20 years since the Berlin wall came down.

This weekend we went to Berlin - it was co-incidently the lead up to the 20th anniversary since the Berlin Wall came down (although that’s not why we decided to go - our primary motivation was that there just isn’t that much left to do in Copenhagen that is appropriate for us, that we haven’t already done, that isn’t closed over winter … and since we are so close, we might as well travel while we have the opportunity).

So we woke up reeeeeaaaalllly early on Saturday morning to catch the plane and flew to Germany. Germany is so close to Denmark and believe it or not, my German is (slightly) better than my Danish. (But that’s like saying my Lithuanian is better than my Swahili). Also, I heard a rumour that they have really good cakes there, so to Germany we went.

It was an interesting weekend to visit Berlin. Of course they were in the process of organising the celebrations and commemorations for the anniversary of the wall coming down. It really hit home for me when we were looking at crosses erected to the memory of those who had lost their lives trying to cross the wall - particularly the one in 1989, just months before East Germans were finally allowed to cross freely. It was incredibly hard to explain it all to Hugo who of course had a thousand questions.

In addition to the history, there were the usual kid-friendly activities including the Aquarium and the Science Museum. LOTS of walking for the parents. The Television tower (not, as Sophie imagined, a tower constructed of televisions). And delicious German cake food. Nom nom. What we didn’t do: Legoland. Believe it or not, sometimes there is such a thing as TOO. MUCH. LEGO.

I’ve realised that I will always, always worry about flying with children, no matter how well behaved my children are, no matter how short the flight is - and in the end it just doesn’t matter! Even if people are annoyed by the constant whinging and complaining excited chatter of my children, they’ll probably have forgotten it by the time they get home from the airport anyway (as I have, usually). We’ve realised that on the cheap airlines that seat 3-aisle-3 it’s better to have one parent and both children in a block of 3 than to split the kids up between parents. For some reason they both behave better when they’re sitting together. It’s also easier to share entertainment. And you don’t have to worry about having someone unknown sitting next to you, glaring at the children the whole time (or giving a friendly lecture on “all kids need is a good spanking to keep them in line”).

We enjoyed Berlin, although at some point we’d like to go back and do the Jewish museum properly (this is probably something that would be better without children, or with children who are old enough to understand it). We had really beautiful weather on Saturday (better than Copenhagen!) and we all had a good time.

Hugo and Sophie sleeping through the significant viewing of the Brandenburg Gate (ironically, though understandably, access through the gate was blocked off this weekend).