Let the Panic Commence...

While fear might have been our travel partner, there were only a handful of times when sheer and utter panic griped me and shook with all of its might. Walking the streets of Copenhagen at 4am was one of those times.

Before going to bed on our last night in Copenhagen, I asked our hostess what the quickest route to the train station was from our inn. She rattled off some information, I nodded like I understood and bid her farewell.

The first sign was the feeling of dread in my stomach, then the radiator kicked and knocked.
Jeff, why is the radiator making that noise? I never heard it do that before.
It's amazing the superhuman strength one has when their sympathetic nervous system kicks in. I was dressed, packed and we were out the door within fifteen minutes of waking.

We should have waited for the bus.

Dragging our baggage along the dark, cold streets of Copenhagen was probably not one of my better decisions. I knew they were after us, though. The hostess and her two male boarders were after us.

After what seemed like hours, we boarded the first train to Roskilde. It was an old Viking settlement that housed a small museum and some artifacts.

We hopped off and hopped right back on the next train back to Copenhagen.
Too dark, too early, too cold.

Finally, we were off to Hamburg, Germany. Scratch that, Berlin.

Trains rock me to sleep. Cars rock me to sleep. Planes rock me to sleep. Sitting in the Social Security office rocks me to sleep.
I can't help it.

Needless to say, Jeff is not a fan of my little naps while traveling together. It is rather annoying, I miss out our intellectual conversation and beautiful scenery, or in this case, watching the train I was on being loaded into a boat.

Whitney, get up. Get up! We're on a boat.

Why does he have to do this? Just ask me to get up and talk, don't lie to me. I opened my eyes out of annoyance, only to find us on a boat.

Umm, uh oh.

The train came to a stop and everyone casually got up and started crowding at the doors. The scene out the window went from windmills on farms to steel walls and bars. We followed the crowd: to where, we had to idea.

We found out the train rides into the belly of the boat, from there they unload the passengers and usher them upstairs to a cafeteria. After a twenty minute ride, the passengers are reloaded, the train repositioned on the tracks and back on our way: in Germany.

From there, aside from the beautiful views out our train window, the trip was relatively uneventful.

We arrived in Berlin late in the afternoon, to rather bleak weather. With all the stores still open, we were able to purchase a Berlin map and have a friendly tourist guide point us in the right direction for the Holiday Inn Express.

We opted to walk. Walked with all of our luggage. Walked to the other side of Berlin.

Walked and walked.

After an unexpected detailed tour of Berlin's park (i.e, being lost), we arrived.