Köln to Berlin

I’m on the ICE 555 to Berlin. It’s a long old haul and involved an 0800 hotel departure. this was quite a feat bearing in mind that even though I made a huge effort to have an early night it was still 0200 before I put the light out, and being of the opinion that breakfast at the Crowne Plaza was a particularly good time investment, the alarm went off a 0645 in order to make breakfast at 0700 - can’t keep the egg chef waiting! Before you say anything, 0200 was early!

The promoter of concert 3 (another good one, but with no dramas this time) threw a party for us afterwards which meant that by the time we’d got back to Köln on the bus, packed our cases and taken them out to the bust for overnight transport to Berlin, it was already 0100, and tired as I was its always necessary to wind down in the hotel bar before going to bed, so 0200 it was!

I’ve got my picnic - found a lovely deli / sarni place in Köln yesterday - and am looking forward to having my marinated artichoke hearts, aubergine stuffed with basil and feta, red peppers stuffed with cream cheese and mozzarella rolled round Parma ham and pesto - yum! I forgot to buy a bottle of wine to have with it, but we’ve got an embassy do tonight’s, so I expect wine might figure in the proceedings at some point! Shame the seats are really uncomfortable again, but it gives me an excuse to get up and nosey to see what everyone else is up to. Sleep doesn’t look like its going to be an option, thought I could really do with a long nap - but maybe I can muscle in on a game of Pass the Pig or Scrabble somewhere further down the carriage ...