Day 11, Part 1 – Berlin

After two whirlwind days in Berlin, sleeping in sounded appealing for our final morning in the city. Nonetheless, I like sticking to itineraries, and I’d outlined a stop at the TV Tower for our final day in the city, so I figured Cassy and Noah could come along allowing Amanda and Eilidh some extra sleep.  When I purchased tickets last night, I included Emmie on my attendee list, as her admission would have been free. However, she understandably preferred to stay at the hostel with her mom and sister for a bit more rest.

I had bookmarked directions to the TV Tower on my phone the night before, but potentially due to tiredness, I instead saved the address for a random Berlin TV studio. When we exited the subway, the TV Tower was nowhere in sight; after some further Google Maps research, we returned to the subway and backtracked three stops.

In the end, we spent more than 35 minutes getting to a place we could have gotten to in half the time. While there were virtually no tourists upon our 9:30 a.m. arrival, the maze of lines and security added another 10 minutes to our time investment. Following a 203 meter climb via elevator, we exited to the observation deck, a circular space promising a 360-degree view of Berlin.

While the views were nice, the angled and sometimes cloudy glass made for a fairly uninspiring experience. We purchased overpriced water from the observation deck bar, snapped a few photos, and completed the short 360-degree walk before returning to the queue to take the elevator ride back to the bottom.

The most interesting part of the TV Tower experience may have been looking up through the elevator’s glass ceiling.

A Starbucks was at the base of the tower, so a round of green tea drinks was in order before walking a half block to grab breakfast from the Dunkin Donuts shop. Along with an original glazed donut to take back to Amanda, we tried to choose a few that looked like they could have been unique to Europe.

We checked out of the hostel a few minutes before the noon deadline and began our public transportation trek back to the Berlin Tegel Airport. We’d become pros at the subway and buses over our 48 hours in Berlin, so despite 3 roller bags, 3 large backpacks, 2 small backpacks, and a duffel bag, we did pretty well making it to the airport in good time.

The A gates at the Berlin Tegel Airport featured an unusual setup, where check-in was done outside each individual gate along with security; once past security, instead of entering a large terminal, we found ourselves in a small waiting area with a single Duty Free shop and food cart with the most basic of pastries and snacks to eat.

There was a second level of our waiting area, but it merely included two vending machines and more uncomfortable seats.

The incoming flight was a few minutes late to arrive, leaving us in the aforementioned area for nearly two hours. Eilidh wasn’t necessarily digging her time there, so Amanda and I spent a lot of time walking around, trying to keep her happy. A gate agent sought us out a few minutes before the boarding process officially started to let us know our family would be in the first boarding group.

Unfortunately, Eilidh’s unhappiness only went up a notch when we transitioned from waiting area to airplane. Despite numerous attempts by Amanda to keep Eilidh calm, she didn’t have the best start to her flight. She did eventually fall asleep and we napped together in my window seat for at least half of the flight.

Being our first time riding TAP Portugal, we weren’t sure what to expect onboard the flight. Unlike Air Berlin where any refreshment came with a cost, TAP served “cold meals” along with drinks on the flight. However, the “meal” consisted of roll with the slightest amount of chicken, spinach, and spread along with a small bottle of drinkable fruit which had a consistency somewhere between apple sauce and juice; not very good.

With our departure from Germany, it felt like the busiest part of our trip had passed. We arrive for a comparatively lengthy 6-day stint in Lisbon, Portugal, followed by a week on Porto Santo island before returning to the states.