Freedom Fries: Day in Berlin

The next day we ventured further out into Berlin. We picked up some breakfast from a bakery to enjoy at Gendarmenmarkt. Everything was great until a ridiculous number of wasps also took interest in our breakfast of seedy bread and jam. You can see Daniel's joy in eating with them. Really, you don't expect to be swarmed like that in the middle of the city.

After salvaging what we could of our breakfast we headed into Fassbender and Rausch, which claims to be the largest chocolate shop in Europe. I would argue that they have some of the coolest chocolate sculptures in Europe as well. Here the Reichstag in chocolate.

Brandenburg gate in chocolate.

We each picked out two. So many choices! How to decide? It took us some time.

Chocolate globe.

And Jaxon's personal favorite, the erupting chocolate volcano.

After that we headed down to check out the pieces that are left of the Berlin wall near Checkpoint Charlie.

How stereotypical: a MacDonald's as soon as you enter the American sector.

Are those real American soldiers? Nope. They are German. And they charge you 5 euros per photo. And harass you if you don't pay up the way they want you too.

We bought the kids some little Trabi cars, the only cars produced in East Germany over 30 years.

We enjoyed our chocolates from Fassbender and Raush outside of the Topography of Terror, the site of the Nazi headquarters. This was where all the evil was masterminded.

Next we headed over the the Legoland Discovery Center.

It was cool, though a little overpriced. I was a little put off that adults and children are charged the same amount. If kind of seemed like one of those things where adults should be free since the target age seemed fairly young, until...

we noticed that some adults go on dates there. In any case, this couple provided Daniel and me some entertainment. They enjoyed the boats.

And the rides, which were certainly geared to the under-8 crowd. Unless you are looking for a dark place to make out, I guess.

Daniel enjoyed showing off his samauria laser-dodging skills.

We weren't the only ones who enjoyed our Lego 4-D movie; our trusty couple was rights behind us.

We had a good time watching other people as well. We liked this guys style. Germans can be pretty bold in their styles sometimes, so this guy with the mullet didn't shock me--until I discovered he was Parisian! Well, until Daniel discovered that. The two of them got pretty chummy.

Okay, so maybe it is fair that adults pay the same entrance fee. Just look at the joy on Daniel's face.

Jaxon and I did a Lego workshop together and made little elephants.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about the whole experience was looking around me at the horrible mess created by hundreds of children being little tornadoes, throwing Legos all over the place and thinking to myself "I don't have to clean this up. I don't even have to yell at my kids to try to get them to clean this up." Nope, that was the job of those suckers' behind Daniel. Cleaning up and organizing thousands of Legos at the end of every day. Makes me smile just thinking about it now. But, maybe it isn't so bad if you are getting paid for it.

A gum-covered portion of the Berlin wall.

Jaxon liked naming the counties of all the flags. "I don't know that white and red one in the middle, though," he said (the Marriott flag)

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Not only was it an incredibly impressive memorial, but also one of the best places in the world for playing hide-and-seek.

Wandering further up toward the Brandenburg Gate we happened by this weed-fest concert.

"In weed we trust." Jonas was feeling it and got his groove on. His audience seemed to appreciate it, but I think they were already a little giggly to begin with.