Vacation: Berlin

Eli camped out on the couch with us the night before Berlin. I woke up super early to get ready first, and came back to find them sleeping like this ... hilarious.

We caught an early train to Berlin. It was five hours with a changeover ... not exactly fun, but much better than driving!

Passed out at the train station ...

Asleep on the train ...

The train ride went very smooth, until we arrived at the Berlin station and I realized I left our tickets home on the train. After flipping out, like I tend to do in such situations, I was able to print them off at the hotel, and all was well. We took the afternoon easy, and kind of lounged around the room before going to grab dinner at a place call Augustiners. The food and the atmosphere were great, and the beers were huge.

Eli, making himself right at home in the king-sized bed ...

Our hotel pool was awesome. Eli LOVES the water. Dad and Reagan bought him a little baby raft that we can't wait to try out ...

Ready for a day at the Berlin Zoo ...

Our hotel was amazing. Very pretty, and also where they filmed The Bourne Supremacy! If we didn't have such a limited time in Berlin, I think we would have spent a couple days just lounging around the hotel!

Huge stairway ...

Outside of the hotel ... you can see a piece of the Berlin wall that they have on display ...

Every touristy shop has pieces of the wall that you can purchase, and different trinkets with chunks inside them. My question is ... how do you know that it's really the Berlin Wall?? How much of this wall can really be remaining? At what point will they be filling these trinkets with random pieces of concrete that they shipped in from Detroit or something? Just a thought ...

We spent our first full day at the Berlin Zoo.

The zoo was awesome, and we saw some animals that we didn't even know existed!

The next day Reagan had some business meetings, so Vic and I got up early and walked around until we found cool stuff.

This guy woke up at 5 am every morning, but managed to fall right back to sleep in our bed ...

This is the German cathedral in the Gendarmenmarkt - which is a huge square. 

Also in the Gendarmenmarkt is this huge concert house ... 

On the stairs of the concert house ...

After the Gendarmenmarkt we wandered around to find a McDonald's and ended up in the Checkpoint Charlie area. 

Posing with the 'guard' ... I love Eli's face on this picture - he's having so much fun!

We found our McDonald's, and it was one of the coolest I have ever been in ... and, thanks to my dad, I have been in a lot of McDonald's. They had these machines where you could put your own order in, and pay ... once we were done, it was waiting for us at the counter. So cool.

The whole place was decorated like this, and the chairs were amazing ... 

Germans aren't big on breakfast. If you're eating before 11:00, it will likely include a croissant, coffee and maybe some lunch meat type thing. McDonald's is the only place we have found that you can get American breakfast food. We ate there about 10 times during this vacation, which is more than Vic has probably ate McDonald's in his whole life.  

Walking out of the Checkpoint Charlie area ...

View back onto the Checkpoint Charlie area ... the other side of the sign is a picture of a Soviet soldier. Pretty cool.

Pieces of the wall that have been salvaged, re-painted and displayed ...

Weird ...

Not sure what it represents, but it was massive.

Communication Museum ...

An eight million dollar Bugatti ... Vic was in love ... 

We met up with my dad and Reagan, and headed towards the Brandenburg Gate area. I know this is the most touristy area of Berlin, but I was not prepared for how crazy it would be. There were so many tourist traps, and weird street vendors trying to make money ...

Like this man. Yeah, that's a real man covered in sand ...

Picture of the gate ... it was very cool. And huge.

Another weirdo walking around the gate area. I'm not sure what Predator has to do with Germany or the gate, but you could get your photo with him if you wanted!

Another shot of the gate ... 

The fourth floor middle balcony is where Michael Jackson dangled his baby in front of the crowd of people ... love it ...

Poppy and Eli!

He had such a great time with my dad and Regan ... we need more visitors!!!

On our last night, dad and Reagan watched Eli so Vic and I could go out - which was awesome! We went back to Augustiners - where Vic ordered this ...

That's a knuckle of pork ... and he ate the whole thing.  

Vacation was great, and it was so good to be around family ... and ... for someone to finally meet Eli! Seriously ... brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends ... when are you going to have another opportunity to come to Germany, stay for free AND have your own personal tour guides!? Get your asses here. Now. 

Vacation: Day Trips

Two weeks ago we picked up my dad and Reagan from Frankfurt. I was nervous about the airport pick-up (huge airport and no way to communicate), but it went great! We were so happy to see family/normal people! They got in around noon, and we took it easy on them the first day ... we went home and let them unpack and nap before we headed downtown Schweinfurt for a little sightseeing and doners. They loved the doners!

The next day we took care of getting dad and Reagan their Installation passes, so we could get in the gates without a hassle. After that we headed to Rothenburg.

Random picture ... Eli is loving his new highchair, and eating solid foods!!

Climbing the medieval wall of Rothenburg ...

He loved having dad and Reagan around ... I think it was a nice break from only seeing me and Vic ...

I love this town ... so cute ...

Huge church ...

Looks like dad is grabbing the knight's butt ...

This shot looks like a fake village at Disney World ...

Climbing one of the towers ...

Eli wasn't feeling well at this point ... a mix of teething and a cold turned him into a demon baby. We decided to sit outside to eat, so we chose a cute little terraced beer garden. Eli was fussing, so of course we were drawing death-stares from the few German couples who were trying to enjoying their dinner. I got the genius idea to let Eli chew on a piece of bread to help with his teething. It seemed to be working like a charm, until he got a little choked-up. No big deal ... nothing a little pat on the back can't fix, right?? Wrong. So wrong. I was holding him, and as I went to pat his back he explosively (Exorcist-esque, minus the head-spin) vomited - ALL over me. I quickly stood up and ran for the exit as round number two began. I only had time to see the look of horror on Reagan's face, and heard her scream, "oh my God it's coming out of his nose!"
Reagan and Vic followed behind with the diaper bag and stroller. Thank goodness I brought a change of clothes for Eli, but I wasn't so lucky.
I was a mess ... my sweatshirt, t-shirt, tank top AND bra were soaked with puke. Vic had an undershirt on, so we went into an alley and both stripped from the waist up. It was not a cute wardrobe change for me, but much better than smelling like baby vomit. We managed to salvage my sweatshirt, so at least I didn't freeze.
After this minor set-back we finished our dinner, and continued on our way ... much to the delight of our fellow diners ...

After the puke-bath ... he felt much better!

Town hall of Rothenburg ...

On the Night Watchman Tour ...

Scary face on the side of one of the towers ...

Over looking Rothenburg ...

The next day we woke up early and caught the train to Nuremberg. We visited a couple amazing churches, shopped, ate, and walked around the castle grounds ...

St. Lorenz church ...

This is the awesome little restaurant where we ate lunch. It was kind of embedded in the side of the hill that lead up to the castle ... so cool. The food was pretty good, and after our long walk - the beer was even better!

Love this face! He was so good on this trip ...

Castle ...

Castle gardens ...

Another shot of the restaurant where we ate lunch ...

We found this old picture of the square during WWII ...

And got the same shot as we were standing in the square ... pretty cool. Looks a little different as Nuremburg was nearly destroyed by Allied bombing. A little history lesson for you ... Nuremburg, which had no military importance at all, was only bombed for vindictive reasons because it was Hitler's favorite town and was considered the most "German" of all cities. Interesting, huh?

After a great day in Nuremberg, we headed to the train station. We had a quick layover, and because our train was a little behind, we ended up stuck in a little town called Rottendorf. The train station itself was just one little tiny building. Vic went to investigate inside so maybe we could sit down, but said there was nothing but Playboys and a cigarette machine. Rather than complain about the situation, we headed for a little bar right across the street. The place was empty, and the owner (the cutest little old man) met us at the door like he had been waiting all day for someone to come by. He quickly put on some music for us, poured us beers, and started to tell us about his family that had owned the restaurant for hundreds of years. I wish we could have stayed there longer, but we only had about thirty minutes before our train came. We said our goodbyes, as he walked us out, and waved from the door until we got back across the street ... seriously ... it was so cute. It was a nice little detour, and Vic and I would love to go back one of these days. 

On our third day, we headed to Wurzburg. Vic and I had recently visited, but we were not able to see the fortress, so that was our goal for the day.

Wurzburg has one of my favorite churches ...

I knew it was going to be a little hike, but I decided to keep that information to myself. Curiosity grew as we got across the bridge, and I started fielding questions about how we were going to get the the top. I made mention of a walking path with a slight incline, and promised the view would be worth it. What I wasn't aware of was the large amount of stairs mixed in with that (not so slight) incline. Dad and Vic ended up carrying the stroller, while I strapped Eli into his harness. A lot of sweat and 20 minutes later ... we made it to the top, and promptly found the nearest beer garden.

View of the fortress from the bridge ...

Fortress gate ...

Moat ... or at least where it used to be ...

Prisoner tower ...

Love this picture ...

Fountain ...

Vic's castle door picture ...

The view from the top was worth the hike!

Dad and Reagan in front of the Residenz before we did the tour ...

While leaving Wurzburg Vic was at the wheel, and approaching a stoplight when a man kind of stepped into traffic - not at a cross-walk, mind you. My dad made a comment about how he almost walked into the car, but we didn't think much of it. Well, seconds later the same man appeared at my driver's side window, and began SCREAMING at us in German. We all kind of sat there, stunned, and all looking at each other trying to figure out what in the hell was going on. Vic was just smiling at him and nodding his head, which only appeared to infuriate him more. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but I heard the German word for 'shit' several times ... I'm guessing he was most likely pairing it with, 'piece of ____' or 'eat ____, and die' ... either way this verbal tirade went on for a good 45 seconds. I finally reached over and locked the doors, and we were all cracking up by the time we pulled away. When we got up to the next stoplight the car next to us signaled for me to roll down the window ... they only spoke German as well, but made some hand gestures like the guys was drunk or crazy, and then gave a thumbs up before driving away. At least we had someone on our side! For most of the ride home we discussed this crazed man; what he could have been screaming, why he was screaming, etc. The whole scenario was fantastic, and I wish we had it on video ...

That night we dropped the dogs off at the boarder, and headed to a nice dinner at our favorite spot - The Stables. We had an early train to catch to Berlin, so it was an early night!