Berlin

We were lucky enough to head to spend this past weekend in Berlin.  We arrived thursday night and came home sunday night.  I'll be honest--it was a pretty rough trip.  We felt like we were just moving between different scenes of a continuous nightmare.  Andy had about a 3 day permanent tantrum, the weather was rainy and freezing, and we had a difficult time maneuvering around such a big city (bad hotel location, complicated transit system that wasn't stroller friendly, etc.).  I guess not every trip can be sunshine and roses! Especially with a toddler in tow.  All in all, we think it was still worth it.  Berlin is definitely worth a visit.  It's more of an educational trip than a fun trip.  You can tell the city has seen some hard times and is still recovering.  It has a dark, but fascinating, history.  We learned so much as we visited the different museums and sites.

Friday
Cam worked from the hotel room most of the day, so Andy and I went out exploring.  We headed out to Unter den Linden (the shopping street), Tiergarten Park, and the Brandenburg Gate.  I was a little nervous to head out into the middle of a strange city with my baby--especially since people do not speak english very well.  After a long and incredibly confusing hour and twenty minutes, we made it! The Brandenburg Gate is stunning.  Tiergarten Park is definitely the most beautiful park I've ever been in.  It even beats out the Vondelpark here and all the parks in London, which are all gorgeous.  I couldn't believe how many trees there are and how tall they are.  It feels like you're in the middle of a forest.  There was a big street fair going on in the middle of the park, which was fun to see.

Brandenburg Gate

Fair in the middle of Tiergarten.

Monument in the middle of Tiergarten.

More Tiergarten.

After Andy's afternoon nap, we headed out with Cam to go to the Jewish Museum.  After a long, confusing, and wet journey, we made it! The architecture is unusual and beautiful.  We both learned a lot.  Of course, Andy decided the ideal time to start screaming was in the Holocaust section.  We kept getting dirty looks from people who I'm sure thought we were so disrespectful in such a sacred place. They probably didn't have kids.

The Jewish Museum.  I stole this picture from wikipedia because it was too dark when we left to get a picture.  I wish the weather had been this nice when we were there. :)

Saturday

We packed a lot in on Saturday.  We started out by taking Cam back to the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten Park.  He fell in love with the park as much as I had.  We saw the Holocaust Memorial, too.  We headed over to Checkpoint Charlie afterwards.  We learned so much in the museum.  It's crazy for us to realize the wall was up in our lifetime.  After that, we went to see a long stretch of original wall.  We happened on an incredible museum that was right by it called Topography of Terror.  It's basically a museum about the Nazi reign from 1933-1945 located right where their main offices were.  It is horrifying.  I was so saddened to learn more about what actually went on under Hitler.  Obviously I'm familiar with the Holocaust, but there was so much more.  Both Cameron and I really got a lot of out of this museum; we'd never heard of it, so we were lucky to find it.  

Cute Andy in his adult size poncho. 

Another Brandenburg Gate picture.  Poor Andy's hat was on backwards. 

We love Tiergarten.  Wouldn't it be incredible to go on a run here?

We found this cool monument in Tiergarten.  It's a monument to Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart! If you look close there's bullet holes all over from WWII.  Crazy. 

Holocaust Memorial.

Checkpoint Charlie 

Miracle of miracles.  Andy took a nap on the go! I don't think that's happened since he was 3 months old. 

Closeup on Checkpoint Charlie sign. 

Long stretch of original wall in front of Topography of Terror Museum.

Andy stretching his little legs in front of the wall.

After that came the rain disaster.  We were on our way to Berliner Dom (a beautiful cathedral).  It had been raining all weekend, but all of a sudden came a serious downpour.  Umbrellas did nothing.  It seriously dumped buckets of water for about two minutes, and then we were soaked.  It looked like we'd just showered with our clothes on.  I guess normally this wouldn't be a big deal; we'd just go back to the hotel and change, right?  Slight problem: we flew on Easy Jet (a budget airline), so we could only bring one piece of luggage between the three of us, which meant Cam and I only brought the pants and shoes and jackets we were currently wearing.  So we head back to the hotel.  There's not a dryer there or anywhere nearby.  We finally decide I'll go to H&M (which is only a couple blocks from our hotel) and buy us some cheap pants.  The only problem was that I didn't have anything to wear to H&M.  I wasn't about to put back on my soaking wet pants, so  I came up with this creative outfit.  Yes, I am wearing my sweater as a skirt.  And yes, that is Cameron's shirt I'm wearing.  We only had a few dry options at this point.  Let's just say I got some really strange looks!  I couldn't stop laughing either, which made me look even more crazy.  Oh well, makes for good memories. :)  

Don't I look beautiful?  I wish you could see my boots better because that was really the icing on the cake.

When we got back out, we headed to see the East Side Gallery.  It's the longest remaining stretch of the wall that a bunch of artists painted in 1990 to celebrate the newfound freedom.  It's a hip, trendy area.  We were pretty cold (perhaps because we were wearing our wet shoes and jackets), but we managed and really enjoyed it.  

You may or may not know that Cam is an awesome juggler.  So we had to get a picture of this amazing juggler doing 5 balls! 

Both sides of the wall. 

Sunday
We headed to the Reichstag (the parliament building) in the morning and after pleading with several employees, we were lucky enough to get tickets to visit the dome on the top.  (Apparently you have to get tickets about 5 hours before you want to go, and we didn't have that kind of time.)  The views of the city are incredible!  We were so glad it worked out for us to be able to see it.  Since we'd missed Berliner Dom the day before, we headed back.  It is stunning.  There are so many things I love about europe, but the architecture might be top on the list.  You just can't find this sort of thing anywhere else.

The Reichstag.  You can kinda see the dome in the back. 

Inside the dome. 

Outside the dome.

View of Tiergarten from the top of the Reichstag.  

Berliner Dom.  I had to include at least one picture of Andy screaming to keep things accurate. 

Inside Berliner Dom.

One more miracle! He slept for 30 min. of the plane ride home.  Perhaps because he didn't get a nap the rest of the day.

One last cute picture of Andy.  I think the highlight of the trip for him was saying "Hi" (though it sounded more like "eye") into our hotel phone about 100 times a day.  Adorable.

Isn't Berlin cool?  We feel really lucky we had the opportunity to visit such a historic, interesting place.  This trip had its moments, but we're still glad we went.  However, we've promised ourselves we're not taking "any more" trips with Andy.  I'm sure we'll forget how traumatic this weekend was and book a few more eventually, but we hope to use babysitters more. We are unbelievably excited for our trip to Paris next week...because we have some awesome sitters staying at home with Andy.  Yay!

Our Amsterdam Home, Part 2

I'm finally showing the beautiful upstairs of our home here.  It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  It definitely has its quirks, most notably that the washer and dryer are both tucked away in Andy's room, which I've already complained about.  The other weird thing is storage space.  Our bedroom has loads and loads of drawers, but no closet where we can hang things up.  Andy's room has a huge closet to hang things up in but basically no drawers.  Not our favorite.  Also, our bedroom doesn't have a door.  I guess it's not the worst thing ever; we're just thrilled Andy's room does have a door.  From the pictures, we weren't sure it would.  Anyway, we do love it!  It's a cool loft style.  We love the exposed beams.  We love that there's a shower and a tub in the bathroom.  We love being on the top of the city. Now for some pictures!

Our Bedroom:

The window looks over the Kalverstraat, the big shopping street.  (Same view as our family room.)

Hallway & Stairs:

From our room looking into Andy's room. Stairs on the left, bathroom on the right.

I'm surprised I haven't fallen yet.

Andy's Room: 

Little bit of a story here.  Before we got here, they said they'd put a crib in Andy's room for him, so I didn't bother shipping one over.  Nice, right?  Well, we get here and this crib must seriously be an antique.  It looks like it's from 1950.  Probably breaking all sorts of current crib regulations.  Probably has lead paint.  And it couldn't be lowered and was stuck at the height you use for newborns.  So, we headed to ikea!  It's about 30 minutes away, first with a tram ride and then a train ride.  Just imagine us carrying a giant, heavy, awkward box all the way home.  It was entertaining to say the least.  But, the happy ending--we eventually made it, and Andy has a safe crib now.

This lovely picture of Jesus replaced the painting of a nude women that was here when we moved in.

The view from Andy's window.

The Bathroom: 

There's a cool skylight above the bath you can't see here.

Parks, Noorder Markt, & Our 1st Family Bike Ride

We've been having so much fun here lately! Andy and I have been stopping by museums during the day to switch things up a bit.  So far we've been to the Amsterdam Museum and to the Museum of Bags and Purses. Andy and I found a new playground at the Vondelpark that's a bit more age appropriate.  He had a blast reuniting with swings and discovering the sandbox for the first time. 

Friday night we had a really fun ward barbecue.  We got to the area a little early, so we killed some time walking around a gorgeous little park.     

Saturday morning we headed to a market in the Jordaan area called the Noorder Markt.  We tried some delicious pastries and other good food and also got some delicious (cheap!) fruit.  We also got a baby seat put on Cam's bike for little Andy.  For those who don't know, Amsterdam is very bike friendly!  That's pretty much how everyone gets around.  There's special bike lanes and everything.  What's really crazy is that it's very normal to see people with 2 (or more!) kids on their bikes.  They can put special seats on the front, on the back, and they even make special bikes--box bikes--that can hold a few kids.  Anyway--we'd been debating whether or not it would be worth it to get a seat for Andy or not because it'll mostly be winter while we're here (and the seat is 100 euros), and we're not sure how often we'll use it.  We decided if we were really going to plunge into the dutch way, we should just do it! We weren't sure if Andy would like it, but he really loves it.  Saturday afternoon Cam took us on a bike ride to his work so he could show us how he gets there each day.  It's about a 30 minute commute.  Such a cool ride!  On the way back, we stopped at another park where Andy fell in love with the slide.  He couldn't stop laughing.  It was adorable.  Anyway, we're so glad we got the bikes.  We even road them to church yesterday.  (Usually we take a tram.)  It's about a 30 minute ride and is beautiful.  I think we'll  be doing it most sundays from now on. 

A crepe at the market.

First time on the bike!
*No one here really wears helmets, so we're having a hard time finding one for Andy.  Don't judge us! We're still looking.

In front of Cam's work. 

How cute is he in his new hat?! I bought one that ties under his chin, hoping this would discourage him from pulling it off.  (Like he does with every other hat.)  So far so good! 

I'm embarrassed to admit Saturday was my first time on a bike in Amsterdam.  I can't believe I waited so long.  It was a blast! This is in Spui Square.  Look at all those bikes!

Some pictures of kids and bikes here, so you can see what I'm talking about: 

A box bike.