18 AUG 2010 - Journey begins...

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The Journey has begun...

Beginning Wednesday, August 18, 2010

From the start, Wednesday was chaotic. Thankfully Wendy came and picked up NtP the night before and that was one less thing to worry about come departure day. I hate saying goodbye to her but I know she'll be in excellent hands with Wendy and Leigh Anne.

Trying to pack....everything of mine is still in boxes in Mom's basement and in the garage. I thought I had put all my travel items together but I was digging through boxes alot to try and find what I was looking for. Finally got everything together and Joann picked Mom and I up at 2pm to drive us to the airport in her new car! As we were driving we realized we forgot to bring an Observer Reporter newspaper with us....darnit...we wanted to take a picture holding it in each city we went to and send it to the paper.

Got to the airport and check in was not a problem at all. We had done online checkin from home on Tuesday night (within 24 hrs of the trip). All we had to do was show our IDs and drop off our bags to check. We got boarding passes already for the PIT-IAD flight and the IAD-MUN flight...Munich to Berlin we had to get once we arrived in Munich. But our bags were checked all the way through which was wonderful. Didn't have to claim it or deal with it until we got to Berlin. Security was no problem and our flight boarded on time and actually left on time.

Arrived in Dulles about 45 minutes later (much better than my 4+hr drive!)...it was rainy and yucky when we landed...but we walked through the new terminal at Dulles that I hadn't seen before and the underground trains were actually running now to take you to the different terminals. It is really nice! Once we arrived at the correct terminal we found our gate and then decided we needed to get some dinner. I saw a Pottbellies restaurant across from our gate and told Mom they had great sandwiches! YUMMY! Mom had the "wreck" and I had the italian sandwich.

Not too muchy more waiting and it was time to board our flight to Munich. The plane was an A330 and was actually a Lufthansa plane and crew...in the past when I've flown the United/Lufthansa joint flights they have always been on United planes. But the Lufthansa plane was much nicer and newer. Believe it or not the flight was not full at all...many of the middle rows only had 1 person in them and that lucky person got to stretch out and sleep across 4 seats. The only complaint I had was about this one couple that didn't stop talking ALL NIGHT....who talks for 8 hours straight? I'm trying to get my sleep on and he wouldn't shut up in front of me. Other than that we had a great flight. Mom had beef stroganauf for dinner and I had penne arrabiatta. I watched the movie The Bounty Hunter during dinner and after...I thought it was funny...and it was free so who cares if it sucked! I napped for 3-4 hours or so and Mom actually had to wake me up for breakfast. Roll with jam and butter and a granola bar and fresh fruit. (and and it came with cheese too that I gave to Mom.) Easy landing and we got off the back door of the plane and boarded a bus that was waiting on the tarmac to take us to the terminal. There were 2 different ways to go...one if you were done and needed to claim your luggage and go through passport control and the other way if you had a connecting flight (our way).

The Munchen (Munich) airport is really nice...it is easy navigating and as I found with Frankfurt you don't even realize you're in Germany since everything is in English. The only difference you notice is that the first language all announcements are made in is in German and English is always second. When we landed in Munchen and went through passport control we found what gate we needed to go to. Went there and then saw that there was a gate change. I'm thinking we got a different plane than planned because they had to give everyone a new seat assignment when boarding since the layout of the planes were different. The gate agent was not having a good day...she was grumpy and sniped at people that came up to the counter. Sounds like someone was having a case of the "Mondays"...but it was Thursday... 😊 It was only an hour flight to Berlin and the flight was full. It was turbulent and definately bumpier than I care for during the last 10 minutes of the flight....and we came down real hard once we did touch down.

In Berlin you come off the plane and enter the terminal via the jetway. The baggage for your flight is right at the exit of the jetway. How nice is that? Thankfully Mom's and my baggage came out right away and we then went out to meet our GCT contact. Marta, who is the intern in training, showed up at the airport and helped us and another woman on our trip - Dolores from Indiana - to the hotel. Alot of people came in earlier today and several came on Monday since they did the pre-trip tour in Berlin.

We got to the hotel (Ramada City Centre) after a 20 minute ride in the taxi and found out that our room wasn'[t ready yet. So Marta took us around the corner to show us the ATM and some cafes of where to eat. Mom and I got a sandwich and sat on a park bench in a park around the corner from our hotel. Sandwich good but we're both exhausted by now. And the sun on us was making us sleepier....we walked back to the hotel and sat in the lobby until our room was ready. I had to wake mom up once in the lobby because she was snoring too loud! Finally around 3 pm we got our key and came up to the room to wash up and stretch out. Both of us took a 1-2 hour nap which was just right. Got back up and brushed my teeth and freshened up and then headed downstairs to the hotel lobby for our welcome drink and dinner.

We met Helina in the lobby..very nice and everything is very well thought out and planned. There are 38 people on this tour and she said 22 of them were Innner Circle members which means they have done more than 5 tours with Grand Circle. A couple of people had done more than 25! We went around the room and introduced ourselves...many different types of people from all over the US. And once again I'm by far the youngest person on the tour! After our drink we walked across the hall for our buffet dinner. Very yummy...i got to eat red cabbage and snitzels and dumplings and goulash. Good stuff! Got a chance to talk to several couples and there are some really nice people on this tour. Look forward to getting to know some of them more.

Now it is 11pm and I am exhausted but I wanted to get the 1st day out of my head before I forgot anything. We are in our jammies and have skyped with Joann and Wendy (with Leigh Anne, Drew and PUG)! We need to shower, eat and put our baggage out by nine am. Our bus tour leaves at 10am for the city and then we're getting on a train to Warsaw Poland that leaves at 4:29pm and arrives aournd 10pm. TOmorrow will be another lond day. Till then.....

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