Last year, our German friends, Heinz and Barbara invited us to Berlin to see their famous Christmas Markets. Unfortunately, we were unable to travel, meaning that the invitation was postponed for 12 months. So no sooner had we recovered from India, but we were packing a suitcase for our short visit to Berlin.
As we were on the “red-eye” we left by taxi at 05:50, arriving at the airport in time to have a coffee before boarding the plane. We were all on time and duly arrived at the rather cramped luggage reclaim conveyor in domestic arrivals. Even though our trip had been booked with Gatwick Connects, there was no such service available and we had to take our bags across on the shuttle to North Terminal and then wait for an hour before we were allowed to drop our bags at the EasyJet automated bag drop desks.
Once through security, we found a pleasant place to have breakfast/lunch whilst we waited to board the onward flight to Berlin. Once again, all was on time and we arrived at Tegel Terminal C and made our way to terminal A, where Heinz would be waiting for us. After a few phone calls and a little confusion as to exactly where he was, we eventually met up and he drove us to their house in Marienfelde, where we were greeted by Barbara and their grandson, Jonas, who was staying with them for that night.
We spent a little time getting to know Jonas, but he was soon relaxed in our company, even if our communication ability was somewhat limited. So after Jonas went to bed, it was a relatively early night for us as well, bearing in mind our start time that morning.