Travel on Christmas Day is always a good choice as there are less crowds at the airports. The Singapore lounge in Sydney had a reasonable selection of food and the MUMM Champagne and self made Bloody Mary’s helped celebrate Christmas.

My premium economy window seat was comfortable on the large A380 Airbus plane. I had a good view from the window with no obstruction. The chicken and rice meal was quite nice with a beverage of bubbles.

At Singapore airport, it was easy to find the Singapore Gold KrisFlyer lounge and I settled in for a couple of hours. The food at this lounge was much better than in Sydney. The highlight was the 

Laksa station which tasted amazing and I will definitely choose this on my return. So far, my Gold Velocity status has meant that I did not have to spend a cent on food or beverages until the Frankfurt stopover.

For the Singapore to Frankfurt leg of my journey, the plane was a smaller Boeing 777-300ER. On this plane, my premium economy seat was over the large wing which meant I had no view. I did mention this to the attendant and he came back with an offer to get a window row to myself in economy where I could lie across and have a view but then I would have lost the premium extras such as real cutlery and glasses of complimentary champagne so I stayed put. This made me reflect on whether premium economy is worth the extra cost. You cannot lift the divider rests between the seats if you are the only one in your row. 

United airlines last year had a better set up with their Economy Plus! 

The chicken noodle meal was not to my taste but maybe because I was that person with the cough on the plane! I had managed to pick up a sore throat before I left Australia…. but then what do you bring to Germany but ‘germs’? Boom boom!

When entering Frankfurt border patrol it was lovely to be at the end of a long queue, only to be asked who had a Euro passport and being led straight past the people to enter the country on the right side of the booths! 

I chose roaming with Optus for my phone data which costs $5 a day and is completely worth it for peace of mind and time adjustments.

My flight to Berlin was with Lufthansa and I was told that my luggage would go straight through to Berlin from Sydney. So it was a nice surprise that my bag  was already on the carousel because of priority handling so I was through the Berlin Brandenburg airport in no time. 

Scott arranged a share car (these are vehicles you book online and drive to your location in the city). 

Once home we enjoyed some champagne and a light lunch before deciding to go for a walk. I needed to stay awake all day until dark as a way of avoiding jet lag…. I find this really works. 

We walked to the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park which is a massive reminder of the war and many Russian soldiers are buried here where Germany is obliged to maintain this important icon. Even Putin has been here! It is a very large park and is utilised by many dog walkers. 

We then found another sharecar and drove to the Charlottenburg Schloss (castle) for a tour and were pleased to see that the Christmas markets were in full swing here. 

We paid €24 for the two of us to do the tour of the castle and its very wealthy opulence. 

Then it was time for the Gluwein! Christmas markets are magical because the sun sets at 4pm and you really get to enjoy the market atmosphere. After a few samples of beverages and some food we made our way to the U-Bahn train station and caught a train home. 

I had walked over 13000 steps from airport to the end of the day and sleep was easy!

Guten Nacht!