Tag Archives: Chika

Le Petit Chef

Leave a reply
Our Menu

Le Petit Chef had been on our to do list for some time. I had originally booked for our anniversary date night in November 2021, but Teo contracted COVID so we needed to postpone. Fast forward to 2022 and we decided to change our date event into a pre-birthday celebration for our two Aries in the house — Teo and Chika. I think it was even more enjoyable as a family experience, and the entertainment gave Chika and me more time to relax and enjoy the 5 course meal (along with a bottle of champagne and a bottle of red wine). Rather than describe the event, I will let the pictures and video (photo credits go to Chika) speak for themselves. If you want to learn more about it, you can click here.

Entrance
Waiting for the show
Enjoying the lights
Immersive
Part of the show
Part of the show
Serving
After the Show
Toast

Indian Summer in Berlin

Leave a reply

It’s a bit sad to see that my last post was all the way back in August (what happened to September).  I even have an iPhone now, so it’s pretty poor track record which I will need to fix.  In the meantime, we have the exciting news of our new nephew/cousin William Logan Wolfson, whom I am hoping to see (and post about) soon.

But back to our story, it was a “million dollar day” (as WW#1 used to say) here in Berlin, so we needed to take advantage.  While we had originally planned a short roadtrip to the west lakes of Wansee, we hit a snag at our favorite bagel place (Fine Bagel) as all the sweet bagels were still in the oven.  We decided that there were plenty of lakes around close by, but not so many good bagels and thus camped at a local playground for the next 30 minutes until our goods were ready.  Now fully prepared for our picnic, we headed to Treptow Park and Berlin Inslet (a small island in the middle of the river, accessible by a bridge).  We enjoyed a nice picnic (with a few too many end of season bees) with our fresh bagels, and then decided on a paddleboat adventure on the spree.  We were not sure how Teo would last, but he managed to stay inside the boat thanks to Chika’s watchful supervision.

Next time, maybe we will go for the motorboat 🙂

Salzburg and Munich

Leave a reply

Wow.  Things have been busy.  But a few minutes to catch up on the family adventures.  Work in Munich started at the beginning of June right after a long weekend for the boys.  So we decided to head south en mass and do some extended Bavarian exploring.  One city which had popped up on our radar was Salzburg, home to Mozart and just over the border from Germany.  What a great city it was, especially for the kids.  We stayed at a hotel about 20 km outside of town set in a beautiful country lake area.  Even though the weather was rainy/overcast, we had been given fantastic big rooms at the hotel and enjoyed the indoor pool.  The city was really nice as well, with a great toy museum for the boys.  Munich was unfortunately impacted by some fever for Teo, but we did get to the famous Englisher Garten for some beer and fresh roasted mackerel.  Overall a fantastic trip which is likely to be repeated.

 

Lunch at Carpe Diem Finger Food
Salzburg Old Town
Salzburg Toy Museum
Englisher Garten
Englisher Garten
Lunch at Carpe Diem Finger Food
Lunch at Carpe Diem Finger Food

Japan Visit: Short, but so sweet

Leave a reply

So it seemed like the major work I needed to do to get my job situation and other things were taken care of, a long Easter weekend was coming up, and British Airways was having a fare sale.  So there seems little reason not to jump over to see the family in Japan for a week.  I think it was one of the better decisions of recent times, as we all had a great time and got to all relax outside the pressures of day to day life.  And of course, there was lots and lots of eating great food.  I am already looking forward to the next trip.

 

Chika’s grandparents house/office
Isakaya
Isakaya
Chika’s grandparents house
Sushi
Sushi
Sushi
Tasty Yuba Maki
Sashimi
Making Mochi
Making Mochi
Making Mochi
Curio Expresso
Fluffy Pancake Cafe
Fluffy Pancake Cafe
Fluffy Pancake Cafe
Fluffy Pancake Cafe
Fluffy Pancake Cafe
Kanazawa
Sashimi
Squid
Enjoying Lunch with the Mrs.
Breakfast Soba

Hanami in Berlin

Leave a reply

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect early spring Sunday.  The morning was a bit crisp, but the afternoon was perfect for enjoying the sun without being baked.  A Japanese friend had organized a Hanami (flower blooming) party and we had a fantastic picnic under the cherry blossom trees.  It was paradise.

Tel Aviv and More

Leave a reply

It was an unexpected holiday.  There was a flash 48 hour Internet sale and there happened to be a hotel on the beach in Tel Aviv for $87 per night.  And then there also happened to be some frequent flyer tickets available.  So without much investigation we were suddenly off to Tel Aviv for 4 nights.  We started doing our homework, checking in with friends and contacts, and researching the Internet.  We read the news reports that it snowed in Jerusalem just the week before (wondering if our beach front hotel was now an out of the way destination).  Even as we were taking off, we didn’t know what really to expect.

We were more than pleasantly surprised.  Our fears of intense airport security policies were completely wrong (in fact when Kai fell asleep during check-in on the way home they never asked us to take him out of the stroller).  Weather was sunny in the 60’s the whole time.  The city and the people were incredibly child friendly — the candy hawker in the market was more upset with us than with Kai when he kept sampling the candy — “let him enjoy, he’s a kid”.

We ate well through the trip.  Our friend Babak took us to a great local hummus place built in an old synagogue.  We dined with our friend Matan a local chef’s place which could have rivaled any joint in Soho. When we sat down at the Old Man and the Sea at the Jaffa Port, with two minutes we were presented with the obligatory 20 salads (yes 20).  And they were fantastic.  And we even managed to indulge in some fine patisserie delights at a beautiful restaurant/bakery.

We decided to take a day trip to Jerusalem even though we couldn’t find a babysitter for Kai.  We rented a car which worked out fine — the traffic however was intense both ways. Both boys cooperated for the most part during our explorations in old city Jerusalem.  Kai slept shortly after arriving.  Needless to day, the old city was not the ideal place for a stroller.  Overall, it was a bit heavy on the tourist souvenirs (the entire inner city is a middle eastern marketplace) but it was good to connect with the past.  When we were flying in, the Israeli next to me commented on my first trip to Israel, “you are closing the loop that is over 2000 years old”.

It was a great trip, and certainly on the radar for a revisit.

Our Hotel — Crowne Plaza Tel Aviv Beach
The Family at the Jaffa Gate
The Western Wall
The Western Wall
The Church of the Sepulchre
Dining as Kai Sleeps
Dining as Kai Sleeps
Patisserie at Dallal
Outdoors at Dallal
Market
Market
Great Hummus
Hummus Restaurant
Creme Fraiche Pizza at Abraxas
Fresh Tomatoes at Abraxas
Kai loving the beach
Pilgrimage Completed

Family Vacation — Chapter 1

Leave a reply

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.

Chilling on the beach
Why is it so cold
Checking out the pier
Teo and Papa
Teo and papa
A special number
A special number
Kai discovers the bar
Kai and Atle trying to steal a catamaran
Cruising the beach
Pit shop
Observing the chaos
Run
Surfing the sand
Trampoline by sea
The back seat crew
1st seashore in Europe
Spa luxury
All the Wolfson men at the bar
Party central in Bansin
Pool party
The fish
Breakfast

Making the best of it

Leave a reply

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.

WP_20130824_001[1]