….And I’m off……
Well after a busy couple of months I’m finally on my way….The flight from Vancouver left on time, an uneventful sleepless, flight and landed in Amsterdam at 10am local time Friday ( about 2am our time I’ve been up since 7amThursday) with a 7 hour layover before my flight to Berlin.

By 1pm (3 hours later) I have figured out how to get the train, gone into Amsterdam, made my way out of the station, found two geocaches, took a few pictures, jumped back on the train to the airport, through security and to my departure gate, which of course was the furthest gate away……and collapsed in an uncomfortable chair for my 4 hour wait for my next flight!


I’m planning on going back to Amsterdam during the later part of my trip and tiredness and an impending big black rain cloud shortened my little adventure into the canalled city. First impressions…..Everyone has told me how many bikes are there but wow….how do people find their bike after they have parked it!? I loved the cobble streets and the houseboats lined up in the canal.






While waiting at the airport I got an email from Cam to say that their flight from London to Frankfurt was delayed….so when I arrived at Tegel airport in Berlin, I grabbed a quick meal and took a taxi to my home exchange in Reinickendorf….a suburb in the NE of Berlin about a 10 minute cab ride from the airport.


The house is what we would call a town house, tucked off the main street. I had a little problem with the lock system but found a neighbour who was home and helped me with it. By chance this was the neighbour (Mr Fuhry) that Anita and Reiner have as a contact in their wonderful welcome package (which was inside the house).


The home is 3 stories and a basement. The main floor has a kitchen, a front room/dining room and a bathroom. The second floor has 2 bed rooms and a computer room and a full bathroom. The 3^rd floor is a large attic room with wooden beams 3 skylights….like a family room with another bed….very inviting. In the basement is a workout room and the laundry. Very comfortable.
By the time I explored the house and gotten my luggage upstairs, Cam and Cassidy arrived…..After getting caught up and a quick walk around the neighbourhood it was 12:30am (Saturday……3 pm Friday Vancouver time)! ! We were all exhausted……I think I had been up about 32 hours with a few catnaps! We were off to bed.

Berlin, beer and bubbles

Saturday morning I was up about 8.….Ich hatte ein gut schlaf…. By the time we were all up we decided to go in search of breakfast and get some groceries.
We are about 2 blocks from the Hermsdorf train station and a lot of little stores and cafes. The tree lined streets are cobble stoned with homes and small apartments There was also a little street market….I think this must be a Saturday thing. We found small bakery/café to have a sandwich and coffee for brunch then went to the grocery store to get some groceries. I’m taking advantage of Cam and Cassidy while they are here to do some of the lugging of groceries back! The store is stocked with familiar and unfamiliar items….a couple of things that we did notice was the price of cheese and dairy products….very cheap and that the junk food aisle was a small faction of what we have in our stores!  After dropping off the groceries we headed into Berlin, muddled up the first pass instead of getting an all day pass we got a one way with bike!

We got off at Brandenberg Tor (gate) to a party! It is the UEFA…European soccer tournament taking place in Poland and the Ukraine June 8 to July 1 and everyone is partying….wearing their county colours…in Amsterdam there was a lot of orange! Here there is red, black and gold! Clothes, hair, flags, fan paraphenalia ….Down the middle of the main park, Tiergarten, is a main road which today was shut down and made a “party place” for the day…food stands, beer stands (Cam and Cassidy loving that you could walk around with a beer in your hand), soccer souvenirs, big screens so people could watch the evenings soccer game (Germany vs. Poland) ….looking like a lot of these fans won’t make it to see the evening! We wandered around there for a while then to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Unter den Linden, Friedrichstrasse, back down towards Reichstag along the river, stopping for snacks and beverages along the way…..Cam tried the Currywurst.

One of the main goals of today was to be on a pedestrian bridge near the Hauptbahnhof station, at 7:00pm. So although we were getting tired we kept walking….finding a cache along the way. As we approached I said we had help as I could see someone searching the area the GPS was taking us. The cacher was writing in the log and then handed it to me….I wrote my name and he is “oh Msmarple……5000?” hmmmm (I guess B44 was right!)On we went to the Hauptbahnhof station for pitstop….1 euro to use the facilities much to Cassidy‘s dismay! We still had an hour to kill when spotted a “beach bar” on the bank of the river right by the bridge, so we rested our tired feet had something to drink and watched the tour boats go by. At 6:55, we joined the group assembling on the bridge and at 7:00 the fun began…..BUBBBLES….everyone started blowing bubbles, as part of a world wide geocaching flash mob….while I was in Berlin my geocaching partners were taking part in flash mobs at home…Val in Abbotsford and Lori had organized one in Sorrento.

Then on to a great dinner at a restaurant along the river and then to the station to head by to home….the time we got home it was about 10:30.…very very tired.

I have only been here for 2 days and already I’m  one day behind in posting my blog….I’m not used to doing this by myself!