Trip to Europe, the beginning

This is the view from the window of our hotel room in Berlin. But how did we get to this point. Here is the story:

Friday, July 16, 2010
Loni and Allen took us to Howard Johnsons at 3:30 to catch the Shuttle to Las Vegas airport. It was 111 degrees in St. George and about the same in Las Vegas. We arrived with a lot of time to check in, go through security and get something to eat before our plane was due to leave. Then as we were waiting, they announced that the flight was delayed for about half an hour so that people on another flight that was late could make a connection. Our 8:40 flight finally left at about 9:15. We were on a direct flight to London, which took about 9 hours and put us at Heathrow about 2:50 p.m. on Saturday. This gave us just an hour to leave Terminal 5, go through security again and come back to Terminal 5 to board our plane for Berlin. We had to really move to make this in time and got to the gate about 5 minutes before the deadline to once again hear the announcement that our flight would be leaving about 30 minutes late. All that rush for nothing. We arrived in Berlin at about 7:35 p.m. and saw Matt on the other side of the window from the baggage claim area. It was so good to see his face. The three of us got on the train and rode to a stop about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. After getting checked in and our things put in our room, we walked to a Japanese restaurant just a few minutes away and had a nice dinner. Matt walked with us back to the hotel and we made plans for Sunday with him and Marianna.

Note: It is amazing to see the public transportation system here in Berlin. There are about 10 million people here in Berlin and they mostly use the train, bus, and bikes. The cars that you see are small ones and they also have 3 wheel covered bikes and scooters. There is no traffic congestion, at least not in this area of the city. Matt said you have to go outside the city to get on the autobahn to travel other places in Germany, so no freeway system inside Berlin. They really have an efficient and I think a great way to get around.

Also, I have not seen a single SUV!