Leaving on a Jet Train

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Well the Eurostar may not be a Jet Train exactly but it got us to Brussels and after an hours wait then onto Berlin via a sleeper train.

The journey began with a bang!! Anna and Frank had kindly given us a bottle of Champagne to celebrate the beginning of our trip but it had got a bit shaken in my bag getting to Waterloo..... as soon as I released the metal clasp on the cork it exploded, soaking me, frightening all the passengers who thought a gun had gone off and nearly hitting the people opposite with the cork as it bounced off the roof!!

The sleeper train was a little compact but comfortable and after we had got used to the rocking and extremely noisey toilet! we were asleep. We had a wake up call an hour before arrival in Berlin and a surpise of croisants, coffee and orange juice free of charge. This trip also taught us the complexities of showering on a moving train...

Our 8hours in Berlin before we left to go to Rostock were spent exploring as best we could in a short space of time. We managed to squeeze in the Reichstag(not without having our swiss army knives temporarily confiscated!), the Brandenburg gate, a walk through the park to the Zoo, and a couple of monuments along the way.

The Zoo was enormous and quite maze like in its construction. A couple of highlights were a particular polar bear that while the others slept in the sun decided to have a swim in the water and then a good scratch over all the rocks and a particularly attractive camel as you will see from the photo....

The day ended with a 3 hour journey on the train to Rostock taking in the beautiful German countryside. We then had a 3 hour wait in the ferry terminal before we could board our boat for the trip to Helsinki. This was possibly the longest and most boring 3 hours of our lives!! The "terminal" was a room with a toilet and vending machine!

Our next installment will tell you how we get on with the boat trip and Helsinki....

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Comments

[the bristol baron]

hahaha..
haha i laughed out loud about the ugly camel. good to hear you're doing good. josh.

[Mum and Dad]

Hope you got the e-mail we sent. Don't you remember visiting the Berlin Zoo all those years ago? I loved the photo's of the bears. Have copied some of them across into a file. Opps! shame about the knives, hope you got them back ok. Enjoy the ride, love you both Mum and Dad x x

[Steve Found]

Hair Growth
Jason, Nolan looks like the camel but in a few weeks you will look like Gandalf the Orangutang

[Lyd]

Hey
Glad to hear the travel has got under way well !! Can't believe it came round so quick. Vix you look like a proper backpacker. You guy's will love NZ. Just back from Queenstown (adventure capital). Gorgeous but pulled my stomach muscles doing a Bungy!! No combat for a bit!!! Travel well guys and keep in touch xxxxx

[Nick Moss]

Nice pics
The zoo looks good, some nice pic's.Glad the the the Jesus look is coming on very well. Take care and look after each other.