Our Terrible Train Ride and First Day in Berlin

Yesterday, after checking out of our hotel at 12pm we headed down to Amsterdam Central station to catch our train that was meant to arrive at 5:45pm. It was a long, hot wait in the station, but the train managed to arrive and depart relatively on time. Unfortunately, around 7pm, the train came to a stop in the middle of nowhere with the conductor claiming that there was a problem with the electricity and that he would keep us informed. Brendan and I were in a room with beds that we were sharing with a mother and her young daughter. Tragically, the air conditioning in the room was not working and the window was not to be rolled down so the tiny room reached extremely hot temperatures (I thought Brendan may faint). After about 2 hours of being stuck, we started moving again! To our dismay, we stopped about 10 minutes later at the next train station. Although we were still trapped on the train, the terminal at least had free wifi so I could order a book off amazon (Cuckoo’s Calling) and send out some emails.  We finally got rolling again about an hour later and it was smooth sailing until morning! The train cooled down drastically and I managed to sleep a bit (Brendan slept like a log as always).

Once we arrived at Berlin HBF, we walked to our hotel that is located about two blocks away from the station. Our room is pretty tiny and has no fridge, but is still much nicer than our hostels. After a quick nap, I went and walked around the neighbourhood for a bit, then Brendan and I walked back to the train station where we purchased a reservation for our train to Prague and bought some groceries (fruit and ramen noodles basically).

Tomorrow, we are planning on going on a tour of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial and the day after that we will be doing an ‘all-in-one city bike tour’. We are still undecided about our other two days!

Just as a warning… wifi is not free at this hotel and we only have access to it in the hotel lobby so there may not be much communication with all those at home, but don’t fret! Miss you all lots!