Berlin - Days 5 & 6

It is hard to believe it is the end of July and almost two months of our adventure are behind us. I often wonder what the readjustment period to life back in Massachusetts will be like. We are so lucky to be having this experience. The kids are really getting something out of all this; you can tell by the questions they are asking. By taking them out of their comfort zone and introducing them to all sorts of new things they are really becoming inquisitive of the world around them.

This morning we woke to gray clouds again. It seemed like it was not going to rain to hard so we decided to proceed to Potsdam for the day and see the palaces on the grounds of Sanssouci. I had been there in college and Jonathan went this past April, but we thought the kids would really enjoy walking around the gardens and seeing some different types of palaces. In the mid 18th century Friedrich II (Frederick the Great) built most of the palaces, some as his residence and others for guests. We took two different S-bahns and a bus to get there and found ourselves eating lunch on a bench at the palace around 11:30. It was a little early for lunch but only because we skipped our late morning coffee and pastry in hopes of getting in some sights before the rain got too bad. It was chilly and wet but once we finished eating we started walking around and warmed up. The drizzle was off and on throughout the day but it was never bad enough to make us leave. The grounds are covered in trees so they provided some shelter as we walked between sights. We covered several miles over the course of the day, crisscrossing the grounds to see different palaces and gardens. There were fountains everywhere and tons of paths for the kids to run around on. After a few days at museums it was refreshing for everyone to just run around outside. We decided that unless the rain got really bad we were going to skip the internal tour in lieu of doing one when we go to Versailles in a few weeks, which we have never done. I think the kids really enjoyed the day despite the weather. The girls really like the round Chinese palace with all of the gold statues and the Neues Palace (or the “pink” one to the girls) with it’s 200 rooms was a massive beast we almost didn’t go to. The view from Sanssouci, almost a mile away, wasn’t that impressive, but Abigail wanted to see a pink palace (really red brick) so we walked there. The backside was impressive but the front was astounding. Even crazier was that across the way were two other massive buildings with imposing staircases that we later found out were to house servants and the kitchen for the main building.

The rain started to come down harder and we all decided it was best to call it a day. We caught the bus back to the train station and had coffee and fresh pretzels for a snack. We then discovered that the S-bahn track was being worked on so we had to catch a different bus to another S-bahn stop and catch the train to Wansee where we could get the S-1 home to Botanischer Garten. In the middle of this Eliza starts grabbing herself because she hasn’t peed in a few hours (when she went behind some trees in the gardens, shhh…). Today was the first day that she went out without the protection of a diaper and she was amazing. At this point I put a diaper on her just in case. She walked around the train doing a potty walk that was hysterical and had us all in stitches. We howled which distracted her enough and she made it all the way home. Way to go Eliza! The girls went down for a nap and Jonathan and I split a beer while he plowed through more Harry Potter. Looks like a quiet night at home with the weather getting worse.

Since I had finished the two books (“Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” and “The Inheritance of Loss”) I had brought I searched through Henning’s holdings of literature. It was mostly in German but I did find book four of the Harry Potter series, score! I got about halfway through it while Jonathan finished off the last one. Now that we should get our Belgian ID cards I am planning to get a library card and read book five and six again before the final chapter.

July 30, 2007

Eliza woke up at 6:30. UGH! Though she lay with me for a while she never went back to sleep. I ended up getting up with her at 7:30 and reading while she played. The big girls slept until 8:30 and then we woke Jonathan. He got them breakfast while I took a run. We were all dressed and ready to go a little before 10. We stopped at the café and got these munchin-like treats and coffee to go. It was freezing out. The weather had been scheduled to be in the 70’s the entire time we were here. We have now had some sun but mostly clouds and a fair bit of rain. At least yesterday's rain wasn’t cold too, or perhaps we were just more protected in the woods of Sanssouci. Today it felt like it was a windy 55 degrees. The girls were wearing practically every piece of clothing we had packed and looked like little hippie kids with multiple t-shirts over dresses over pants. But, we wouldn’t let the weather deter us and warmed up on the few of trains we would need to take to get to the Citadel, which was our outing for the morning. But as I looked through the Berlin guidebook after our second transfer I realized that the Citadel wasn’t open on Mondays! Whoops. We quickly changed plans and got off two stops later and went to Charlottenburg Palace. Much like Sanssouci there are a several buildings on the grounds. The girls were particularly excited that the main palace was built for Princess Sophie Charlotte and they couldn’t wait to tell their own friend Sophie about it. The grounds are really beautiful and in between rain showers and through the blustering winds we explored. It was a really fun time with the kids. We had snacks when the sun was shining and when it got cloudy and windy we would walk and stay warm.

We left at a little after one and caught a bus to Zoo Garten where we found lunch. I had been craving some good Berliner currywurst and we found it. Yum. The girls enjoyed their ‘weiners mit pommes’ (hot dogs and fries) and then we walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtnis Kirche. This once monstrous structure was partially leveled during the war. Rather than reconstruct the entire church, part of the ruins were left standing as a memorial and a new, completely modern church was made in stark difference. Both Jonathan and I have been there many times before but the kids really enjoyed it. The piece in ruins has some great photos of the city after being bombed and it gave them more of a perspective on some of the events we have been talking about with them.

We came home and Eliza napped while the girls played “swimming pool” on the mattress in their room. They were heard giggling for over two hours. Jonathan went to the grocery store while I read more Harry Potter. We decided to go out for dinner and return to the Italian restaurant on Unter Den Eichen that we had been to the other night, but it was closed. We continued walking down Unter Den Eichen and ended up at a Thai restaurant that I had had my eye on. It was quite good and gave us enough food to have leftover thai for dinner tomorrow night as well. The kids have been very amusing when it comes to all of the people smoking. There really aren’t that many in Belgium, but there were a lot in France. They get quick a kick out of pretending to smoke, and they spent the whole time waiting for their food at the restaurant ‘smoking’ toothpicks. It has brought up many conversations about smoking and death and they have been very curious as to who we know that smokes. Luckily, we were able to say we don’t know anyone that foolish. After dinner we came home and bathed the kids before reading the new book we got a the palace today, “The Dragon Packs its Bags”, which is all about Friedrich the Great and Sanssouci. It was very cute. Tonight more reading while Jonathan processes pictures on the computer I suppose. Tomorrow is our last full day in Berlin and hopefully the weather will be nice.

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