Sun

After a really cold Sunday which almost made us freeze on the terrace of Babel the warmth of this Monday is really surprising us. Because a lot of rain is expected in the coming days we do need to enjoy this day to the most and that means ice cream. On wasserturmplatz there’s one of Prenzlbergs dozens of ice creams places, bit this one’s got something special: a children’s packet. This means two small scoops of ice, crumble mixture and a Gummy Barchen on top. We do need to take some serious time on one of Knaackstrasses lovely benches to enjoy these. And to keep them sand free, because our next stop of course is the playground on Kollwitzplatz.

Ice Cream - Süße Sünde

Another great ice cream spot in our neighborhood is to be found on the other side of the road of Petit Fleury: Süße Sünde. A lovely little shop with two lovely girls behind the counter. They have some very special flavors like Raspberry Basil or Strawberry Chili. Today is the first day the two little ones get their own ice creams in a cone (requested extra tiny cones). Mango it is. They love it.

Ice Cream – Petit Fleury

Besides a restaurant and a coffee bar Petit Fleury also has a little separate ice cream bar with some pretty good flavors among which also some Soya onces. My little ice cream expert really likes their waldmeister flavor and I discover one of my favorite flavors so far of which I totally forgot the name but it had some nice caramel like chunks in it. Will be back here for that one definitely.

Ice Cream - Annamaria

Since the weather is better in Berlin ice cream shops seem to pop up everywhere. Or they have been there all along but I didn’t notice. There are so many shops in our neighborhood that we definitely will be testing the coming weeks to find out where we will be able to eat the best ice creams.

Today we start our ice cream quest at Annamaria, a small Italian ice cream shop. I love it here before I even had a look at the ice cream. On a big table in the front of the shop sits a big group of woman talking Italian very loudly with a lot of laughter. It makes the shop feel very Italian immediately. Second thing I love about this shop is the somewhat elderly Italian lady scooping the ice and the fact that the whole shop feels a bit eighties. It really makes me think about the small, slightly dated Italian ice shop we used to come every Saturday in the summer to get an ice cream from the elderly Italian lady with my dad when we were kids.

Annamaria is definitely one to visit more often, they do have very nice icecream. Our little chocolate ice cream lover is very happy with her Kugel and my mandarin quark and cherry yoghurt are also very good. As far as I have been able to taste in between feeding everything to the twins who were also very pleased with Annamaria.

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.