Kelocity.com

We are just wrapping up an amazing 17-day trip to Eastern Europe. Lots of pictures and stories to share, but I am going to roll out my posts over the next week or so. Stay tuned!
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From August 26, 2011

Here we are again! Heading to the airport for our 4th international trip with Contiki. It is really surreal that it’s already here. We usually go in October/November so it was a treat this year to go so soon. Our original plan was to fly Delta from LAX to JFK (New York) and then to Berlin. But hurricane Irene was threatening our plans, so we called the night before and asked to be rerouted. Now we are scheduled LAX to Amsterdam (non-stop YAY!) and then on to Berlin. We much prefer those long haul flights so it worked out perfect!

The flight was only 9.5 hours (which was nothing compared to our 16 hour LAX to Dubai flight last year). It was super easy and flew by (no pun intended!)

We watched a couple of movies and snoozed for a bit. I love those big planes.

We arrived into Amsterdam on time, but we only had an hour to get to our connecting flight… and that time included going through customs and running three terminals over. Eek! It was close.

We made it just in time (but later learned that our luggage unfortunately didn’t…)

But KLM and Berlin airport in general is very organized and they scheduled to have our bag delivered straight to our hotel just a few hours later.

The flight from Amsterdam to Berlin was only an hour (I love how close everything is in Europe!)

Welcome to Berlin!

Despite how extremely well rested I look in the photo above (kidding) we made our way via bus to our hotel!

Contiki hotels are all pretty much the same, but we were really impressed by the Hotel Aldea.

I think they called it a 3-star hotel, but the beds were some of the best we’ve ever had in Europe. I loved the duvet covers. We used our free afternoon to catch up on sleep, boy did we need it. Plus this bed was just too tempting to ignore. zzzzzzzz

Later on we met up with our group to hear more about the tour and what to expect.

Meet Joe! Our trusty tour manager. Those guys are amazing at keeping everything together and making our vacation flawless.

We love these meetings, they definitely get us pumped up. We have a great group this time.

First stop is Berlin! We can’t wait!