My sister Melanie, her husband Tom and their son Justin flew out to see us and Germany at the end of March. We drove the 3 1/2 hours to Berlin to enjoy the history of the city. We stayed in the Pfefferbet Apartments. It ended up being a great place to stay for the money spent. Their were 2 rooms with a bathroom, small kitchen and a really, really long hallway that my boys loved running up and down.
The first full day in Berlin started with orienting ourselves with the public transportation. After getting on the train going the wrong direction and other mishaps, we finally made it to our first tourist site.
The Brandenburg Gate
We had to pay 1 euro to get this picture!
Justin is a WWII buff, so it was worth the euro just for this picture!
The Holocaust Memorial was neat. You could get lost in the maze of walls. We wanted to do the Holocaust museum, but with the young kids, we had to forgo.
We enjoyed a great lunch complete with hot cocoa because it was so chilly. We got some great shopping in too. Gideon and Allen chose a music box as a souvenir and Lincoln chose a Polizei car. I bought Bruce a t-shirt and I found an ampfel man as an ornament. The ampfel man is the crosswalk guy. They differed from East and West Berlin and after the cities were united the signs started changing to be the same in the city. There were protests at doing that, and now there is quite a following for the ampfel man.
My sister was quite amused to see the cement truck with a Mercedes sign.
This sign was posted outside the Parliament Building. I thought it was very amusing.
If you can't tell, it says Grilling Forbidden.
Funnel in the Parliament Building
Lucky Tom. Right before we got in, Lincoln fell asleep. What a load!
I knew they brought me for a reason! The line to get into the Parliament Building was horrendous! Just as we were deciding to leave instead of spending an hour in line, we were approached by a worker and told that because we had young kids, we could get in at another entrance. All the whining and crying was worth it all in that moment!
We got to walk past a lot of car dealerships because of my directional mistake, but the boys loved it! We had to drag Tom and Justin out of the Bentley Dealership. The Mini Cooper dealer was fun because they had the body of one mounted on the wall. Have you had your V8 today?
We finally made it to Check Point Charlie! We were all pretty tired, but happy to have made it. We enjoyed seeing the portion of the wall that was still standing in this part of the city. I was amazed at how it had changed since the last time I had seen it!
We enjoyed an ice cream treat (love European ice cream) and got a tip from the lady who worked there. She said to skip the Check Point Charlie museum, it is just a tourist trap. She recommended we visit the Television Tower and the next day take the kids to the Technik Museum (transportation museum).
Token picture in front of the Berliner Bear
We found this piece of the wall en route. He just needs a few more inches, and then he can scale it!
Standing in line at the TV Tower
View from the top
Dinner in the rotating restaurant at the Television Tower was delicious. I got chocolate crepes for the boys, thinking that they would absolutely love them, but I could not get them to eat the crepes! Gideon didn't like the cream inside. I think they were a little too rich. Allen and Gideon had fun placing paper and other things up on the outer ledge that didn't rotate and then retrieving them as we rotated around to the same spot again. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the Tower. I still need to get half of the pictures from Melanie's camera.
We found another one!
We took our time getting out of the apartment the next morning. Justin and Tom went and did a tour that didn't allow children under 14, so Melanie and I took the kids and tried to get to the Technik Museum, but with faulty directions didn't quite make it. Instead we happened upon the Lego Museum. When I get those pictures, I will post them. The boys had so much fun exploring and building. Melanie kept saying that her kids would be jealous!
Then it was time to head out. We picked up Tom and Justin, then headed home. While getting gas, we happened upon a McDonalds. My boys thought that was great. Now the McEntire's can say they have been to McDonalds on 2 different continents! Those are bragging rights.
This was our one trip with the McEntire family while they were here. We sent them on down to Munich to tour Dachau, then Neuschwanstein Castle (done that 2 times!). We are glad that we got to enjoy them while they were here! Thanks for coming to see us!
