The bus pulled up to a very homey looking hotel after quite some time of traveling. It wasn't too big, but it wasn't huge either. It was located in a rather rural area of Germany outside of Berlin. The structure itself had a rather rustic feel to it with all the wood used to build it. If anything, it looked more like a bed and breakfast with three levels to it. It definitely was something you wouldn't see at home, so naturally you took a picture of the front after helping everyone get their luggage from the bus. Before heading inside, Ludwig made an announcement.

        "Alright. You will be sharing a room with one other person with the exception of Alfred, who will be sharing a room with me and Gilbert, and Darcy. He pulled out a cleanly folded sheet of paper from his pants pocket and cleared his throat. "Samantha, you are rooming with Lily. Ami will be sharing a room with Valerie. Darcy is with (Y/n) and Charlotte."

        Everyone nodded and headed inside. Gilbert ran up to the front desk and talked to the receptionist for a little while, making the young woman giggle and blush. She eventually handed him all the room keys he needed. He thanked her before jogging over, holding up the room keys in victory. Ludwig took them from him gently and handed them out.

        "Don't lose these, or they'll make you pay for another one, is that clear?"

        "Yes, sir!"

        "Gut. Head to your rooms and get settled in. You have one hour before you have to be back on the bus. Spend your time wisely."

        You all headed off to your assigned rooms rather quickly, excited to see if your rooms were as nice as the outside of the building and the lobby. Much to your delight, it was as clean as the rest of the hotel. You dragged your luggage into your shared room along with Darcy and Charlotte.

        "I call dibs on the bed next to the window!" Charlotte proclaimed.

        "I want the bed that's in its own little corner... I want to be as far away from you as possible, Charlotte," Darcy sighed.

        "Why? What's wrong with me?" Charlotte pouted.

        "You snore. You snore so incredibly loud. I cannot be in the bed closest to you for that reason unless you want to wake up with a pillow over your face."

        "Oh... Sorry about that! I'm a back sleeper. I'll try to sleep on my stomach if that helps!"

        "It might. Thank you."

        "No problem!"

        "I guess I have the bed closest to the bathroom then, which actually works in my favor. You two take way too long to get ready in the morning."

        "I do not!" Darcy hissed.

        "You do too. The last time I picked you up in high school you weren't even ready when I got there, and I even gave you a half hour notice before leaving my house."

        "... Winged eyeliner is not easy to perfect when you are half asleep..."

        "Exactly, so I win."

        "Yeah, yeah..."

        You all shared a quick laugh before relaxing in your room. Darcy brought out a sketch pad and a pencil and began to doodle on a page already partially full of flowers. Charlotte picked up a book from her backpack and began to read while laying down. You decided on sitting at the chairs and table by the large window. You stared silently outside, watching kids run around with their parents watching them at the pool. You smiled, thinking about how nice it must be to have such loving families, not that you were complaining about your own life though.

        After what seemed like twenty minutes But was really an hour, you headed back down to the bus with Darcy and Charlotte. Everyone else was soon to follow as they boarded with you. Ludwig and Gilbert were already on the bus. Alfred was the last one on, giving the thumbs up to let them know that everyone was accounted for. Ludwig nodded and told the driver that he could proceed to the restaurant. The ride was relatively short, which was good because Lily was becoming, as she would say, "hangry".

        The restaurant was a little hole in the wall pub on the outskirts of Berlin. It was dimly lit inside, but was cheerfully decorated and the employees were very friendly. Everyone sat down and had their drink orders taken. Ludwig and Gilbert ordered two beers for themselves while you and your friends sodas. Alfred even opted for a water rather than anything sugary or alcoholic. The drinks were soon brought out and lunch, which was Spätzle mit Geschnetzeltem, or Spätzle noodles with stir-fry, was served. Once everyone was done eating, Ludwig laid out the itinerary for the day.

        "We'll be starting off at our Parliament building, the Reichstag. We'll do a tour of that for an hour and a half. From there, we go to the Brandenburg Gate. After a hour of free time around that area, we move on to dinner at a restaurant further in the city. After that, we'll be at Checkpoint Charlie, which was the world most well known crossing point between East and West Berlin when the Berlin Wall was still standing. After that, we return back to our hotel. You have a six o'clock wake up time tomorrow morning for breakfast at six-thirty. We'll leave promptly at seven to get a head start for Museum Island."

        The early wake up time caused you all to groan, but there was nothing any of you could do about it. Once Gilbert settled the bill, you all headed out to the bus and drove to the Reichstag. The tour was given by a professional tour guide, but Ludwig and Gilbert often added to what they said. The most hectic part of the tour was when you made it to the glass dome. The area was completely filled with people trying to get one perfect picture to show to their friends or post online. You managed to snap a few pictures with the help of Gilbert, who picked you up a bit so you could get your phone over the heads of the taller people. After the tour concluded, you all head to the Brandenburg Gate.

        "Alright nerds! It's time for a history lesson from yours truly!" Gilbert stated excitedly as your group walked up the steps to the monument. "This beauty right here was built back in the eighteenth century by Frederick William II of Prussia, the king to come after Frederick the Awesome! Or you know, Frederick the Great as your school teachers would tell you. Frederick William II had construction started in 1788 after he successfully ended the Batavian Revolution. It ended in 1791 when it officially opened. Now this is built on the old gate sight that was at the road that connected Berlin to Brandenburg. Also, fun fact, Brandenburg Gate isn't its original name. It was supposed to be called the peace gate, which doesn't sound as cool."

         Gilbert kept spouting off facts and the history of the large monument. Ludwig had to cut him off so everyone could explore for a bit. Once every did a little shopping and met back at the gate, Ludwig had everyone load back onto the bus so it could take them to Checkpoint Charlie. The checkpoint itself was cool to see. The history behind it was even more cool than being there. Ludwig and Gilbert went back and forth between giving the group information on the checkpoint. They even let you go to the Mauer Museum nearby that had fake border patrol guards and held the stories of escapes across the border and their tragic counterparts, as well as memorabilia like old cars and examples of care packages.

        It was late by the time the brothers and Alfred could pull you and your group of friends away from the museum and get you all back on the bus with your belongings. No one really realized just how tired they were until they got back to the hotel. Ludwig gave a quick reminder of what time breakfast was the next morning. Everyone nodded and went back to their rooms to do whatever they needed to in the bathroom and sleep. You noticed that Charlotte was now the one sketching in her bed at the window as you brushed out your hair while Darcy brushed her teeth in the bathroom.

        "What are you doing, Charlotte?" you inquired as you walked over.

        "Just drawing the night sky with various charcoal colors. I'll be doing one during the day tomorrow morning probably. Remember when you told us that the tour group recommended finding something to help you focus on the trip so it would seem less overwhelming?"

        "Yeah?"

        "Well, this is my focus. I want to do this in every country we go to. I want to draw one night scene and one day scene. I want to compare them all when we get back home then to see how different they are."

         "That's actually really cool, Char. I hope they all turn out really well!"

       "Thanks, (y/n). What's your focus?"

       "I think I want to take a picture with each of our tour guides in some place cool or in front of something that looks really neat. I may take more than one depending on the locations we go to."

        "I think you're just doing that because you think they're all eye candy so far~"

        "What?! No!"

        She giggled. "I'm just messing with you. Let's go to bed, okay? We've got a long day tomorrow."

        "Y-Yeah..."

        You slinked to your bed and crawled under the covers. You closed your eyes and hid your head under the covers until Darcy came in and turned the lights off. So maybe Charlotte was slightly right. You had planned on taking pictures with the tour guides regardless, but them being attractive didn't hurt, right? You could only hope so as you drifted off to sleep.

~Author's Note~

DreamsForDays here! This is one of the longer chapters, but I think most of the chapters are going to be longer like this one. There's a lot of stuff to fit into a story about travel, so some places visited in the story will have better descriptions than others. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter though! Thanks for reading! Feedback in the comments is always appreciated! Until next time!