13. Italy here we come, first stop Verona

With little sleep, but eager excitement to start our three weeks in Italy we checked out of the hotel and headed down to the station for our train to Verona. This time we caught the tram and despite it being Monday commuter peak hour other passengers happily assisted us on and off with our bags while I popped Dickey up the step in his chair. Bavarian's are a truly lovely bunch!  We were early at the station and 'checked ourselves in' at the info desk being advised to keep an eye out for the platform information and that the assistance lift would be there waiting. Time for breakfast we sat back and watched the world rush by, not a care in the world....

12. Munich and the Wings for Life World Run 2016

Munich became part of our itinerary due to the Wings for Life World Run being scheduled for May 8^th 2016. We were going to be ‘in the area anyway’ so it was a no brainer that we had to be there to support the foundation. How spoilt being in Melbourne one year and Munich the next! The Wings for Life foundation was created with the purpose of raising vital funds for Spinal Cord Injury research. Creating the World Run they designed a unique event that not only donate's 100% of  funds raised to research (Red Bull, Puma and Garmin cover the rest of the costs) it is also held at the same time in 32 cities around the world. While our friends ran at 9pm in Melbourne, we took off at exactly the same time in Munich, being 1pm on a sunny afternoon. The point of difference doesn’t stop there either; you don’t set out to run to a finish line. There is a catcher car that gradually increases pace and catches up to the runners. Once passed you are done! Basically you have no idea how far you will run for! In 2015 we had organised a big group of friends to participate in Melbourne with the aim of raising an additional $500 to donate to a friends son who had recently become a paraplegic.

Running a raffle and selling our specially designed T’shirts we raised $3500 and were able to up our donation’s for both Jason and the Wings for Life Foundation. The best bit is that our friends are still talking about it 18 months later, asking if  & where we will be lining up again in 2017. 

11. Berlin...

Berlin was absolutely the top of my list and having been to Germany three times previously I was adamant that I was not missing Berlin again.  Dickey had been in his 20's and loved it as had many of our friends. It came highly recommended.While elements were awesome, and it is a very livable, yet historical city, ironically perhaps Berlin turned out to be my least favorite destination on our itinerary. Maybe the saga of our arrival dampened it, maybe it has simply changed over time.....

Leaving Prague via train we had a little hiccup with the original train we had booked on, not being accessible. We were allocated a later train and the staff in Prague phoned ahead to the Berlin main station, assuring us there would be assistance on the platform when we arrived. On the journey I had spoken with the conductor who strongly resembled Sergeant Schulz off Hogans Heroes. With a simple inquiry it seemed he spoke some English and we continue on our way, again enjoying a lovely a train ride. When we arrived in to Berlin many hours later, it fast became evident that there was no assistance personnel waiting for us and throwing our bags from the train, I ran up the platform to seek out 'Sergeant Schulz's' assistance. All he could reply with was a shrug of his shoulders and 'Nein', over and over. It seemed both his English and human decency had vanished! The stress wasn't simply how to get Dickey off the train, it was the fact that this was not the final destination and the train would be leaving in a matter of minutes. Thankfully two other passengers came to our assistance and we carried Dickey down off the train. In exasperation I ran back up to the conductor, who continued to shrug and say Nein and yelled at him, in English, that one day he would need help and know one would be there. Not my finest moment, but at least I held in all the other profanities that came to mind. Back to Dickey and our pile of bags I burst in to tears, while Dickey, true to form remained calm and collected while over my shoulder secretly watching one of our saviors give our 'Sergeant' a solid talking to, in German this time!