From Erik

After the late night we had yesterday with Frank and Britte all we wanted to do was sleep in and relax, but alas, that was not to be! Back in May we booked an early morning tour of the German Reichstag building, which I’ve unsuccessfully tried to visit two times before. Once with my Dad and sister back in 1999, and then Liz and I tried to take a tour last year. Well, unless you book it beforehand, you can’t go, so I was going to drag everyone out of bed in spite of whatever protests I may encounter.

Luckily, everyone knew how much I wanted to visit this particular sight, and they also understood that this would our only chance. They all pulled it together and we started the short trek. Once we arrived we went to the check in station where they confirmed our registration, checked our passports, and took us through security. As we made our way to the main entrance I was giddy with excitement – after all this was 19 years in the making! When we crossed the threshold, we could see that the Reichstag was in session, and low and behold, there was Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, addressing the assembly.

We made our way up the elevator took a short walking tour of the beautiful glass dome. The tour included an audio guide that operated off of sensors in the floor, and hence we learned not only about the architecture of Reichstag, but also its history and the history of the surrounding sights. I had an incredible time, and to be honest, I don’t know what everyone else thought about it. In retrospect that was probably a defense mechanism so no one could steal my thunder. Mission accomplished!!

For me, anything else did today would be a bonus, so I was not opposed to using the remainder of the day to rest, recover, and recoup. We headed to restaurant that Liz had found called Peter Pane – Burgergrill Bar. The burgers were pretty good (for Germany) and the kids got pancakes with peaches. Why do they serve pancakes at a Burgergrill Bar? Some mysteries will never be solved!

Once we made it home, for the resting, I wanted to squeeze all the juice out of the day, so I volunteered to take a trip to the laundromat. At this point our clothing situation was getting pretty dire, so I loaded up all of our clothes into a large duffel bag, which I’m guessing weighed 50 lbs.! I made my way down to the subway where I rode two different U-Bahns to arrive at the Waschsalon. As I looked around I immediately noticed that this was a little different than any laundromat that I’ve ever been to. Instead of loading coins into individual machines, there is a central computer that take all of the money and then starts the machines remotely. Great!

After reading the directions multiple times (all in German of course) I got started. First, I loaded all of our clothes into three machines. Then I needed soap! I paid the central computer, made my soap selection, and voila, the powdered soap was dispensed halfway across the room. After adding the detergent to the machines, I headed back to the central computer, gave it more coins, and managed to get the proper machines started. So far so good!

While waiting for the clothes to finish up, I watched a man bring in his giant smelly sponges, that I’m guessing were used in a restaurant hood system. He proceeded to shove them into one of the machines, and as I sat there I was suddenly very thankful that we have our own washing machine at home, and for the most part I know what goes in there!

Once our clothes were finished I put everything into the dryer, which was a welcomed luxury. Line dried clothes are great, but they can be a bit scratchy and irritating to my delicate skin. Once dry, I loaded everything back into the duffel (which still weighed 50 lbs.) and headed back to the apartment.

When I got back we folded up all those clothes and then headed over to the trusty Berlin Mall for some dinner. Between the KFC, the McDonalds, the Döner, and the Chinese food, everyone left with a full belly.

The next morning we decided to seek out a great kid activity. After going through our options we settled on the Deutsches Technikmuseum. It had some airplanes in it, so I was sold. When it arrived it looked pretty promising, but as we explored, it was clear that this wasn’t something our family was going to enjoy. While they offered TONS of displays, including ships, airplanes, motorcycles, computers, and more, there weren’t many interactive exhibits. I also got yelled at because I let my children roam free, and then the museum attendant followed me around. For the record, I found this to be unjust, since there were all kinds of rowdy school children with zero supervision. Needless to say, we ended up cutting this museum experience short so we could pursue other opportunities!

As a part of our admission to the Technikmuseum, we were able to enter the Science Center Spectrum, and as we made our way to the that we found yet another German Park. Our kids had a great time playing, and Liz and I had a so much fun watching some daycare children slop around in the mud. Their teacher started feeding the kids cut up apples from a Tupperware container, and I encouraged Katie to go line up and see if she could get an apple. Well she did, and then so did Juliette and Sam!

The Science Center was a whole different ballgame! Every exhibit was interactive, so we all had a great time exploring and learning. Juliette had fun with mini-madhouse, which was an optical illusion that made it look like the entire house was spinning out of control while she remained stationary on a bench. Katie really had a lot of fun with an interactive table top that let her be a DJ and mix her own beats!

At this point we were all starving, so we made our over to the Alexanderplatz, where we were able to find – you guessed it – a place that served pizza!! After getting everyone fed and watered we roamed around Berlin a little with stops at the Rittersport chocolate store and the very famous Checkpoint Charlie. Having thoroughly exhausted everyone, we returned to our apartment to recharge our batteries once again!