Thursday - March 14
So it was off to Zurich today on the 10:39am train via Visp. It was cloudy, cold with light flurries - sorely needed on the mountain but too late for us. The forecast for both Zurich and Berlin were both cloudy and cold - some spring !!! Dieter's shoulder was not showing any signs of improvement and at his follow up visit to the doctor yesterday he recommended that Dieter get an MRI on return to Sydney as it could in fact be a ligament - oh dear - maybe we should have bit the bullet and returned home early in spite of lost bookings etc. It's now "too late" as we purchased quite expensive non-refundable Swiss Air tickets to/from Berlin.
We checked into the Radisson Blu at Zurich airport, organised our luggage, rested, showered etc etc then had dinner at the Italian restaurant at the hotel - it was fine particularly the antipasto plate we shared as an appetiser. Then it was off to bed - it was snowing quite heavily so we were a bit concerned about possible delays in the morning.
Friday - March 15
We got up early and headed into the airport to drop our bags and wait for our 8:50am flight to Berlin. The snow had cleared but there was still a slight half-hour delay - we arrived in Berlin around 10:30am. We took a taxi to our hotel, The Mandala overlooking Potsdammer Place in the old east Berlin. Unfortunately we were not able to check in at 11:00am and after a bit of back and forth were told not to return until 3:00pm no matter what - we were a bit cheesed off to say the least but dropped our bags and headed to the shopping area of Berlin by U-bhan. We did a bit of reco but did not buy anything then stopped for lunch at the cafe at the Kempinski hotel - lunch was excellent - service a bit on the slow side. We made our way back to the Mandala and found our room now ready for occupation.
Our room was a suite of some 60+ sq m with a kitchenette so we decided to just buy some bread, ham and cheese for a light dinner in.
Saturday - March 16
We got up to a cold (below 0C) and sunny day. we had breakfast at the hotel dining room which was included in our rate - the breakfast was certainly a 10 out of 10 - as expected from the Trip Advisor reviews. We then headed out for a walking tour - seeing some of the major buildings including the new Germany parliament buildings. We worked our way around to another shopping area which included a Galleria Lafayette (made famous in Paris) - we had lunch in the food hall of the galleria which was Ok but not totally fantastic. We headed back to the hotel for a short break then went out shopping again - I scored a great leather jacket - we decided to stay home for a dinner of bread, ham and cheese (again).
Sunday - March 17
St Patricks Day however you would never know it here in Berlin. After another great breakfast we headed out in the cold to visit some of Berlin's famous museums - in particular, the Pergamon. We had lunch at the Radisson Blu then decided it was too late to go up the tower so headed home. We had an excellent dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Essenza.
Monday - March 18
Still freezing cold and now overcast with flurries - we took the U-Bhan to the fort in Spandau which was partly under construction. I spotted a shoe warehouse and scored 3 pairs of Ara shoes for 160 Euros - amazing !! We had lunch at a pub in the old town of Spandau then headed back to the hotel. We went back into the main shopping area but did not buy anything. We went out for dinner to a local wine bar which was pretty so-so mainly due to it's limited menu.
Tuesday - March 19
Another freezing day with lots of snow overnight and all day (local paper said 20cm - first time in 20 years) - it made our flight back to Zurich a bit of a worry as there were many delays and cancellations today. However the forecast for Wednesday was better. We took the U-bhan to the castle which was great - would have been much better in summer due to the extensive gardens and lakes. We came back to town and had a nice lunch at Brasserie Dressler - a famous bistro. Then it was more wandering around the shops but we were both a bit travel weary so we called it a day. We stayed home for a light dinner
Wednesday - March 20
It was back to Zurich - fortunately the snow had cleared so there were no airport delays. As our flight was only at 3pm we did some more shopping after we had finished off the packing. We also bought a new red roll-aboard to handle some of our excess stuff - shopping (mine) and all the various first class flight suits and toilet bags we had collected so far. After landing in Zurich we checked into the Radisson Blu again and then reorganised all our luggage, some of which we had left with the hotel prior to going to Berlin. We checked-in for our flight(s) home the following day(s). We had dinner at the Italian restaurant at the Radisson.
Thursday, March 20 - Friday, March 21
We got up at 5:00am for the long trip home - after quick showers we headed over the the Swiss Air lounge to wait for our 7:20AM flight to Milan. After arriving in Milan (which is a very quirky airport indeed) we waited in the common lounge for our Singapore Airlines First Class flight(s) back to Sydney. After boarding around 11:00am we kicked off these final legs with a couple of glasses of Krug - oh so smooth!! We arrived in Singapore some 12 hours later - 5:00am local time on Friday. We immediately headed to the SQ first class lounge to await our 9:40am flight to Sydney. While waiting we had showers and a real cooked breakfast in Singapore's "Private Room" - VIPs only please - somehow by having frequent flyer award tickets in F class we qualified. We finally walked in the door at home around 9:30PM on Friday and pretty much hit the sack.