Legoland Berlin

I guess it wasn't really Legoland, it was a Lego discovery center and way overpriced, but you'd never know that from my kids' description. They had a blast & it was a nice way to spend an afternoon after seeing some heavy Berlin sights that morning.
A few bad things about Legoland Berlin:
It's expensive
Little kids can't go on the one ride and the older siblings can't go on alone AND since the little kid can't be left alone, no one gets to go on.
The ONE ride that both kids can go on appears to be scary, but is, in fact, lame.
There were a few boys playing with the earthquake simulator (pretty cool. you get to see if your building would hold up) and Ben was playing next to them. He didn't realize that a pile of Legos had been set asdie by one of the boys and took one. The boy hit him and Ben was so shocked that he just stood there. Eventually, he ran to me and cried & the boy's grandma did nothing. We've noticed that most parents have a pretty relaxed approach with their kids. They let them work a lot of stuff out on their own. Since the grandma wasn't doing anything and the boy clearly wasn't going to apologize, (plus, I don't know how to say, hey punk, check in with my son, in German) I thought it'd be best if we moved on. I guess that's how boys learn not to take Legos from random piles here.
A few good things:

Bubba & R2



Sassy Indy

Berlin Wall

We had seen the Berlin wall on our bike tour, but it was raining & Ben was asleep. So the kids & I went back for a better look. We talked about why the wall was a big deal (in PG terms) and the kids were really excited that Daddy's friend Nik was there when the wall came down in '89. It was pretty surreal to be there, standing next to it. I remember watching the wall come down on tv and we've seen so many of the images over the years. I hope the kids remember that they were there. At least we'll have pictures! (which are, again, out of order)

They built their own little wall & knocked it down



This is in front of checkpoint Charlie, which has become a big tourist spot.



I'm really not mad, just standing in the middle of traffic.



There is an image of an American soldier on the other side of the picture of the Soviet soldier. It's pretty scary to think of how tense this very spot was for so many years.



Lily & Ben at the Berlin Wall, 9/20/11

More of Berlin Zoo

FINALLY!! I've been trying to upload pictures and get back on track, but something always goes wrong. The photos take about 40 minutes to upload and I usually loose my internet signal half way through. Then my head falls off and rolls down the hall and I have to go retrieve it. You can imagine, this is all very distracting and frustrating. The worst part is that I know I'm forgetting things that have happened along the way. Oh well, play the glad game and move on. (We're reading Pollyana now).
So, these are from the Berlin zoo (last month). The zoo had the most amazing playground in the middle of everything. We spent as much time at the park as we did looking at animals. There were 4 main sections, each surrounding a trampoline. Then, the sections were connected by bridges, slides and different paths. From up top, we could see the bears in their nearby habitats and pretend they were coming to get us. There was also a giant pirate ship structure that the kids could climb down into and explore. Ben pretty much stayed on the ship, exploring with his trusty flashlight. It was awesome!!
The pics are out of order.

This is an example of the bridges connecting the sections.



The pirate ship. Ben is down there, so you can get an idea of the size of that ship!



Kids & I at the zoo

Cologne, Germany

A rooftop tour of the Cathedral in Cologne, Germany.

Frustrated

I can not upload any pictures. It's pretty frustrating. I try all the time, sometimes for up to a few hours and nothing is working!! I keep getting disconnected from the server, etc. I'll have to go to Starbucks or some place with a faster connection....I think.