First Day in Germany

Seeing the Berlin (Tegel) airport for the first time, after coming from such a huge airport like Chicago O'Hare, was odd. I was expecting a huge facility; after all, this is the capital of a country, right? Shouldn't the airport for a capital city be absolutely huge?

I didn't realize at the time that Tegel was only the fourth-largest airport in Germany. And that it has been scheduled for closure for many years. That explains a lot!

The fun part about flying in to an international airport in a different country is knowing that no matter how preparation you've done, you're still a foreigner and will never speak the language well enough to make yourself understood. And I didn't do any preparation at all. 'Cause I'm a 'murrican and don't have any time for such trivialities as studying foreign languages!

In truth, it was very frustrating to have been studying for a couple months prior to our trip, and still not be able to formulate sentences any more complex than, "Guten Tag" and "Wo sind die Toiletten?" Even if you have that ability, you have to be ready for the sudden rush of German which results from asking questions in the native tongue -- and my ears ain't nearly proficient to handle that little chore!

Luckily for me, most of the people understood English passably well, so we didn't have much difficulty navigating our way through the airport and out to the front area where we were able to call up the hotel shuttle and get picked up. We just had to wait awhile.

The Hotel Shuttle!

The hotel is only a short hop, skip and jump across the road from the airport, so it didn't take us long to get over there and find our room and get settled down for a quick night's sleep before hopping up early in the morning to grab some coffee and soda before jumping back on the shuttle to take us back to the airport where we were supposed to pick up the Flix bus which would take us to Leipzig.

The All-important Morning Coffee

Supposed to.

Seems there was a problem with the Flix bus route that day, and there was no service to/from the airport, so after waiting a while -- past the appointed pick-up time -- we discovered (through the miracle of eavesdropping) that we would need to catch a local bus to the main bus terminal where we could actually connect with the Flix bus we were trying to catch. But we would have to act fast because we had tickets on a specific bus which traveled at a specific time.

So off we went on our first little language adventure, trying to figure out which local bus to take ... asking people ... not really understanding them ... looking at the numbers on the bus schedule/map and trying to make sense of it all ... asking more people and hoping we got the gist of what they were saying ... using the kiosk to buy tickets and hope it was correct ... finally getting on what we hoped was the right bus ... riding past all these unknown stops and not sure which one was ours -- then finding out that we'd missed our stop and had to jump off at the next stop and then do a little back-tracking ... finally arriving at the central bus station and trying to figure out the overhead signs ... which didn't have our Flix bus number on them -- no, wait, they do have our bus on there, it's just that the routes are scrolling through the boards and we have to wait a minute to see ours ... then there's construction going on so we can't tell which platform is the one where our bus will be ... hey! There's our bus! Then running to the bathroom (which requires coinage to operate) before the bus takes off without us ... getting our luggage aboard ... getting our tickets scanned ... getting on the bus and finding our seats ... and -- whew! -- relaxing at last and enjoying the sights along the way from Berlin to Leipzig.

The Flix Bus! At last!

Relaxing on the Flix Bus

It was a very nice ride on the bus, watching out the window and seeing the countryside, linking up to the free WiFi and perusing the web when not otherwise distracted. Only a couple hours down the road, and then suddenly we were pulling into the Leipzig station and seeing this charming young couple waiting on the platform for us with big smiles.

It was so nice -- and so weird -- to see them again! And realize once again that we were in another country, and there was so much adventure to come!

We took a little side trip to the mall nearby to pick up a few things -- I wanted some new shoes suitable for walking a long time, as it was expected that we would be doing a lot of it in the coming weeks -- and then we jumped on a train or bus or something and rode it/them to a place near the apartment where James and Tabea are living. That was so cool! And we finally got to see the street where they live! Which reminded me of some streets back in New York where there's barely room to park a car.

Cheryl & Tabea in the apartment

We had a tour of their apartment and (finally) got to see all those things that show up on the screen when we're doing weekly Skype sessions with them. It's a nice place. Although during this part of the season, it's hot and stuffy and they have to keep the windows open to get any kind of air movement. And if the air isn't moving, you're just sitting and sweating.

James with his plant friend

We had a nice lunch with them, and then everyone packed up their stuff in Tabea's car and we headed onto the road again, aiming in a general south-east direction towards Aue and Bad Schlema where we would be spending the next couple of weeks.

After another couple of hours -- and a lovely view of the German countryside! -- we arrived in Bad Schlema where the in-laws live, and after greeting us warmly, they put us up in their guest apartment, which is an adorable little place that felt very cozy and comfortable. And we spent the rest of the day getting to know everyone and enjoying their marvelous hospitality and eating lots and lots of yummy food!

The Lovely Table in the Apartment

Note that I didn't get a lot of pictures taken once we arrived there ... because I was too busy yapping and eating.