Berlin I

Well, my family and I actually made it to Berlin in the holidays. Berlin is the one city in Europe that I really wanted to see. This is not to slight any other cities, it is just that for some reason this city resonates with me in much the same way that New York did when I was living in the States. Anyway, it was early Friday morning, we were bored and feeling spontaneous and adventurous. So, lets go see Berlin rapidly morphed from an idea to a mad frenzy of packing, planning and then racing to the train station.

However, it didn't quite work out as well as we were hoping. The train trip down to Berlin wasn't a disaster exactly, but Caeden certainly wasn't a happy camper and really didn't want to make our trip much fun. We did however do a lot of 'sploring', which basically meant walking literally the length and breadth of the train, smiling at myriad strangers as we wandered through the carriages and checking out every lavatory on the train to find a suitably clean one for my very particular daughter.

Things pretty much went downhill from there. The management company through which we booked an apartment at the last minute didn't get back to us (can't say I blame them, they were in Spain, probably enjoying a well deserved holiday just like we were trying to do) which meant that we were standing in the Berlin central train station (hauptbahnhof or HBF for short), coming up to munchkin dinner time, without a place to stay. As two people who use their brains to earn their bread, this was somewhat embarrassing. But no problem, and staying optimistic, we'll just give the apartment people some time and go check out the Reichstag and Bundestag in the meantime.

This is where we ran into the next major problem. It was absolutely freezing outside. I normally don't feel the cold that much, but I was cold in Berlin. And unfortunately, I think both kids where right there with me, shivering away in our thin pants (yes, flabbergastingly enough, we had actually decided not to bring the snow pants), with our little pink fingers slowly turning purple. We only lasted about 20 minutes or about 400 meters from the HBF before nixing that idea and trudging back.

After a fairly functional dinner (don't ask), we found a very helpful information woman who recommended and booked another apartment for us. Great! So off we set, straight out of the frying pan and into the fire. We took an S-bahn to the stop and then proceeded walking to our apartment. That was another mistake: if you don't know the area that well, it's late at night and you have small children, I recommend taking a taxi. But anyway, we walked and walked. And after a little while I noticed one of the biggest sex shops I think I have ever seen. I mean I don't normally take note of these places, but this was almost the size of an American big box store. And then I noticed another one, about the same size across the street. About that time I realised that we had wandered into a mini red light district, late at night with two children in tow. Again, no big deal, it still felt safe and I am definitely not on the moralistic side of things. I also saw a small hotel right next to the sex shop, and the proximity of the two did raise a question mark in my mind, but again, no big deal. It certainly wasn't a place I'd want to sleep in though.

Anyway, we took a long detour to get to the other side of the main street, got onto our street and then started schlepping up the street to find the apartment. After about 20 minutes (remember, it is freezing out there) and encouraging poor Aralyn to keep up with her completely nutty parents, we make the horrible realization that we long ago passed number 14. The kind woman at the HBF help desk had highlighted the road, so we assumed that she meant go to the end, but she must have meant it is somewhere along this road, but I'm not exactly sure where. So, nothing for it but to turn around and trudge back. About this point, visions out of a Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich began flashing before me.

Eventually we got back to the main road, and I began to feel a certain sense of dread. And sure enough, as we slowly but surely tracked down number 14, we got closer and closer to the hotel right next to the sex shop. When we finally got inside it, talked to the suitably dubious proprietors and got into our room, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Of course there wasn't a crib so Caeden had loads of fun running around when we was supposed to be sleeping, and I think that was the highlight of his day.

I finally pulled the plug the next morning. It was just too cold and too unfair on the little ones. We wanted to go to Legoland, but unfortunately I didn't think it was worth freezing the children into ice blocks to do it. Funnily enough, once we were all resigned to heading back home in defeat we actually had a wonderful meal in a classy restaurant (with Caeden sleeping!) and an almost pleasant trip back home. Irony I guess.

So, I am really looking forward to my next trip to Berlin, sometime when it is warm and when we can stay in a somewhat more salubrious establishment. I'll keep you posted.