ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 4 Without devices

Today we went back to Wannsee and this time I left behind all devices. No iPhone. No iPad. No point-and-shoot. No bulky DSLR.

We wanted to take advantage of yet another hot Summer day in Berlin. I went into the water as well, but not for too long. The water was not clear as in Croatia. It was murky and sandy. Mussels littered the lake floor.

The kids had fun playing ring around the rosy in the water with Papa. They stayed in the water for hours. I watched them and walked around a bit. We had kugli ice cream. Walnut and hazelnut and vanilla. The kids had super sweet packaged ice cream - Sagey's was the one with Haribo gummy bears and Seena's was a hand popsicle. Saffi was picky and didn't want the same one as Sagey's, so hers was thrown away.

In the evening, my husband and I got to have dinner without the kids. That never happens back home so we're taking advantage of that ability to leave the kids with Oma. We had pizza at the pizzeria by Savignyplatz. I also had a glass of red Italian merlot while my husband had beer. He's German. Beer is like water to him.

One thing we noted while at dinner was that people ate and interacted with each other without any distractions. No iPhones, phones, no iPads. People simply enjoyed the moment without devices.

We ventured into East Berlin and walked around until we had to return for the children.

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY3, PART II

After breakfast, we all walked back to the coffee shop I discovered earlier in the morning. The kids drank mineral water and my husband and I each had a large cappuccino. Grosse ("large") in the German sense is quite different than the "large" (huge) size in America. That would be the equivalent of regular or small. People do not overindulge here as can be seen by the few overweight people.

I love walking around and could do so all day long. It's something that is not possible in America - unless you live in downtown of any large city like New York.

I love being able to walk to the bakery to get brotchen (rolls) for breakfast.

...and being able to walk to the farmer's market to buy quail eggs, feta, Kalamata olives, and whatever else the vendors have available.

Public transportation is also useful - moreso than in the States. We took the train to the famous swimming place - the Strandbad Wannsee.

We walked for awhile to get there from the train station. Sagey got blisters from the day before...

...and so Papa carried him most of the way.

I discovered that carrying around a large camera and an iPad, although nice to capture photos, can be a big hindrance to actually enjoying the moment. Tomorrow I will go without either and simply enjoy.

Shot with the new Canon 40mm pancake lens which was difficult to get on the camera.

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 3, PART I

My family was still asleep when I left the apartment about an hour ago. So far, I've managed to buy a few different brötchen at Thürmann's and coffee by simply staying on one street. I turned off on Zillerstrasse when I saw this coffee shop. My German is a bit rusty (which it shouldn't be since I live with a German), but I managed to order a large cappuccino.

I should head back and find a store to buy soap and shampoo. I have yet to take a shower as the apartment did not have anything other than a tiny hand soap on the sink in the shape of a swan.

After that, I'm hoping the farmer's market is still on Wednesdays by our place (as it was three years ago). I would love to find some quail eggs.

More to come...

HOW WE GOT TO BERLIN

Last Summer we took a two-week road trip to Colorado. Afterwards, we talked about going to Europe the following year - specifically Croatia with a side trip to Berlin to visit my husband's mom. The last time we visited Berlin was Christmas of 2009 when Sagey was still a baby of 6 months. We stayed there for 5 cold weeks (and I mean really frozen cold with snow) at an apartment twice the size of the one we're in now (more on that later).

Due to most of my family in Croatia not being able to make it to Brac this Summer, we decided to go to Berlin for a month. We kept checking the prices often but only saw super overpriced tickets. By overpriced, I mean over $2000. With five tickets to purchase, that was not sitting well with us. At one point we decided not to go anywhere. At that point, I got into the "not going mode" which meant I wasn't planning on making any unnecessary purchases (such as buying clothes for myself or any other travel specific purchases). So, when my husband luckily found tickets at half the price, we decided to go for it.

Even though I had three weeks to prepare, I did what I've always done...procrastinated. Even though I vowed not to be packing when the taxi arrived (as last time), I did...even worse than last time. We made the taxi man wait 45 minutes while we threw last minute items into bags and checked to see what else we might need. Obviously this is NOT the way to pack.

DAY AT THE LAKE

We took the commuter ferry from one side of Wannsee to the other. The weather is gorgeous for Berlin! Around 80 degrees F. We're sitting at a biergarten drinking beer and enjoying simply doing " nothing".

The children are restless and are getting hungry. There are no fries at this biergarten but the neighboring one has them.

I'm experimenting posting via my iPad and will write up a longer post on the trip thus far...including how we made the taxi van wait 45 minutes for us to finish last- minute packing and how the airline in Dallas held the plane for us as the flight from Austin arrived late.

That's all for now...