Fantastic Friday!

I bought this lovely rendition of the coast at the Baltic Sea.
Beautiful Memories

Up at 545 on Friday morning!  No surprise here!  And I was just exhausted, I mean exhausted.  I gave Tate my phone to watch as much Thomas the Train as he wanted.  That supplied me with a whole 45 minutes to snooze when he informed me he 'needed' breakfast.  :)  I got him pottied and ready for breakfast as we tiptoed into the kitchen to get together his cheerios, yogurt and oatmeal.   We managed to get our act together slowly, while he played puzzles on the floor and watched more Thomas on Christian's computer, all while Christian tossed and turned on the pull-out couch in the connecting living room.


When I decided to go to Berlin, I told Christian the only 2 things I wanted to do was to go to my favorite museum, The Pergamon Museum;  I've gone each of the previous 3 times I've been to Berlin, and it never get old for me.  The Pergamon Altar is gorgeous, and I've done a bit of research on its history and am always amazed to be witness to something from so long ago.  I can't say why this piece of art, this time in history moves me so, but it does, so I always take time to go to Museum Island when in Berlin and go take in the altar.


I also mentioned I wanted to eat at the top of the TV tower and see Berlin as we rotated around.  Christian was really sweet and got us reservations for dinner there Friday night and convinced his friend Mi to babysit Tate for us.


So, Friday morning I opted to take Tate to the Pergamon Museum, knowing full well he would not find it nearly as entertaining as I would and then hopefully meet up with Christian after lunchtime at Legoland or  a park/playground.  In the morning Christian would venture into the office as well as have the chance to sleep in once we were on our way.  He had gotten me the maps/plans the night before, so Tate and I were off to catch the M-4 tram by 9.  Next stop...right across the bridge from Museum Island.


We finagled the tram with finesses as usual :)  Tate found this tram riding to be about the highlight of his trip!  He always hopped on with a big grin!!  We got off at our stop, got turned around just a bit and then headed over the bridge toward Museum Island.

That's the Berliner Dom as we crossed the river.

Tate was a bit whiny, wanting a snack almost as soon as we got off the tram.  Once we got to the other side of the bridge I indulged him in some of his new faves...pretzels and those Smarties!  But he remained slightly whiny and fussy.  But I soldiered onto my museum!  And I had forgotten about the steps.  Sigh.


To get to the museum we had to go up steps.  And this time Tate did not want to get out of the stroller.  Bah.  He whined and cried.  But he finally got his booty out.  Sigh.  Then I struggled to get the stroller up the steps and then tried to convince him to come into the little make-shift ticket booth with me to get my ticket.

"NO!  I don't want to!"


Argh.


Fine, I let him stand outside the booth, and went in to buy my ticket, straining my neck to check on him every 2 seconds as he stood out there whimpering.


But I was going inside to see my altar!!  I gave him his hippo and Sue-Y Bear and some milk and in we went!


And I was not disappointed!

Yep!  I got Tate to walk up those STEEP steps with me!
He was not nearly as impressed as I was.

We made our way back down the steps and went to see the Ishtar Gate to Babylon.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Other cool pieces in the museum...

Market Gate to Miletus

A simple explanation of the Pergamon Museum :)

And Tate was about cooked.  He had had enough after only 40 minutes.  But I had had my fill, enough to get me to my next journey to Berlin and my Pergamon Museum.

We traipsed down the stairs and began our walk across the water.  

Tate was asleep less than 5 minutes into our walk, and it wasn't even 11.

He had been exhausted.  How did I not realize this?  After the long fun day at the beach, not long enough nap, late bedtime, early rising he was exhausted.  

But now I could enjoy some breakfast!  At a cafe!  Along the river!  In peace and quiet! ;)

I found a sweet little cafe, got Tate settled out of the sun (stroller seat completely reclined) and ordered an omelet of sorts, toast and a yummy, sweet coffee drink and just relaxed and enjoyed the gorgeous day, the people around me and being on vacation!

My breakfast view!

After I finished the best breakfast I'd had all week :) I leisurely strolled back towards Alexanderplatz while Tate just snoozed away...Here's what he missed...

I sat and people watched in Alexanderplatz until Tate woke up about 90 minutes after he fell asleep :)  He was in a much, much better mood!!!  I got some food into him...his German staples....yogurt, milk, Oma cookies :) and some potato chips!  He was thrilled!

Look at that crossed leg!
Enjoying his last lunch in Berlin!

Christian and I had decided I would text him around lunchtime, so I did to see where he was with his day.  He wasn't going to be able to get away until later in the afternoon, but we were hoping it would be sooner than later.  I opted to go ahead and take Tate back to Legoland.  And I am so very glad that I did!!

Onto the U2 train we went...as always Tate was thrilled, jumping up and down, waiting for the subway train. (oh and we rode the elevator right down to the line AND validated my ticket!)  We rode to Potsdamer Platz and quickly found Legoland.  Tate was quite content to sit outside at the play table set outside for the remainder of the afternoon it seemed.  He played here for a good 20 minutes...

 I finally convinced him to come back inside with the promise of playing with the pirate ships (again, I have absolutely no clue what he found so fascinating about them!)  The place was a bit more crowded on Friday, but just as much fun.  And surprisingly, we had missed quite a bit on Wednesday!


As we made our way around downstairs, one of the workers recognized us from Wednesday.  That put a real smile on my face :).  She told me they were going to be opening their big new exhibit that afternoon around 5pm (It was about 1:30 at this point) and invited us to stay.  It was their Ninjago Exhibit;  I knew we would be long gone, but we went and saw what we could from behind the ropes...

 

 

And then Tate started going on and on about seeing Batman!  I took that opportunity to say we could see Batman as long as he went to the potty as Batman seems to be standing watch over the bathrooms. 

Not scared this time!

 And we ran into this guy on the way to the pirate ships this time!

And he had a ball with the pirate ships!  I played as well this time, so no pics.  We then turned around and saw this very mini water ride that we had totally missed on Wednesday.  And it was included in our entrance fee.  Tate and I got settled into the ride and we were off (as well as being the only people on the ride).  It was just a water ride that took you up and down a level, but it was fun nonetheless, though I found some of the characters to be downright creepy if not a bit scary.  Had Tate been older I think he may been a bit wigged out.

Creepy, right?

And here's me and Tate at the end of the ride, getting blasted with a small water spray :)

In any event, Tate was fine, I dried my face and we decided to see what else we had missed on Wednesday and oh my goodness came upon this incredible replica of the central city of Berlin.  It is just fantastic...

Reichstag

Brandenburg Gate

Berlin Central Station 

Berliner Dom 

Even fake, miniature trains enthrall my child!

And he's going in!!!

Then it turns to nighttime....

 Just so very cool.  


And even cooler is this video...This is the Brandenburg Gate.  Inaccessible due to the Berlin Wall, it is the site most everyone remembers around the world when the Wall finally fell all those years ago, but it wasn't so long ago, was it?  For Christian spent his formative years in Eastern Germany before his family was finally allowed to migrate to the western side.

You'll hear some yelling and chanting then you'll hear 'Bring down the wall' or something to that effect, then the wall falls.  Pretty impressive for some legos...

[And yes, there are lots of pictures and videos, but this blog is really for me and Tate.  I print it to a bound book every year right after his birthday to have in hard copy.  But we sure appreciate your reading and being 'involved' in our life together :)]


After literally dragging him away from the replica of Berlin Central Station amongst tears because I wouldn't allow him to go get his Thomas and Gordon and put him on the tracks, we made our way back to the bounce house...

Earlier right after we talked at lunchtime, Christian had texted to say a friend of his wanted to meet Tate and me, but lived 45 minutes away and wanted to invite us for tea.  Just didn't seem like the thing to take my 2 1/2 year old to instead of Legoland :)  I had already subjected him to the Pergamon Museum which had not been a big hit, so I opted to decline.  Thankfully, Christian had understood and seemed to genuinely understand and we decided I would text him as we left Potsdamer Platz.  Once we were out of Legoland though I got a text from him saying he was home waiting for us!!  It was about 4, so Tate and I hustled to the train and made our way home.  Tate was exuberantly happy.  We got on our tram, off at our stop and he decided he wanted to walk the three blocks to Daddy's house!  And he started this recitation...You'll hear him say "Isn't it funny.  And!  Let's Count." and he proceeds to count to 20...

...and run right to his beloved Daddy :)


The boys went off to a playground right down the street from Christian's flat, while I went upstairs to get Tate's dinner ready.  They spent a good hour playing and from the pictures I think they had a marvelous time.  They returned full of sand, grinning from ear to ear.

 

First time playing in sand!!!

Oh no!  It's an American!!!

 

Mi arrived just after 6 and got to spend a few minutes with Tate after his bath (with Christian of course).  I had him in the crib snoozing away around 7:30.  Christian and Mi were enjoying the balcony together, so I got changed and cleaned up for dinner.  We left a bit late (I believe we had 8pm reservations and we left at 8).  I was looking forward to an evening with Christian, but I just felt like he didn't really want to go, and I really felt like I was in the way of his time with Mirka as I listened to them chat in German on the balcony together.  I was probably just being overly sensitive, but after a few comments about how his friends said the food at this place in the TV tower wasn't very good and it's way over priced, complaints about having to pay to go to the top of the tower when we were going to be dining there, then once seated and his menu opened, the eye roll came.  And he said "Let's just get starters and drinks and if they're as bad as my friends say we can just leave and go eat somewhere else."  Well by now I was a little sad and my feelings just really hurt.  I felt like this was all a huge inconvenience and that he would have preferred to be anywhere else with anyone else. And I said if we left after having appetizers and went to go eat somewhere else I would prefer to just go home after the appetizers.  It was already 8:35, and I figured by the time we were served even the starters it would be 9 and by the time we left it would be at least 9:30 and then found somewhere else it would be 10 or later.   And ummm I turn into a pumpkin by 10:30.  I just said I could not possibly physically do that.  So we ate our starters and had drinks and called it a night.  But it ended up being lovely for me.  My salad was huge and yummy (who knows what his friends consider good food?) and the drink was fabulous.  The dining room rotated and we saw a gorgeous sunset and Christian pointed out the sites of Berlin.

That's Christian's block...right there in the middle! 

Sunset in Berlin

We made it home, satiated and I thanked Mi profusely for staying with Tate.  Christian walked her home and my head hit my pillow and I was down for the night.  

Only 1 and a half more days left in our FIRST Great European Adventure!!!