A Travel Day

I knew today would be one of the travel days, where basically that's all you do it seems. BUT I am traveling east again and moving towards meeting up with my husband so I was looking forward to today.
I didn't do anything last night when I got to the hotel except set the alarm, change into my pajamas, and go to bed. And since I knew I had an early wake up, of course that meant that I would wake several times during the night to check the time. For some unknown reason except that it seemed like a good idea at the time, I ordered breakfast. She said they would bring it at 4:30 a.m. Like I said, it had sounded good when she suggested it.
I was awake even before the alarm sounded and jumped in the shower so I would be dressed when breakfast arrived. Promptly at 4:30, it did NOT come. My bus was coming at 5. My breakfast finally came at 4:45. I gulped down some yoghurt, some croissant, some fruit and drank some juice, stuffed the cereal box in my backpack along with an apple and ran out the door. There were two other weary travelers to catch the shuttle along with someone who couldn't make it any longer without a cigarette. I'm not sure I could be an addict if I had to get up that early every morning to support my habit.
The bus only takes about 5 minutes to get to the airport. Why had it taken the taxi driver 15 minutes to get to the hotel? it was a set rate so he wasn't making more money by driving me around the block. ah well. I am in time to stand in front of the board and wait for it to tell me that Air Berlin has opened a counter. Then I realize that I had not logged into the computer last night so I did not do on line check in which means that all the good seats are probably gone and I will be stuck in the middle seat! horrors!*&(*&^%
Finally a counter is open but it doesn't say which counter. Air Berlin likes to keep secrets apparently. I wander the airport, going the wrong direction with a 50/50 chance, come back to the board, and find the right counter in a few more minutes. I had already paid excess baggage but because it holds scuba gear, Air Berlin lets it go for a special rate rather than charging by weight. So pay 25 Euros for sports gear (scuba, bicycle, golf, etc) or pay 120Euros for excess baggage. I like Air Berlin so far. AND I was able to score 2 aisle seats for my two flights even without prior on line check in. I did have to take my scuba suitcase to a special aisle to have it x rayed while I waited. Had to stand in line there behind all the men putting through their golf bags.
Security was a long line but people are finally getting smarter about preparing for the security, meaning they are reading the signs that tell them to take out their liquids, take off their coats, take out their laptops, etc. So I am through with about 2 hours to wait before the flight. Stansted is like Heathrow and Gatwick in that everyone sits in a large shopping and dining area and waits for their flight to be displayed on a large board that tells what gate. It must work for the stores and restaurants because everyone gets bored just sitting there. I would have bought something too if it weren't that all the clerks were busy chatting among themselves and didn't notice me.
Get a gate finally and go through passport control and I am stamped out of England. Another wait before the plane is boarded. This flight on Air Berlin is in a propeller plane with 2 seats on each side. my backpack won't fit in the overhead until I unload part of it. At least it's not Easy Jet which made an announcement that only one carry on is allowed and that includes your purse or laptop. I could not have fit my purse into my backpack.
Flight goes well. snacks and drinks are free on Air Berlin and the flight is not long enough for anything else. I am changing planes in Dussledorf which means that the bottle of water I purchased in Heathrow for 2.5 pounds must be drunk before going through security again. I am sloshing (it was a big bottle, no little ones for sale). This Air Berlin plane is a jet with 3 seats on each side.
When we get off the plane at Berlin Tegel airport, there is no jetway, instead we walk up the service stairs to an immediate baggage claim area. The baggage people kept turning off the carousel each time they repositioned a new cart to be unloaded. Made many people nervous but my bags came through.
I chose to see if there was a bus which would take me close to my hotel. My husband had said there was but the line was moving at a snail's pace so I headed for the taxi instead and very glad I did. I don't think I could have found the hotel had I just been dropped off in the middle of AlexanderPlatz. We're at the Ibis which is a fairly cheap hotel, considering, but that also means very few amenities. But the staff tries to be helpful and even called and ordered a pizza for me when the pizza staff did not speak English.
Still, I'm in Berlin! I'm quite excited to be here but I want to wait for my husband before I do anything because I had Iceland all to myself so I need to share Berlin.
All in all, not a bad day. I'm pooped from pretty much two days of travel. I need to do laundry, badly. Need to catch up on blogs, and emails, and accounting and finance. So a travel day but also a down day. No photos, no pressure, no running from monument to museum to bus to train. Tomorrow will be a good day. Hubby gets here.