Last week was our Christmas party and this year the plan was for the office to head over to Berlin for a night and visit the German office. So last Tuesday we headed into the office as usual and caught the coach at around half 10 up to Luton airport from where we were flying from. After checking in we all grabbed some lunch from the cafe before boarding the plane and off to Berlin. We got into Berlin in good time and then landed up taking ages to get to the hotel which really started getting quiet annoying. But eventually we made it to the Meininger Hotel, quickly checked in, changed and met back downstairs in time for a beer in the lobby. Some of the others waited for a cab while the rest of us decided to walk to Kalkscheune which was about 20 minutes away. It felt like a wedding venue with the decorations but actually turned out to be really good, especially with some local food and German beer on tap all night.

We stayed on at the venue until around 1 when they stopped serving us, and decided to move on onto their offices, which was Paul's decision at least. We landed up staying there a few hours, with them having a good number of crates in the office which all went down well. Eventually we see decided to call it a night and myself, Andrew and Vittorio made our way back to the hotel. In my search for something to eat we passed by the Die Berliner Republik bar which conveniently stays open until 6 and serves food and drink until then :) So we decided to stop in for a beer and bratwurst and then head back, getting to the hotel around 5, so a fairly decent night I'd say!

After missing breakfast on Wednesday morning, we checked out of the room and Andrew and myself decided to take a walk around the city and chill out until our coach to the airport. After wondering around and grabbing some lunch and a coffee, we made our way back to the hotel, met up with the others and caught the coach to the airport. It took a while to eventually get home and certainly involved a fair bit of travelling in just two days, but a good Christmas party this year I thought! Then on Friday we had our tech team's Christmas lunch which was over at the Bavarian Beerhouse on Old Street. We left the office mid afternoon and headed over there for some lunch and of course a couple of steins. I left the others a bit earlier, we had plans to head over to Megan and Noel for dinner, even though it turned out to just be Megan as Noel was over in Ireland for a few days.

On Saturday morning Uns and myself headed down the road towards New Cross and stopped in at No. 178 for breakfast. We'd walked past there a few times but never actually eaten there. After a bite to eat we headed into town to do some Christmas shopping, mainly around the Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road areas, which needless to say was an awful idea. Between the crowds, the queue and the tourist it definitely was the quickest way to ruin the festive atmosphere! After a couple of hours of painful shopping, I met up with Uns at Caffe Concerto near to Piccadilly Circus to escape the madness and chill out over a glass of wine.

After a manic Saturday, we had very few plans yesterday, starting off with a charity drop of clothes down near New Cross Gate, then some (more) shopping and finally off home for a nice Christmas dinner and relaxing evening.