DAY 1 - BERLIN, GERMANY, HERE I COME
Over 175 days ago I made the decision to travel to Berlin, Germany in the Fall of 2008 to visit my cousin, Gerhard Kolberg and his family. Ever since Gerhard's visit in 2000 he had been inviting me to visit them in Germany and I decided that 2008 would be the year that I would.
Once I had made the decision I wrote to Gerhard and immediately received a very positive response back from him that he and his family would be very happy to have me visit. Dates for the trip were set for October 9-23 and plans began. Now the time has arrived.
Today dawned bright and sunny in contrast to the last week of non-stop rain. My neighbor had offered to drive me to the shuttle service in Michigan City, Indiana and we left home on time. As we pulled into the Holiday Inn to catch the shuttle, there it went driving on down the road! I had heard that the shuttle waits for no man or woman and it was obviously the truth. No matter as I had allowed much time and within an hour another shuttle arrived. Now began a two hour ride to O'Hare airport with multiple stops along the way.
Arriving at O'Hare, amazingly Lufthansa Airlines was the first stop. I had assumed Lufthansa would be at the International Terminal but it was not. I still do not know why as I have returned from Germany in the past on Lufthansa and the plane landed at the International Terminal. The shuttle driver bypassed Lufthansa and parked at the next terminal which was United. There were swarms of people waiting to get into the terminal at United, and as I was walking back with my luggage to the Lufthansa terminal, I could see that there was ONE lone passenger waiting outside the doors. This would be a quick check-in!
A quick scan of my passport at the check-in area confirmed all my flight plans, tickets were printed, my one piece of luggage was checked and I was off to the gate carrying my purse, my jacket and a very heavy carry-on bag which became heavier and heavier throughout the day. I was carrying my laptop which has a 17" screen and conventional laptop cases would not accommodate the computer. I had, therefore, opted for a carry-on bag which actually was a large case received free from Estee Lauder one year with a cosmetic purchase. I began to consider the possibility of searching in Berlin for a wheeled case to come home with because I did not relish the thought of carrying this bag again!
Check-in and security check all took place within 10 minutes and I had allowed 3 hours lead time for this phase of the trip. I did stop at a cafe in the airport for a sandwich and a bottle of pink lemonade for the price of $12.00. Later I bought 2 large bottles of water to take on the plane and the cost for them was $5.99.
The flight took off on time and was amazingly smooth. A wonderful airline indeed as nice sized pillows and blankets were on each seat. The plane was full except for one empty seat and that was right NEXT to me! It could not have been better. I could spread out and didn't have to worry about someone crawling over my legs or sitting shoulder to shoulder.
Despite the fact that this was to be a 10 hour flight, through the night, time went quickly with the continuous round of food and beverage services. First came beverages of which anything and everything was available, followed by snacks and then dinner. Two entrees were offered and I selected a chicken and rice dish with salad, fruit and apple pie. I read quite a bit of a good book I had brought along called appropriately "Family Tree" while two movies were being played. Tried to sleep some but the hours passed quickly and it seemed like we had just had dinner when they began serving breakfast which consisted of a roll, cheese, fruit and beverages. The flight actually took only 8 hours and as morning dawned in Germany we were landing in Düsseldorf.
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