Day 33, Friday, Melbourne
Day 32, Thursday, Dubai
Last day. In Dubai now.
I had discovered that the 109 bus to Tegel Airport went past my front door, the stop was 100m away. For €1.70 I was at the airport in 30 minutes, at 8:45am, 2 hours before boarding Air Berlin flight AB6191 to Munich.
There was a potential problem though. The plane was loaded, ready to push back from the gate, but didn’t. The door to the flight deck was open, and there were 2 guys with Air Berlin Technik reflective jackets on, one in the left seat where the pilot would sit. The pilot was standing, lots of conversation going on. The chief flight attendant closed the door from the outside. The main door of the plane had not been closed. A while later the pilot emerged, made a statement on the PA, in German, then went back into the flight deck. I was thinking that if I missed my Emirates flight in Munich it would not be a disaster, but it would spoil my day, and my weekend. The door stayed open and we watched them talking and manipulating controls. Eventually the Techniks left, with a smile and a handshake with the pilot, he resumed the left seat, the main door was closed and we took off, about half an hour late.
Day 31, Wednesday, Berlin
Right now it’s Thursday, and I’m using the free wifi at Tegel Airport, so this will be truncated whenever the free hour is up. My Vodafone SIM ran out of credit this morning too. Good timing.
Wednesday was my last day in Berlin. I could hear the rain outside when I woke up, but it had almost stopped by the time I set forth for the Gemaldegalerie, near Potzdamerplatz.
Day 30, Tuesday, Berlin
Just back in Berlin from Dresden, via Leipzig. It was going to rain in Dresden today. It didn’t, but the weather was very Berlin-like all day, at least not too cold. I had my assault on the museums planned out. First, since nothing opened before 10am, a leisurely breakfast at my favourite cafe. Everyone here is older than me! I think the median age in Dresden overall, including visitors, must be about 45, at least in the centre.