June 28-29, 2018 - Travel Days

We rented a van using Costco Travel to drive to Oakland Airport. Renting a van gave us plenty of room for four large and 4 carry on suitcases.  We picked up Jon and Terri, our friends that will be traveling with us on this journey,  and headed to Oakland.  Thank goodness the drive was smooth sailing and we got to the airport after filling up the van with gas and dropping it off at the rental car drop off and taking the shuttle to the airport with about a half hour wait before we could check in with Norwegian Air.  You can not check in or drop off your bags more than four hours before your flight.

This is the first time that we have flown out of OAK & our first time flying with Norwegian Airlines. I have to say I really like the Oakland (OAK) airport to fly out of.  It was easy to navigate as it only had two terminals, Terminal 1 is for all airlines except Southwest and Terminal 2 is only Southwest.  We sailed through security very quickly as there was no one in line.  We found our gate quickly since the terminal is very small.

Roger and I booked premium seats with Norwegian, which gave us access to the Escape Lounge, which was right by our gate,  and we took advantage of the opportunity and went in for lunch. 

Jon  and Terri found something to eat at one of the other vendors. After lunch Terri and I walked both terminals of the airport and realized there was a much better selection of places to eat in the Southwest terminal and it was much cooler.

Before we new it it was time to board or flight to Gatwick.

We were in the first row of the premium class.  I booked these seats because the seats recline quite a bit and I didn't want want someone reclining into my space if I didn't have to. 

We had plenty of legroom 

Jon and Terri were in the first row of economy,  which they had just as much leg room as we did but they had an extra person in their row so shoulder space was less and their seats didn't recline as far. 

What they didn't care for as much with their seats is that they were right by the bathroom and there were people standing next to them most of the trip.  We were also by the restroom but really didn't have that problem. 

Norwegian Airlines is a discounted airline so if you book the cheapest ticket you pay for everything,  seat reservations,  luggage, drink, food etc. You can pay about $100 more and get a seat reservation, checked bag & your meals. You still have to pay for drinks or anything else that usually comes standard when flying internationally.  With the Premium seats it is all included.  You do get two checked bags each at 20 Kilos (44 lbs.). For either class you get one carry on bag that weighs 10 Kilos (22 lbs), I will say they did not weigh our carry on bags at the Oakland Airport, we shall see if they do coming home.   I think they may only weigh them if you are not checking a bag. We were very happy with our selection and would not hesitate to fly with Norwegian again in either class. 

We landed at Gatwick airport in London right on time and getting through customs was much quicker than Heathrow. To our suprise our bags were checked through to Copenhagen. Normally we have had to gather our bags after going through customs and then dropping them back off before going through security again.   They also have a different system when going through security from any airport I have been to which seemed to get most people through quickly unless they detected something in your carry on then the process of checking seemed to hold people for a longer period of time but at the same time allowed others to keep moving.  You can do a lot of shopping while you are waiting for your next flight since there is a mini Harrods along with some other shops and not many places to sit.  Just like Heathrow Airport they do not give you a gate to go to until a half hour before boarding and it could take you that long to get to your gate depending on how far away it is.  You show your boarding pass and passport as you enter the gate lounge and with this flight it was a free for all when they opened the doors to board the plane.  We were fortunate to have exit row seats on this leg of our journey.  I will say I wish I had booked the nonstop flight for Oakland to Copenhagen and had I realized I could do that on a different day I would have.  It is really hard to sit through another flight after getting off an almost 10 hour flight when you are so tired. 

When we landed in Copenhagen the pilot told us that the baggage handlers went on strike 10 minutes earlier. 

So needless to say it got pretty crazy at bandage claim.  Two hours later we had our bags and were on the metro headed to our home for the next week.  We asked this very nice couple which way to go for the street we were staying and they were kind enough to walk us there, which was very close to the metro station.  

The apartment is on the fourth floor with no elevator. I wish I had packed lighter as I was climbing the stairs.  We got settled in and then headed out at 10 at night to find dinner.  We end up at Neighborhood , which is an upscale pizza place.  Their Honolulu pizza is not like our Hawaiian pizza at home.  I do not think we will be going there to eat again, although Roger liked his garlic chicken pizza.  We walked back in

July 6, 2016 - Berlin City Circle Tour & Lowenbrau

This morning after a wonderful breakfast at the hotel we headed out for the City Circle Tour that I had booked online before coming.  There was a pick-up point just down the street from the hotel by Checkpoint Charlie.

Because of all of the bombing that has happened here there are not very many old buildings here.

The Deutscher Bundestag, German Parliament, is in the Reichstag building.

 This is the Berlin Hauptbanhof which is the  train station that we came into yesterday.

Bellevue Palace which is the official residence of the President of Germany

The TV tower (Fernschtur) is a site to behold.  You can eat in the revolving restaurant.

The Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall) is the town hall of Berlin.

The Gendarmenmarkt the closest church is the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral).  You can climb the circular staircase all the way to the dome.  The further church is Deutscher Dom or Neue Kirche (German Cathedral) is a rebuild of the one that was bombed flat in the war.  

 As we had passed this Löwenbräu Restaurant this morning Roger said that he wanted to eat dinner here.

 What's on the menu tonight?

 We kind of got worried about what we would actually get to eat for dinner when his beer came and that was not the one he ordered.

 We worried about nothing his halbe haxe gegrillte schweinshaxe (half knuckle pork knuckle) came just right.

The round ball on the plate is a potato dumpling.

 I ordered the Ochsenbraten (roast beef), which hit the spot.  I even liked the hearty cabbage with apple (I can't even attempt to type the German name for that).

 I can't even imagine what the traffic rules are now.  It is crazy how they drive in this city.  There are no stop signs that we have seen and only traffic lights are minimal. We heard lots of horns honking today.

 On our way back to the hotel after dinner we took advantage of the actors being gone so that we could take our pictures in front of the reproduced Checkpoint Charlie.

July 5, 2016 - Berlin Here We Come

We were off even earlier than we planned.  We left the hotel at 6:30 and arrived at the train station at 7:00 am.

We picked up some breakfast and lunch at the store in the train station.  We went ahead and caught the earlier train to Amersfoort since it was there when we walked up.

It is almost time to board the train.  I have to say that this is our first trip to Europe that we have had trains be late and they have been late a few times.  I have read that they are doing a lot of work on them so that could be the cause for delays.

We are definitely not traveling first class this time.  But we did bring our lunch.

We are staying at the Angleterre Hotel this week.  Nothing special about this room but at least it has an elevator since we are on the 7th floor.

The hotel is right by Checkpoint Charlie.

Of course there has to be a McDonald's next to the US Army Checkpoint.  There is a KFC just around the corner too.

My first meal in Germany had to be German street food.

July 4, 2016 - Mauritshuis & Vredespaleis

This morning I talked Roger in going a different way into town.  This made him a little nervous but it all worked out.

He even had a chance to get a work out in.

And some different things to take a picture of.

I loved this little area that was nothing but a bunch of potted  tropical plants but in the center they had some beach chairs and mats.  I guess it was so that you could pretend you were on some tropical island.  With the beautiful sunshine we had today it could probably actually feel that way.

Then we came across this.  I am not sure what to make of this.

Is this suposed to be art?  Or is it a game?  I don't know.  I do know that if you could not get a regular size basketball through the hoop(s).

I don't know what to say about this but I just thought it was interesting.

We saw some big carp 

and even some turtles

in the pond by the Mauritshuis Museum.

Today (Monday) the Mauritshuis didn't open until 1:00.

We headed up to the third floor first so that we could see the Girl with a Peral Earing first.

This picture has a sad story but I rather look at it as a sweet girl sleeping in her bed.

I really liked this picture also of the boy that is playing with a bubble.

This is another painting that really caught my eye.

I am in total awe of the skill that it would take to paint all of the paintings in this painting.

I also like this picture of baby Jesus kissing his mommy.  I am not really sure what the symbolism is of her holding what looks like cherries the way that she is.

I think that I just liked all of the colors in this one.

As usual I was done with looking at all of the paintings much quicker than Roger so I found a comfy place to sit and wait.  When he was finally done and we walked down I made the mistake of finding an exhibit that we could visit.  When we walked in and I saw that it was just the backs of paintings and my handset with headphones that I could not get to stay on my ears and you would have to see the paintings on the handset I walked out and told Roger I would be down at the bottom when he finished.  Well I ended up in the gift shop  and bought a few things.  Roger came down a half hour later telling me how cool the exhibit was.  This artist made exact replicas of the back of original paintings like the Mona Lisa.  I personally do not care what the backs look like. 

When we left the museum we could not turn right but they told us to go around or we could wait there for 15 minutes.  We decided to go around but I think we found why they were blocking off the area.  They were filming some sort of musical movie.  As we were walking towards them we could hear singing and they were dancing but then the director said cut and he didn't seem real happy.  As we stood there watching for a little bit it didn't seem like they were in a hurry to start up again so we moved on.

They had some old cars parked at the end of the lane.

I was able to get Roger back to the pastry shop where he wanted to eat.  These were very good.  All I can say is that they were like pizza.  For dessert we shared a warm apple turnover.

Now that he had a full tummy it made him a little to friendly.

It also mad him a little more agreeable to get lost in the city.  As we walked around we kept finding places that we had been on the last trip here.  

I will have to look back on our pictures from here but I believe this is a redo of a previous picture.  

I thought this was a one of a kind bike until I saw another one a ways down the street.  I think it is still a cool looking bike but I am not sure how comfortable it should be.

Roger started getting a little nervous about where we were but I told him not to worry.  We are headed in the right direction.  Then we saw this monument as we looked down a side road so of course we had to go check it out.

Then we came out on another road and could see a copula that looked interesting in the skyline so we headed toward that.  We ended up at the Peace Palace or as it is known here, Vredespaleis.

We were too late to be able to go into the visitor center as it was already almost 5:00 so we just took some pictures outside.

The tree is covered with slips of paper that I am assuming are wishes for peace.

You could walk the ring around the peace flame and pray for world peace.

Well we decided we were not going to walk to the beach so we headed back to the hotel.  Tomorrow we have to start heading to the train station by 7:00 am so we need to be all packed up and ready to leave tonight.  Tomorrow we head to a new country.  Berlin, Germany here we come.