Causey's Take Europe - Days 4-7

Day 4 – Friday, July 4: Orleans to Berlin… sorta

On this morning, Matt was planning to come back to the hotel and pick me up at noon, so we could drive around and see a few sights. I spent the morning in the hotel, packing and getting ready to go. I checked out just before Matt came back, so we headed out! The night before, Matt had eaten dinner with the guys beneath the shadow of the Orleans Cathedral (which, of course, had been closed) and he wanted to go back to see it. We first found a place for lunch, found the Cathedral, and had just enough time to look around before we needed to leave to catch our place. I’ll give more details with the photos. It was really spectacular, and without a picture to go along with it, an explanation would be sadly lacking.

We headed back to the airport. Since I’d been in the “SA” line before, I asked if I could be in that line again, and the check-in-guy said sure! Once again, we were the only people in that line, and things were going really well until I accidentally sat in the exit row. Of course, you can’t sit there if you’re pregnant, but I forgot about that and just sat in the first available seat. So, the stewardess had to ask me to move. “Oops”, I said, “I forgot… no, no trouble to move, I’m sorry.” So we moved back to a regular seat. But by then, the stewardess had noticed the size of my bump, and asked if I had doctor’s approval to fly, and how many weeks along I was. I’ll be honest - if I had known what was coming, I would have lied through my teeth. But, I did not know what was coming, so I answered truthfully that I was 31 weeks, and no, I didn’t have a doctor’s letter of approval.

We were asked to step off the plane for a word with the pilot. Most airlines allow pregnant women to fly up until around 36 weeks or so, without having a doctor’s written approval. After that, you need doctor’s permission (they don’t want anyone having a baby on a plane!) Well, EasyJet is different – they require a doctor’s written permission for anytime after 27 weeks! That’s the entire last trimester!! The pilot could not break policy, and asked us to leave the plane. That’s right – we got thrown off! They had to dig around under the plane for 15 minutes looking for our bags, and then a nice EasyJet lady took us to get them, and then to the EasyJet desk to see about a new flight. The only way I could fly now was to go to the airport doctor and have a check-up to make sure I was fit to fly. To be honest, everyone was very cordial, and apologetic about the problem. But, they didn’t care at all that I had already taken 2 flights this week with them, and had been fine. No bending of the rules. Sigh…

So, we rescheduled the flight for the next available one to Berlin – 6:30 the next morning. We found the airport doctor’s office, and a new adventure began. First, there were only 2 people in the office. One of them didn’t speak any English, and one spoke very little. We managed to convey our problem and got looks of dismay. They chatted between themselves for a while, then 2 more nurses came back from break – one of them spoke more English, and he told us that only an OB/GYN was certified to make that certificate. It HAD to be a specialist – not a regular doctor. Why didn’t I just call my doctor back home? So, I called my 24hr. pregnancy help number, got re-directed to a different call center, was told that no one who could answer that question was on call just then, and they took my number for a call back – sometime in the next couple of days. So, we figured that route was closed. We did get a call back a few minutes later, and they explained that the doctors there didn’t have access to maternity records so they didn’t actually know if I was safe to fly or not, so they couldn’t write the certificate and fax it over (our last hope!).

So, after a few more minutes, and a consultation with the doctor, they took my information and my blood pressure, and asked if I was ready for the exam. With the language barrier, we couldn’t quite tell if they were just doing us a favor, or if we had misunderstood the “must be a specialist” part, but at this point, we really didn’t care. I got asked lots of questions, had a quick exam, and they printed the form!! We were in business! By now it was around 9pm, and the nurse called the airport hotel for us and got us a room there. We caught the shuttle, checked it, and plopped down in our room. What a day!! If I hadn’t accidentally sat in the exit row, no one would have taken any notice of me, and would never have started asking questions. Oh well… We ordered dinner in our room (again, roughly the same price as in the restaurant – cool!) and then went straight to bed. Tomorrow would be a long day.

Day 6: Saturday, July 5 – Paris to Berlin… really

Since our flight was at 6:30, we had to check in at 4:30. We were up at 4, and took the shuttle over to the airport. Luckily, we were still full from dinner (it had only been a few hours) so we didn’t have to worry about breakfast. We boarded the plane, sat FAR from the exit row, and no one even noticed me. Matt and I both slept on the plane, and soon we were landing in Berlin. EasyJet flew into a small airport, so we had no trouble getting our bags, and then the rental car, and then finding the hotel. We were checked in by 9:00, and breakfast didn’t end until 9:30, and by this time we were starving! We had a good breakfast, and then took about an hour nap in the room before heading out. We chose to spend our weekend in Berlin (rather than Paris) to see the sights there, and Matt was afraid that all these delays would kill our whole Saturday. But, because we took the early flight, we were ready to go by 11:00, even with a nap. If we hadn’t flown that morning, we would have let ourselves sleep in, and would not have been ready to go before 10, so we really didn’t lose too much time – just some sleep J

(note – if any of our friends have been to Germany (I can think of Eva and Josh) and would like to make comments or corrections, please leave comments in the photo gallery or on the blog – we’d love to have more info on the things we saw!!)

Most of the historic sights in Berlin are within about a 1 mile radius of each other. I had the address of the holocaust museum, so we gave that to the GPS, and in about 25 minutes, we were there. We found a place to park, and noticed barriers everywhere. People were parked in “no parking” zones (with no tickets) and there were scads of people! We found ourselves in some sort of German/American friendship festival. Most things were in German, and we didn’t cough up the €1.50 needed to buy a program, so we aren’t entirely sure of the details. We assume it was this weekend because of the US 4^th of July, and we were just lucky enough to be here! There was a huge stage with lots of performances all day – speakers, dancers, musicians – entertainers of all kinds. There were bleachers set up to watch, and loads of people just standing around. Outside the performance area there was a real “fair” atmosphere. Food stands everywhere – most of them selling German beer and German Sausages. YUM!! At lunchtime, we found a booth selling ½ meter bratwurst on a foot long baguette. Bratwurst is my all time favorite sausage, so I had to try one. In reality, it was about 1/3 the diameter of a regular bratwurst, so it really wasn’t that much more food than a regular one – but it was fun to eat, and the baguette was hot and fresh. Matt tried a German beer, and it came in a commemorative glass – so we now have our first souvenir!

Eventually, we had walked through the whole fair, seen a few performances, and were ready to see some sights. We only had time to see the holocaust museum before heading home. I can usually walk/stand for 2-3 hours before needing a break, and we had been out for 6 hours by this point. Not to mention only having about 5 hours of sleep the night before. We went back to the hotel, and had a wonderful German dinner. Creamed Beef Goulash with red cabbage and boiled potatoes. For our friends in Lexington, we want you to know that Marikka’s German Restaurant has real German food. Our meal was excellent and reminded us of those times we gathered a huge group of college students together to go out to Marikka’s. Those were the days… We went straight to bed after dinner to try and make up for lost sleep.

Day 7 – Sunday, July 6: Berlin to Leipzig

We ended up sleeping for almost 12 hours total. I guess we really needed it! This hotel had a “lazy Sunday” policy - breakfast is available until noon, and you don’t have to check out until 5pm!! I suppose you can party hard on Saturday night and not have to pay for it by getting up early and checking out by 11. Well, we used our time to sleep off our jet-lag, had breakfast at around 10ish, then loaded up and headed back into Berlin. We had seen a tall tower-like monument the day before but didn’t have to time go and see it. It was about a mile away from where the fair had been. There was a huge park that stretched all the way to the monument, so we walked leisurely on wooded paths and stopped to see smaller monuments along the way. It was a beautiful cool, breezy day, and we spent several hours walking around before we needed to leave. (the details of the park and monuments will be in the photo gallery, when I get it up) We had lunch at a café, then drove on to Leipzig. Since our next 2 cities are in Germany, we decided to just drive between them – since they don’t all have airports anyway.

We drove on the Autobahn. Matt was thrilled. Actually, we’re a little foggy on the details… We don’t know if there is one, famous “Autobahn” or if all interstates are autobahns. The fame of the Autobahn is that there isn’t a speed limit – you go as fast as you want, but if you crash you lose your license and spend like 5 years in jail (that is, if you’re alive at the end). That prompts people to be good drivers. We made really good time to Leipzig.