Day 3 - Berlin

We had our first full day in Berlin and it was WONDERFUL! It was hard to narrow down the pictures, but we'd be happy to show the rest of them to whoever wants to sit through them. :)

This is the Christmas market in the light. You can
see the bombed out church much better. :(

This is the Berlin Hofbahnhof station. It ended
up being one of Christian's favorite places. He now thinks any
building with an escalator has trains in it.

This is our walk from the train station to
the Reichstag building. Isn't it pretty?

This is the Reichstag building, which is the seat of the German parliament. It has a really interesting display inside that has a time line of the history of Berlin. There is a glass dome on the top that has a great view, including the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor). It had a particularly long line to get to the dome, which we were not looking forward to standing in out in the cold with Christian. Luckily there is a secret entrance for people with children that they told us about almost immediately, so no line. Yeah!! I recommend borrowing a child if you don't have one of your own. :)

You can see part of the line behind Cliff in this picture.

Interesting people walking by.

Christian fell asleep while we were enjoying the view from the dome. He didn't make a sound - just fell asleep sitting up. I was so surprised, and it was very cute.

This is inside the dome. The center is a bench.

We had a brief stop for lunch. Christian is enjoying some of Cliff's water - obviously much better than his water in his sippy cup.

Isn't he cute?

The Brandenburg Gate (or Brandenburger Tor)

The stage behind the Gate was being used for the big Berlin New Year's celebration. Thousands of people filled the street the day after we were there for the free concerts and reveling.

Cliff and Christian with the guy dressed up as a soviet soldier statue.

I love this picture of them! If you notice Cliff's hat and man scarf. It was SO COLD in Berlin. We added layers of clothes every day. Cliff didn't have a hat or scarf and scoffed when I suggested he get one. Not a lot of men in Texas where scarfs. :) Anyway, whenever we passed a place with scarfs we tried to find one that looked masculine for him, even though he insisted he didn't want one. About half way through the day we passed a gift shop that had scarfs and it was cold enough that he finally relented and bought this lovely man scarf and hat. Doesn't he look nice? :)

A demonstration bringing attention to the death of Benazir Bhutto.

Cliff at check point Charlie. They still have the sign that says you are entering/leaving the American sector in a few different languages. In the background on the left you can see a picture of a Soviet soldier. On the other side of that is a picture of a US soldier. There are displays around that area that give a history of the Soviet occupation of East Berlin, and puts it in historical context with other events going on around the world. It also lists people who tried successfully and unsuccessfully to escape to West Berlin.

This placard marks where the Berlin Wall was. I'm standing on the East side, and Cliff is standing on the west side.

After all the sight seeing we stumbled upon a fantastic place for dinner, Pups. We knew it was the place for us when we noticed strollers lined up outside. It ended up being a nice pizzeria with an extensive drink menu. There were candles on the tables and magazines available so that the parents could relax. On the other side of the fairly small restaurant was a large play area for the kids. It had a large ball pit, slides, bobby cars, and a toddler area. Christian loved the cars. They even let the adults in the play area with the kids, so Cliff took Christian down the slides. It was a great place for us to recharge before our meandering walk back to the hotel. The restaurant closed at 8, but when we left at 7 the staff was out the door and in their cars before we had Christian strapped into his stroller outside. We get that a lot.

Me and Christian walking down the street. This was the first time Christian walked by himself while we were out. He did such a great job! He held my hand the entire time and walked in the right direction and everything. :)

Berlin had these bears all over town. Christian was so excited to see them, and even more excited to sit on one. This one was between the Brandenburg gate and Checkpoint Charlie.

Show all