Ephraim-Palais

Taking a family of six from Newcastle on a three hour train ride, then a 15 hour flight, then a three hour stopover, then another six hour flight before landing in a country we've never been to, know nothing of the language, and are to be fair, a little under-prepared ....

What could possibly go wrong...

Well, as it happens, not too much so far. We set off on the 3:30pm train from Newcastle to Sydney Airport, arriving with ample time to check in and allow the boys to write the first pages of their journals while we waited to board.

A 10pm departure was well timed; the boys were excited at the prospect of stepping foot in the Northern Hemisphere for the first time, and hungrily snapped up the dinner served on the plane. The individual entertainment systems had a workout, before we all tried to get some shut eye on the longest leg of our journey.

We made it to Doha 15 hours later and were suitably impressed by the rainforest growing inside the terminal. Not sure if it was deliberate, or if the cleaners went on strike and a rainforest grew, but either way, they should probably run with it.
There was also a playground for the boys to spend some energy before we boarded again, this time to travel from Doha to Berlin, a 5 hour journey.

One or two movies later, we were gliding over Bavarian countryside and touching down in Europe. It was grey and wet, however our pre-arranged driver organised to meet us in the arrivals hall, next to what I can only imagine was a solid gold BMW. Fred asked if that was the car we were hiring. I wish kid.

A mix up in the location of our BNB saw us dropped at the wrong site. No matter, a 15 minute walk to the correct site was probably a blessing, nice to get the legs moving. We could have done without the rain however. The driver said that if you waited for good weather in Germany to commit to doing something, you'd never get anything done. So just get out amongst it and expect to get a little wet from time to time. Good advice.

Tom and I ventured out in the evening to find dinner for everyone. We ordered some pizzas and picked up a few must haves from the local market. Tom had a chance to try out his blossoming German, but buckled a little under pressure and just asked for "white bread". We'll work on that.

It's a quiet evening, the boys have all crashed and I don't think Sarah and I are far off either. Tomorrow: Day 1 in Europe.Read more