If you ask T his favorite part of this vacation, he'll say Berlin. In fact, if you ask him anything about the vacation, he'll bring the conversation back to Berlin.
All three kids listed it as one of their top 3 highlights - they loved the street art everywhere and the idea of making something out of nothing (for example, the old airport is now a city park where you can bike up and down the runways).
Plus, after Italy's heat wave, the 80 degree days felt amazing. And the crazy fast train and bus system made it easy to go from place to place.
We spent our first morning in the city at the East Side Art Gallery, where gorgeous (and quirky) murals now decorate the former Berlin Wall. To learn more about the wall's history, we scheduled a tour with Context, which was good but depressing (of course).
It felt so weird to go from 100 plus temps to wearing sweatshirts again. Good weird.
I became obsessed with the amazing street art. Thus causing me to walk even slower than usual (sorry family!)
After lunch, we toured the free outdoor Berlin Wall museum/park. After which we decided to learn about other things.
Obligatory family Brandenburg Gate photo.
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Beautiful, haunting, and overwhelming.
For dinner, we went to this great spot called Ephraim’s on the river, right down the street from our hotel (I read about it here). We ordered three desserts to share and everything was gone within three minutes.
Sunscreen, shadows, and travel maps.
On our second day in the city, we took Fat Tire's Modern Berlin: The New Capital bike tour. When booking, I worried that the whole thing would bore the children, but figured that at least they'd get a good bike ride out of it. Wow, was I wrong. This tour was BY FAR all three of my children's favorite part of the whole (thanks to Lucy - our amazing guide) and they're all trying to figure out how they can return (P really wants to check out the club scene).
As P described it, "all anyone talks about at first is the wall and World War II. But this city is so much more than that. It's so cool! Full of street art and creative people."
More street art and a return to the East Side Art Gallery (which really is awesome).
By the end of this vacation, I was SO SICK of watching the girls play hand games. But, they did keep boredom at bay.
T and I discovered the most fabulous tabouli in the Turkish Market. We bought two huge cartoon and couldn't stop eating it.
We spent the afternoon in the DDR museum, which, despite its small size, was probably my favorite museum ever. Totally interactive (T, unfortunately, loved working for the Stasi), with so much great information for adults and kids. (Who knew that nude beaches were a huge thing during the Communist years?).
Spray painting a sidewalk.
On our last morning in Berlin we took a leisurely boat tour.
Before boarding our train to Prague.
More photos coming soon . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment