Like I say, I'm not immune.

It's very likely that this could be the last time we have the joy of racing back to Berlin and waiting for a big box of goodies to arrive. So this time I thought I would share with you the kind of crap essentials that I buy to make my expat life more complete. The theme of this box is 'back to school meets supermarket sweep'. Enjoy it in all it's glorious minutiae. 

So where to start. Shoes! Kids shoes in Germany are far more expensive than in the UK, and although many Germans will argue that their price here reflects better quality, it's not really true. Shoes are just ridiculously expensive, and if I can time a trip back to coincide with a need for shoes then I'm happy. So from left to right (below) you can see where I started to go a bit shoe crazy: Orla got school boots, snow boots, Hamish got snow boots too, then Orla's school shoes, then Hamish's school shoes, both sets of trainers for sport at school (all from Clarks), pink sparkly wellies for Orla - from Mothercare (I managed to leave Hamish's at my parents) and lastly purple Nike trainers for me which were a bargain and bought with a voucher left over from Christmas.



Next up you can see some PE shorts, a Sylvanian Families Wedding Car, one of three cookbooks I had waiting on me that I had ordered from The Book People (Rachel Allen's 'Entertaining at Home, Delia's Complete Cookery Course, and I got Jamie's Great Britain for free.). And just before we went to Scotland I decided what I really needed was an ice cream machine. I found this one on Amazon UK for just under £20 and it gets great reviews. My first try was a little disasterous, but I am sure it will be great with a bit of practice! Anyway it was probably the heaviest thing in the box as it has a double walled insulated bowl which is really heavy.

Next up, clockwise from top left, a cake mould which is 6 little gingerbread men that I couldn't not buy from Wilkinson's, which is lying slightly on top of 2 double sheets which really are dirt cheap in Tesco. Next are a couple of things left over from Christmas which I decided to squeeze in for the kids: foam letters and foam face parts which I bought in the sale at the Early Learning Centre. Below them are some glittery craft shapes (always going to be handy for school projects! Though probably for me and not the kids!). Two books I picked up in Tesco, as I feel our bookshelves really do need a good refreshing. Two little tops and a card for one of my friends who has just had a baby boy, some food clips which are smaller than the IKEA ones, a DVD, and 3 bottles of Mr Muscle Kitchen Cleaner (yes, I know I could buy kitchen cleaner here, but I just like this best). Oh and right at the top is an extra large pencil case for all of Orla's felt tip pens.

Again from top left, I went a wee bit mad in Wilkinson's as everything seemed such a great bargain. I bought 12 (2 packs) of star shaped silicone cupcake cases, 2 children's mixing spoons, some stationary on a 4 for £1 deal that I could put in the kids Schultutes (though I brought a carrier bag more of this in my hand luggage for that purpose), 2 Crayola craft kits (maybe for presents?) and an awful lot of starry cupcake cases in paper. It always surprises me that while Dr Oetker is a German company, the range in Germany is far more limited than it is in Britain. Odd.

These things are all sitting on box number 2 which contains books I had sent to my mums ages ago. I bought the full range of Roald Dahl books for the kids - I think Orla is just about the right age for me to start reading some of them to her. I bought the cookbooks mentioned above, and a set of Harlan Coben books that my mum recommended but which I have never read. In front of the box is some chocolate, the kids don't see much white chocolate here and you don't really get buttons, white brown or otherwise, so...

Below those are some more craft things, patterned papers, glittery paper, and dinosaur stickers. Below those are some Winnie the Pooh cookie cutters (which were meant to be in a Christmas gift for someone, but which were discovered at my parents) and 3 packs of Crayola felt tips which can go into presents for school friends as a wee extra.

Now you can see at the top the tripod my dad bought for me in Aldi or Lidl which I used last night while a bit drunk at my friend's party. The purpose of which is to stop any camera shake, but weirdly the amount of alcohol I drank still seems to have affected the focus of my photos. Oh dear. Then a Lego book also from the Book People which contains Lego and guidelines on how to make about a dozen little toys. A swim cap and googles for Hamish's school swimming lessons, a blue stripy top (part of a set of 2) and a bear hat for Orla from M&S. Cream cable knit leggings from Tesco for Orla which I thought looked warm for winter under dresses. Make up from Boots for me. I planned on stocking up but they are changing the packaging this week, so all the old No.7 range was in the sale and there wasn't much left to buy. Two shopping bags from Tesco, a Cars jigsaw we never shipped back at Christmas, and some plasticine (perhaps left over from Christmas??)

Beside Hamish's swimming cap are a selection of DVD's from Granny Margaret, some tights from Mothercare for winter for Orla, a nice bright cardi from M&S, 1 pair (from a pack of 2) jogging bottoms for Hamish, and enough clasps to hopefully restrain Orla's hair until at least Christmas. I have stopped buying clasps that cost much as she seems to lose them on a near daily basis.

Beside the coloured tights, there are tights for school and a million pairs of pants for both kids, Orla's £3 for a pack of 5 from Tesco, and Hamish's £7 for 5 Fireman Sam ones and half price £3.50 for Thomas ones, both from M&S. Below those some swimming trunks in the sale for Hamish for his weekly swimming lessons, and packs of school socks for both of them from M&S.

 Finally, packs of vests for winter for both kids, 2 of Hamish's 'guys', a whole bunch of underwear for me, 3 pairs of pirate mix and match pyjamas for Hamish from M&S, a tankini for Orla in the next size up (it was in the sale), and 2 plain white polo tops which I can potentially sneak under their school jumpers even though they don't have the school logo. These were priced at £2 for a 2 pack in Tesco! And that's not even a sale price. And there we have it. Back to school shopping (more or less) in a nutshell.

Wherever we go... Hugo!

Do you remember we had a date with Hugo?

Hugo in Tiergarten

Well, much to our own surprise, we had him to stay for a sleepover. I'd mentioned that we would be happy to have him should his owners ever fancy a weekend away, and it just so happened they did. It was brilliant fun. And it was a really great experience for the kids. I think they learned a lot from having him here.

Hugo and his pack.

He came on Sunday morning and we let him settle in and have a good sniff around the place. I made best use of Hugo's visit by getting the kids to tidy up all their toys in case Hugo swallowed small bits and choked on them. Hugo had no intention of eating any of their toys, but still it kept them nice and tidy for a couple of days. So it was worth it for that alone.

We took him on a good long walk around Tiergarten. His 'mum' had said that he enjoyed long walks, so that's what we gave him walking via Hansaplatz to the English Tea Garden then on through Tiergarten to the playground and a little picnic and a rest, then straight through the middle of the nude sunbathing area (can I just say Stevie chose the route: Hugo hardly knew where to look for all the sausages on display) and then back home via the boating lake, the Zoo, and then I 'think' we might have stopped off at the American Festival of the People in Breitscheidplatz on the way back.

He's the perfect size for little girls.

Not knowing Hugo's routine very well I tried taking him out again after dinner, and again at bedtime. He wasn't very keen on going out after dinner, and when it came to the bedtime walk he just looked at me as if to say "Seriously, you want to go out again?" and then refused to leave the apartment.

The kids were thrilled to have Hugo to stay. Stevie less so. Mostly because he was being selected as a test subject to see if he *really* was allergic or just pretending as I suspected. "What a hassle" he kept muttering, until after a couple of hours he realised that Hugo was in fact a miniature fraction of the hassle of our two kids. I think he particularly appreciated the fact that you can walk with Hugo attached to you and he's not trying to pull your arm from it's socket by spontaneously swinging off it, and he doesn't whine and moan every few steps about 'how much further' it might be. He was a joy that way.

It was such a big learning experience for us all. The kids learned so much over the course of a couple of days about how Hugo is different to a person ("Are you sure he won't talk AT ALL???", "Why is he not having lunch???" "Couldn't we help him use our toilet?"), we learned that Stevie is allergic, in the sense that it was as if he suddenly developed a really bad cold and was sniffing away all the day, but not so allergic (eyes puffy and red and streaming) that it would completely put me off. But we also learned, or rather I did, that now is not a good time for us to have a dog. Man, being a grown-up actually sucks.

If we got a dog, then it would be *my* dog and I would be the one to look after it and take it out, and the trouble would be that it just wouldn't always be practical to take the dog out given we have the two kids. Hamish was getting a bit bored of going out walks all the time (though admittedly Hugo could have been walked a lot less, but my only dog walking experience was my springer spaniel when I was a teenager, and she enjoyed a lot of walking) so I am sure there would be a lot of arguments about having to accompany me on walks with the dog on rainy, cold, or snowy days. On top of this, with Stevie often away with work, I just couldn't take the dog out at night if the kids are in bed. We can't just stick the dog out the back door when we live in an apartment, and even though it is likely we will move back to our house with a garden at some point, it made me think about how the kids get narky at even 7 o'clock when I'd need to walk it at it's early evening walk.

So much as we loved having him, we had to hand him back, and we all miss him quite a lot because he added to our family. And I still think it's crap that I have to be a grown up and can't just follow Hamish's instruction of "just tell his Mummy that he's ours now".

Hello, Galeries Lafayette!

Macarons at Galeries Lafayette

My heart went 'ping!' today. I can't believe I've been here for 2 years and *not* visited Galeries Lafayette before now. It's not that I haven't been in the area; it's not that my loyalty to the lovely KaDeWe has prevented me from passing through a different store; it's just that about a decade ago I visited Galeries Lafayette in Paris and was a little underwhelmed. (Though I'm not sure why, probably my taste was just different)


Today though I had some time, and I thought 'why not?'. I was passing and I suddenly remembered a French guy in my German class saying that a lot of the French expats go there to buy really expensive yoghurt. What? Food hall? Expensive yoghurt? Why, doesn't that sound like it might be just like the KaDeWe?

Oh. My. God. It's lovely! It's smaller than the food hall in the KaDeWe, but it's beautifully, darkly lit, and it's like all the products you could ever need but in lovely French packaging! Oh to be a French expat with lots & lots of money! Not that they aren't catering for the Germans and the Brits. There are a selection of Cadbury's biscuits for the Brits and 5KG jars of Nutella for the Germans. (Why would you buy so much that you can barely lift it?). Oh and of course, the Americans haven't been forgotten: yup, they've shipped in more of that Fluff for you guys, ha, ha, ha! (scroll down for the photos)

Pretty cakes: I want to roll around in there with you with my mouth open.

I have very little use for these, but I just want to take them home, line them up and look at them anyway.

These can stay on the shelf though...

I want my peas to have a gold lid!

Beluga Linsen: One of life's essentials, surely???

I can't even imagine trying to explain to Stevie that I spent 40 euros on a tub of Nutella. 

Nuts: I've run out of photos.

You can find Galeries Lafayette at Friedrichstrasse 76-78 and online.

I love it when a plan doesn't come together

Because today I should probably have been packing up our stuff, waiting for the removal men, spending the afternoon cleaning and scrubbing the empty apartment, and moving us into a hotel with a couple of suitcases, our passports, and our tickets home.

And that would have made me sad. Because it was a glorious day, nearly 30 degrees, and I'm not ready to leave Berlin. Not yet. So instead I bought some fresh strawberries and raspberries and sat out on the balcony with a nice book. And I had a quiet celebration in my head. Because I love it when a plan doesn't come together.

Here's to November! (Or maybe next May)

Walking, running, & skipping with dinosaurs

In a continuation of our Easter adventures, we went to Freizeitpark Germendorf, which was recommended to us by workingberlinmum, who went there recently. It's a bit of a trek to get there as it's outside Berlin, past Oranienburg in a little village called Germendorf where the land is most likely cheap as chips. Patently some genius was wandering along one day and thought to themselves, "What this place needs are giant replica dinosaurs dotted about the landscape. Throw in a few zebras and assorted antelope-thingys and they'll flock here in their droves, 850 car-loads at a time, and I'll be rich beyond my wildest dreams!"

And so that's what you have. Hamish has been chomping at the bit to visit this place since we heard about it, and it didn't disappoint him. I was a little worried that the kids would get bored after a few minutes because you can't actually get close enough to touch quite a few of the dinosaurs, but it was fine, and the prospect of getting to walk up to the top of the volcano turned out to be a bigger thrill than I could have imagined. At the top you can stand and look over the park and take photos of the very full car park (which incidentally costs only 50 cents a day - ah, if only airport car parks cost that, and they too are usually built on plots of land in the middle of nowhere). There's also a machine at the top of the volcano where you can pay a euro to presumably hear the sounds of a volcano erupting. Alas, we seemed to be up at the same time as all the other people who seemed quite happy to imagine the sound in their head and keep their euro for something else.

And there's a lot of other things to do in this place. Not only do you have the dinosaur park, but there is also the animal park where you can see a range of animals. It's not exactly on a par with Berlin Zoo, but they have a few zebras, quite a lot of monkeys, meercats, antelope, kangaroos (or possibly wallabies - they were quite small), goats, boar, and Shetland ponies. There were probably more, but as we started off with the animals, my two were getting edgy about 'missing' the dinosaurs, so I think we might have missed some.

In the summer I imagine this place could be utterly awesome. You really could easily spend a whole day here. In fact if you wanted, you could book into that hotel across the lake and spend a couple of days here, because aside from the animals and dinosaurs there are also lakes for swimming in, including some which are better suited for children. We even spotted on the map that they have an island that I think you could swim to which is populated by monkeys. Cool. We could play planet of the apes! And if you fancy a quieter activity, you could hang out with the anglers and stare at the end of a rod.

We however, had animals and dinosaurs to see, and had a lovely wander round the park. There are also quite a few playgrounds for kids and an area with undercover bouncy castles (which are free, yay!) and there is a little train track with a fire engine and some other vehicles that run round that presumably for around a euro a time, and a few other kind of fairground rides which again I don't think cost very much. All in, everything seemed really reasonably priced which was a nice bonus. In fact, for all four of us we only paid 10 euros for a full days entry.

Orla's highlight of the day was the horse ride. This was 3 euros and for that you get 3 rounds of the paddock or whatever it should be called. Orla is always keen on horse rides, but this was Hamish's first time. 

Despite the fact he looks very serious and somewhat glum, he actually was thrilled by the whole experience. He was just a bit disappointed that Orla's horse decided it wanted to take a big drink and so he didn't get to go round 2 out of his 3 circuits with her. 

After the horse rides, we saw the Shetland ponies. They had about half a dozen of them and contrary to the Shetland ponies I've met before they seemed pretty good humoured. The kids were charmed with the fact that they weren't much taller than them. I told the kids about the time my Aunty Sheena bought a Shetland pony and kept it in the back garden (which was huge). Anyway, it had only been at their house about half a day when we were there and I was the lucky one to get the first chance to ride it. No saddle, but I did have a helmet. Anyway, as soon as it was let loose with me (aged 11) on it's back, it made a run for it, jumped up onto the raised patio, raced across that, and then jumped up the steps and in through the open sliding patio doors. I don't remember being particularly scared, but I did choose to throw myself off once we were riding through the house. As I recall, nobody else was too keen to ride it after that.

So we had a great day. I would highly recommend this place. Hamish would really, really, highly recommend this place. He was begging us to take him back the next day. Even Orla who I wouldn't have said was particularly 'into' dinosaurs, seemed converted. We will definitely be back!

In prehistoric times the challenge of basketball was more getting such a small object through such a small hoop.

Further details on Freizeitpark Germendorf can be found on their website: http://www.freizeitpark-germendorf.de/index.php/start.html

Crackpots & cracking times

I should have said my name was 'Finja'. P.S Not only are our real names plastered all over the internet, you'll also find them on the wall at the Legoland Discovery Centre, Berlin.

Ah, the things I could tell you if only I had never set up this blog using my real name, and had never used photos of my family. Sometimes it's a curse! For example I would have been able to tell you an awesomely funny story of a truly horrific playdate I went on with the kids this week. You know it's not going well when you get asked round for coffee and you're the one who has to go for the milk, and you have to run faster than Paula Radcliffe there and back because Orla's parting words are "They're trying to take Hamish's trousers off!", and there's just something about the family that makes you just a little uncomfortable with that.

Alas, we're going to have to wait until either we've left Berlin, or they've left Berlin (and let's hope it's them, and soon) before I can tell you about it. Unless you email me, and I'll spill the beans ;)

As you may have noticed from the plethora of bunny-related blog posts, it's Easter. Orla has been on holiday now for a week and without even trying we've managed to pack each day with events that have cost either very little or nothing. We had a day of playing on 'one' day as Orla wanted to stay home and get stuck into all her new toys. Then on 'another' day we had a lovely day at Berlin Zoo with some good friends and spent a lot of time not looking so much at animals, but talking endlessly, avoiding fast-moving zoo traffic, and playing in the quite brilliant park.

Now this was a nice playdate. Fun is a shared love of railings.

On 'another one of the' days we spent a couple of hours in the depths of hell, as mentioned at the beginning of this post, and then went on a fake appointment on the other side of the city so we didn't have to spend any longer with them. And we also went to Legoland 'another' day because the kids have been dying to make more use of our year passes and I HATE that place on the weekends. For some reason I had convinced myself that the Germans would take their Easter holidays on a different week, perhaps that was the only way my brain would allow me to actually make the suggestion of Legoland to the kids. It's not that it's not good: in fact I'd say that the Legoland Discovery Centre at Potsdamer Platz is one of the best places to take kids in Berlin. As long as you like being underground and packed in like a sardine and enjoy noise levels from squealing kids that could drown out a pneumatic drill.

Don't get excited Orla, this poster is the best bit.

We also went along to the 'Helden' (Superheroes) exhibition at the Film & TV Museum in the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz. I had seen the poster in one of the U-Bahn stations and Hamish had been very keen to see Spiderman. It was reasonable enough to get in to: Euro 4 for me and the kids were free, but it was a bit of a disappointment. The 3 Spidermen they had on display looked remarkably similar to the very small ones Hamish plays with, and well... the Star Wars display was just the Lego figures of the characters. If anyone wants to see a Disney Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, & Cars exhibition, I will be showing one made out Duplo for the next 6 months in Hamish's bedroom.

The Sony Center roof viewed from the -2 floor. It's a geometric dream.

I will say however, that I am glad we went into it. I haven't bothered visiting the Film & TV museum because I kind of assumed that it would primarily focus on German films and tv that I wouldn't be familiar with. But it's worth going in even to the foyer and using the glass lifts to get a different view of the Sony Center roof. And you know how I like to take a photo or 80!

We're going to party like it's 8 years before you were born.

We had a great time. We are quite good at celebrating, I think. There were moments where I felt like I could happily kill some people, and vowed never to have a kids party in my home again, but on the whole, I'd say we all enjoyed ourselves massively, guests included. After a late nights prep where I kind of panicked about not knowing just how many people would be coming and ended up making enough cupcakes to feed the whole building, I was awoken at 5 (how apt) by the birthday girl. Lucky me to get to share in her excitement when I hadn't gone to bed until after midnight.

We'd been decorating, clearing, prepping, tidying, and all the other things you need to do. I gave a very relaxed Stevie a bag of balloons to blow up. My theory is that kids of Orla and Hamish's age are happy as long as there are balloons and music. So I went mad on the balloons too. We nearly blacked out simultaneously trying to get them all blown up. It was fun. We veered from lightheadedness into near unconsciousness many, many times until Stevie begged me to find my balloon pump. 

I left him to finish up while I got on with the finishing touches... Little did I know he had left the balloon pump lying out so when I got ready to get my modelling balloons ready the next morning, it turned out Orla had managed to break it. I could have cried. Well, not really, I was a bit annoyed at not being able to do it, but not so much that I wanted to go out and find a new pump. Hell, I was up to my eyeballs preparing the unhealthiest food kids could ever desire. 

Actually, in the 5 hours sleep I got I had a nightmare about the children having huge allergic reactions to the cake glitter. It's edible, and it looks amazing, but they do recommend that you *don't eat it*. I ignored that advice, valuing aesthetics over possible seizures, and then spent my sleeping hours in torment. 

And my little princess & my little pirate (who couldn't understand why I was making him wear his pyjama bottoms) were packed with excitement like little tightly coiled springs waiting for the party to start. Everyone arrived at once, bang on 2pm, someone gave me 30 seconds warning of their child's *severe* nut allergy  - I did mention the cake glitter *may* be made with peanut oil...but they decided to take their chances in exchange for sparkly prettiness. And no kids died or ended up in hospital, so that was good!

So we danced, played games, gave out prizes for being good, and some for those who were utterly crap, ate, sung, laughed, broke up arguments, and ran around like nutcases. What more do you want from a party, well except copious amounts of alcohol? That would have been nice.

By quarter to 4 they were creating an awesome amount of noise, and we left them to play in Orla's room. The girls mostly took to the tent and camped out, while the boys jumped, and argued, and bounced, and ran around some more. And then bang on 4pm all the parents appeared as if by magic and whisked their buzzing little kids away, and just like that, it was over.

Let the celebrations commence!

5 is a magical age. To say it's been longed for is an understatement. And so, the celebrations have begun. Up at 6:30am, a frantic ripping off of paper, a quick, reluctant breakfast, dressed for school, and off! Then back home and time to play, rollerskate, fall, fall again, fall some more and nearly twist ankle, Skype the grandparents, and dinner, cake, and bed.

Is it just me, or does she suddenly look a year older? I think she does and she thinks this is marvellous, but if it happens to me too on my birthday next month I won't be happy.

Other people's birthdays take their toll on some people. It's hard when everyone else seems to have their birthday 'first'. Especially when you suspect that your sister has managed to sneak in two birthdays since your last one. It's enough to make you take to your (mother's) bed for a little sulk. - Not that he didn't fair well out of it. He is the owner of a terrifying pair of rollerskates too (remind me to ask my doctor to up my blood pressure medication).

But he did help make Orla's second birthday cake. Oh how I long for Tesco. I made a cake for her to take to school two nights ago, then another for her actual birthday for candle blowing out purposes, ad today I start making cakes for her birthday party tomorrow. I think I may have burnt the *actual* birthday cake because I was daydreaming about just handing over my cash to Tesco for something that takes much less effort and looks more professional.

And so, with that reminder, I must get on. There are rooms to be cleared, shopping to be done, balloons to be modelled, cakes to be made and decorated, brand new pirate outfits to be washed ALREADY, and apartments to be cleaned and decorated before tomorrow's big party. (And I might eat the rest of those Smarties)

Choo, choo, choo, there's even a tiny little conga at Loxx Miniatur Railway

All trains powered underneath by hamsters with magnets on their backs, or similar magic.

I like to think that when you lie in your bed at night and think of me, 'train-spotter' is not the first label that comes to mind. 'Google-stalker', yes, 'bad-person-with-a-compulsive-habit-for-flushing-uneaten-breakfast-cereals-down-the-toilet', absolutely, but 'trainspotter/model train admirer', nah, no thanks.

Beach Volleyball. If you peer really closely you'll see Stevie in his bikini at Beach 61 

Seriously! Stop putting spin on that ball! If I have to go into those bushes to get it one more time, I will Dr Pong you into next week!! 

So even I was surprised to find myself at Loxx Miniature Railway yesterday morning. Well not surprised to be there, me and my pal at Workingberlinmum got the tickets half price on Groupon and saw it as a perfect little outing. "Oh, your kids will love it!" our mutual friends said. "The trains! The boys will think it's amazing!", "Honestly, it's fantastic: a great place to take kids!". Yeah, yeah, as if we're taking the kids. That would spoil our fun! We were taking our cameras on a little outing; cameras that don't moan after 5 minutes that they're bored and want a snack. Two glorious hours we had! And we snapped away like mad, stuffing images onto our memory cards like we'd never have the opportunity again. It's nice doing these things with someone just like yourself. S starts to complain after a while that I can't seem to enjoy experiences unless I am viewing them with one eye closed, a camera stuck to my face, and a constant 'snap, snap, snap' soundtrack.

Sandstation (beside the O2) I've seen this! I've seen this! Well, that's me peering through gaps in the fence cause S wouldn't pay the entrance fee and said we'd go 'another time'....grrr...honestly it's amazing!

I can't tell what the joke is here, unless the guy who built this section thought everybody had an extra toe on each foot...."and this little piggy was a special little extra piggy and cried 'weee, weee, weee, weeee', all the way to the Kinderarzt"

Anyway, it was great fun. I am surprised that I haven't heard of it before and now that I have I seem to be coming across more and more blog posts about it (all with better photos than mine). It's right at the top of the Alexa shopping centre in Mitte on the third floor. You can find it by following your nose. We were the only people there on Thursday morning, well just us and the smell of chip fat that followed us around and was seeping out of the exhibition and there to take your tickets at the front desk.

No, this can't be Berlin: why if it was there would be at least 3 Berliner Kindl beer stands in this photo.

Night time in Berlin. I may have been criticising the rather tragic clouds they had fashioned for the sky, but I was hugely impressed by the brilliance of the thunderstorm. 

They have managed to construct a mini Berlin with lots of humour in a huge room with dreadful lighting. It was really hard to keep the lights from appearing in the background of all the photos and it seems like an impossibility to take a photo of the Fernsehturm without strip lighting kind of spoiling it. But aside from that, it's great. There are trains galore, and the airport section is excellent. You can see planes taking off and 'flying' into giant cubic clouds, and see President Obama getting greeted off his plane on the runway. There is even a row of airplane seats for you to sit and watch all the action.

Good evening President Obama. We've booked the Bier-bike for you & the secret service men for 10am tomorrow. At 12pm you'll be met at the viewing platform of the Park Inn for your abseil, then your driver will collect you and take you to Tropical Islands for the G8 summit ice-breaking session.

Meanwhile in the main display area you can admire all the standard Berlin sites and enjoy some of the ones you might not have seen. I really, really want to visit Spreepark in Treptower Park where there was a funfair and some fairy tale houses and so on. It looks amazing except the real thing closed down years ago. You can see parts of it in the film Hanna - which is a really good film if you haven't seen it.

President Reagan: "Folks, it's time to draw back your iron curtains and let some capitalist sunshine in"... or words to that effect. Man, I missed my calling as a speech writer...

Other highlights were listening/watching JFK and Reagan give speeches in front of the Reichstag, hunting for nudists in the Tiergarten, and the kite flying on the hill. It would be a great day trip for kids it has to be said but at a normal price of 12 euros for adults and I think 6 euros per child (above 100cm tall) it might be better waiting for another Groupon deal.

Links:
Loxx Miniature Railway, Berlin
andBerlin post
Uberlin post
Workingberlinmum post


My other Groupon adventures:
Unsicht-bar - eating in the dark restaurant
Panoramapunkt - sightseeing from the top of Kollhof Tower.
Die Welt hot air balloon - sightseeing from Berlin's famous hot air balloon
Like I just stepped out of a salon - getting a Groupon haircut - eek