Europe 2013, day nine: Germany and the Netherlands

In which the family and Angie spent most of the morning exploring the endless towers, tunnels, nooks, and crannies of Rheinfels Castle at Sankt Goar, and then up the Rhein towards Cologne, Germanyto check out a few of the major suspension bridges before heading to Düsseldorf Central Station (Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof) for our train toRotterdam, Netherlands.

This morning we met my friend Angie for breakfast at eight AM. We checked out of the hotel and immediately headed to a castle on the Rhine river. The castle is called Rheinfels castle. It is the biggest castle on the Rhine. It used to be a lot larger but over the years various groups began to destroy it.

The castle opened at nine AM. In typical Holbrook style we were the first ones there. This was great. It was so nice being able to take pictures at the castle with no one else there. By the time other people started arriving we were on the outskirts of the castle.

The kids loved the castle. We were there for about two hours but easily could have spent an additional two hours there. The castle had high stair cases, dungeons, lookout points, and even tunnels that you needed a flashlight to go through. The view from the castle was amazing as well.

After we left the castle we proceeded to drive along the Rhine for a bit more. We eventually turned off the Rhine and headed towards Cologne to look at a suspension bridge. Photographing suspension bridges is a hobby of my husband’s. We took pictures and then went looking for another bridge in Cologne. While he took pictures of this bridge the rest of us found a place to get some lunch, followed of course by ice cream.

We then left Cologne and headed to Dusseldorf to find out where to return the car rental. We found it then drove to the old part of the city for half an hour. We killed time there and then returned the rental car, then walked to the train station.

We had first class train tickets on the Deutsche Bahn ICE train. As a result we were able to sit in the DB lounge. This was nice as we were able to relax here for 45 minutes before our train left. Our train was supposed to have a bistro car but our friend Angie mentioned they closed this car fairly early on her train down to meet us and as a result we all got dinner before boarding the train. It turned out to be a good call – 10 minutes after we boarded the train the food service stopped.

The kids (and myself) loved the train. I had reserved a private compartment for us. Shortly after we left Dusseldorf an attendant came to our compartment and took drink and food orders from us. I was going to order an ice cream for the kids but they did not have any today. However the attendant brought them a treat of gummy bears, colored pencils, a coloring book, and a miniature ICE train.

We rode the ICE train to Uttrecht and there we transferred trains to the Dutch train that would take us to Rotterdam. I think I could ride the trains all day in Europe and never be bored. I have loved the trains so far.

Once we arrived in Rotterdam, my friend’s sister was nice enough to lend us her car so we did not have to take the metro to my friend’s place. We arrived at my friend’s around 9:15 and we got the kids to bed an hour later. Tomorrow they can sleep in until 8:30. The plan for tomorrow is to go see windmills, ride bikes, and possibly see a miniature Holland.

Europe 2013, day eight: Germany – Rhine river

A day in which not many photos were taken as we left Biberach An Der Riß, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany for Sankt Goar picking up Angie along the way in Mannheim, Germany after a quick morning stop at the famous Ulm Minster

This morning we aimed to leave my cousin’s house by 8:30. We managed to leave around 8:50. The GPS still had us arriving in Mannheim to pick up my Dutch friend around noon though. On our way to Mannheim we passed through Ulm. Ulm has a very large Lutheran church there so we decided to drive by and take pictures. Doing this though put us about thirty minutes behind schedule. We figured we would make up time on the autobahn.

It was the longest three hour drive ever 🙂 All of Europe was on the road heading to their vacations. There was also construction going on as well. We finally arrived in Mannheim around 1:40. We picked up my friend Angie and then immediately headed to a restaurant recommended to us by my cousin. The restaurant was on the river and also had very easy parking to find 🙂

Next we proceeded to head up towards the Rhine river. Once we started driving next to the Rhine we started seeing castle after castle and vineyard after vineyard. It reminds me of France a little. We finally arrived at our hotel around 6:15. The kids were cranky so Angie and I went out to dinner on our own and brought back dinner for the others.

We are in our room for one night. Tomorrow we depart Germany and head to the Netherlands. We are staying with Angie. We are taking a German ICE train from Dusseldorf to the Netherlands. Bubba is looking forward to it. My husband will have to say goodbye to the Mercedes though.

Europe 2013, day seven: Germany – Biberach

In which D goes solo to do the bridge thing.

Not much to write about today. We are at my cousin’s house. We let the kids sleep in but they were so excited to play with my cousin’s kids that they woke up earlier than expected. Anyway we eventually headed to their local swimming pool and the kids had a lot of fun. Their local pool had a large waterside, a young kids area, a sand pit area complete with a faucet to make dams with.

After the pool the kids sat around to play the game “Where’s my water”. Then we had dinner and after dinner the kids played outside for a while.

Tomorrow morning we leave my cousin’s house and head out to Mannheim to pick up my friend Angie. Then we are driving along the Rhine and stopping at things that interest us.

Europe 2013, day six: Germany – Neuschwanstein castle and Lake Constance

A day in which we departed Garmisch-Patenkirchen early in the morning for a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle, followed by an ice cream lunch on Lindau Insel (Island) in the Bodensee (Lake Constance) with an afternoon complement of Langenargen suspension bridges in the sweltering 36C heat. Now visiting A’s cousin and family for two days in Biberach An Der Riß, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.

Today we had to get up early to make our 10:25 AM tour at Neuschwanstein castle, a little more than an hour from our lodging. We needed to be there an hour before hand, so that meant waking the kids up early in order to eat breakfast. We checked out of our lodging and were given two chocolate bars for the kids (large ones).

We started to head towards the castle. The GPS had us arriving there right around 9:22 AM. As we are driving at one point the Bubba declares he thinks he is going to be sick….five minutes after declaring this my husband decides we should open one of the chocolate bars because they will melt in the car later. I give some to the Rhubarb and she did not like it. The Bubba was not allowed any because he felt ill. My husband had some of the chocolate bit I then finished the bar. I had to – otherwise it would have melted and I refuse to allow good chocolate to melt.

We eventually arrived at the castle. I will need to write more about that experience later. The earlier you visit though, the better. Anyway, we take the bus to the castle and my husband went to take some more pictures of the castle. The Rhubarb and I start to head towards the castle when a couple of Japanese tourists wanted their picture taken with Rhubarb. They picked the wrong child for their pictures. We can’t even get her to take a picture with us on this trip….

We had our tour and then took a horse carriage back to the ticket center. We promised the kids ice cream for lunch. Parents of the year. However we told them we would stop at the next town we came to that had ice cream. Well, the poor kids – this took us two hours to get to the next town with ice cream on the side of the road….At one point as we are driving on the interstate the Bubba announces that he has accidentally opened his car door. Lovely. The husband managed to pull over at some point so that I could close the door tightly.

We eventually make it to an island on the town of Lindau. This town borders Lake Constance. It took us a while to find parking spots. We finally found a parking spot and went to get the kids ice cream. After eating ice cream we went down to the lake. Switzerland was on the other side of the lake but we did not have time to go across. We made our way back to the car and then just our luck there was a problem with the parking gate. We finally managed to get out of there.

Next we visited two suspension bridges. After doing that we had all had enough and decided to head to my cousin’s house in Biberach A.D. which was an hour away. We made it there and the kids eventually started playing with each other. My kids are very excited to go swimming tomorrow and to have a break from the sightseeing. We are excited about doing real laundry and sleeping in tomorrow as well. I know though that the kids will probably wake up earlier than they ever had just by mentioning this.

Europe 2013, day five: Germany and Austria

In which we attempt to start the relaxing, not taxing, portion of the vacation by crossing the border from Deutschland to Österreich only to get tailed by the Austrian Polizei for several miles before they lose interest in the American tourists driving the huge boat of an E-Class Mercedes (free upgrade). Those tense moments followed by much fun at Biberwier (Austria) taking a series of two chairlifts as high as we dare go, and descending halfway via alpine slide/rollercoaster which the kids demanded we do twice. Soon followed by an afternoon of many wrong turns, accidental border crossings, and one bottoming-out of said boat of a Mercedes, while exploring the area around Mittenwald (Germany).

Well, I have decided I need to take German lessons as I need to move here. This place is absolutely stunning. It would be a fun place to live four seasons of the year.

We let the kids sleep in until around 9 AM and then we woke them for breakfast. They were excited at breakfast as they were given very small bags of gummy bears. After breakfast we walked to the grocery store and picked up some water, snacks, and a baguette.

We then left the town we were visiting and headed for Austria, which is right across the border. I had found a ski resort that does chair lift rides and alpine slides. We made our way here – the resort was near the town of Lamoos. We took two chairlifts to the top. I think I could have spent all day here. I got my Sound of Music photo taken. Literally – when we reached the top of the mountain there were cows grazing with cow bells. We then took a chairlift down to the alpine slide and rode those down. The kids had a blast and wanted to it again. While they were doing that I had an ice cream, hoping to hide this from the kids….but I spilled ice cream on my shirt. I managed to clean my shirt pretty well as no one noticed. Anyway, we could have also hiked down the mountain or even rode a scooter down.

Once we left the ski resort (Marienburg) we had lunch in the car and headed to Mittenwald, Germany. This town was actually bigger than I expected. I got a map showing local hiking trails. The only problem was by this point the Rhubarb was tired so we decided not to risk a long hike. We saw a lake with restaurants on it and decided to go there. On our way there we took a wrong turn and ended up in Austria on a mountain road. We finally found a place to turn around and headed to the lake. We get to the lake and find there is no public parking. There were over a hundred people at this lake but they had all hiked in. So we left the lake and eventually parked the car next to an Alpine stream and let the kids wade in.

We then left Mittenwald and headed back to the hotel for about an hour. The Rhubarb had been wanting pasta since we arrived in Germany so we found an Italian restaurant. The things that were going on in my mine there…..I wanted to speak Spanish, but knew I was in Germany, but at an Italian restaurant. My brain did not know what language to spit out…

Dinner was very good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. Tomorrow we head to my cousin’s house. We are looking forward to real laundry and Internet 🙂 Saturday we have no plans either so I am calling that the day of rest. My cousin has kids roughly around the age of Jonas so hopefully the kids will have fun playing with each other and I can relax with some wine with my cousin.

So, as we leave this area tomorrow I have told my husband it is a place I would love to rent an apartment or house in when the kids are older and able to do long hikes. It looks like they have some really beautiful ones here and the scenery is gorgeous.

Europe 2013, day four: Germany, Munich and Garmsich-Partenkirchen

The photographer was quite grumpy after getting no sleep on the sleeper train (how ironic). We fled Munich after the noon playing of the Marienplatz Glockenspiel, but not before climbing the clock tower of St. Peter’s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Church_%28Munich%29) in which Rachel actually climbed and descended all 300+ steps on her own and A was actually convinced to step outside on the thin ledge at the top of tower. This is the day ended with the “Bavarian cultural evening” (Bayerische Heimatabend) at the local beer tent down the block from our hotel in Garmisch-Patenkirchen, picture posted earlier.

Disclaimer: Our current hotel charges 4€ per hour for wifi, so I am uploading this entry hoping it is under my data allowance. I arrive at my cousin’s house Friday night so when I arrive I can hopefully add some pictures to this entry, yesterday’s, and any other entry I might write.

I left off yesterday with us boarding the train. It was a fun experience but I barely got any sleep. I know it was because I was worried about having to get up at 6 to get off the train at 7. The husband barely had any sleep as well. The kids slept well but they were so excited they stayed up later than they should have. I think if the train arrived around 10 AM I would have had a better experience.

We arrived in Munich on time. We found Hertz and were informed that we were upgraded to a Mercedes. You gotta love renting a car in Germany. We found the car and put our suitcases in the car. Then we went back to the train station (the car was a couple of blocks away). My poor kids are having trouble finding drinks here in Germany. All they want is plain water or plain juice. Everything seems to have carbonation. My kids don’t drink soft drinks at home so everything tastes strange to them. Anyway, poor Rhubarb just wanted some apple juice so we were searching for that in the train station. I failed her and got her a carbonated apple juice….
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After the failed drink purchase, we took the public transportation into the old part of Munich. We arrived at the Marionplatz right at nine. I found out we could climb to the top of a nearby church (St. Peters) and we did that. I have a big phobia of heights but I did make it to the top! I am glad we did this first – by the time we left Munich the town center was very crowded. I think the kids enjoyed this climb as well.

After climbing St. Peter’s church we went to the farmers market. I think it is called the Viktualien Market. You could basically find any fruit, vegetable, cheese, meat, or bread that you could possibly need here. It was only around 10 AM at this point. We spent a good time wandering this market and eventually bought food for lunch. We enjoyed eating our food on the benches outside. We noticed that it is never too early to drink beer in Germany. Both myself and my husband passed since we were both tired from the train ride the night before.

After we ate I wanted to check out the Hofbrauhas house. We literally just walked through it. I think my family thinks I am crazy. Had we not had a meal at the Viktualien market I think we would have had one here. But in all honesty I think we chose the better option.

By this point it was almost 12 PM. At 12 PM the figurines in the Marienplatz building come alive for a few minutes. So we went to watch this. After watching this we decided to head out of Munich and towards our lodging in the Alps. The Rhubarb slept for about ten minutes in the car and that was it. She could have used a longer rest.

The drive down to the Alps was beautiful. I have only walked about two blocks in this town (Garmsich) but I have decided I would like to live here 🙂 We checked into our hotel. Here we have a small apartment that has two bedrooms and a sitting area. Each bedroom has a private balcony with a view of the Alps. I could sit on that balcony all day.

Once we checked in I did a load of laundry by hand in the hotel sink. Since our room was facing the sun most clothes dried relatively quickly..:.in Berlin I had a problem because we had no direct sun and we got the one hotel room that had no drafts….anyways, the husband had gone to take a nap at this point. So I told the kids that I was taking them out to explore. We walked two blocks into town where they are having a festival this week. Just our luck there was a puppet show starting. So we watched the puppet show for about forty five minutes and then headed back to the hotel room.

I woke up the husband and we eventually headed back to the festival for dinner. This has probably been the most awesome thing we have done on the trip so far. The festival was under a large tent. There was a show at 8 PM and a parade to start the show. The Bavarians were mostly all dressed in traditional Bavarian clothing. The show was a traditional Bavarian show and there were several numbers put on by kids. You could order food and drinks while you watched. So we ordered dinner (which took a while to order). I attempted to order my first Radler but apparently the waiter thought I said Fanta so that is what I got. I am so happy we stumbled upon this festival. This was a genuine show – much better than anything we could have seen at the Hofbrauhas in Munich.

Procession of the festival

Traditional Bavarian dancing

So, now the kids are asleep. Breakfast is served until ten. I have a feeling I will have to force everyone out of bed at nine tomorrow. We are just planning on exploring tomorrow and I am hoping to do an Alpine roller coaster. The Bubba wants to do some hiking.

Did I mention that I would like to move here? I guess I better start learning German

Europe 2013, day three and a half: Germany, Berlin Lichtenburg train station

We left our hotel early enough to find our night train. We arrived at the train station and it seemed absolutely dead. For a moment we were concerned because we saw no signs of a night train. The husband decided to go check the tracks. Luckily our train was there.

Next I decided to look for dinner. When we arrived at the station there was a German sandwich shop open. I had planned to buy food there but in the time that we found the track and sat down next to our compartment the sandwich place had closed. I whispered to my husband that the kids might be getting dinner from the vending machine.

So right after I tell this to my husband the Rhubarb mentioned that she needed to take care of some business. We go down the set of stairs closest to us and I am thinking we are not going to find a toilet in this small train station. Well going down that other staircase was like crossing over the Berlin Wall. I found a food option that was still open! Back to that later.

So we find the toilet and discover you need a euro to enter. We don’t have that on us. A woman tried to give us her vouchers so we could get in but for some reason it did not work. Just our luck there was a homeless person in the bathroom who let us in. She even got us some toilet paper to use as a paper towel.

Anyway we left the toilet and I discussed the new food option with the husband. I had discovered a McDonalds. Hey – it was better than our other option of a vending machine dinner. I come back with our meal very excited. As we are eating the boy then decides he needs to use the toilet. My husband take him to the bathroom and as they are gone the Rhubarb decides to hold the French fries. She says to me that I promise I know what I am doing. Two minutes later the French fries are on the ground….

It was finally time to board the train. We literally could not all go into the compartment at the same time. Our bags also seemed to take up the entire compartment. I can’t imagine how crowded the room would be if we had huge suitcases. Once we started getting luggage situated I made the kids change into the clothes they are wearing tomorrow. Also – luckily I had packed the suitcase so that I only need to take out what we needed. I can’t imagine going through a packed suitcase trying to find our clothes. Once we check into our Garmisch lodging I am going to have to go through the bags as the contents are all jumbled up now.

So hopefully everyone will sleep. The train gets in at 7 AM. I have a feeling we won’t spend a full day in Munich as everyone will be tired….the plan is to literally wake the kids ten minutes before we arrive. Hopefully the excitement of the train will wake them up without them complaining.  I will leave you with some pictures of us on the night train:

Europe 2013, day three: Germany, Berlin

Berlin Holocaust Memorial, Topography of Terror (large Berlin Wall remnants and museum at ex-Gestapo HQ), Tiergarten (to see the Löwenbrücke), Potzdammer Platz, train ride out to Potsdam, and a sleeper car to Munich…. a day that involved at least 13 subway/train legs. I lost count.

After my last post I went to bed. I was immediately awoken to a blaring alarm at 10:45 PM. Being in Berlin, my first immediate thoughts were that I was in World War II since German was blaring and it was late at night. I finally realized it was a hotel fire alarm. Luckily by the time we were about to leave the room we were told to stay in our rooms.

This morning we had breakfast and then headed to the Holocaust monument.   The monument is pretty neat.  It is a bunch of concrete rectangles all of different sizes.  They are also on sloped land so some of the blocks are very large.  There is a museum beneath the monument.  I could have spent several hours in the museum if I had been here without the kids.

After that we headed to the Tower of Topography. There you could find large segments of the Berlin Wall.  There was also a nice museum here.  Once again, I could have spent all day at this museum if the kids were not with us.  I’d love to go back to Berlin at some point just on my own so I could spend as much time as I wanted in the museums here.

Next we headed to the Tiergarten park and found a suspension bridge.

We then went to Potsdam briefly.  When we were in Potsdam we visited the Glienicke  Bridge.  This bridge is also known as the “Bridge of Spies”.  It used to be where the Soviet Union and Western powers exchanged spies and prisoners.  After visiting this bridge we returned to our hotel. We are currently at the hotel and about to leave soon to head to the train station for our overnight train. Hopefully there will be no complications with that.

Bridge of Spies

Europe 2013, day two: Germany, Berlin

Bundestag Dome, Pergamon Museum of antiquities, Alexanderplatz Television Tower, and other sights.

This morning we woke around 7:30 and had to wake both the kids. The Bubba was hard to wake – he had some problems sleeping and was up for a couple of hours in the middle of the night. Rhubarb and I slept through the night.

Breakfast was very nice. It was full of croissants, breads, meats, eggs, etc. We did not have time to fully enjoy it as we needed to get to a tour at 9:30. Tomorrow we have no tours so we should be able to enjoy breakfast more.

We headed out and our first observation of the morning was that there were tons more people out and about since it is a workday. There were lots of bike riders and people zooming in their cars all over the place. The day before the area our hotel is in seemed deserted. That was not the case this morning.
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We made it to our tour of the Reichstag dome. It was pretty neat inside and there were views of the whole city there. After that we decided to head to the Pergamon museum. We decided to walk….the walk was longer than expected and I had to carry the Rhubarb 66% of the walk. Once we got to the museum there was a HUGE line to get tickets. I am very thankful I bought the Berlin welcome card. I originally did not plan on buying the Museum pass in Paris but after seeing the line people without passes were in I think the pass might be worth it. I have no desire to wait in a two hour line for tickets to a museum.

We went into the museum and saw some pretty impressive things such as Roman altars and the Gate of Babylon. They give you a headset so you can listen to each object as you get to it. We probably could have spent all day there if we wanted to – but we did a very quick tour. By this time everyone was hungry and thirsty and tired from our walk. So we saw the highlights and then left to find lunch.

We ate outside at a restaurant along the Spree river. As we were eating it started to pour but we all kept dry under a large umbrella. We ordered apple juice for the kids, a water for myself, and a beer for the husband. I would have ordered wine but I was so thirsty I needed water. Anyways we decided to split a hamburger and french fries and a chicken Cesar salad. When the hamburger came out we have what we now refer to as the “Terror of condiments”. There was a strange sauce on the burger and bun. And they forgot to bring out the ketchup. Anyone who knows me knows I am a super picky eater and to see something unexpected and unasked for puts me in a big panic. Ketchup is also one of the staples in my diet. I eventually got some ketchup and did my best to scrape the mystery sauce off my lunch, much to the embarrassment of my husband. In fact the whole incident may inspire him to create his own blog….

So we finished lunch and then decided to head to the television tower to go to the top. The Bubba had been wanted to ride a tram we kept seeing so he finally got to do that to Alexander Platz where the television tower is. We had to wait an hour to go up. The husband and the kids went up while I chose to sit this one out due to my fear of heights.

After the husband and kids went up the television tower we got some ice cream. We got three single scoop cones – it only cost 3€. I was impressed – we must have found a non touristy ice cream place. We then boarded a bus for a two hour tour around Berlin. It was pretty good timing as Rachel ended up napping for half the tour. The weather had cleared up and we sat on the top deck of the bus. Conditions felt perfect.

View of Berlin

We got back to our room around 6:30 and then decided we were too tired for dinner so I headed to the German grocery store so we could eat dinner in the room. That was a different experience. In the states there are so many checkout lines and cashiers. This one only had two. Also choices were so much more limited than they are in the US. I noticed the candy prices for Haribo were significantly cheaper than what we pay in the US.

Finally, one other observation I have had today – there do not seem to be a lot of Americans here. I wonder if that will change as we get to cities like Munich, Amsterdam, and Paris. Rhubarb has asked me if we can move to Europe which I have already agreed to. Of course I don’t take her too seriously as immediately after asking that she asks if we can go back to the hotel room.

Europe 2013, day one: Germany, Berlin

A few hours of roaming around Berlin after a 22-hour trek (DC-Newark-Dusseldorf-Berlin) and a 4-hour nap.

We took a cab from the airport to the hotel. It took my husband ten minutes to get the Bubba off the plane. They were literally the last ones off. He crashed the minute we boarded our second flight.

We arrived at our hotel and were so thankful to be able to check in early. Immediately after checking in we told the kids it was time to nap. I was slightly concerned because both kids napped some on the flights but neither parent did. Fortunately both went to sleep fairly quickly. I had set my alarm for 2:30 and woke up at 2:22. While everyone was still sleeping I took a shower. I starter opening the curtains to the room and gradually people started waking up. The kids had taken four hour naps. The Bubba was still pretty hard to rouse and I though Rhubarb was in pretty good spirits….The cab driver was really nice and even had boosters in his car. He did not speak a lot of English but he spoke enough to point out significant sites.

I immediately realized I was wrong about Rhubarb. She immediately started complaining that she was hot and hungry. Our initial plan was to get a late lunch but we had to change that plan. Rhubarb was complaining about being hot. Bubba wanted to get on a metro train somewhere. So we promised them after we got to our first attraction we would get them a snack and then go on a train.

More of the Berlin wall

The first attraction we saw was Checkpoint Charlie. It just happens there is a McDonald’s right behind the checkpoint. By this time both kids were complaining so we went to Mickey D’s not because the kids wanted to but because I knew what to expect in there and at this point I was just trying to make the kids happy. So three of us had McFlurries.

Standing in front of a piece of the Berlin wall

Next we headed to the Brandenburg Gate. We had to walk a few blocks from the S-bahn stop. Rhubarb was not doing well at this point. We had to alternate carrying her. Finally Bubba and husband walked ahead of us. Eventually Rhubarb spotted a fountain. We headed straight for it and we both got wet from the spray, which seemed to make her perk up a little.

The Brandenburg gate

We caught up with the boys in front of Brandenburg gate. Rhubarb was still a little grumpy and at some point I think she asked if she could take pictures with my phone. Once I agreed to this she was in a much better mood. Now if I want her cooperation I tell her I need her to take my picture. There are also a bunch of bear statues around Berlin so I tell her if she finds one she can take my picture with the bear.

We left the Brandenburg Gate and headed to the Reichstag which is a block away. The dome was closed today but hopefully opening back up tomorrow. I went to get tickets for tomorrow at what looked like a relatively small line that we thought would move fast. I was wrong. It was the world’s slowest shortest line ever. The guy told me that normally it is a two hour wait to get tickets to go into the Reichstag. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get our tickets. The husband had taken the kids to wait in the shade while I waited in the sun. Anyway we go back tomorrow morning at 9:30 to go into the dome.

After getting those tickets it was now 7:00 PM. We decided to head back to the hotel. Either way back to the hotel involved two transfers on the train. We chose the way that took us through the main train station and decided to get dinner there too. On the way to the train station we found another fountain so we let Rhubarb stop and play again. Every time we find a fountain I will make sure we stop for Rhubarb. That is her thing.

Rhubarb playing in a fountain

So eventually we made it to the main train station. The kids enjoyed watching all of the trains and it was a very impressive building. We went to the food court area where I had Pizza Hut and the kids had Burger King. You can tell we are really branching out and trying the German food. We do plan to eat at real restaurants but today is all about keeping everyone happy.

So, we then headed back to our hotel. We had to change trains at Alexander Platz which we discovered is right next to the Television tower in Berlin. We took pictures but did not go up in it. We might possibly go up in it tomorrow.

The kids went to bed relatively easy at 10:00 PM. On the agenda for sure tomorrow is the Reichstag building. I think I want to go to Potsdam to see the palace there but also because it is a long U-bahn ride. The kids really enjoy riding any sort of metro train. I would also like to make sure we see the Pergamon museum before we leave and the Berlin Wall that is still standing. We are also talking about doing one of those tour buses. The weather tomorrow should be much cooler than today – a high of 77 with good chance of rain versus a high of 95 with no rain (today).

The kids and I on a Berlin subway train.