A Flashback Weekend in Berlin

Family Portrait 2010
In 2010, we lived in Berlin for 7 weeks for David's company and it was a fun, busy, crazy time with the kids being so young and still trying to see everything -- including a trip to Paris and Milan. (I wrote an entire blog while there and it's been hilarious to look back at all we did -- with a 2 and 4-year-old.)

But the whole time we lived there, the residence were all lamenting that we'd miss the Christmas Markets -- everyone's favorite event in Berlin. We've been to Christmas Markets in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. but the Berlin markets were supposed to be some of the best.

The impassioned pleas stayed with us -- so we planned a trip to Berlin for this weekend. Not only did we want to explore those markets, but we also wanted to rediscover the neighborhood and things we became so familiar with when we lived there. I want to visit all those landmarks that we went to everyday.

The Family This Weekend
We flew out Friday morning -- less than 2 hour flight -- and stayed near our old neighborhood called Mitte. Once we landed and checked-in, we set out for Alexanderplatz for lunch and our first Christmas market.

Again, I researched great restaurants I knew my family would love, but here's where I went wrong: The Christmas Markets have lots and lots of food! So we filled up at this excellent burger and pho (?!) restaurant and hit the markets with a full stomach. No room for flavored nuts, pretzels, cookies, waffles, homemade potato chips, etc.

We did the same thing on Saturday too, great breakfast and no room for all the goodies that we found in the Gendarmenmarkt Christmas market.

Other than visiting four markets, we did some shopping around KaDeWe, the big, historic department store on the west side of the city. We stopped by the Brandenburg Gate and walked around Potsdamer Plaza. And all the while we told the girls funny stories of the adorable (and not so adorable) little things they did when we were here. It was great.

My favorite part was visiting this huge new building that is now up at the site of the old palace we used to walk passed every day. At the time, it was an archeological dig eight years ago and now it's a big, classical-mixed building.
2010 - The Site of a Palace, Construction and Archeological Dig 
2018 - The New Building, Berliner Dom Just Behind It
I think the girls' favorite part was the lack of a history lesson we offered. Usually, I spout fun facts about historical events of what we're looking at -- I don't stop when we're in London. But the one big thing I learned while we lived in Berlin was that their history is all pretty horrific. Even before the awful events of the World Wars, the kings were tyrants with horrible stories. So, no ... I love Berlin but for what it is today and the thoughtful regrowth of the city. Its history? Yikes.

Besides all that, here's just a plea to go visit this city. There are tons of museum, fun things for kids to do. It's very walkable, great places to eat, the world's best chocolate shop, nice people and the buildings are tastefully modern. There's still a lot of construction (the area near Alexanderplatz was mostly dug up) so this city is constantly changing and evolving.

Get a full list of where we stayed, what we did and where we ate in the details post.



Related posts:
Here's that link again to the 2010 blog I wrote about our Berlin travel
All the nitty-gritty details about this trip
More travel posts

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