Christmas in Berlin

Instead of sitting around the house in Heidelberg this Christmas, we decided to take our minds off of how much we wish we were in the states with a trip to Berlin. At first we were planning to go to Paris, but we had trouble getting the boys' passports in time. Thankfully, my Paris hotel reservations were able to be cancelled without a fee and I booked a hotel next to the Berlin Zoo and Aquarium. The drive took about two hours longer than planned due to unexplained staus (german traffic jams in the middle of nowhere). Once we found the hotel, we unpacked and headed toward the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. I had scoped out the area near our hotel on Google Earth in order to have some idea as to where things were before we got there. However, Berlin is still going through much restoration and renovation. What was in the area in 2010, or even early 2011 may not be there now. Hence, the different location of the Hard Rock Cafe, the missing Dunkin Donuts, and the bombed out church bell tower that was so covered in scaffolding that we didn't even recognize it after passing it three times.

Inside the Hard Rock we ate an overly expensive dinner of cheeseburgers and a pulled pork sandwich and drank some red and green beer.


They had a guitar that was made out of part of the Berlin Wall.


The street we stayed on was Germany's most elite shopping street, their version of Champs de Elysees. It was beautiful with the Christmas Markets and all of the lights and decorations.




The weather on the first night was quite pleasant. We still had to wear coats, but it was dry and not too cold. Too bad we can't say that about the rest of the trip. The next two days were cold and rainy with the temperature hovering just above freezing.

We spent Christmas Eve at the Aquarium. They boys loved the fish, snakes, and turtles. Maddox ran around the room screaming "Shark! Shark!" and was quite uncontrollable at times. I was relieved that there were not many people there to witness my horribly undisciplined children run wild.






Later, we found out we could into the zoo for free.

We went into the big cat house and they were all inside waiting to be fed. Maddox and Carson got to see a male lion and tiger up close, and of course, we had to go see Baby Jaguar.




On our way home we stopped at McDonalds for lunch, then headed towards KaDeWe - the largest department store in Europe. Unfortunately, it closed early for Christmas Eve, as did everything else in Berlin.


We went back to the hotel and spent the evening swimming in the pool and watching cartoons in german.




We had no luck in finding an open restaurant for dinner, so we ate the hodge podge of things I had packed in the car for snacks: bananas, pretzels, graham crackers, and complimentary apples and chocolate from the hotel. We all ended up in bed by 8pm.

The next morning the boys were up early and loudly! We got them dressed and out the door as fast as possible so not to end up with a pile of complaints from our neighbors. Once again, everything was closed. We roamed the streets looking for breakfast and finally found a gourmet Christmas Breakfast Buffet in the Europa Center. It was inside, dry, and warm, so we stayed here until the Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour started at ten.

The bus tour turned out the be a great way to see the city, even though the boys were jumping out of their seats, screaming, and pulling our headphone out of the jacks.


We drove past the Holocaust Memorial and the Jewish Museum Berlin, but did not get off.




Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie, the third checkpoint along the Berlin Wall. This one was the most famous because this is where most tourists and diplomats would pass through (no German citizens were allowed to cross). This is also where US and Soviet tanks had a stand off shortly after the wall went up.





The next stop was the East Side Gallery, the largest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. It has become the longest outdoor art gallery, almost a mile long, with paintings by artsists from all over the world. After a certain amount of time, the wall is painted white and new paintings are put up.


We had a long wait out in the elements before the next bus came to pick us up. Once the bus finally got here, the aisles were too narrow to get the stroller through, so we decided to get off and wait for the next one. Carson was asleep in the stroller and Maddox had fun running around, getting his picture taken with a giant teddy bear.


They had bears all over the city. Here is the one outside our hotel.


Next, we stopped at the Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral). The cathedrals are always my favorite stop in any city. They are cheap (if not free), present a chance to get out of the elements, usually not too crowded, and give the boys a chance to get out of the stroller in an enclosed area. Not to mention they are beautiful and inspiring to look at.



We couldn't go inside because they were in the middle of Christmas Day services, so we walked around the outside and moved on.

Next we went to the Brandenburg Gate with the Goddess of Peace at the top. Napoleon took it to the Louvre in Paris in 1806, but the Prussians defeated Napoleon in 1813 and took it back. They renamed it the Goddess of Victory. It was originally built as a gate of peace in the 1700's and if you look closely you'll see that the columns are not evenly spaced.Only the royal family went through the large center, the entrourage went through the next walkway, and the commoners would go through the narrow outer section. It was misused by Hitler and when the wall went up it was left in a severly damaged, abandonded part of the city. The gate was restored after they found the original moldings.





On the inside there is the Room of Peace (careful to not be dediated to any religion). There was also a peace demonstration going on in front of the gate.


While we were walking down the street from the Brandenburg Gate, Ben's keen eye sight caught a glimps of a much anticipated destination: Dunkin Donuts. We took a break, got coffee and food, and Ben left satisfied with our Berlin trip.


We rode the bus past the Reichstag and had plans to get off at the Charlottenburg Palace.


When we got to that stop the boys were tired and growing impatient, plus the rain was getting worse, so we decided to skip the Palace and go back to the hotel.


Berlin is constantly changing and still feels that it hasn't quite recovered from World War II, but it's getting there. The city is quite spread out, has a lot of open spaces (at the moment) and built parks over top of hills made of the rubble from the bombings. It was cold, rainy, and dark (the sun set at 3:30 every afternoon). Even though the lights and tv in our hotel room were out by 8 and Ben and I spent the night hanging out in the bathroom talking and playing with the GPS and Ipod, we enjoyed our trip very much. Berlin is a must-see in Germany, but I don't think we'll be back. January marks the end of Year One in Germany and in Year Two we will be focusing on "out of country" excursions. I will be moving my blog to TravelPod for year 2. Here is a link:

http://blog.travelpod.com/members/madcar