Berlin you've been great

I am not the kind of person to do a city guide parse . Although I like to travel and promote travel with kids, I don't think that I am focused on places, like street names and building names as much as emotional experiences while visiting new place, therefor I forget to write down the name of a place or the part of town where the best pastries are or other foods and drinks. So you'll have to excuse me for not providing accurate names of places or locations you'll have to take my word for it and find out for yourself! Some are listed but most are just pretty pictures :)

Our trip was wonderful and very relaxing. Because we managed to stay for almost three weeks this turned out to be a good way to equally see places and spend quality time with my in laws who we stayed with the whole time while in Berlin. In our culture it's customary to stay with friends and family if they happen to live where you're traveling to. This works out great because as you may know lodging is quite expensive no matter where you go. Luckily or unluckily due to the conflict in the Balkans in the 90's many people immigrated all over the world so we happen to have friends everywhere, including Berlin where my in laws currently live.

If you are looking for a place with great history and amazing culture this is the right place to be. It is also a very green City, almost a fifth of the City is covered with trees. There are almost 2500 public parks and gardens in the City which is great when traveling with kids.
Most of our days were spent at the playgrounds and parks in the morning, then we would go back to the apartment and have lunch. The kids would be wiped out by then and most of the time naps followed lunch for both of them. Hamza doesn't nap any more but this trip was so active that he almost voluntarily took naps. While they napped we would sneak out and do some sight seeing or go meet up with our cousins who also live in Berlin.

I also enjoyed running in Berlin and seeing the City from that perspective, it was quite different and I would recommend to be active when traveling in part because I ate my weight in pretzels, döner kebabs and falafel while there but also to see it from the perspective of a local. Berlin has a large Turkish and Arabic population, if you like middle eastern food thats where you'll find the best shawarmas, lentil soups and haloumi cheese sandwiches.

One of our favorite places was the Children's Museum, we visited twice while there. The kids enjoyed   exploring and taking part in interactive games such as a make shift construction site equipped with a  crane and safety gear, I think Hamza forgot for a moment that we existed we had to drag him out.

We did one trip to Lego Land which was crowded and below ground ( lower levels, no widows) so I didn't care for it much myself, however the kids loved it and thought it was just awesome.

 Since traveling with little kids can also mean finding entertainment and doing things that are interesting to them we've made sure to sneak in some alone time and snapped some pictures along the way. We had some great coffee at The Barn ( super trendy, too cool for us, everyone has a beard and no one smiles unless something is very very funny), we saw some great pieces of art at the Ehemalig Jüdische Mädchenschule and visited the famous Mauerpark Flea Market.  A few days were so hot that we decided to join many others at the neighborhood public pool. The pools are clean and there is enough green space to make you feel like it's a real beach or a large park. Some even have large playgrounds as well as bouncy castles if the kids are taking a break from swimming. A great way to spend the a hot day in Berlin indeed.
I really can't say enough about this city, it has great architecture, amazing shopping and plenty of entertainment for kids and adults. It's place we'll visit as much as we can in the years to come.

Auf Wiedersehen Berlin!

* Although my husband and I both speak German there is no need to be shy if you don't speak it, most people speak English pretty well. I think this is the case in most European countries especially big touristy centers.

* You'll have to pardon some of the blurrier images, all pictures are taken with my trust iPhone (one day I'll own a camera, until then this will have to cut it)!