Berlin

This past weekend we headed to Berlin.  It is a city that was not on our original list of things to see while living in Prague but after living here for a few years it made its way on to the must sees before leaving Europe.  Somehow living here had increased my desire to see Berlin and to see the Wall to envision what life was like during that time in history.  Anyway, we decided to combine our yearly trip to a Christmas Market with seeing a bit of history and we headed to Berlin.  The trip there was a a bit (about twice as long) longer than normal since we drove in a snow storm and had to divert around a road closure on to unplowed roads but at least we made it there safely.  After making it to the hotel we found that our rooms were not ready yet which would normally really annoy me but the receptionist at the Marriott was very friendly and immediately offered us the use of the executive lounge for the length of our stay.  We took that as a good deal, because really what else were we going to do.  It worked out great to have access to the lounge since it meant we did not have to wait in line to be seated for the breakfast buffet in the main dining room and if ever we needed a snack or the kids wanted food or a drink it was readily available. 

We headed up to the lounge to relax while they prepared our rooms and then we went out to the KaDeWe department store.  I was looking for boots that I thought they might have but unfortunately they did not have what I was looking for.  It was not a wasted trip though as the department store is huge so we spent some time in the toy department since Jason's mom gave us money to spend on gifts for the kids.  Her prerequisite was that we buy things for them that we would not normally buy.  This is actually a hard rule to follow since when they pick up things that cost a ridiculous amount of money my first instinct is to say no but we did let them browse and only said no to a few things.  After spending time in the toy department we went upstairs to the gourmet food hall.  I could have spent the entire day on this floor.  We ended up buying some cheese and bread to bring back to the room and grabbed a quick dinner of sausages for Jason and the girls before heading back to the hotel.

Saturday was our big day out in Berlin.  We took a two mile walk with the girls which was very interesting for all of us.  We stayed right in Potsdamer Platz which was formally the No Mans Land area between East and West Berlin.  There are parts of the old Wall still standing here so we stopped to discuss what this meant for the people of Berlin.  We then followed the line on the road which marked where the wall used to stand until we came to another long section of the wall.  We stopped again to talk about what this meant.  Having the actual wall still remaining makes the history lesson very real for the kids and for Jason and me. 

We continued our walk towards Check Point Charlie and came across the demarcation of the wall again on the side walk.  I had the girls stand on either side of the marked space so that they could see what it was like for families who were separated by the wall.  I forget which one said it but they definitely summed it up with , "I would not have liked the wall!".   

We continued on to Check Point Charlie and our walking history lesson.  It was strange to walk past the sign saying "You are leaving the American Sector" and knowing that we were walking into an area that we would not have been able to walk in twenty years ago.  It is amazing to see that in twenty years any distinction between East and West ( at least on this road) has been obliterated.  It is one city again and if you didn't know the history you would assume it had always been one.  This is really the first city we have visited where the kids could physically see the after effects of war and world politics and it wasn't some theoretical discussion that they couldn't understand.  They definitely understood that the wall was not a good thing and that it separate friends and families.  They also understood that they wanted to be on the "good side" (as they called it) of the wall and be free. 

After our history lesson we ended at one of the Christmas markets for a little more light hearted fun.  We looked in all the stalls, bought some cookies, apple chips (dried apples but they were crunchy like chips), souvenirs and warmed up with mulled wine and kinder punch.  I loved buying warm drinks at the Christmas markets because the mug is also a souvenir.  You pay for the drink and you pay for the cup but if you don't want the cup you return it when you are finished drinking and they give you your money back for the cup.  Some markets don't have this option like Prague.  Some markets have only one type of mug for all the markets in the city and some markets have a different mug for every market in the city.  Berlin had a different mug for every market in the city so we have mugs from Gendermenmarkt, Operpalais, and Postdamer Platz markets. 

The Berlin markets do a good job of including things for adults and children so we would spend time looking at the market stalls but then also going on carousels, ferris wheels and we also took a few trips sledding down Europe's biggest mobile toboggan run.  I've realized that things I would not have thought twice about doing without children now stress me out.  Going sledding wouldn't have bothered me before but sledding down the hill holding onto to Ali's inner tube next to me and worrying that we were not going to stop when we came to the wall at the end of the run really stressed me out.  Of course we did stop and it wasn't a problem but its funny how much self preservation and child preservation differ.  I kept my worry to myself though and let the kids be kids and have fun sledding.  How often do you get to go down a massive sledding hill in the middle of Berlin??? You just can't pass it up when given the chance!

On Sunday we decided we would go back to KaDeWe to buy the kids toys that they wanted and to pick up a few things from the gourmet floor and then drive home.  Unfortunately the shop did not open until 1pm which threw off our plan.  Our goal was to get through the mountains before sunset in case the drive was bad like it was going to Berlin.  We could not leave though without "Hannah" the doll Ali had picked out in the toy department.  We had not wanted the girls to spend all their money from Grammie on Friday since we thought they might find something in the markets that they wanted so while we had been in the toy department before we hadn't bought anything.  We have never seen Ali want anything as badly as she wanted Hannah.  She talked about this doll all weekend and anytime she saw something else she liked she would then say, "but I want Hannah more."  We couldn't in good conscious leave without Hannah so we waited until 1pm and went into the KaDeWe and bought Hannah.  Sofia also picked up her things that she had picked out on Friday as well.  We picked up a few other gifts for the kids for Christmas as well as some things from the gourmet floor for us and then hit the road.  We did not make it thought the mountains before dark.  We didn't even make it to Dresden before dark so we ended up driving through the mountains in the dark in a snow storm.  Fortunately there were no road closures and it only took us 5 hours to drive home ( still an hour and a half longer than it should have).  It was a great weekend and well worth the drives in snowstorms.