Samstag in Berlin
Our Saturday morning meeting got cancelled, so we decided to go out. We started at the Reichstag, because nothing starts your day off like cutting in front of a few hundred people. They were lined up past the bus stop, but we just went in our wheelchair/stroller entrance, and we were up at the top in a jiffy. We ran up the ramp and slid around on the top and watched the pigeons fly in and out. If you ever come to Berlin, you really must bring a stroller for this express purpose. It all makes you feel like the government is doing something right when the capitol building is so efficiently and cheerfully run.
Here is a manhole cover. Maddie's foot is on the Victory Column, mine is the Brandenburg Gate, Will's is the TV tower, Rob's is the Reichstag, and Sebastian's stroller wheel is between the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church and probably the red Rathaus. It is fun, though I'm still partial to the ones in downtown Budapest. Beautifully designed.
Then we stopped by the Brandenburg Gate which was full. There was a wild man walking by shouting things, a group of uniformed people who disappeared into the French Embassy who appeared to be having some kind of emergency drill because they were carrying a neon dummy. There may have been a Russian ceremony/reenactment or it may have been a fur hat vendor with a dramatic flair. And there is a huge Christmas tree on Pariser Platz which has modern decorations on it like angels, moons, and stars with restroom insignia on them (?).After that, it was payback time. We told the kids if they let us drag them around, that we'd take them to McDonalds. But for anyone who has been down Unter den Linden, you will know that it is a little upscale for McDonalds. So we caught the S-bahn down a station where there was a Burger King which mollified Will once he found out that they do, in fact, sell french fries there.
Then we rushed back over to the church for primary activity day. Here Will and Esra are building things out of cookies and candy. Will made a house, a candle, and a scooter, which he gave to me. Maddie also made a Santa Claus out of toilet paper rolls. The entire primary seems to be run by three women, none of them above twenty five.
From thence, Maddie and I ran to get her to a friend's birthday party. It was quite a trek because, being the first Saturday that the Weihnachtsmarkts are open, the entire city was beset with people from out of town. The busses were all full and tilting to the side. We finally got on one and ran her to Lena's house. Lena lives in the gabled attic of an apartment building overlooking the lake. The apartment is like a big glorious half-timbered rumpus room, painted oxblood and yellow. Maddie got to make marzipan. Now that is a birthday party!
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