A night in Berlin… and how it all went wrong.

Last week’s work trip was yet another two day trip to Germany.
It all started with an early morning flight from London City to Düsseldorf, a fairly straight forward affair with no notable story to share.
After visiting two showrooms in the area and a brief sweat getting stuck in traffic during rush hour on the way back to the airport, I eventually made it back to Düsseldorf just in time to board my onward flight to Berlin for the night.

The plan was a good one. Arrive at Tegel around 8pm, take the bus to the main station, stay the night in a hotel nearby, then take the train from the main station to Schoenefeld airport the next morning. And since the main station is in town, a night time stroll through Berlin should be the added travel perk.
In addition it turned out that one of my clients also stayed in Berlin that night, so there was also the option of drinks on the menu.
Well the first part worked brilliantly. My flight arrived on time, I managed to find my bus and get to the main station. And only then did I realize that I mixed up the hotels during booking. The one I wanted (and until that moment was absolutely convinced I booked) was Berlin-City, which is next to the station. The one I actually booked was Berlin-Mitte (meaning center in German). Sounds almost the same, but is nowhere near. Ok so a cab ride it was… to get to my hotel, which was so not in a buzzing and vibrant surrounding, but in a rather dark corner, albeit with a subway station nearby. Well done girl (I am in charge of my own itinerary, so I am afraid I only have myself to blame).
So no evening stroll, no drinks, no easy train connection the next morning).
Instead I stayed in for dinner and caught up with some work and German trash TV.
To rescue a damsel in distress, the next morning a knight in shining armour (aka my client) showed up – not on a white horse, but in his car, which obviously was the next best thing – to take me to the airport… sparing me from actually having to work out how to get there by public transport.

Well it can’t be plain sailing all the time, can it? Tell me about your travel hick ups.