're hot and thirsty. I swear security check keeps the heat up, so that when you get to the other side, you just HAVE to buy something to drink since you have no liquids over 3oz with you. So, we do. Cokes and waters all around. Our flight has not been assigned a gate yet, so we just sit in the hall, on the floor. Side note: the Shönefeld airport doesn't have much seating. Once you are in the gate for your flight, there is seating, but until you get into a gate, there is almost nothing. So, you sit on the floor of the other side of the glass of other gates. It's not like in the U.S. where the airport amasses tons of seats accessible by all gates.

After seeing a gate assigned to our flight, we get up and make our way there. Once we go down a flight of stairs and walk down a hallway, we get into a very long line (everyone else on our flight). To get to this gate, we must go through the passport check. When it was our turn, I have to say that I kept waiting for the guy to look at us and say, "You counted wrong... you stayed too long." But he didn't. He did, however, look through every single page of our passports to see if there were other stamps in there (Chris saw this, as he's taller and could see behind the counter). Then, with great emphasis and strength, he stamped all of our passports and we were on our way... to wait in the next line!

Ok, so it's not a line, but it's our gate's waiting room. It's not big enough. Not enough seats. So we stand and wait. We eavesdrop on our neighbour's conversation (a woman has told her male travel companion a riddle... he can't figure it out... we all know the answer and are dying... we want to help him... but we can't admit we've been eavesdropping... he FINALLY gets it and we all heave a sigh of relief).

At one point, there was an announcement that our flight was ready to board, so, of course, everyone jumps up and pushes towards the doors. But, there's no airplane. We all continue standing and waiting. Ugh.

Finally, a bus comes (oh, it's one of those... we have to get on a bus to taxi us to the plane somewhere out there on the tarmac). Fine. Half of the people get onto the first bus. Then a second bus arrives and we get on with the rest of the people. And then... we wait! We stand on that dang bus for 10 minutes, all squished in like sardines.

Finally, AGAIN, we head to the plane for boarding. Finally, we are off and in the air. Side note: The Captain did apologise for all the delays we had getting onto the flight when taking off and once again upon landing. This is nice and takes a little sting out of our frustration. But I have to say, when we were delayed on the train the other day, DB gave us "I'm sorry" postcards to mail in (we don't know what we'll get from them, but they said they could send it to us in the U.S... maybe train credits?) and so, it would have been nice to get something for this delay too (although it wasn't nearly as bad... I'm just being entitled).

Well, everyone has a pretty good flight. I do too, except the guy who's sitting to my left seems to think he can have two arm rests. He uses the one on his left (near the window) and the one between us. I understand that the window seat can sometimes lack space for your feet, but you have plenty of room for your arms (he is an average sized man). But instead, he pushes my jacket down, so he can have the entire arm rest between us and elbows me often throughout the flight. Argh. Thank goodness it's a short flight (1.5 hrs) or I was going to lose it with this guy (ok, passive aggressively I was quietly thinking of spilling my drink on him).

We fill out our Landing Cards for the UK border control. We are ready to land!

There are two lines for border control. One for UK/EU passport holders and one for "everyone else". We are lucky to have arrived when we did. We are about 10th in line, but a plane soon lands behind us and the line fills up quickly to be very long. Of course, there are about 6 desks working for the UK/EU and only 1 desk for "everyone else". Luckily, they did open up a second desk, but it was still very slow going.

When it was our turn to hand over passports, we were asked quite a few questions (why are you here, how long, where will you stay, what business do you do, etc.) The border control worker was very jovial and had even heard of HotelTonight. It felt like we were at a cocktail party, getting to know someone. Needless to say, we made it through that check point just fine.

Due to our plane being delayed and whatever problems we had on the tarmac, it's past dinner time and we're hungry. So, we must eat in the airport as we are looking at a 60 minute taxi ride to our hotel. The problem is that we're in a small airport and there is one market and one restaurant. Slim pickings. But we survive. We get meals as well as food for tomorrow morning (we have an early day and are not going to be able to get breakfast).

Venice and Chris landing in London (left), The essentials of a late night (right)

Chris calls for an Uber cab (an XL so we can be comfortable on our long ride). Funny thing, even though we can read all the signs, it took us about 15 minutes to find where to meet the car! And, as we were waiting... I swear I did a double take thinking a car was "empty" as it drove by (because I was looking at the passenger seat where usually there is a U.S. driver). And, when we were finally getting into the car, Chris tried to get into the driver's seat (where the passenger seat usually is in the U.S.) American tourists at their best.

Hotel lobby

It is a one hour taxi ride. Ugh. We listen to a football match (soccer) the entire way (except for the news break they took to talk about the Soviet plane that crashed in Egypt and how flights from Egypt are delayed into London... good thing we heard this AFTER our flight... I don't think it would have helped to be reminded of this incident just before getting onto a flight). But, back to football.. he shoots... he scores! Munich 4 Arsenal 1 (by the time we were getting out of the car). Side note: Since we haven't had a chance to get cash from an ATM, Chris pays with the Uber app and all is good.

We check into the hotel, which is another funny story. While the gentleman was checking us in, I had to squint (because that helps) and listen super carefully to what he was saying. He spoke so fast and low, we could barely understand his native English. I forgot to mention, person, on the plane, who told us about drinks for order, items for sale, etc... sounded drunk with all his slurred words. I could only think about Dudley Moore in Arthur.

Anyway, it's been a long day. We have adjoining rooms. We have internet. We have an early morning planned. So it's time to catch some Zs.

Day 69: Otto Lilienthal's Fliegeberg

Postal service bicycle.

I know I sound like a broken record when mentioning the bicycles. But, here's one more observation: Postal workers use bicycles to deliver the mail. Not only is it cool that they use bicycles instead of cars (carbon footprint and all), but they leave it on the sidewalk when delivering. So, once again, there's an amount of trust and safety here in Berlin. They know no one is going to steal the mail. People are raised to follow the rules. People self-govern themselves very well, therefore, the police presence is minimal. I do like this aspect a lot. Chris has heard of two stories from coworkers who have had their cell phones stolen in London, while they were talking on them! In one instance it was a person on a motorcycle, and in another, the person was on a bicycle. I guess they wait for you to be talking on your phone (vulnerable and the phone is presumably unlocked?) and the drive up to you and just snag it away. I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous to visit there now. I will definitely be more aware of my surroundings and holding tight to my phone. And hearing these stories makes me grateful for how safe I've felt while in Berlin.

After this morning's walk, it was time for more laundry. Did I tell you about the time that I ran out of laundry detergent? It was a glorious 3 days where I couldn't do laundry. Then I bought more detergent and took two days to catch up. But this is another aspect I'm worried about when we visit England. Depending on how long we stay and where we go... I will be without a washing machine. So, will we have enough clothes to get us through or will we need to visit a laundromat? I hope their machines dry faster than the ones here. One of the cycles I pick here takes 4 hours to run and the clothes still aren't 100% dry at the end of it all. I cannot imagine sitting in a laundromat for 4 hours in London. I can't hold tightly to my phone for that long!

Ok, so for today, we're headed to Fliegeberg, or the "Fly Hill". Another destination I found in one of the Berlin books in our apartment. Otto Lilienthal, known as The Glider King, lived in Lichterfelde where he conducted many flight experiments in the late 1800s. Fliegeberg is another artificial hill (about 15 meters high) made from rubble. The Wright Brothers used his work in their early explorations of flight..

Map by someone else
We live in the upper circle while
Lichterfelde is in the lower circle

Lichterfelde is an hour away by public transportation, 40 min by car, and about 20km in distance from our apartment. We are approximately located in the middle of Berlin. When I look at a map of Berlin, it is wider than it is tall. So, if we're in the middle, and it's about an hour south, then I can guesstimate that it's about two hours travel from north Berlin to south Berlin. But if Berlin is wider than it is tall, that means, it's longer than a two hour travel from East to West. This "grade school" math problem really illustrates that Berlin, a single city, is HUGE and we really haven't seen but a smidgen of it!

So, long story short, I get online to verify that our Bahn tickets will get us there. Our monthly ticket is for section AB and if we enter section C, we have to buy an extra ticket. After searching the Bahn map, I confirm that we will be getting right up to the edge of section B, so our tickets are good. Wow. And seriously, go to the bathroom now, because who knows when we'll see another one.

As expected, we must make some transfers. Today's an M1 (tram) to the S25 (S-Bahn) to the 284 (bus) kind of day. Or course, as you move farther away from the middle of the city, transportation doesn't come as frequently. Instead of your tram coming every 5 minutes, your bus might come every 30 minutes. Or a Bahn might get cancelled (see later in our day). We know this. But it's still funny how our brains have been trained to think our tram/bahn/bus will come in just a few minutes, so when we have to wait... we're irritated (not too bad, but I notice it's not as nice).

An hour later, we arrive at our stop in Lichterfelde. As usual, I can never tell which way I'm facing as we get off public transportation. There's a green park across the street that looks pretty, so I suggest we head there while I check Google to see which way to start walking. Before we can finish crossing the street, Venice exclaims that she see's the steps to the hill. Perfect! I didn't even need to use Google.

Fliegeberg is 15 meters high and has a 360 view. Otto Lilienthal created it like this so that he could jump in any direction depending on the winds of the day.

Fall colours are in full bloom here. So excuse the numerous photos. It was more eye-candy and so, so beautiful.

Here are just a few I took of the grove nearby, iPhone pictures are not doing it justice.
Venice brought he iPod today and took some of her own photos (bottom-middle)

Xander pointing to Germany and Venice pointing to Oregon.

It's fun to imagine jumping off the hill to glide on the wind.
Xander makes his attempt (right)

There are a few boards with old photos of the hill "back in the day" (middle)
From afar, it looks like an alien spaceship (right)

I have read, somewhere, that Berlin is one third green space. I believe it. As we keep mentioning, there are parks everywhere. To the west of the hill, there is a giant park. We saw several people jogging, walking, and playing around. I heard kids through the trees. Following their sounds of "playing", we walked by a pretty pond (not to be confused with the reflecting pool in front of the hill). The sounds of the kids came from a school, so we couldn't play with the or share their equipment, however, just beyond their grounds, was a public park. The kids explored the fun equipment there, including a long path of various obstacles (they couldn't quite tell its purpose... looked more like you should ride your mountain bike over it, but everyone else was just walking/climbing all over it).

The park to the side of Fliegeberg
Venice conquers the giant silver dome.

The call of nature tells us it's time to head home. No bathrooms here. We're in the middle of a residential area. So, we must head back. Just as I was checking to see when the next bus would come... it approached us from behind. So we ran the last block to be sure we'd catch it (you know the next one probably doesn't come for another 30 minutes out here!)

On the way here, we took the bus for 11 stops. But there is another Bahn station along the way that would cut our bus ride down to 5 stops but only increase our Bahn ride by one stop. Sounds like a no brainer. So we go back this shortened way. But, to our wonderful surprise, our Bahn is canceled and the next one comes in 14 minutes. Sigh. It's the same one if we took the longer bus ride, but that's little consolation for those who need a restroom (which we didn't see in this station anywhere... but I know there was a public restroom at the OTHER station)... sigh. So we wait.

We finally arrive home and everyone is grateful for the bathrooms. And we rest comfortably until dinner.

Tonight we head to Babel (we think Lebanese) for dinner. They serve Shawarma, which is quite popular here. Chris had food from here a while ago and has wanted us to try it too. AND, this is the restaurant with the most beautiful flowers EVER. Remember them from the other day? So pretty. At least 7 large bouquets of lilies out front and at least 5 more inside the restaurant. Plus, Gerber's and Carnations on every table. The colours are a feast for your eyes as you feast on their flavourful foods. We are unsure how they sustain all these flowers on a daily basis. I'm convinced the owner also runs a flower farm. Otherwise, I just don't know how you could afford all these flowers.

I capture Venice (top-left) and she pays me back by capturing me (top-middle)
Venice takes more photos (top-right)
I capture the lilies inside (bottom-left) and some from outside (bottom-right)

The food was delivered on a giant plate with lots of different items. Salads, sauces, garnishes and lots of pomegranate seeds and mint leaves sprinkled on top. Each plate looked like your own Thanksgiving platter.

There was also a scoop of green chilli sauce on each plate. As the server placed a plate in front of Xander, he showed him the scoop and warned us that it was pretty hot. He was right! Here in Berlin, there's a bit of a joke about spicy foods. There aren't any. Even the Thai isn't spicy. Back in the U.S. we get mild Thai and often that is still too spicy for the kids. But here, even level 3 spicy is edible by the kids. So, I dug into this green chilli with this knowledge and experience. And... wow! It was super spicy. Yum. It did make me warm all the way through. Good stuff, if not heartburn inducing.

We head home with happy tummies (but some of us ate too much).