Berlin or Bust!

Chapmans here, checking in from our BIG TRIP this summer to Scandinavia. We decided to stop a night in Berlin to chop up the days a bit before taking a Ferry across to Denmark. Berlin was pretty elaborate. Meaning, everything was BIG or GAUDY or INTENSE. The Holocost Memorial is huge, the fountains and sculptures are super gaudy, and The Wall and people are intense. I have some good friends that are German. I love them. They are also intense... in a good way. Some Germans we met in Berlin were intense in not such a good way. I had to hold my tongue and not call them Nazis. I'm pretty sure that is derogatory there. Maybe even illegal. Like naming your child Hitler is illegal in Germany. True story. I think you can't name your child Satan either...

We arrive to Berlin and two minutes later, this is the first picture I take? Really? And Maleia begged me to take this picture and when I asked the other kids if they wanted to be in the picture they both said, "no way." Maleia is just so awesome she climbed up the statue to take the picture. I'm not even sure it was allowed, so we took it fast. 

We decide to just roam without a plan. This is so unlike me, but it turned out great. We knew we would be back to Berlin because it is so close, but we were surprised to run into so many cool things as we were nonchalantly gallivanting through a city that used to be split in two by a literally huge wall. We read about how people would be shot attempting to go over the wall. But of course, it was just the East Germans being shot at trying to go to West Germany. No one in their right mind would want to migrate to East Germany at that time. 

People would know if you were from the other side of the wall because of the way you spoke. East and West Germans had distinct accents. Crazy!  East Berlin was ruled by Russia and West Berlin was ruled by America, the UK, and France, but mostly America.

If you are knowledgeable about Europe, you will know how YUMMY this place is to eat. Vapiano! We are waiting ever so patiently (I already wrote them an email) to get a Vapiano in the Czech Republic (oh, and wrote a note on their Facebook wall.) What is the hold up!?! We already knew that Berlin had a Vapiano, so we already knew where we were heading for dinner. No Schnitzel for us this time. 

They had these bears scattered around the city. We didn't know why they were there, but the kids thought they were neat enough to take a picture by... but not the giant Spiderman head? 

B teaching the yougins all about map skillz. The summer class is in session. 

The Holocaust Memorial was amazing. There were cement blocks of various shapes and sizes carefully placed in neat rows that took over an entire city block.  

Haley is standing on one of the 2,711 blocks. 

Maleia. sigh. Love her. She is in a posing stage. 

Haley took this as I was walking down one of the waving walkways. I don't know if you can tell, but the walkway is waved which makes pushing a stroller or riding roller blades pretty tricky. We saw many a people roller blading in this labyrinth. Hard core.   

Haley was actually trying to NOT be captured by the photographer. So we were dodging in and out of the pathways for a bit as I was trying to take a picture of her. We weren't being as solemn as we probably should have been. 

We only lost Logan once. Haley found him in 3.9 seconds, but they were some looooong seconds. I think my heat beat 20 times in those 3.9 seconds. He's a slippery little dude. 

Manly man. 

Haley walking with Logan after finding him. He just kept looking at the tiles on the ground as he walked, not caring if he was with his family or not. 

The Brandenburg Gate, also called The Gateway to Berlin, is the only remaining gate under which visitors to Berlin would have passed in medieval times. This is kind of a lame picture since you can see the screen on which residents of Berlin could see the Euro Cup matches. Pretty cool, but come on. The Euro Cup was over two days ago. 

If you asked my kids what their favorite part about Berlin was, they would say the Berlin Bubble Boys. These guys were pretty charismatic and earned their 1Euro entertaining my kiddos to the max. Just two seconds before this, Dylan was complaining that his feet hurt. But as soon as he got the green light to play with the bubbles, he was running, jumping, and chasing these bubbles every which way. This bought us a good hour of complaint free walking.

Haley at "Checkpoint Charlie." Checkpoint Charlie was the nickname given to the well-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.  

I expected Checkpoint Charlie to be a little more grandiose, but there were just two signs and a guard area. Though, Haley and B were the only ones who actually saw this with their own eyes. The rest of the tired feeted and hungry kiddos were at a bakery enjoying fresh bread, a yummy pastry, and juice with their momma. I could tell B really wanted to see this, so I sacrificed and volunteered to stay with the crew that needed a slight rest...ahem, that fresh bread was really good. I think I might have gotten the better end of that bargain.  

B saw another part of the wall, so Haley took another pic. It still amazes me that it was constructed in 1961. The graffiti part was on the West side of the wall as it was prohibited to write on the wall facing the East side. The wall circumscribed a wide area on the East side that they called "The Death Strip" where guards watched day and night and shot anyone trying to defect. On the West side, there was a pathway with lights and parks that grew all the way to the edge of the colorful, artsy wall. 

Refreshed! We met up after our separation and the kids were ready to go again. . . of course, to another more familiar bakery...

DUNKIN' DONUTS!!!
You have no idea how many times we used this place as leverage... and how many times it worked. The kids were elated to be able to eat one of their favorite desserts, after all, the parents got their favorite dinner. 

Logan was so cute with his foot up eating his doughnut, which, in great babylike fashion, he ended up getting more doughnut on him that in him. Oh, and he's in the "take off all shoes and socks no matter how many times your parents plead with you" stage. It's so much fun when you are traveling. Two random people during the day handed us a shoe that he dropped without us noticing. We finally gave up and let him go shoeless. 

On to the next step of our adventure... the Ferry to Denmark!