Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Berlin

Ahhhh Berlin. We LOVED Berlin. Thank goodness, because the trip got off to a very rough start. The flight arrived on time, and Tegel is the tiniest airport. You literally exit the plane to the baggage claim. Somewhere in the midst of getting the luggage and the stroller and the zillion extra things we now travel with, we forgot the baby bag. We got all the way to downtown Berlin before we realized that one of our most important pieces of luggage was missing. Fast forward through fruitless frantic pleas (in my sad rarely used German because NO ONE seemed to speak english) with people in the train station and at the airport trying to locate the missing bag... we finally decided to just go back to the airport and try to look for it ourselves. Worlds slowest bus ride later we find ourselves at the airport and finally manage to locate the bag (one super judgy lost and found lady later- "but that was HOURS ago"- clearly Germany is lacking the stellar public transportation Switzerland has, but whatever). Finally, bag in tow, we go back to downtown Berlin to get the key to the apartment we were renting for our stay. Poor Noah was a doll through all of this despite the fact that he had a terrible cold.

Luckily things got better from there. Our apartment was spacious and clean and in the most adorable neighborhood. It was sort of the Park Slope of Berlin, if you will. There were adorable shops, nice tree lined streets, and fantastic restaurants. There was also this great flea market nearby which had a mix of random vintage goods and artists selling their work. It was like a street fair in New York, but always in the same place, with Beer and way better stuff.

Park by the Flea Market 
Impromptu concert
Flea Market entrance
Fresh handmade potato chips... on a stick
See it really is like Brooklyn... there were even German hipsters
A little taste of home :) 

Neighborhood where we were staying

The next day we took a walking tour. The city has so much history, from WWII Nazi era to the Berlin Wall, we wanted to see make sure we got the important stuff. It was a bit of a gamble with Noah, but he ended up being an angel. Our tour guide was excellent and we really got to see a lot over the course of the day. It turns out that something like 92% of the city was destroyed in WWII, so it's hard to find original buildings- we tried! There are also a ton of great museums, but we decided we would really be pushing our luck if we did that. Instead we just spent the rest of our trip walking around and exploring the city.

Berliner Dom
Unter den Linden is a very main and very famous street in Berlin.
Memorial to the suffering of civilians during WWII 
Bebelplatz
It's a bit hard to see, but under this glass is an installation art piece on the site of the Nazi book burning. It is empty bookshelves which could fit the 20,000 books burnt as they tried to eradicate all thoughts and ideas that conflicted with their own (ie. almost everything). Our tour guide called it 'brilliant'- something about the absence of presence and the presence of absence... Matt and I just saw empty bookshelves. 
I honestly cannot remember what building this was... but I guess it was important?

Noah kept taking off his socks despite the fact that it was NOT warm.
Solution: socks so long he COULDN'T pull them off. We are now the proud owners of one pair of 'Berlin' socks. 

Pieces of the Berlin Wall that were repainted as art
There is a brick path to show where the wall stood.
Actual original portion of the wall, still standing
Currywurst is like the national food of Berlin (maybe not officially, but it's EVERYWHERE)
Propaganda art from the Soviet Days
Loved the walk signs
Holocaust Memorial 

This is the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the balcony. Sadly the tour guide went through all the reasons this hotel was famous... radio silence, then mentioned the Michael Jackson thing to a resounding "ahhhh" (myself included) 
Brandenburg Tor
Riding public transportation. Not QUITE as good as Switzerland, but not too shabby 


The Reichstag
Hilariously named sushi restaurant
It's been a long time old friend
Noah was OBSESSED with the boys sitting behind us on the airplane on the way home.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

February & March Random Musings

This is quite overdue, but here are some miscellaneous pictures from February and March:
Following in Mommy & Daddys' footsteps 
Boston & Riley skyping. They were barking away at each other!!
 Enjoying some sunshine:






Sick Noah- usually a fever doesn't get him down, this was the first time it did :(

He was quite annoyed that he got himself stuck. I thought it was quite hilarious.

Swimming lessons!
Curious about the basketball... much to Daddy's pleasure
Finding new ways to explore the Exersaucer
Again, angry when stuck.

We put our dog in a bag... would it be wrong to carry our baby in a bag?
Easter Class at Baby Sensory 

Checking out the grass for the first time

Boston wanted to ride too
Where did those bubbles go? At Kindermusik