Author Archives: alex

Family Vacation — Chapter 1

We love Kai’s kita (the pre-school here in Germany).  Except when it comes to holidays when they always seem to be taking the liberty of staying closed even when the holiday is over just because its Friday.  So since Kai was out of school, we decided to make a long weekend of it.  Our friends suggested a beachside resort on the Baltic a few hours drive away.  A good alternative to getting us all on a plane somewhere, and had been on the agenda for some time so we were in.  It was a good first run experience — overall, the car rides went smoothly — the biggest issue was missing on of the exits on the way up (and getting stuck in massive traffic jam for 40 minutes).  The place was nice and really well prepared for kids.  They had a kids club where we could drop the older kids off after 9am — good fun for them, and a bit more freedom for us.  The sit down meals weren’t perfectly serene, but we managed to enjoy part of it.  And the town was quaint with a nice promenade in front of the beach.  We had some fun, learned a lot, and got to forget about some of the day-to-day issues which don’t add much value.

More from the Sunday Day Dates

We are getting quite comfy with our Sunday morning routine — our friends drop their kids at our place whom we leave with Kai’s teacher, and then we head off with Teo for a relaxing brunch.  This week we decided to venture to the California Breakfast Slam.  It’s not in a neighborhood we traditionally head to, but we are growing more bold/confident in our Sunday excursions.  It is actually housed in a place which is a bar in the evening — the large communal table in the room where we sat was actually the pool table under cover.  But it turned out to be fitting environment — homey, cozy, with good portions of comfort food.  They even provided you with water without having to order it by the bottle — almost unheard of in Berlin.  Not all the eats were perfect — the poached eggs on the eggs benedict were a bit overpoached — but still a good change of pace from the traditional Berlin brunch fare.  Will venture again.

Making the best of it

We were on just on the way to breakfast when it happened.  I was carrying Kai on my shoulders at I often do and mistepped on some cobblestone and then both Kai and I came down.  Kai got the worst of it, coming chin down and making an unpleasant gash which started bleeding.  So a beautiful sunny morning was spent in the hospital waiting for the one surgeon to take a look and then glue the wound shut.

But we had lollipops, ice cream, swinging in the park, pancakes with berries, syrup AND whipped cream (plus mom and dad had a break for a few hours while the kids slept off their individual ailments — Teo was a bit under the weather as well).  24 hours later, we were not perfect, but on the way to recovery.

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Bite Club

Who would have believed that we would go to two food festivals in two day with offspring. But we did it.  The second time around it was just Kai, Maki, and myself going to check out Bite Club.  From a food perspective, it is quite similar to Street Food Thursdays, but the atmosphere is a bit different.  It’s directly on the spree, part on land and part on a boat.  And it happens to be next to a floating swimming pool/beach venue which tends to draw a more partying crowd.  We got there at opening at 6, so it was still a bit tame.  But by the time we left at 7 it was getting packed with long queues.  Best food of the day: pulled pork bbq sandwich on a grilled long hot dog bun with pickles and creme fraiche and crumbed bbq potato chips. YUM!