What Ana Does

In conjunction with the Berlin travel post, here's all the nitty-gritty details, in case you're planning a trip to Berlin (and it's an excellent, walkable, interesting city to visit) and want to follow some of our footsteps. Friday Arrive! We stayed at Art'otel in Mitte. It's a bit off the beaten track, as we wanted to be near where our temporary 2010 apartment was but it's a lovely hotel, our room was huge and the people were very friendly. It's equidistant from Alexanderplatz and Gendarmenmarkt, which had the big Christmas Markets   we most wanted to visit.  Our first meal was at Momotaro Tavern just under the TV Tower. Burgers and Asian dishes seems like a strange combination but the food was spectacular. The girls ate chicken burgers and I got a yummy pho!   The Christmas Market was just around the corner and was the largest we walked through. It had an ice skating rink (ring) in the center, too.  We walked back to the hotel because it was ...

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 Fr...