When I visited Berlin in 2004, I stayed overnight in Luton but this time we decided to fly out a day early, allowing sleep at home before setting off.
After breakfast on the Tuesday, we drove up to Luton in a light snow shower and found the Car Park. The courtesy bus took us over to the terminal and after a slight delay, we signed in using the computer print out supplied by easyJet. So easy !!!
We decided to have light early lunch and we relaxed until our flight appeared on the overhead monitors.
Once on the aeroplane, we only had a few minutes to fasten seat belts and loosen clothing before we began the run over to take off position. We took off in a minor snow flurry but were up at operational flying height in a very short time. We couldn't see much of the ground but what we could see was white !
We crossed the coast and headed east.
After adjusting one's watch, we appeared to have taken two and a half hours to do the run into Schonefeld.
Berlin is one hour ahead so it was dusk when we landed. We hurried for the shuttle bus which took us to the Bahnhof. It was bitterly cold and after a nice, warm aircraft, we both felt the wind chill. We caught the Double Decker Express and headed into Berlin in more snow flurries. I was disappointed that, because of the snow, we could not see the Fernsehturm until we were almost under it. However, we saw the sights as we passed through Alex'platz and ended up at the Zoo'bahnhof.
It was dark now and the snow was getting thicker. We caught a Number 100 bus to the Reichstag and it was nice seeing the westside of Berlin, all lit up.
At the Reichstag, we stumbled over to the Brandenburg Gate so Carole could enter Berlin properly.
(This photograph was taken next day after the snow storm)
It was almost impossible to see now in the snow and to our left we sensed a protest march heading up Unter den Linden towards us in the company of the police.
Carole was frozen now and looking forward to getting into the hotel...............
We found the Westin Grand Hotel, but it had the main entrance on Behren Strasse, not easy to find in a snow storm !!
As the slush fell off our clothes and shoes and we stood at the reception, shivering, we looked a sorry sight as we signed in................
OUR HOTEL THE WESTIN GRAND
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