Deutschland: Round 6
- ajdsvendsen
- May 9, 2019
- 5 min read
13-15 February '19 | £110 - British Airways - 1.5hrs | *Hilton East Side Gallery
IMPULSIVE booking is what drove me to visit Berlin, and it was one of the most bizarre - but brilliant holiday experiences of mine. Basically, I had a week off of uni in the middle of February and had nothing planned, so naturally I booked the flights one week before takeoff. British Airways is my go-to airline to fly when I’m out of the US, and I accidentally discovered some tips and tricks for a discounted fare. So BA flights departing from London City Airport (LCY) are almost always cheaper than flights from Heathrow or Gatwick, and ALL passengers get complimentary refreshments...so that's a plus! (you have to pay for food or drinks on short-haul flights when flying out of LHR/LGW). In addition, LCY is a tiny airport - so tiny that I checked in, dropped my bag AND cleared security all under 5 minutes. Yes - FIVE minutes, and all the gates are within a 5 minute walk (if even). Mind you that I live in SW London, and LCY is in East London (which is why I rarely fly from LCY), but the transport was only an hour with no special fees! The best part of this whole experience was the fact that the plane was only about 40% full - so I had nobody next to, in front of or behind me on the short flight, which is always nice (the planes are also smaller, so a 2x2 seating vs. BA’s standard 3x3).
OK - putting aside my delightful journey there, it was very easy to travel from Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL) to the city centre...but the only public transport is a bus. I’m not dissing the bus, it was a great service that came every 5 or so minutes, but it was PACKED to the brim. Ticket-wise - I got a 48hr 'Berlin CityTour Card' for €16.90, which covered the S-Bahn (Commuter Rail), U-Bahn (Metro/Underground), Busses, Trams & the Airport Bus (yay for no additional fare!). The S+U Bahn's connect you to just about every attraction in a quick and efficient manner, and it was pretty easy to navigate once I established the direction I needed to go.
Anywho, the bus stopped at Hauptbahnhof station (essentially the central rail station), and having been to Munich five times prior to visiting Berlin, I was relatively confident in my German public transport skills...until I got inside the MASSIVE station with escalators and platforms everywhere. Not going to lie here, I aimlessly wandered around for about 15 minutes before I figured out where I needed to go. Well, I thought I figured it out - I ended up getting on the wrong train headed the opposite direction...oops. BUT once I finally figured out where I was going it was...who am I kidding. 2 hours post-arrival and there I was, getting on the wrong bus not once, but TWICE...going in two completely different directions….#nailedit
FINALLY I made it to the hotel that I clearly didn’t put 2 & 2 together to realise was on the complete opposite side of the city from the airport...mind you my options: East Side, West Side, or Central... *Face palm* | After checking in I decided to go find some food, and was absolutely gassed that a Hans im Glück (one of my favourites & you’ll understand if you try it) was only 0.3km away! Little did I know that I'd leave the restaurant with a new friend & fellow solo-traveller! I noticed another American woman alone when I walked in and decided to sit at a nearby table, and not even 5 minutes later we were chatting and instantly clicked. We ended up leaving together to check out the rooftop bar next door (We were also coincidentally staying at the same hotel), and took some funny pictures pretending to look posh in front of a fireplace. It’s been nearly 3 months now and we still keep in touch, which is definitely one of my favourite aspects of solo travelling.
Tourist time! I was able to visit the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, Charlottenburg Palace, the Victory Column (Siegessaule), the Berlin TV Tower (Fernsehturm), the Berlin Mall, and the East Side Gallery. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to visit many museums or the Holocaust Memorial, but now I have a reason to return! My favourite attraction was hands down the TV Tower because of the incredible views and observation deck.
I paid for the fast-track ticket (an additional €6-7 ) and it was well worth it as I got to skip massive queues for the lift, photo-op and security. The top of the tower has a bar where you can walk around a 360º observation deck, capturing all the sights of Berlin. I also booked the ticket for sunset which was an unreal experience, I’d definitely check it out! Berlin also has more bikes than people - at least that’s what it felt like! I was daring and rented a bike since my hotel was about a mile from the closest train station, and it was SO fun. I genuinely felt very safe and comfortable biking around, and Berlin has massive bike lanes on every road. Since the hotel was situated in the East Side Gallery (near the Mercedes Benz Arena), I cycled while admiring the 1.3km stretch of the old Berlin wall covered in art, and it was awesome.
I deemed this trip as bizarre mostly because of the instant friendship and pleasant outbound journey, but the return journey was the icing on the cake. Like I mentioned above - the only public transport option to get to TXL airport is a bus...can you see where this is going? I flew back to London the day after Valentine’s Day, and apparently a lot of Berliners weren’t so lucky in love and decided to go on strike. Of course my unaware self made my way to the same train station to catch the bus to the airport, only to see that the next bus was 25 minutes away. I thought nothing of it and thought maybe it didn’t return to the airport as often as it departed? Oh no, silly Alex. Instead, the 15 minute journey to the airport (when the bus eventually came) turned into a 1 HOUR journey...and I got to the airport 2 minutes after my flight took off! I should mention that this is the first time I had ever been late for a flight (in terms of not making it), and was now 'stuck' in Germany knowing my Mom was about to board a flight to the UK. So after internally screaming for a few minutes, I decided to shamefully walk up to the priority desk in hopes of a miracle (mind you I flew economy and don’t hold any ‘status’ with BA or One World alliance - so I had NOTHING to leverage myself). Basically I profusely apologised for my lack of priority while begging for help to rebook my ticket. The agent sent me off telling me I was going to have to pay, then called me back, then handed me a ticket. Now, I still don’t know how I pulled this off exactly, but I managed to get rebooked onto the next direct flight into LHR for...FREE? I couldn’t have lucked out any better because the next flight to London was not even an hour after my original flight, and I ended up getting the same seat I was originally allocated! Thank you British Airways for being the best airline, forever grateful to my gal in Tegel who sorted my ticket out - you rock.
All in all, Berlin was an incredible city that I immediately fell in love with. I will 100% be returning as soon as I can, and will hopefully be the tourist my mother always wanted me to be and will get to visit some museums :).
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