Taking Time to Smell the Flowers

David and Leah, fountain just beyond

With no playground, the girls had to make due with the lovely grounds of the Charlottenburg Schloss. They were in love with the big chrysanthemums, which they called "Marigolds."

Leah smelling a yellow bell flower (?)

The game was, they would scream "Marigolds!" and run to the next big orange flower, smell it and some if its neighbors, and continue on. The other visitors were either charmed or scared.

Alice sniffing the marigolds

The flower beds where charming, with several flowers I could identify, and a few I couldn't it. They had this tiny lambs ear variety that was very pretty.

We even caught a bee in the act of sipping some snapdragons, too!

A chubby bee, with many flowers to choose from. 

A Palace and a Palace of German Food!

With Dave off of work today -- yay for weekends -- we headed to the Charlottenburg Schloss (Schloss = Palace). It's just a quick trip across town -- though today it was made difficult as Berlin is getting ready for its marathon on Sunday. So many roads are closed. Thank goodness for the nav system!

Me in the courtyard of the Palace

The Schloss is very long building that dates back to the 17th century and was built as a summer home for Fredrich III and Queen Sophie Charlotte. The center of the building is original and subsequent monarchs added wings to house their art collections and visitors.

We paid the admission price and walked in. The first room highlights the destruction to the palace during World War II and the restoration that started quickly afterwards. Needless to say, the allies (us) bombed the hell out of this thing. That's about the last place I noticed, the rest of the tour was spent making sure Alice, who was slippery as an eel this morning, didn't cause anymore destruction on the poor building.

Running the grounds

The grounds behind the palace was the most fun for the kids, where they were able to run around like animals and scare the other visitors. Yes, there was a fountain. And, yes, Alice was very close to falling into it. Her obsession with water features continues.

Beer, in a TALL glass

For lunch, we ate at a touristy and delicious "authentic" German restuarant nearby called Brauhaus Lemke. Dave had a beer brewed on premise.

I have to tell you, every restaurant we've had a sit-down meal in has been fabulous. The mushrooms and tomatoes are especially fresh and yummy. Leah and Alice have developed a taste for wienerschnitzel -- which is, let's face it, pretty close to chicken nuggets.

More Rambling on Unter Den Linden

Nothing terribly exciting today.

We walked to Unter Den Linden again to stroll from Bebelplatz to the Brandenburg Gate. Unter Den Linden (Under the Linden -- as in Linden trees) is a very wide boulevard that is tree-lined (obviously) with shops, cafes and a mixed bag of neo-classical and modern glass architecture. Very charming.

Brandenburg Gate

At the end, Brandenburg Gate is very formal and stately, though, much smaller than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Leah and Alice were less than impressed, of course, and just wanted ice cream. So we headed back to ... Gandarmenmarkt. Again.

It was a long walk today, so we didn't get back to the apartment until 1. Then, it was the normal nap-flight-club and dinner rigamarole. Looking forward to the weekend and duel parenting!

A two word about traveling with kids: NOT IDEAL.

TV Towers and Book Burning

Today more than made up for yesterday's excursion. We saw A LOT, so I'll try not to dwell.

TV Tower

We started our trip to Alexander Platz, made famous in a little movie called "The Bourne Identity." ("Berlin? I was never in Berlin!") These days, it's filled with a large installation commemorating the 10-year anniversary of Germany's reunification. Nice, busy square ... moving on.

In one corner of this platz stands the TV Tower (Fernsehturm) which you can spot from anywhere in the city. Visitors can go up into the tower, have a nosh and see for miles -- the silver globe takes one hour to turn a full circle. With a small fear of heights and no reason to ascend, we continued on.

Leah with her King

On the other side of the square is Neptune's Fountain. Leah liked this fountain and made sure to ask King Neptune how Ariel was doing. Next door was Marienkirche, a lovely church which has stood in this spot since 1280 -- though, as you can now assume, it's been rebuilt several times.

Unter Den Linden is the Champs Elysees of Berlin, so that was my next destination. It's a long street that starts at Berliner Dom and continues to Brandenburg Gate and the big park called Tiergarten. I only made it a few blocks, when I fell immediately in love with Bebelplatz -- a square filled with Neo-classic architecture gems.

In Bebelplatz, The Old Library is
getting a facelift 

Interesting story about Bebelplatz: The Nazis burnt more than 25,000 books in this square by authors who were considered enemies of the Third Reich. (The horror!) There now stands a memorial to this event -- a glass square in the ground looks into a room with an empty bookcase and a light bulb. It's quite striking.

Booksellers in Bebelplatz

The best part of this story is that just across the street from this square, in front of Humboldt (teehee) University, there are several book peddlers. Score one for books!

From Bebelplatz, it's just a block to our favorite place section of town -- Gendarmenmarkt -- for lunch in one of the food courts (they're fast and kid-friendly). And back to the apartment for "quiet time." Or the game known as "beg the kids to nap."

The afternoon was spent at the local playground which is part of my new strategy: They spend the morning seeing stuff that I want to see -- I spend the afternoon at a playground watching them run around -- and Alice boss around German kids twice her size.

Potsdamer Platz - Eh

They can't all be winners.

I figured out the subway (it's on the honor system, no kidding?!) and made it to Potsdamer Platz with the kids and the World's Heaviest Stroller in tow.

The Platz has an interesting history, as it was a happening square -- similar to Times Square -- in the 1920s and 30s. But it was bisected by The Wall and abandon as a "no man's land" until 1990s, when Berlin invested heavily in the area -- along with companies like Sony. The result is, eh ... just a busy intersection with some shops, a mall and restaurants. And there's a small corner dedicated to The Wall, which didn't thrill me. Maybe I missed something, but it didn't strike me as anything extra special.

The kids ate more ice cream, so they were satisfied with the outing.

Meanwhile, I've been investigating weekend day trips. The city of Potsdam was recommended to me, as it has at least two amazing palaces to check out and it's just outside the city. Hamburg is also on our list, though we were discouraged to hear it's not that great -- but as an excuse to get the Mercedes on the autobahn? It might be worth it. Vroom vroom!

A Church and Chocolate Cookies

Behold! Berliner Dom

In today's installment of "See Berlin" -- but should really be called "whatever it takes to wear out the kids" -- we strolled over to the Berliner Dom. It's a beautiful and historic church that was rebuilt a century ago, and again after WWII. We walked around the inside (yeah, I finally saw the inside of a building!) and I got goosebumps from the creepy crypt. Otherwise, lovely and massive.

Alice, with her mouth watering

There was a coffeehouse in the basement (next to the crypt, blah!) where I treated the girls to a chocolate cookie -- before lunch. What a swell mama!

The Royal Palace - what's left of it
(Click on the pic for a closer look)

So, I've mentioned that construction sites abound in this city. But here's something truly interesting ... the rebuilding of a palace! This archeological dig, across from the Berliner Dom, is the remains of the Royal Palace. It was, no kidding, blown up after the war by East German leaders because they didn't want to be reminded of their bourgeois past. Apparently, a long debate on what to do with this site went on here but ultimately they decided to unearth the palace and rebuild. Here's an article from 2002, which includes a cool picture of what it once looked like. History!

Leah at Berliner Dom

Post-nap, we walked in the other direction to a park that was once supposed to be a canal, but because of health issues with the water, they filled it in and turned it into a park. There's a nice rose garden and a large pond. It ends with a large church that is in midst of being reconstructed. I'll take pictures next time I'm there. However, to the children's supreme disappointment, there is NO playground.

Tomorrow, Leah has requested to go on the train. So, we're off to neighborhoods further afield.

Not the Benz!

The day didn't go quite as I expected, even after I laid out an agenda for the day with directions and check-boxes. Best laid plans, blah blah blah ... I guess.

This morning, we found the local playground but it's attached to an elementary school, so after about 30 minutes of playing we were invaded by dozens shrieking school kids -- so we quickly retreated back to the apartment.

After nap and "homework," we were ready to hit the town and check out Potsdamer Platz where we had dinner plans with Dave's coworkers. Just outside the apartment building door, I did a quick scan for the Benz and was shocked...

It's not there. Not the BENZ!

This changes our plans, since the World's Heaviest Stroller was tucked away in the trunk of the car, so it's back up the lift to the apartment to let David know. He'll need to find a kind, English-speaking coworker (thanks, Anna!) to help locate where they've taken our car. Again, not the Benz!

Meanwhile, I've got to keep close to email and phone in the apartment -- since I have the car keys. So after a few hours the kids are like caged animals, wildly licking the walls and stripping down to diapers. Total hysteria. When the car is finally procured from the impound lot (and a heckovalot of euros are exchanged), we're off to dinner -- which doesn't go well, as caged animals are hardly known for good table manners.

Tonight, I'm not going to make an agenda for tomorrow. And we'll just see what happens.

The Berlin "Zoo" (Rhymes With Toe)

It's a sunny Sunday morning and we took a family trip to the Berlin Zoo. Instead of taking mass transit, we jumped into the Benz for the quick trip across town. Why not?!

Alice wants a better look

We spent about four hours walking around the zoo (they pronounce it like "toe"). It's a very clean zoo, where you can get very close to the animals. Our favorite part was the nocturnal section -- where Leah loved the bats and I liked the little sloth-like animals called Slow Lori. I'd love to take one home with me, though I'm not much of a night person, so it wouldn't be worth it.

Leah is one of the caged animals

They had several large playground areas, which we'll have to return to later in our stay and really explore.  One playground area was so big, I forgot we were in the middle of a zoo.

Lunch at the Berlin Zoo. Yum!

We ate lunch in one of the two zoo restaurants. It was very clean and the food was good. Even Leah, who is a picky eater, wolfed down the hot dog and red sauce that tasted a little like sweet curry. Carbonated beverages abound, it's been tough finding apple juice that is flat. Leah detests the "bubbles."

Tomorrow, Dave heads off to work and I have to turn into Super Stay At Home Mommy. I'm feeling a little unprepared for this. But, I think Alice would prefer more of a routine -- as being shuttled around for days is wearing on her. All evening, I've been plotting out some easy day trips and a schedule we can follow.

Daily Motto: Germans love bread, I love bread, therefore, I love Germany.

Tip: You can click on the photos to enlarge