Travel Update: Stuck in Europe

This blog post is being written on a train between Berlin and Cologne.  I’m supposed to be back in DC, at work, busy with my normal routine.  But instead I’m on this train.  And it’s all thanks to a volcano in Iceland (on a related note, I received a message from an Icelandic friend last night.  His older brother had been quoted in the NY Times saying “Iceland is getting really good at exporting our national disasters”…the people in Germany certainly seem to agree, I’ve heard “we wanted cash, not ash” more times than I can remember).

To be honest, the delay hasn’t been that bad to me on a personal level.  As I’ve shuttled between airports and train stations the past few days trying to figure out how to get home, my experience has no-doubt been much better than what hundreds of thousands of other people have had to deal with.  I’m also fortunate to work in an industry (consulting) where work can continue, even if at reduced effectiveness, so long as there’s an active Internet connection.  Really, just trying to have this steady connection has been one of my biggest challenges throughout this ordeal.

Typically before taking a trip, I write a short post outlining where I’m going and what I’m planning on doing, and then on return I’ll write a follow-up post to review how everything went.  That obviously didn’t happen this time.  Instead, I’m going to provide a very brief summary in this post, and will then get into the weeds to outline the various things worth reviewing from the past week over the next few days.  And at this point, I’m still not certain when I’ll get home or how long this saga could continue.

Originally my plan was to fly from Washington to London on Monday evening after work, spend about 30hrs in London meeting with a few friends there, and then continuing to Berlin on Wednesday evening with a close group of friends I grew up with who are now all pursuing various interests in architecture, basketball and religion…yep, it’s an interesting group.  And, as we hadn’t been together in about four years, I was really looking forward to the trip.

For the people who visit this site looking for cheap plane tickets, unfortunately I couldn’t find anything for the dates and times I needed.  However, all those frequent flier miles I’ve been able to accrue on those cheap tickets came in very handy, as I was able to book an award ticket in Virgin America Upper Class on the outbound (supposedly the best business class product available), then in BMI business class from London-Berlin (also gets high reviews) and then back in economy on Continental from Berlin-New York-Washington that Sunday.  Not a bad itinerary for just 80,000 miles and $85 in taxes and fees.

After I booked, I ended up pushing the outbound flight back one day to finish up more work in the office, which left me only 12hrs in London.  Not the best stopover, but still enough to visit a great café in Shoreditch and rest up before continuing on to Berlin.

So here’s the summary: Virgin Atlantic was amazing.  12hrs in London went by faster than expected.  BMI was pretty good.  Berlin was fantastic.  Finding a way back from Berlin has been challenging.  And forthcoming in a few days…a trip report on an unexpected stopover in Brussels.  As Berlin is the freshest in my mind right now, I’m covering that first.  The other posts will come in some random order.