What a Travel Day!!

 

Sunset in Minneapolis, waiting for our plane.  

We had time to buy a little sandwich to eat on the plane.  We split a chicken wrap

We were supposed to take off at 6:35 pm.  The plane had not even arrived by 6:15 pm.  But it did arrive 20 minutes late.  Boarding went very quickly.  We only had an hour in Chicago so we were worried.  We had to get from C27 to B16.

Once we landed we hurried to our gate.

Chicago airport connector tunnel from C to B.

After hurrying we found that that flight to Munich was delayed until 10 pm.  We had plenty of time to worry about our connection in Munich.  We had less than an hour and we knew that we would have to go through customs.  We got a notice from Lufthansa that there might be a problem.

We got on the Lufthansa flight to Munich.  It was pretty uneventful. We had a good  dinner and a soso breakfast.  The wine was good and same with the coffee. They handed out warm face cloths in the morning before breakfast.  That was nice.  

Luckily, they managed to make up some time, so we weren't too late arriving in to Munich. But we still had to scurry.  That was the fastest customs process I have ever seen.  It was raining in Munich.  We got to our gate with minutes to spare.  But the plane was delayed as well!! So, we ended out with plenty of time. 

Rain in Munich

We got to sunny Berlin. 

Berlin airport.   Not a lot of art around.

Followed the signs to the taxi stand.

 Our driver did not speak English, I just handed him the hotel address.  Rick Steves had suggested confirming the cost before starting.  It should have cost about 60€.  I don't think that the driver's GPS was very good.  It cost us 79€.

Cute hotel.  

By the WhatsApp messages we got from Sharon and Kris things went smoothly for them, with good food and unhurried connections.  We found out more details once they arrived.   They arrived around 7:15 pm, which was a couple of hours after we had arrived.  They had some of the same problems with the taxi ride, as we had.  They paid 85€ (the cost was 81 but the driver wouldn't give change), so I don't feel quite so bad about our 79€.

View from our window

The street car goes right by our hotel

Sunset with the Zion church steeple

Kris getting out of the taxi

They arrived!

All together at the Hotel Kastanienhof

Sharon and Kris got checked in and starting getting organized.  When we checked in we had to give our dinner orders for that night: pork, trout, or pasta. They are in room 25 and we are in room 29.  We won't have to change rooms once the Rick Steves tour starts.  Then we met around 8:30 pm to figure out dinner plans.  I was quite hungry by that time. Jeanne and I really had not had any lunch.  No one wanted to go far so we walked around the block looking for someplace to eat that was open and that was not already full.

We found a cute Italian place, Pappa e Ciccia.  We had a delicious meal and a great German wine.  We ordered a few dishes to share.

Peach and tomato salad was very yummy. 

We also shared a small wild herb salad which was more like a side salad. I guess the herbs were things like lettuce and arugula.

Fettuccine with mushrooms

Ravioli with lemon and mint.

Quaint little restaurant.  Fun place. 

It was nearly 10 pm when we got back to our rooms.  We were all pretty exhausted. It is nice that we finally are all together.