Berlin Pictures

Our high speed train. It travels at speeds of up to 186 mph!




The Dom




The back of The Dom alng the Spree river




The Wall Memorial. A very sad era in world history




Checkpoint Charlie




I found it ironic that there is a McDonalds just inside the old checkpoint!




The old sign is still there!

Germany 2012

We arrived at the airport 2 1/2 hours early to relax and eat lunch. We checked our bags and got our boarding passes. When we arrived at the Sky Lounge, the agent there told us the plane to jFK was delayed 3 hours and we would miss our connection. She immediately put a hold on our luggage and began rerouting us. She sent us to Detroit, and it was boarding and we had to go. Ok no lunch. We got to Detroit and the connecting flight was already boarding. After boarding, we were told there would be a delay taking off as there was mechanical problems. We sat for an hour. Then we taxi to the end of the runway, and had to return to the gate for further repairs. We sat another 2 hours went by as we just sat on the plane, with no food! After 3 hours we finally took off and they fed us around 11 pm. When we arrived in Frankfurt, we were missing 2 suitcases. It's been 2 days and Jim is wearing the same clothes, as all his clothes, my shoes and makeup are MIA. I am wearing flip flops and dressed in winter clothes! Since we are staying in an apartment instead of a hotel, I will have to go to a laundry mat tomorrow morning and wash Jim's clothes, since he does not have another set to wear.

We finally got to bed the first night here. We had been up 34 hours without sleep. Today we toured around Berlin, and saw The Brandenburg Gate, the sony Center, lots of platz', but the highlight was seeing part of The Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. It does look exactly as it does in all the war movies I have seen!

The weather was rainy but has cleared for now, and it's been in the 60's and windy. It's been chilly.

The Trip Home

Despite the fact that England had 186% of its monthly amount of rain while we were there, we had a great time. We awoke at 5 am. in order to get to Heathrow Airport, well ahead of the scheduled flight, only to find that the flight was delayed by 2 hours.  After we boarded and pushed back, there was a mechanical failure that required us to go back to the gate for repair. This created a further delay. We were approximately 3 1/2 hours late getting into Atlanta.  Since we were one of the first to arrive for the flight, our bags were first on, last off. By the time we got our bags, we were literally last in line to get rerouted on another connection. It shouldn't be too difficult as Delta has flights to Orlando every hour. Except that it is summertime, and Saturday. All the timeshare owners are coming to orlando for their week. They did not have any flights available for us tonight. We had to stay over in Atlanta, and leave Sunday morning. Again on Sunday, we get to the airport well in advance of the flight, settle into the Sky Lounge and we hear, Beep, Beep, Beep, there has been an emergency reported in the building, please stand by while we verify the situation! Jim and I just looked at each other. Evidently the emergency was nothing and our flight went off as scheduled. We arrived home safely.

Leeds Castle, Hampton Court Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!

I apologize I haven't posted in a few days. It's been busy but fun. We visited Leeds Castle and what we thought would be a 1 hour stop on our way back to London, took several hours. The gardens were beautiful and the castle amazing. We tend to take our time a stroll around the grounds. They had a maze and it was fun to go through. I did not use the left hand rule, so if it wasn't for the spotters helping us out we may still be in there! Yesterday we visited Hampton Court Palace and again spent hours touring. These gardens were amazing. Especially the old grape vine they built a greenhouse over to protect it year around. Then today we finally got the chance to tour Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Though we could not get tickets to see a production, we did get to sit in on rehearsals for The Taming of a Shrew, which will open in 2 weeks. It was really interesting to watch. We have had Lots of fun, seen some amazing places, but we leave tomorrow morning...and yes, we both are exhausted and looking forward to some much needed rest.

Canterbury

We toured the Cathedral today and saw were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket was murdered by the 4 knights. King Henry II, his friend wanted to be rid of him after they argued over several issues dealing with the power of the church. This church is very important historically, as it is the main headquarters of the Church of England. King Henry VIII, changed it from Catholic to Angelican. Then we took a boat tour on the river Stour, and walked through gardens to get to the GreyFriars House. It was a very relaxing day.