Cheep, cheep! But not so cheep for the over 3's

MACHmit: there be giant chairs for people with cameras to have fun, and craft stuff galore going on.

This morning Orla and I went to MACHmit, the children's museum on Senefelder Strasse in Prenzlauerberg, which is sort of north-ish as regards Berlin. I hadn't heard of it before, but another blogger had alerted me to the fact that there are baby chicks hatching there up until the 22nd of April on a daily basis. And that's all the information folk like me and Orla need to know we want to go.

Even the baby chicks knew I got a new lens for my birthday that I was a bit clueless with. They tried their best to be in focus, but alas, all was lost.

 I mean what price do you put on seeing baby chicks hatching into this world? Well, I discovered it's probably not Euros 4.50 each. Maybe for me and my jaded adult eyes, but I can't help but think it's rubbish when they make you pay an adult price for anyone over the age of 3. Not of course that the chicks are the only thing going on there. In fact there's quite a bit, including a pretty ace climbing area of ups, downs, tunnels, and bridges. Our independent critic, ahem, branded it "Better than Bambooland". Really? Cause it's 3 floors of climbing, slides, trampolines, balls, blah, blah, blah, and something I've just found out is called a 'Wabbelberg'. But there you go, awesomeness cannot be measured in ball volcanoes alone.

The climbing thing with bridges so high off the ground floor it'd make a normal person crap themselves. Toilets, incidentally are in the cellar. 

Admittedly the place does look amazing. It's inside an old church which to say it's been converted is an understatement. The main part of the museum is on the ground floor and you then go up wooden steps and through a little gate to get to the play bit. Here you have access to both sides of the climbing area, which are joined together by a number of bridges - you can see just one of, I think, 4 in the photo above. Kids over 5 are allowed to go in climbing on their own, whereas poor misfortunates with under-5's must accompany them. I took full advantage of Orla's recent 5th birthday to not go in as I thought I might actually freeze with fear on one of those bridges, and have to get a school group of 8 year olds to shove me across.

Outside of the play area there are tables set up with activities for the kids to do, though most of these seemed set up for groups which had booked. They were making cheeping chickens out of plastic cups  and that sort of thing. There's also a cafe up there which looked quite nice, though all the chairs had crap screwed on to them like scrubbing brushes which was either meant to look 'arty & creative' or was for the sensory deprived. Who knows, but it was enlightening at least for me as I realised I quite like my chairs 'plain' so I've saved loads of time not starting a chair-enhancement project in the dining room.

Anyway, ignore me. I set out with the wrong mindset for this place, purely because it took us SO long to just get there. I don't venture into Prenzlauerberg all that often, and days like today where we started off on the U-bahn then had to change to a replacement bus service at Potsdamer Platz, then went about 800 metres to the next U-bahn stop, got back on, only to have to change back onto a bus again to get as far as Eberswalder Strasse, and the have a little walk to get to MACHmit, and then we couldn't stay much longer than an hour as we had to get back to collect Hamish from Kita.

So overall, we'd say 'Yay!' to the climbing place, & the baby chicks, and 'Urgh!' to the pricing and well... that's about all. So that's good, isn't it? Sounds like a hearty recommendation to me!

Links:
MACHmit: Senefelder Strasse 5, Prenzlauerberg, Berlin 10437
Bambooland: Goerzallee 218, Lichterfelde, Berlin, 14167

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!

Waking the dead.

Because even the long dead get wound up by other people's mobile phones ringing.

Schloss Charlottenburg. Lovely, but I won't be back I suppose. 

I tend not to publicise my blog through Facebook. Mostly because I really don't want the people I don't really like reading it. And of course I am friends with them on Facebook, because sometimes you just don't have a choice in these things. I am referring of course to 'smeeviee's family'. I'm mumbling just in case they can hear me. That's one thing I hate about Facebook; I have yet to find an acceptable way to say 'I don't want to be your friend' to them. Saying, 'Um, we're not really friends in real life' doesn't really go down well, nor does 'I don't want you noseying through my business, even though I have no issue with strangers and people I haven't actually seen in 30 years doing so'. - perhaps because they're not going to take offence and go on and on about it for years afterwards.

Anyway, at the end of last week and this weekend we've had Stevie's parents staying with us. At this point I should mention that in actual fact I am far more tolerant of his parents than he himself is. I sometimes get the impression that he could quite happily wave them back on the plane an hour and half after their arrival. Much as I'd love to outline where my tolerance breaks down, I will resist, because you just never know who's reading. And it's not that I have written down all the hundreds of little funny anecdotes I have, more because they are super defensive and wouldn't appreciate the little tales I tell about their son.

Long may they never Google my name. That's all I can say.

But, I'm losing my thread. What I was going on to say was that upon arrival this time I was met by a complaint: that I hadn't updated my FB status to say how excited I was at their impending arrival, when I had done on numerous occasions before when my friends had visited. I think it was meant as a joke with a little bit of seriousness wedged in at the back, but they didn't seem too happy when I joked right on back that I forgot, but I'd be sure to put on FB just how excited I'd be when they left. Maybe it was that big chunk of underlying truth that rendered it unfunny to them, I don't know, but hey, I was laughing.

But in actual fact, we've had a pleasant few days. It can be quite difficult to entertain visitors who don't really want to see the place, and would be happy enough to just sit in the apartment for the duration. But I took them to Schloss Charlottenburg on Friday and managed to provide them with some impromptu entertainment by getting myself thrown out (and very likely banned) from a mausoleum. It wasn't fun. After listening to a lengthy list of 'Do's and Don't's' from the attendant outside it was a bit embarrassing to see the same attendant racing into the mausoleum at warp-speed to drag me out no more than a minute later. But on the positive side at least I found out that my phones 'silent' mode doesn't work. Silver lining's and all that I suppose. And it put a smile on my visitors faces for the rest of the afternoon seeing me hauled out and publicly shamed. And that set us up for the rest of the weekend which was pleasant and a lot less eventful.

2 auld witches knocked at my door.

A pretty terrible photo of us but one of only a few where we are all together.

My favourite Brandenburg Gate photo.

Near Checkpoint Charlie

Having fun at the wall near Potsdamer Platz just after we went down the big winter snow slide in rubber rings.

So I never got started 'Herr Carotten'. I was the victim of an elaborate ruse. Stevie came home from work on Friday and started tidying and cleaning the flat just as I was getting a pounding headache that rendered me unable to help much. A coincidence? Normally, I'd say no, but I was so distracted by it I hardly even gave a second thought as to why Stevie might suddenly take it apon himself to clean the shower room.

After dinner he said he was going out to meet a friend who not a week previous had he been saying he thought was an idiot and someone he might try and drift away from. Not even this aroused my suspiscion, as as you may have already garnered, in Stevie-world very little makes sense.

So off he went and I got changed into my pyjamas intending to have an early night to nurse my headache, but instead ended up watching a documentary about Hitler's relatives. Stevie came back a good while later and then a minute later the door buzzer went. Stevie shouted "Are you not going to get that?" and I said "No". For some reason unless there's a possibility that's it's a postman at the door, I have found I have no interest in opening it. Especially not in my pyjamas. With no make-up on. At some time after 10pm.

And then the thought crossed my mind that it was Stevie's friend and that he'd followed him home. This was a reasonable thing to think at the time as Stevie came home calling the guy all sorts of names and it sounded like they might have had an argument. So I wandered up to the door to have a look through the spy hole, not thinking at the time that this person would have had to have gotten through 2 locked doors to get to our door, and again Stevie asked me to open it. So I did, and there were two people in rubber witches masks in my doorway. In the second before they took off the masks I had time to give an inward groan at the prospect of early Halloweener's with whom I would struggle to communicate the message 'I have no sweeties! Beat it!' without sounding aggressive. But then the masks came off, and I had one of those split-second stream of consciousness thoughts which went along the lines of 'I recognise them, but I can't think where in Berlin I know them from. Crap, I'm going to have to say hello in a minute and yet I can't think who the hell they are. Bookgroup? No. German school? No. Kita? No. Oh my god, it's my best friends from Derby!'. It was very odd getting my head round them being so out of context as I hadn't thought they would be coming over until late next year, if at all.

So after getting over the surprise and shock it was lovely. We had a great weekend doing all the touristy things, and shopping, and eating, and taking photos, and generally having just a great laugh. I would love if they could surprise me again this weekend. The time just flew by too quickly.

Out and about in the DDR

"Where do you think they keep the sharp knives?"

In the 3 minutes of internet access I seem to be able to get per day, I thought I'd use it wisely on my blog rather than frittering it away reading rubbish on Facebook. It was Hamish's birthday the other day and we had a weekend of doing all the things that Hamish likes to do. So we visited SeaWorld which they loved and the big 50 ft circular tank with the lift that goes up the middle is great, but overall we think the SeaWorld in Birmingham tops it just a little bit. But the kids loved it and we bought the joint tickets which will get us into Legoland, which we'll maybe go to next weekend.

Yesterday was absolutely roasting, so in between stops for ice-cream (Hamish likes the cone, and tries to eat that before the ice-cream), we yielded to the requests for baby animals and went to the zoo (again. I think this might be my fourth time, in which case my annual pass has paid for itself). Anyway, I was so busy saying to Stevie, "Have you got your zoo card? Have you got your wallet?" Etc, etc that I didn't even bother to think about whether I had mine. So we walked there and then we went back home on the U-Bahn and I raced back to get my card. Thankfully we only live a little way away from the zoo so it reduced Stevie's moan level to 'minimum'.

Later we were sat in a cafe in the shade with both kids sleeping in the Phil & Ted's (what's that? Maybe only the 5th time they've both napped at the same time?) and Stevie said that he doesn't know what he'll do in the winter-time when there are less outdoor things to do. I suggested that we could perhaps visit the hundreds of museums that there seem to be. He said that he doesn't want to visit any of the concentration camps or visit any of the museums that are related to the war. Which effectively rules out probably about 50% of them. He just doesn't want to know about all the terrible things that happened here.

2 days ago we passed the station where there is a monument to all the children who got sent to Britain during the war and to those who got sent to the concentration camps. They all left from Friedrichstrasse Station. There were photographs documenting both the children who left for Britain and those who survived the concentration camps. Orla was quite interested in looking, but it made Stevie feel very uncomfortable.

What he is interested in is the DDR era and is keen to visit the DDR museum. I went with the kids in the first couple of weeks we were here as I'd read about it and really fancied it. It's excellent. It's down by the Berliner Dom on the River Spree in Mitte. It's quite small, but they've crammed it full of interesting stuff. When I went in, the man working there asked why I was bothering to bring the kids as they wouldn't enjoy it, but in fact they had a great time. It's very interactive. There is a Trabi that you can sit in and pretend to drive; a reconstruction of a DDR house complete with bathroom, kitchen, and living room, and the rest of the exhibits are all accessible and can be touched and used, or are in little drawers or cupboards. We spent quite a while there and I would definetly go back again with friends and family who come over. The kids particularly liked the living room and the Trabi. Maybe next we'll go to the DDR transport museum.