In Need of exercise

Since exercise is my feel good drug of choice and since I haven’t been getting much lately, I headed out for a morning stroll.

I headed north to Pankow, past the boys’ school and to a Schloss (mansion or castle).

{Boys’ school – Platanus Schule}

{Old Parish Church Pankow}

{Schönhausen Schloss}

{Garden cafe}

Since I had walked almost four miles already, I opened Google maps and figured out how to take the tram home. Really like this about Berlin.

After heading home and having lunch as a family, we went out in search of the Dragon Park in Friedrichshain. We had heard about it in the book Achtung Baby by Sara Zacke about an American couple raising their young children in Berlin. The book was actually quite helpful with getting us up to speed with cultural norms around child rearing as we planned our move.

We took the loop (S41) five stops to Berlin Frankfurter Allee and walked (boys scooted) the few blocks to the playground. {excitement as we entered the playground}

{Ben was swallowed whole}

{Ben looking out}

{Boys in the throat}

{view from inside}

{sliding down the side}

Across the street there was an Eis shop that specialized in vegan popsicles.

{boys enjoying their popsicles}

We stopped by a cafe, KK1, and had a late snack before heading back home.

On the train platform, we found a wallet and explained to the boys how the money inside cannot be taken and handed it to a clerk to hold in case someone came by claim it. Good life lesson.

We got home and settled in for some lazy time.

Not long after, our babysitter came so Dave and I could have a date night. We went to a restaurant about 15 minutes walk from our apartment, called Mrs. Robinsons. http://www.mrsrobinsons.de

{Prost!}

What a great dining experience. We felt as though we were getting a lesson on cooking and booze. We discussed fermentation, small batch liquor distillation as well as politics.

I won’t go into much detail on the last point, but instead will let the pictures tell the story.

They had gotten fresh turbot from the North Atlantic and we tried the peanut coated head.

{pescatarian to the extreme}

Don’t tell the kids, but we walked to our favorite ice cream for dessert, Eispatisserie Hokey Pokey. Please ask us to take you here when you come for a visit.

Since we were WhatsApping with the sitter, we knew the kids weren’t asleep, so we each had a grappa at a Georgian (as in country, not state) restaurant just a stone’s throw from our apartment called Tbilisi. Back in Atlanta, we’d stop by a restaurant called Wahoo! for a cocktails if the kids weren’t yet asleep. It was super nice to be only a three minute walk from Tbilisi. Something else we appreciate about Berlin.