This story properly starts yesterday, at a leaving ‘do for someone at work. Just one drink turned into more than one, and then another pub.

No big deal; I travel light, so packing takes very little time.

Then someone found themselves stranded, because their intended place to stay fell through, so the lounge at ‘my’ place became the backup, and only sensible, option. Fortunately, I have built up many many favours with the llandllady by not being a useless ambulatory houseplant, not failing to do a midnight run, and by feeding the cats, so this was no problem.

I don’t have a sleeping bag in this hemisphere; Should get one, as it’d be useful for this sort of situation. I basically had to say “here’s a couch; good luck”.

The reason all of that got mentioned is that they had to get up super-early, because I’m a paranoid & anxious traveller.

Anyway, it all worked out, I made it to Marylebone, then Paddington, then Heathrow with plenty of time to spare.
Maybe too much time; Probably didn’t need to be out of the house that early.

Flight was magnificently uneventful ( finished the WH40k novel I was reading, and started a Cadfael one ), and I can now report that Tegel Airport in Berlin is … Small. And showing it’s age.

Still, it does the job, and the passport control folks were friendly, and the people at the information kiosk were able to tell me the best way to get a bus to Alexanderplatz, where my hotel for the next few days is.

And a coffee place sold me a drink.

Hotel will do the job, though the WiFi is a bit rubbish; I’d hoped to be able to check on work stuff, but that’s not an option; Had to use my phone as a hotspot just to check the status of an Amazon machine, with no hope of actually connecting to it.

I’ve had my first meal in Berlin/Germany, and in honour of the grand cultural tradition, it was Currywurst. I’d assumed it’d be a bit Meh, owing to me not liking ketchup, but the curry powder made it quite nice.

My attempts to order it in German didn’t really work, owing to it being menu #8 on the board; I don’t know the word for ‘8’.

A subsequent purchase may have been more successful, but given that my only contribution was handing over the item, smiling and nodding when asked if that was all (though I did figure out that that’s what was being asked – Go Me!) , and saying ‘Thanks’ at the end, I’m not sure it counts.

So, in Berlin, planning to do some tourist things tomorrow, and … That’s about it.

Oh, and this is the hotel I’ll be staying at for the Dev. Summit¹. It’s a bit bigger than the current one.

¹ The actual reason I’m here is to attend the Esri Developer
Summit Europe. I’m doing some tourism ahead of the event.

Never been to a Developer Summit before. Never been a developer before. So that’ll be interesting.