ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 19, IT'S FRIDAY

Friday. The day before the big farmer's market...something I will miss back home. Sure we have farmer's markets in Austin, but it's just not the same.

I visited the coffee shop on Kurfürstendamm for the last time. Three is enough before I either find another new place or return to the one close by. I arrived too early at that coffee shop and had to walk around until they opened at 8. I could have gone to Starbucks, but am maintaining my boycott of them. The last time I visited a Starbucks was last December. I tired of the taste of the coffee, the never-changing pastry selection, and the money it cost on a weekly basis. And that could have been much more had we had coffee there more than 2 or 3 times a week.

While waiting for the Berliner Kaffeerösterei to open, I decided to browse online for other coffee shops. I found a few which caught my attention: Five Elephant and Katie's Blue Cat were among them. I hope to be able to visit them before we leave.

Back at the apartment (the one we refer to as the dungeon), the rest of the family got ready. We all walked to the Thürmann bakery to get the brötchen for breakfast at Oma's. My husband commented on how the sales lady must have sold her smile. In all my mornings visiting that bakeshop, I don't recall her ever smiling. When we returned to Oma's place, I noticed that the sales lady did not include the two sesame rolls I'd asked for...the ones I get every morning. My husband went back with me to help explain to the woman that something was missing (they gave me no receipt, like almost every morning). She simply stated that she never charged us for it. Still no smile, but I bought the brötchen anyway.

After breakfast, I went to our apartment to hand wash a few of the kids' clothes and do more research for cookie formulas. My husband stayed at his mom's place with the kids and continued work on his "new television" project. All parts ordered from Amazon had arrived and he had lots to do.

We met up later in the afternoon and walked around looking for someplace to eat. Since it was an odd hour for most people to be eating, we ended up back at the Greek restaurant by our place. My husband had the gyro lunch special while I ate sesame grilled chicken with an orange sauce. The original dish was with rice, but I requested pommes instead.

I went back to the dungeon and my husband went across the street to his mom's place. I researched places to find soft brown sugar here, but discovered that it's not sold in Germany. I did, however, find that you can easily make it with granulated sugar and molasses. So I finally found molasses at Allnatura - a health food store. It was advertised as a new product. Since I couldn't figure out whether it was unsulfured and since I didn't want to buy too many more ingredients that will be left behind, I decided that my spice cookie experiment will have to wait until I get back to Texas.

After dinner, his mom gave us an hour's time to go out without the kids. We went to the corner cafe - the Portuguese one - and had red wine and beer. After picking up the children and getting them to bed, we settled into our living room and watched some bizarre German movie where children were partying in a morgue. Only the Germans can come up with something so morbid...kind of like the original Brother Grimm stories.

Like the one we saw at the puppet theatre yesterday for my daughter's birthday. You know...the story of the turtle and the hare? Well, the original version is of a rabbit and a hedgehog. In the end, the rabbit dies of exhaustion after running the race 74 times. The hedgehog celebrates with his wife (the stand-in to the race deception) by getting drunk. I guess Disney didn't really like the original stories and decided to Americanize them. If you haven't read the original stories, go out and find a copy of the original Brother Grimm fairy tales. It's not what you grew up with!

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 18, SIX

That's how old our oldest is today. She was really excited to turn six.

When we arrived at Oma's, we noticed that presents were nicely placed on the "birthday table". A smaller table for the siblings also had presents on them. I had stopped by earlier with Saffi's cake since it was decided last night that we'd be eating cake for breakfast...apparently another German tradition.

Saffi and her siblings took their time to open the presents. Coffee was getting cold and the cake was waiting to be eaten. Ok, I was ready to eat cake. I made the mistake of giving them a bag of high quality German chocolates. The Kinder egg they ate with bread. Yeah, just like Papa eats the marshmallow treats with bread. Since the children were getting full, the cake would have to wait until later in the day.

We first put together the Ravensburger puzzle to use with the Tip Toi pen-like device. Then it was the playmobil kitchen set which the children and me enjoyed working on most of the evening. The puppet theatre was next. The back home to finally eat Saffi's cake.

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 17, PREPARING FOR TOMORROW

It was cold this morning. Autumn is around the corner. I put on my jeans and a sweater and, mistakenly, the other new shoes I bought right before we left for Berlin. The shoes were a bit large and I ended up getting blisters from only the short time I spent walking around this morning. The subway and bus were crowded with school children. School has already begun.

I wasted time trying to locate the same coffee shop as yesterday morning. First of all, I exited the bus a few stops too soon...about 2.5 km away. Secondly, when I entered the name of the coffee shop, I failed to specify "Kurfürstendamm" and ended up with a point on Google maps which no longer existed. In the end, I found the place and savored my cappuccino before heading back to the apartment with a quick stop at the Wednesday farmer's market to buy more quail eggs for breakfast.

It was no surprise that the family was not ready for breakfast. Since I cannot sit still for any length of time without accomplishing something, I left to walk back around the corner to the farmer's market for a few fresh herbs, large eggs, and veggies. We ended up eating all of the quail eggs I purchased. All two dozen of them. The kids love them. I love them and know that, sadly, I will not get to eat them back home.

After breakfast, my husband and I left the kids at Oma's while we took the subway to Wittenbergplatz. We spent most of our time on the fourth floor of KaDeWe at the toy section after stopping by the luggage department to look for a rolling carry on suitcase for me. Carrying a backpack, a purse, and a large bag (which was really a cheap zippered bag used for shopping) was hell for me on the flight here.

Saffron had asked for a unicorn. I managed to find a small stuffed Steiff one, but of course anything labeled as Steiff is stupid expensive. So, we settled for a Schleich figure and got the other two kids a figure as well...although different ones. For Seena, I found a funky fairy. For Sagey, I found an elf. All in the mystical scheme.

Earlier last week, I found a paper making kit from Kosmos that I thought Saffron might like. Particularly using all of the flowers she picks to preserve the memories of our Summer in Berlin. We also got a Ravensburger Tip Toi puzzle for all of the kids and a Playmobil kitchen set as Safforn's other gift...something that goes with Seena's birthday gift and will be part of their Christmas gift this year.

We also visited the sixth floor of KaDeWe...the gourmet food floor. We looked at the cakes in hopes of finding one for Saffron's birthday, but they all looked too complicated...especially for the children. If the cake has fruit in it, the kids pick it out. Too much frosting and complicated flavours also do not appeal to them or me and my husband. So, we decided that I should make the cake. Since my ricotta cake from a few days ago was a big hit, I decided to make that one. I omitted the almonds on top and purchased a sheet of rolled out marzipan to top the cake. We stopped by the chocolate section of Kardstadt and selected a few chocolates in the shape of zoo animals to use for topping the cake.

The kids had fun at the playground this afternoon and I had a desire to eat some pommes. I had hoped that my husband would join me while the children were with Oma, but he was busy with configuring his mom's apartment with a router. Now accessing the Internet with our iPads will not be so painful.

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 16, CHILLING AT THE DUNGEON

This morning I decide to walk in the opposite direction of my usual coffee shop. I took the subway for one stop and ended up on Kurfürstendamm in a fancy part of the city.

Since I didn't have too much time to explore, I settled on a coffee shop which had nice outdoor seating. The coffee was almost double in price than the one I usually get (3,90€ as opposed to 2,40€), but the extras (a cookie and a shot of water) added interest.

While sitting and drinking my coffee, I had a view of the street and people passing by. There was a man wearing a headset while yelling at the person on the other end. He screamed obscenities in German and at one point the waitresses came outside to see what was going on. I looked over to them and we all laughed.

I hurried back to the apartment to find that the kids and husband were still not ready to go to Oma's for breakfast. I guess I didn't have to hurry after all. My husband had to take care of getting a new television for his mom so I took the kids to the dungeon (our cold and dark apartment) where they played in front of the open front window - the only one providing any sort of usable natural light. It's also the window where I've been taking photographs of my cakes.

Today's cake experiment was a cake with poppy seeds and orange zest. It tasted delicious but was slightly crumbly seeing how Oma gave the children a spoon to scoop up the crumbs leftover on their plates. I worked some more on the formula and will test out the new recipe later this week. I think adding more egg yolks might do the trick...in addition to a few minor changes.

In less than two weeks we will be home in our large, warm, light filled home. I'm not looking forward to leaving just yet.

ADVENTURES IN BERLIN::DAY 15, WALK IN THE GREEN FOREST

I spent the morning sipping a double cappuccino at my "usual" coffee shop. I tried to find a link to the NASA Mars landing while there, but unfortunately didn't find one in time. Curiosity landed today.

When we got to Oma's place, she had a beautiful vase of pink roses for me. She remembered the 7th wedding anniversary from me and my husband. My husband did not. Nor did he remember last week's anniversary. Yes, we have two. The official one and the one from the wedding "ceremony" on a beach in Croatia a week later.

I've been enjoying eating quail eggs while here in Berlin. I've not been able to find them in Austin, but remember eating them in San Francisco before we moved. I buy them twice a week at the farmer's market a few steps from our apartment and will miss eating them when we leave Berlin.

Saffi built a tower out of wooden blocks after breakfast...my little builder. She was really proud of her tower and wanted me to photograph her next to it.

In the early afternoon, we took the S-Bahn to Grunewald and walked towards the lake. I kept stopping along the way to take photos with my DSLR and my husband kept wanting me to hurry along. "That's exactly why I don't want you taking your camera with you", he said. I still kept taking photos though.

Before my husband and I headed out to dinner to meet up with a friend of his, we enjoyed the German tradition of afternoon cake with coffee. Today's cake was the fifth one I've made this far and also the best one. It was a ricotta cake with lemon zest. After less than 20 minutes, only one large slice was left. I used the entire 250g container for the cake and my husband devoured it. He greatly dislikes cheese but loved the cake and commented that he could not taste the cheese. The cake had a super fine crumb and turned out much better than expected.

Dinner was delicious. I had pasta "bon bons" filled with ricotta cheese with lemon zest and leek sauce. I had two glasses of Syrah and tiramisu for dessert. I really should have had the plum cake with vanilla ice cream...a German dessert.