Empty Spaces

Berlin is a huge city with a lot of recent history. Especially the Eastern part, which is one of the main reasons we hope to live in this half of the city. Because the city only so recent started to restore and develop huge parts there are still so many undeveloped and old places. Old barns, fabrics, breweries and so on. These places give a lot of room for people to be creative. Today I walked past these empty buildings and heard the most wonderful jazzy music coming from inside. Me and my girls have been standing there and listening for at least 10 minutes, loving the music and loving the fact we now live in a city where this kind of surprises are possible around every corner.

Graffiti

The two things I described in the previous post – two things I love about Berlin - are also combined in this pictures. Children and creativity. Playgrounds and graffiti. Of course not all graffiti can be named creative or art, but because in Berlin there is room for this form of art there are a lot of beautiful, unexpected drawings that lighten up the city and definitely make it more colorful. It is a form of art I really miss in Amsterdam, because it is so prohibited graffiti most of the time can actually be described as vandalism more than art. One of the most shocking, but characteristic happenings for the current policy was when the London Police made this beautiful huge painting on the side of a house on the canals and the city government wanted to remove it because they didn’t have a legal license for the painting. Only after a lot of protesting they decided to leave the painting be. Anyway, on this subject Amsterdam could lean a little more towards the Berlin policy because I really do think wall art can brighten up the streets.

I now see these pictures are not the best examples to support my story, just outside the pictures of the slides there was a great drawing of a huge hand on the wall. I will later on try to make and post good examples of the graffiti I am referring to

Art

Passed the Oberbaumbrucke today to the Kreuzberg side. There's a nice little park on the other side of the bridge with some art pieces. I'm not sure what they are, but standing there watching my kid run around them (even hug them) made me realise two things I so far really love about the city. First is that they really are very child friendly in developing the city, around every corner there is a playground, small park or lawn for children to run around and play as much as they would like. The other thing is the space they give people to express their creativity, also in public spaces. Something I do miss in the streets of Amsterdam. It really brightens up the city and gives me the feeling to live in a city where rules are not the most important thing in life.

Boxhagenerplatz

Thanks to the fantastic new hosts of our second Berlin apartment (via airbnb) we ended up at Boxhagenerplatz on our first Saturday morning in Friedrichshain. This market alone would be enough reason for me to want to live in this neighborhood! They have everything you'd want for your Saturday groceries, from goats cheese to cheese cake and from homemade sausages to lovely I-could-eat-this-everyday smoked fishes (the trout!!!) All of very good quality and the people behind the stalls are so very nice and friendly (especially to children and dogs) The ladies of the potato stall even have gummybarchen and cookies for visiting children and dogs! And the apple man (pictured) warned me to not give his freshly squeezed apple juice to the twins for it could be to heavy for them, so very attentive!

Inspirational Interior

Last day in our airbnb rental on the Greifswalderstrasse. Although it also lacked a few things to make life with three small children easier (washing machine, sink in the kitchen) we are also going to miss this wonderful place where we started our Berlin adventures and have thought about all the things we like about this city and we want to do the coming year(s)

One of the things I really want to take with me from this place is the way it is styles with lovely old things, but put so well together that it creates a really nice, creative and comfortable atmosphere. From now on I'll try to find stuff like this on the flee markets and vintage stores in this city and where ever. I've always loves old things better than new ones.

Bye lovely house, miss you!

Hufelandstrasse

On my way back yesterday I was trying to walk back a different way then the one that got me in the park. It's a habit of mine to never go back the way you came, because it gives you a chance to explore other parts of a city. Or in case it was the way to work I biked 4 times a week, it's somehow less boring. It also often gets me lost a bit (or sometimes a lot) but that can also be interesting.

Anyhow, yesterday I decided to walk back another way and this time it worked very well and got me to a really nice part of the neighborhood. First the Botzowstrasse with a great playground (Pirate ship with slides at the front) and a coffee/ice cream shop on the other side of the street. A perfect combination because I can lure my two-year-old away from the playground without making a scene by promising her an ice cream with candy (not sure what super nanny would say), because that's they sell at this place (forgot the name, around nr 41 it is). They have an ice cream window at the street side and when the kids come in the afternoon they have the funniest steps-on-wheels the ride outside so the kids can stand on the steps and order their child sized ice creams with disco dip and a gummy barchen on top themselves with the little cranky but very sweet guy behind the counter.

Around the corner is the Hufelandstrasse, a lovely street with nice shops and lot's of coffee bars along the big sidewalks, under the plantains. I would love to come back another day without my huge stroller so I can fit into the small shops with second hand clothes and gifts. Would also love to live in this neighborhood. A thing that really got my attention is the big amount of children on small bikes on the sidewalks. First thing about that is that there are way more here than I ever saw in Amsterdam, while that is the city of bikes, so very promising for Berlins biking culture. Second thing is the big bikes and the little bikes on the sidewalks seem to perfectly work together. I'm really not used to the whole bikes on the sidewalks thing and a bit too protective, for afraid my todd will be run over by one, but the Berliners seem to have found a way to co-exist on the sidewalk without (too much) irritation or accidents. Very well done and I am planning to mastering this skill as soon as possible.

Am Friedrichshain

One of the nicest parks in a big city in Europe as far as I'm concerned, or at least for dog owners it is. There is absolutely no need to miss the Vondelpark when your in the neighborhood of this park, it's way bigger, has way way more playgrounds and also nice places to eat an ice cream with the kids, have a paste with a beer in the summer (unfortunately not now) or a bulky breakfast at Schoenbrunn.

As in many big parks in cities it is prohibited to let your dog of the leash, but what really stand out in the park and actually in all of Berlin is that everybody - in parks as well as on the street - lets their dog run around free. The Berliners really control their dogs very well, it's quite amazing to see. Also because there are a lot of dogs in Berlin, more than I have ever seen in any other big city. And it's not the smallest dogs they have here. In Amsterdam out dog, Sjakie the Weimaraner, is quite a large dog. Here he's just mediocre, or even quite small on average. I'd say we really need some German training for our dog!

Apartment 1: Greifswalderstrasse

So happy with myself that I was alert enough after our travel to immediately started making pictures as soon as I saw the children's room in our first apartment. At the end of the week it completely helped restore the mess the kids made and make it look like nothing had happened.

Because it was to hard to find an apartment in advance - we of course want to see an apartment before you decide to rent and planning a couple of viewings in 1 day was not feasible with the brokers schedules - we decided to first rent a couple of apartments via airbnb and from there try to find a permanent place. There's a lot for rent, problem for us was having the dog. It narrows your search with about 90%. Luckily found one amazing apartment, but only available for 2.5 weeks during the residents vacation. So first couple of days we stay in a small 2-bedroom apartment on the Greifswalderstrasse. A really nice styled apartment, equipped with lovely old furniture and decorated with lots of fresh flowers. Really nice coming 'home' to on our first evening.

Of we go

And then suddenly the day has arrived. We're going.

Not really just like that, took me three times to pack and unpack and pack and unpack en pack the car again. Lots of cursing. Lots of shouting. Lots of stuff to leave behind. Something went really wrong in me trying to estimate how big our car actually is. About four times smaller as I thought it turn out. Oh well, everything absolutely necessary is in there, drove by my sister for one last goodbye, had coffee at M's grandparents (90 and 92!!) because they couldn't make is to our goodbye party and are on the road (way later than planned, but hey so what.)

Berlin here we come! 

Little Girls

Why oh why do little girls grow up so freaking fast? Why do they have a strong opinion about what they want to wear? And what's up with only wanting to wear fake fur coats and lip stick? I don't. The high heels I get, 'just like mommy', but for the rest it really is her own choice. Actually kind of proud she's already making up her own little mind.

Rijksmuseum

The plan was to visit the renovated Rijksmuseum before we leave, it has been closed for so many years and the results are so magnificent that we really really wanted to. Unfortunately of course we didn't. Due to busy schedules, not wanting to visit with three little ones and the mega mega long lines the two times I actually got myself over there.

What we did do though is visit their newly planted gardens which are also really worth a visit, especially on a sunshiny day. They've become beautiful, although there are a lot of people in the weekend and it's in the middle of Amsterdam it really feels calm and peaceful there. Children (and dads) playing with the fountain, people sitting on the chairs and benches reading books, looking at their tourist maps or drinking coffee from the little stand in the middle of the garden. It feels a bit like Paris actually.

Biking

I'll definitely miss looking at the little hairs on their little heads waving in the wind when they're sitting in front of my on my bike. I'll never ever put them on a bike without wearing their helmets in Berlin. Sitting on my bike as I'm used to for so many years now sometimes especially makes my realize, just out of the blue, that I'm a mum now. Responsible for this tiny, so sweet, so beautiful little creature in front of me. These are moment of so much joy, an overwhelming feeling I was not familiar with before these three little ladies were in my live

Ecoscope

Growing up in the tiny village of Dreischor gave me a really save childhood with a lot of playing outside. Walking up to our little village school with only 60 children from the age of 6, why not, hardly any cars let alone creepy people on the way. Something my girls probably will never experience in the way I have.

Just a couple of hundred meters from our house my uncle and aunt lived in their little farm with no heating except for the big AGA stove in their kitchen in which they baked their own bread and always had a huge kettle on top with water because there was no hot water from the tap.We used to be with them every Friday when my mum went to Art Academy in The Hague. A huge yard surrounding their farm (they were no farmers btw, just living on this old little farm house) with all kinds of fruit, veg, herbs and a lot of chickens running around. 

They still live on their little farm but I haven't been there in years. Nowadays they run the Ecoscope in Renesse where my aunt manages the Milieu Education Center and  my uncle is in charge of the Cafe and maintaining the surrounding gardens. I miss their own house but also love to come here, because they created the same feeling. Unfortunately the subsidies for the center had to be stopped due to governmental cuts and the building will, I believe, turn into a cooking school or something. So this visit will probably be my last, but on the upside: next time I'll visit their own house in Dreischor again.

We had a lovely afternoon, sitting in the sun, enjoying lunch and, her favorite part, feeding the chicken.

Visiting Zeeland before 1 January 2014: you have to have coffee in the Ecoscope in Renesse, my uncle makes the best coffee on the whole of Schouwen Duiveland. You'll even get a organic biscuit to go with it.

Brouwershaven

My town of birth. But for now more important: the town my 96 years old grandmother lives in her own little home build by her brother with her own big garden with all it's roses, dahlia's, berries, pears, apples and all kids of herbs and veg. Without any help in the household, of course she gets help in her garden but also still does a lot herself there. This must be the secret to her age combined with her good health and above all her fantastic mind. 96 years old an the only complained she has is a cold in the nose sometimes. I'm so proud of her and at the same time I regret so much seeing her so little because she lives a 2,5 hour drive away. Before we go I of course have to visit her. Twice. Once with the twins. Once with my oldest. The three of them together is a bit to much. (for her as well as for me in her small living room)

I'm sure this will not be the last time I see her for I'm sure she will live to be at least a 100 years old. Bye granny (don't let her know I called her that), see you soon!