I have now been in Germany for four days and I am currently staying in Letmathe, which is in the north western region of the country. Okay so now to fill you in on what’s been going on these four days.
The only picture I took in Berlin
Firstly I arrived in Berlin very early in the morning as you know, and because I had not been feeling well I decided to take a taxi to the hotel instead of trying to go through the hassle of figuring out the train system. Not being lazy just I was ill, hadn’t slept since my flight was so early and had heavy luggage. So I jumped in a cab. The taxi man is driving for a few minutes then gets to an intersection where he sees a bit of traffic on the road he was going to turn on, so he makes a u-turn to take what I assumed was an alternate route. Oh how wrong I was! Instead he lets me out on the side of the road and gives me detailed instructions on how to get to my hotel from there. In German!! In case you’re wondering, no I don’t speak German this was my first time in the country. I tried to explain I wanted to be taken to the hotel, and in a mixture of German, painfully scattered broken English and extreme body language, he says it will take too long as he wont be able to move much and it will cost me too much (so he was doing me a favour?). Anyhow I get out as he has already placed my suitcase on the side walk by what I thought was a train station, I pay him and he leaves.
I quickly realize this is not a train station but just subterranean passage to other sides of the street. Great! I begin walking with back pack and suitcase in tow. I had the name and address of the hotel and asked a few people if they knew where it was. The young people that spoke English had no idea where that was and the older people who knew the address, didn’t speak English! This was going well. I continued to walk then finally found someone who could do both and found out I needed to continue walking about another half an hour. Just lovely 
Well I finally made it to the hotel and just wanted to sleep and nurse my running nose, when I was told I can leave my luggage but not check in until 2pm maybe 1pm… its 9am. I left my luggage went into a store that was open sat in the shoe department and rested. I figured they would just think I was waiting on someone who was shopping. This gets totally lame after 45 minutes so I leave head down the promenade, find a Starbucks grab a mocha and croissant and sit at the outdoor tables for 2 and a half hours and people watch to kill time.
Outdoor German Scenery
Finally, by the grace of God, its finally close to 1 I head back down, stop in two stores and get back to the hotel where I go to my room and basically stayed for the next two days. I was too ill to do any of the tours I planned and saw not much more of Berlin really, than my hotel window allowed (which was the backside of another building).
Backyard of the house in Letmathe
After those two days I am picked up at 4:3o am by a much nicer taxi driver and headed to the airport to catch another early flight this time to Cologne, where I took a train to my cousins (not actually related, but family) in Letmathe. Which is where I am now. I have rested quite a bit since reaching yesterday but still managed to squeeze in some good times. They have been giving me all sorts of medication and I am actually feeling better right now than I have in a while. That’s it for now will fill you in next time on what we did today 
One of the two churches by the neighborhood
View behind the house
Houses in my cousins’ neighbourhood
