To avoid the stress of potentially arriving late due to traffic or having train cancellations or delays, I’d travelled down to South Ruislip last night. This morning we could have an easier start to the day, and take the underground train to London City airport a little after 08:00. The journey there is one that is relatively simple, and mostly hassle-free, even with luggage. The only downside to this though was travelling during the capital city’s rush hour, however even that wasn’t too bad on a Friday. Changing at Stratford was the easiest way to get around with our luggage as there are fewer stairs there between platforms.

Once we’d dropped off our luggage, and was through security, we bought some lunch from Boots to take with us on this short flight. There’s a few other shops after security, such as WH Smiths, Cafe Nero, and a Pret. There’s also a couple of smallish restaurants and a sandwich bar if we’d wanted.

It takes less than two hours to reach Berlin Brandenburg Airport, and we arrived fifteen minutes early. The border control however is very slow for non-EU residents - a reminder of something we’ve lost since Brexit. This took so long that our luggage was on the conveyor already when we got there. It’s easy from this airport to get into the city via the trains, though last time I did find it to be a bit a bit of a maze.

On both of my previous times visiting Berlin I had a hard time figuring out how to get to where I wanted to be. The first time, we didn't have mobile internet so I was using a printed map (that a member of staff kept), and couldn’t find the right platform at the airport or in Alexanderplatz. Navigating using Microsoft Autoroute on my HP iPAQ wasn’t easy either as this didn’t have GPS and its abilities were limited.

On the second visit, O2 (the mobile provider) had messed up my data roaming so I had no internet for the first few days of that trip either. I'd expected to have internet so I could use Google Maps to find my way. A rookie mistake. This time I knew the area better, had my notes available ready with a suggested route, and knew how and where I wanted to go.

We had to jog the last few meters when we reached the platform, but we made it into the RB23 train that took us to the Zoologischer Garten station. There’d been a door malfunction at one stop that meant some people missed their stop, and the train was running a little late, but we got there. We could have take the U-bahn to Wittenbergplatz to get closer to the hotel, but we didn’t know this at the time. It was probably more hassle than it was worth anyway, lugging suitcases down more stairs. It was easier to just walk with them to the ibis budget we’d be staying in for the next few days. It was about a ten minute walk from where we left the station.

We passed the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on the way, the first place I’d seen in Berlin sixteen years ago after having only arrived in the country a few hours before. We also photographed a couple of the United Buddy Bears statues they have dotted around the city.

Once we’d checked in, and had gotten changed into shorts, it was after 17:00 already. To save time tomorrow, we decided we’d collect our race numbers today - it’d be one less thing to think about even if it did mean needing to wear the wristband for the next couple of days. Just outside the hotel is the Wittenbergplatz station, which we took to Zoologischer Garten and then to Messe Süd - our two hour ticket had enough left to cover this journey. Whilst we thought this might be a quiet time to collect the number, we quickly realised how many other people were also heading to the exhibition centre.

The organisation at the expo was very good though. You walk through a couple of halls to an area that is for runners only, where they check your ID and start card, and then there’s plenty of places to then line up for your race number and if applicable, your drop bag. The adjacent hall is then filled with exhibitors. Carmen got a Berlin Half Marathon t-shirt for €40, and we both queued at the Super Half stand for a photograph, and to stamp our Super Half passports.

We eventually headed back to Zoologischer Garten, having now bought a 24 hour AB ticket to cover some of tomorrow as well, and from there walked to the LEGO store to get our LEGO passports stamped for the first time this year. It was almost 19:00 by this point, and about time to get some food. Carmen spotted a place on the map called Cao Cao, which served Vietnamese cuisine, and that just happened to be the first place we came across that seemed reasonable.

I had Gà Cà Ri Ðō which was braised chicken with seasonal vegetables, and sweet potatoes, in a homemade red curry and coconut milk sauce with rice. It was very nice, and very filling. The mango juice was also a generous helping. For our two mains, a side, and a drink each, this came to just €34.40 with the tip. I felt like this was the best meal I’d had in Berlin out of my trips so far.

It had cooled off a little whilst we’d been eating, but we walked around to a nearby Lidl to get snacks and something for tomorrow’s breakfast. We’d gotten there just before closing time, and afterwards took a slow walk back to the ibis where we then watched Moana in German.