Arrival in Berlin

After all the fun and laugher I had in Wegberg I was sorry to say Au Revoir but of course with lots of goodbye hugs and promises of returing again on the way back meant that it was not too emotional all round.

My new friends in Wegberg were nice enough to drive me into Dusseldorf and drop me off at the airport, and thankfully both the sun was out and the roads were clear so it was a fast and pleasant run in, although I still say that Wegberg is the cornfield capital of the entire world there were so many fields stretching out in all directions of the stuff.

Contrary to the media's impression that everything the Germans did was super efficient and runs like clockwork, my flight was changed from gate 31 to 33 at the last hour and it began to board almost 25 minutes later than first stated ( thought it still left on time thankfully ).

Considering the last time my flight was switched gate entry at the last minute was the time I lost my luggage in America over a year ago { Don't Fly Delta !!! } I was a bit fearful that the same thing might happen again, but thankfully it was smooth running and they started to send the luggage within ten minutes of us landing.

Central Berlin from the air is truly a beautiful sight, if you like the look of an almost perfect legoland ideal, as the rows and rows of neat identical and slightly conical shaped houses with lush green trees and gardens all around could be seen everywhere.

The fact that Berlin had to be rebuilt after the war is perhaps not such a bad thing, as the architects were given free reign to design and create a new city from scratch and did not have to worry about listed buildings or trying to keep old and decrepid structures safe and sound.

The previous night I had decided to treat myself and so checked into a hotel just for one night that was much closer to the airport and thus would let me save something of the night, but it was a wasted effort.

The hotel, although much closer, was in the oposite direction to the city centre and once I arrived I found that unlike Spain the whole area was almost dead after 10pm.

I had chosen to risk getting an airport taxi, but of course If you are going to do this you should never accept a fare from an unlicenced one as you are just asking to be ripped off or worse, so I walked the short stroll to the front of the taxi rank and picked one up form there, and the fare was surprisingly reasonable.

My choice of hotel was indeed cheap and close to the airport, but all the tv channels were in German, the restaurant, bowling alley and beauty parlour were closed for the night, there was no nearby bar or nightclub and it was only thanks to the 24 hr hotel bar that meant I was able to get any drink at all as the room did not have a mini-bar.

As I was only checked in for a single night they would also not even offer the laundry service and when I enquired about staying for an additional day for this service they said that it would be an additional EU$ 70 for an extra night, which totally blew that idea out of the water.

Despite the hotels advertising that it was wifi-enabled, the con of it all was that the wifi was merely a t-mobile hotspot that you had to pay to connect to, at a minimum of ( EU$ 9 for 24 hours or EU$ 29 for an entire month ) so I felt suitably ripped off and had I booked it through an agency I would have given the hotel as low a rating as I was able.

However in the morning things perked up a bit when they did not check you out until 11am and the sun had also decided to pay Berlin a visit.