Silvester

Our first time celebrating New Year’s another place than Amsterdam. We have celebrated this moment with some good friends every year for the last five years – so since we are together actually. This year they decided that New Year’s Eve is no New Year’s Eve without us and drove up to Berlin the day before, tagging one of my sisters along. We have had the best time with them and having them sleeping over made our house even

more our home.

Hope everybody has had a wonderful New Year’s Eve surrounded by loved ones. 

Friends

How happy and excited they were when our friends arrived one day after we came back from Amsterdam. One of the best things of having our own place here and also of moving here: our friends come over and they stay for days and nights. We can talk as late in the evening as we want to, then go to bed and the next morning we're all there in our pyjama's. It's so much fun to be together for a couple of days and really feels like old times when we all went on holiday together.

And then there also were presents...

Amsterdam Light Festival

Our time in Amsterdam has gone by in a split second. Tomorrow is the day we’re leaving again and we haven’t done everything and seen everyone we would have liked but really feel we are heading home again and that is a good feeling. Because the eldest is sleeping over at grandmas and grandpas we are more mobile than usual and there is one thing left I liked to do: visit the Amsterdam Lights Festival. You can do it by boat and there’s a walking route with both different light sculptures, we chose to go by foot but next year I’ll definitely want to do both.

The festival is wonderful –although I wouldn’t recommend going on a Saturday, we skipped the Hortus Botanicus for the long line – but what made it really special for us was that it felt like a proper goodbye to our home city. Walking through the center with all the Christmas lighting still there, the nine streets district, along the canals, Artis, het Scheepvaartmuseum and visiting the courtyard of the Grant Hotel where a couple of older family members of M were married when it still was the town hall.

We will miss you Amsterdam, but be back soon and one day indefinitely.

Cousins

How happy she was when she saw her London cousin. She has two cousins almost the same age, all very international. The eldest lives in London since she was born, but her other cousin moved to Bangalore same time we moved to Berlin. They spend a lot of time together with Gandpa and Grandma and she really misses her.

During all the moving the last two months she hasn’t really been around children of her own age. Except when we went to the playground, but not really together together. Seeing her so happy made us realize we really should get on with finding her a nice little school to go to a few morning a week. 

She loved it so much. It was hard taking their picture jumping up and down and  up and down, giggly little girlies

Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree at my parents still looks the same as ever with all kind of weird balls in it. When we were kids we were allowed to choose 1 Christmas ball each year. We loved glitters, brights colors, pearl, and all kinds of weird shapes. My brother likes knights. My mum collected mushrooms, then birds.

This year we brought her a couple of birds for her tree from Berlin. One for each one of her granddaughters. Four little birdies

Headed Home for Christmas

We drove back to Amsterdam to be with our family for the holidays. Coming home to our house in Amsterdam for the first time made me feel we have two half homes. One home is not our house, but our stuff is there. The other one is our house but doesn’t have our things.

During this week we realized one thing:  Home is where our girls are.

Kollwitzstrasse

Fleischerei

First night out together in Berlin. First plan was to go to Restaurant Richard in Kreuzberg because I heard good things about it, but because it’s not around the corner and would probably take us an extra hour getting there and back we cancelled the reservation to actually really walk around the corner and to the Fleischerei. 

As the name says, it is an old butcher shop they kept intact a bit with the old tiles still on the wall. Nice light atmosphere, very friendly people serving us and both starter, main and especially the desert are very good. Mainly meat dishes, but also fine for vegetarians (nice fresh goat salad was my starter) and they also have a few fish dishes on the menu and as a daily special. It’s not cheap but you know all the food you order will be good.

Das Blaues Band

My parents are visiting this week and because my dad is also here for work I have the chance to spend a couple of days with my mum & the kids and have an evening out with her. We went to the big Christmas market on Gendarmenmarkt  where we were able to decrease the average age with a few years. On our way back we walked by DasBlaues Band which looked very cozy so we decided to have dinner here – after bringing the kids home –

The diversity of people as we came in around seven made me immediately like this place. A single guy reading his book, a father with a couple of kids and a group of students in the back. A nice place where locals seem to come, with a simple menu for a small price. We had the daily special, I forgot the name, some thin sliced pork with a mayo sauce and fresh parsley, quite good. Main courses are really simple, salad and pasta, nothing fancy but fine and they really serve Germans portion. Both of us weren’t able to finish our plate. Did have a little room left to share one of their rosemary panna cotta’s with blueberry sauce though. Very yummy, something I will definitely copy next time I’m making it.

Summarized it’s a nice place for a quick bite, sweet waitress, noting fancy also not expensive and really close by our place. Might try with the whole family as soon as the twins can eat without making a complete mess.

Kolle 37 - Abenteuerlicher Bauspielplatz

After visiting the Ehrenmal we really needed to warm up a bit and have a bite. Luckily it’s not hard to find places to warm up in these December days for there are Christmas Markets to warm yourself with sausages, gluhwein and of course the Christmas spirit. This weekend there is a Christmas Market especially for children on nearby playground Kolle 37. It was the best Christmas market I visited so far. Low key, all kind of activities for children like making your own candle or baking bread rolls in the big fire and also a good chance to visit this place, swing on the huge swing and finishing it off with a tummy slider in the mud (not me)

Sowjetischen Ehrenmal

Rarely have I been so surprised by a structure as when we walked up to the Ehrenmal in Treptower Park. I was not prepared for the massiveness, grandness and impressiveness of this place. I have not been to Russia so far, but this little piece of Berlin it makes me feel a bit like I'm there in the old communist Russia. The huge blocks at the beginning, the tombs leading up to the meters high statue of the Russian soldier saving a child while destroying a swastika. Fascinating regarding the tremendous battle of Berlin and the losses that the Russians suffered, but at least as fascinating is that the Russians have a build a  structure like this pthat makes the visitor feel small, petty in front of the huge Russian soldier. Impressive, almost frightening.

Old

I love how there are so many old but beautiful buildings in our neighborhoods. I know it probably originated in the fact that this part of the city only started rebuilding 24 years ago, but I so love the sight of them in the streets. Old vs new. Renovated vs Left it in its beautiful state

Christmas

Might be a bit early, but I'm really getting into the Christmas mood these days so I’ve started decorating the house while waiting for the Christmas tree. Here in Berlin I actually can do this since the advent started and the Christmas markets are open. In Amsterdam I would have waited until after Sinterklaas, but now we don’t have to and a bit of color and light can’t harm these grey and cold days.

Also, I’m so happy with my new nativity scene by Dick Bruna I found at  d.nik at Wörther Straße while shopping for a winter suit for my eldest, it just needed a little stage in our windowsill.

http://www.dnik-berlin.de/

Mauerpark

In our first weekend exploring the area we live we decided to have a look at the markets of Mauerpark. The plan actually was to go to Ikea to get the basic necessary stuff, but they we're all closed as we found out on the parking lot of one of them. And since the plan also is to fill the rest of the house with second hand stuff we hope to find on flea markets we decided to go to the only one we know at this moment and that is the well-known Mauerpark market.

Unfortunately for some reason unknown to us there was no flea market at the park today, but also without the market we found it a good place to spend our Sunday. First ate some Curry wurst und Pommes, than strolled around and took time to watch the street artist performing. Walked up the hill to look at the graffiti artist working on their painting and of course let the little one swing at one of the huge swings up there overviewing a part of Berlin. She loves to swing, but I’ve never before seen a smile this big on her face because of it.

Weissensee

Finding our own place gives us time to focus on other things like exploring the city. Because of our dog our exploring contains a lot of finding green spots in where he can run around. This Saturday we went to Weissensee, a green oasis in the middle of urban environment. It was very quiet in the park in two ways. There hardly were any other people and the city noises are really kept out.

In the middle of the park there is a small lake you can walk around. On one side there is a place – forgot the name – that looked like nothing had changed for the last 20 years. Today it held 50 elderly having some kind of celebration brunch. On the other end there is a small beach with a kiosk called Weissensee where you can buy everything to get warm. Nice cappuccino and great waffles. On the beach there even are two big tents that were warmed. We wouldn’t want to disturb the people inside by invading them with our party of children and dog.

One day later we experienced why there probably were so little people, Berliners do their groceries on Saturdays because on Sundays most stores are actually closed. Something we as ‘Amsterdammers’ are not used to anymore, but are planning to adapt to definitely. Sundays from now on are only for parks, fleamarkets and lots of drinking and brunching outdoors!

New Place

We found our own place, in two days’ time! Found it on immobielienscout, viewed the next day, signed a day later. Unfortunately no balcony or shared garden and on the very busy Torstrasse, but lots of space, rights in the middle of Mitte and Prenzlauerberg and only 5 minutes to the hubbies office. And the best view of Berlin!