Day 2 - Berlin

So, after a 3 hour drive and nap for Christian we arrived in Berlin. Yeah!! It was dinner time, so we got settled into the Crown Plaza and headed out to dinner. There happened to be a Christmas market right around the corner, so we went there for the evening. It had more variety than the Aachen or Cologne markets we went to, and they weren't too crowded since it was after Christmas. I think they stay open until New Years there. Christian's favorite part were the rides. We also spent some time in the Europa Center, where we actually ate dinner. It was too cold for us to eat outside. We quickly learned to dress more appropriately when we went out. :)

This is our first foray into the Christmas market.
Isn't it pretty? Christian and I are waiting for Cliff
to finish taking pictures, which is always true of our trips. :)

These are pretty popular in the Christmas markets.

Cliff worked hard to get this picture of the very pretty
church in the background, despite the weird lighting. :) It
is actually just a shell. The majority of it was destroyed
with all the bombing, and it was never restored.

This is a kind of dark picture of the Christmas market.
This is just one aisle of vendors, it took up the whole block.
They sell everything: food, clothes, toys and, of course,
Christmas decorations.

Christian was SO excited when he saw these rides. He's
too little to ride by himself. I think he would probably have
tried to crawl out while it was going. :) But, they were nice enough
to let me ride with him. He actually screamed and giggled with excitement
through most of the ride. The car not only went in circles, it also
went up and down. Does it get any better than that?

Christian LOVED this fountain in the Europa Center.
We went back to it several times.

Christian and Daddy checking out the Christmas displays.

This is a small overview of the little Christmas
village they had set up for kids to walk through.

Our first view of the wall.

On our way back to the hotel,
Christian and Daddy had a ride.

My two studly guys hanging out in the rocket ship.

The first thing Christian did when we got back to
the room was grab his football.

Asleep after a long day.