Lazy day... I love it!

Lazy day... I love it!  (Plus a post of day 1 of my trip to Berlin)

Lazy day today, I'm still a bit tired from the long journey from Berlin to Holland, wow what a trip and what a ride! Spending fourteen hours in a bus is sure not a pleasure, and then when you think your almost there, the bus brakes down. But anyway, more of 'my trip' in my other posts. I will be writing daily again and then end up with writing over Berlin in every post. five days, five little posts. I didn't do much today, I needed groceries for this weekend, so I bought that and further? Further not much. chilling, relaxing, napping, resting. Tomorrow at 12:00 there's the lunch with my nieces, just before my 'take off to Berlin I got a email from my niece, she asked me if I would like it... to have a lunch with the other Nephews and Nieces (from my Mother's side), I said "Yes!" So, yeah, tomorrow's lunch will be different, I'm excited and look forward to it.

Alright here it goes... Day 1 Berlin!

It was early in the morning... heading towards the train station. And then waiting for the bus.

It sure was early that Monday morning, I didn't sleep well. Perhaps the nerves, or just the way I am before a trip. I had nothing to worry about though, everything was settled, suitcases packed, papers and passport was ready. I only needed to get up, take my medication, have breakfast, clothes on and take off. But anyway, I got up, and had enough energy for this day, the lack of sleep was gone. The excitement took over. It was cold though, but dry, so that was good. While I walked to the train station I started to worry if the bus would show up, the bus what will take me to Berlin. I worried aswell a little if I had enough clothing with me, or enough equipment, I checked a million times yesterday and this morning so, sshhh, Sjon your fine! Arrived at the train station I saw no other travelers with suitcases, it was quiet. It was still early though, it was 6:30, the bus will show up at 6:40, (hopefully)

I saw a few other busses but they were all city busses, I surely would be relieved if a huge white bus will show up. And it did, pffeeww! More passengers showed up, I suddenly wasn't alone anymore. There were for sure more passengers then last year's trip to London. The bus driver checked our names and packed our suitcases, I saw the other suitcases and they were huge. I had a big travel bag and that was it, I knew I had enough with me, all was good. The bus driver took us first to other cities, to pick up other passengers. I was surprised of the amount of passengers in the bus when were done with picking everyone up, blame the Summer holiday. The bus drove to one meeting point somewhere in the middle of Holland, where all other travel busses will meet each other, from there ALL the passengers will be divided. There are busses who will drive to Italy, or Spain, or Prague and ofcource Berlin.

Bus ten, I already grabbed my suitcase. It looks a bit of a mess, but everything went fine.

So, grab your suitcase and pick the bus you need, I needed bus ten. Everything went quit easy, although there were a little 1000 travelers. I think everyone included we had a little sixty passengers in our bus towards Berlin. There were more then ten busses, wow. Before the take off all passengers could have a little coffee/tea break at the meetings point restaurant. At 9:00 bus ten took off, heading to Berlin, I actually had no clue how long this journey would take. I decided to sit in the back of the bus, cause of my long legs. Another elderly guy was sitting there already, he actually adviced me to sit next to him in the back seat. "So we have enough space for our legs," he told me. The elderly man is a nice guy I found out while we were riding, great sense of humour aswell. He works as a teacher, he teaches (age 5 till 18) with a down syndrome how to stand in their lives. He told me about it, and it's very interesting.

I compared him with Mr. Humpries from are you being served? Cause of his movements and the way he talked, I could tell he was either gay or bi. Though he was married he told me, so I had doubts. But all that... didn't matter, he was a great and interesting guy, he made me laugh many times. The trip to Berlin took long, very long. We were more then five hours on our way and then we still had to drive more then 400 kilometers. It looked like it was one long highway, with here ans there hills and a few curves. Though the views were now and then breathtaking, so nice. With many hills, valley's and huge electronic windmills. We had two stops on our way, to stretch our legs and have a snack or drink. The bus driver needs a rest aswell, after four and a half hour he needs to stop for a rest, that are the rules for a bus driver. There was one stop that was amazing, we stopped at Helmstedt/Marienborn border. Ofcource I took some pictures.

This border checkpoint was the largest and most important border crossing on the inner German border during the division of Germany......

excisited from 1945 untill 1990.

After thirty minutes we took off again, Berlin was waiting for us. I had ated my lunch and had a drink, I was ready for the last part of kilometers. Our bus driver wasn't so clear in his talking, he mumbled in his microphone, and his accent was hard to understand, but okay. I could always ask the other passengers. It was 6:00 pm untill we finally arrived in Berlin Germany, though we still had to drive a little 20 kilometers to our hotel. When we arrived there things went pretty fast, checking in, getting our suitcases. Though there was a little mixture of failures cause our hotel was next to another hotel, ofcource we tried to check in at the wrong hotel. After that fail, we could go to our own hotel rooms. I had room number 536 on the fifth floor. the view wasn't so pretty (cranes for builders, a parking mall, and some dirty backyards) but the room was awesome! Double bed again...

The bathroom was pretty, there was even a button for the volume for the TV. Small room but oh so pretty, I love it! At 7:00pm there was our free dinner, well free? I payed for it when I payed the whole trip. I will have in the five days four times breakfast, and four times dinner, drinks are not free. The food is like a buffet, pick what you want. Delicious! After dinner I went for a walk, the old man who sat next to me in the bus went with me, his name is Gerrit. Again so much laughs, and Gerrit knows alot of Germany and Berlin aswell, he could show me alot of things ans talk about it. We walked only for a little thirty minutes but saw already so many things, so interesting to see all the history plus the monuments, buildings and statues. At 10:00 I went to bed, it's been a long day, I'm sure I will sleep. Tomorrow we will have to get up early and leave at 9:30am, for our first excursion.