And so we found ourselves in Berlin. Erik and I had visited Berlin in May 2017 so I was excited to show the kids the city. We had a whole day before Erik would come back from Boston, so I tried to organize some activities that would be fun, not to mention close to our apartment. Luckily we found ourselves within walking distance to tons of fun stuff! Unfortunately for us it was Sunday and almost everything was closed, including the grocery stores! We were able to find a small café just outside of our apartment building that sold pancakes – win #1 for mom! Although breakfast wasn’t great (the pancakes were burned) the kids had a good attitude and felt full enough.

For our first activity of the day, we decided to venture to the German Spy Museum. We found it rather easily and were a little alarmed at how busy it was. However we adventured on! This ended up to be a really fun and interactive place! It was a great mix of history and facts combined with hands on activities. There was a Morse code station where you could put in a message and then it taught you to type in Morse code. Charlie really enjoyed this, in spite of the little fact that he can’t read! Then we found a small room in which you answered a corded phone to receive your “mission.” The “mission” was to use a bug sweeper to search for the 8 bugs located in the room. Although we attempted twice we never found all 8 bugs – sneaky spies! Next we looked at a wide variety of authentic spy gear – the favorites seemed to be the lipstick used to pass secret messages and the umbrella which held a poison dart. Then we found a dress up room with lots of “disguises.” I think Sam tried on everything and her giggle was contagious through the whole museum! But the piece de resistance had to be the laser maze. Although the line was long, everyone begged to go twice! I even gave it a go but as the kids liked to remind me – my butt was too big to sneak under the laser! Samantha proved to be the sneakiest and made it up on the day’s leader board for Level One. Katie was also spy material as she made the leader board for Level Two.

After purchasing some spy souvenirs – Charlie chose the lipstick 😊 We went searching for some lunch. Remember when I said everything was closed on Sunday? Well finding lunch proved a bit difficult. We entered the Mall of Berlin which was a ghost town. But Charlie had to go to the bathroom (imagine that!) so we went ahead and explored. We were surprised to find one place open in the mall food court and it wasn’t even McDonalds! It was an Asian food place, so we got a couple of meals and shared. Bellies relatively full I then forced the kids to seek out some monuments.

We found the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which  was created by American architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold and talked a bit about the meaning of the stones. Then we continued on to the Brandenburg Gate. The kids were very interested in the different flags in the plaza so we discussed embassies and their importance around the world. The Brandenburg Gate was covered by many gates and screens so we were unable to walk beneath it, but I tried to tell them about the historical significance. Hopefully some of it will stick. They had a lot of fun watching the street entertainment down Unter Den Linden.

Guess what? Charlie had to go to the bathroom again, so we were on the search. We found a series of port-a-potties in the Fanmeile. This resulted in the favorite sign of the whole trip:

What is the Fanmeile? Well, there’s a little world event going on that you might have heard of – The World Cup. The Germans take this very seriously and create a whole mile outside the Brandenburg gate where people gather to watch the games. This explained the covered up Brandenburg Gate! We explored the Fanmeile and even found a hat! The German team lost the game the night before so it wasn’t very busy, but Juliette had a lot of fun looking at all the “stuff.” I tried to talk everyone into eating more sausages for dinner but they were not having it!

We starting walking back to our apartment and found a place called “Vapiano” for dinner. The food was great – the process not so much. They have salads, pasta, and pizza. The problem? You must stand in a separate line for each of these things? The next problem? The lines move very very slowly! So I obtained a pasta for me and a pasta (shaped like airplanes!) for Juliette. Get those to the table – check. Get in line for pizza. Order pizza. Return to table to find two empty bowls of pasta! I guess they were hungry!  Get the pizza – the kids devoured it – I ate the crust! I was still hungry but unwilling to stand in line so dessert for the win (that line was short!). The kids voted Vapiano an A+. We headed “home” and spent the rest of the evening bathing and relaxing.

The next day we were looking forward to Erik coming back and didn’t want to get too wrapped up in activities, so we headed out to breakfast! There were a few more options now that it was Monday and we found a small safe just down the street. Everyone picked a delicious bakery item and I got some much needed coffee. This café also sold ice cream and we couldn’t believe the number of people eating ice cream at 9:00 in the morning! The other funny thing was a couple of little sparrows found their way inside. They loved Charlie’s donut and kept hopping around under his seat trying to steal his crumbs.

Next we decided to go to the mall. The weather was quite chilly and a couple of the kids had no more clean pants! We headed back to the Mall of Berlin which was quite busy now that it was Monday! We headed upstairs and guess what we found!? A Slide! A 3 story slide that went from the top of the mall to the bottom. The other surprise? You didn’t have to pay for it! Amazing. So after several trips down and up, down and up, down and up, I finally demanded that we move on. We headed to the Toys R Us which evidently is not out of business in Germany for the time being. We found some fun painting kits and Playmobil. Then to the Playmobil store where we found create your own figures. Last stop before meeting daddy was the H&M for some pants! Then we rushed back to meet Erik.

Daddy’s “home”!! Erik made it back safe and sound and although he was extremely tired he was ready to join us for some activities. The kids couldn’t wait to show him the slide so we headed to the mall for lunch, but only after we took a couple of turns on the slide! After finding some food (of course everyone chose something from a different place!) we headed out into city. We walked back down to the Brandenburg Gate then down Unter Den Linden where we found the Ampelman Store. The Ampelman is the little character found on the crossing signs throughout Germany. It was originated in East Germany and has found a cult following. The kids had a lot of fun picking out Ampelman souvenirs. I found a cookie cutter so let me know if you are interested in some Ampelman cookies 😊

We then decided to head to the Berliner Dom – a beautiful protestant church with a distinctive dome. Of course Erik wanted to go the top – what is with this guy and tiny stone staircases (I Love Them!!)? The kids enjoyed the clever historical videos located throughout the church and hopefully learned a little in the process. Then we started our climb! The view from the top was spectacular and it was good for the kids to get a bird’s eye view of the city.

About this time we needed to find dinner so we started walking. We couldn’t seem to find anything that appealed to everyone (gee imagine that!) and Erik was exhausted from his trip so we took the easy way out and went back to Vapiano. The kids raved about the food and neither parent wanted to make a decision. I don’t know what I was thinking, but hoping maybe things would go smoother with two parents? Nope! Same experience! Good food – terrible process.

Phew! What a day. We dragged ourselves back home and collapsed into bed. Maybe the kids will sleep in tomorrow?