Trying to get to Berlin.

Don and I arrived in Berlin on Monday night, May 19^th (many of you probably realize that this date is Don’s birthday. Neither he nor I remembered it was his birthday until quite late in the day. You’ll see why in a moment). We were supposed to arrive early Monday morning, Berlin time (with the 6-hour time difference, it would have been 1:00 am for our brains and bodies). Don would have showered and rushed off to his 2-day conference, and I would have napped for a few hours, then gotten outside to let the sunshine help my brain make that time transition, which for some reason has always been quite difficult for me. I have fallen asleep standing up in Notre Dame cathedral many years ago, fallen asleep mid-chew,—this is a great family joke, the time Mom fell asleep with a French fry dangling out her mouth—slept through many a sight-seeing attempt, including, years ago, on the Bateau tour on the Seine, slept soundly in a hotel lobby in Dublin when it was too early for us to get into our room. We have learned the hard way that I need sleep that first day.

Our flight was supposed to leave at 3:00 from DC to Newark, then we had a closely-timed connection to Berlin. Instead, our flight to Newark was simply cancelled. Cancelled. Did airlines used to do this? For no apparent reason? Don received an email on his smart-phone at about 11:30 am from the airline as we were eating brunch with Nicholas in DC, simply saying it had been cancelled and that they had re-booked us on a series of flights, still beginning on Sunday, that would have gotten us to Berlin on….Tuesday night. By Tuesday night, we would have missed the entire and only reason we were going to Berlin: the 2-day conference. Not to mention that in the time they were going to take to get us there, we could have gone to Australia. Except for the cost, of course. Maybe we should just have demanded that they rebook us to Australia. Oh, Don’s grant is to work with the EU. Sigh.

Anyway, needless to say, the airline’s plan was not going to work. Don then spent the entire brunch on the phone (I rarely say this, but thank God for smart-phones. Without one, we would not have known our flight was cancelled until we got to the airport and checked in) with the airline, trying to find a set of flights that would work better than the existing plan. Finally, we got booked on a flight to Brussels, leaving DC at about 4:20 pm, and then connecting to Berlin. We would arrive in Berlin at about 11:00 a.m., so Don would miss the morning conference sessions, but after a shower, he could at least be there by mid-afternoon.

We had gained some additional free time with Nicholas, so we went to Arlington National Cemetery, which he and Don had never been to, and I had last visited in about 1968.  I’m not sure what else to say about it other than that such a place fills me with both thankfulness towards the men and women who have sacrificed their lives, their health, their sanity, their limbs, in service of their country, their comrades, and the people of the world, and with a profound anti-war sentiment.  We were glad we went.  I suspect that this visit to our nation's hallowed ground helped shape my thoughts and reactions once I arrived in Germany. Knowing what wars cost, and thinking about those costs, as well as why and when they might be necessary, put me in a particularly emotional frame of mind.

Nick then dropped us off at the airport, and we proceeded to wait…and wait….and wait….and wait….for our flight to leave for Brussels. By the time we boarded for the 7-hour flight, we knew we had missed our connection in Brussels.  We left DC at around 8:30 pm (4 hours late), and when we got to Brussels, discovered that only 2 flights per day leave from there for Berlin. It was by now about 3:30 am in our brains and bodies, although it was 9:30 am in Western Europe. We had 2^nd breakfast, then lunch, while we waited for our late afternoon flight to leave. At about 2:00 pm local time (so about 8:00 am body-and-brain time), Don checked Facebook, and saw a bunch of Happy Birthday greetings, and so was reminded that it was his birthday! Don’t worry, I got him a card while I was out and about in Berlin that evening!

We got to our hotel in time for him to take a hurried shower, change clothes, and dash to the conference dinner, at which he arrived late. I, although looking longingly at the bed, headed out into the evening summer sunshine—quite bright in mid-May—to gawk at the incredible nearby architecture and find supper (and a birthday card). Thus we spent the first day of Don’s 2-day conference in the Brussels airport.