Our 4:00 a.m. meeting time at PDX was none too early (although all of us were certainly complaining about the early hour!). We met, received our e-tickets and lined up as a group for check in. Whoops! Where are your passports? In your backpack back in your home you say? After being clocked at records speeds between PDX and Beaverton and PDX, they were recovered just in time. As we expected, check-in went fairly slowly. As we grew close to the end of the check-in, we were told that one of our adult tickets had been canceled. Everyone else in the choir, singers and chaperones, finally moved on to the gate to board the plane. Finally, at the last minute, Diana Harrell was declared "legal" and "worthy to travel" and she and I moved through security as fast as we could and headed to the gate. We were greeted by one of the pilots asking if we were "from the choir". We assured him we were, boarded the plane, the doors were closed and we were off to New York.
We had lunch together in the airport at JFK, then moved on to the plane taking us to Berlin. After boarding and closing the doors, we were told that our departure time had been delayed by almost two hours . . . I don't know what anyone else did, but I promptly went to sleep and slept until takeoff. We were served dinner . . . well, we were served a very small portion of chicken or pasta . . . than most of us curled up in our seats and slept until we neared Berlin.
Peter, our tour guide who was also OYC's guide a year ago, met us and welcomed us and we were off to the Mark Hotel. Believe it or not . . . (drum roll) . . . our rooms were ready and VOILA . . . we checked in, brushed our teeth, assured ourselves that we could stay awake for a few more hours and walked to the Berlin Zoo. It was a beautiful afternoon and the animals were in great form . . . a huge polar bear stood up on his hind feet and washed his face for us! . . . we were able to watch the giant hippopotami (is the plural for hippopotamus???) swimming underwater and coming to the surface to show us their very, very large open mouths . . . the tiny goats in the petting zoo showed us how to provide treats for them (and if we didn't, they showed us how they expressed their disappointment!I) . . . our boys, dressed in their red T-shirts, entered the lion area and approached a female lion whose favorite color obviously was not red! She objected loudly and rudely and her roars were heard all over the zoo. Thank you, OCC boys!! Babies cried, smaller animals hid, and OCC was thrilled at the reaction of the lions!
Dinner tonight was at the hotel and we quite good. I'm not sure what was served, but we all ate it and no one landed face-down in their plate. However, it is now 9:30 p.m. on Friday evening in Berlin and almost everyone is asleep! We'll check rooms in a few minutes, but I'm confident everyone is tucked in and tuckered out. More tomorrow!! Good . . ni . . z z z z z z z z z . . . . . .Wake up call tomorrow at 7:30 a.m.
Sandy Miller
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