Similar to Spencer’s birthday, we celebrated Meg’s birthday first at home, and then with friends. For her birthday dinner, she decided on French toast and fruit salad. To celebrate with friends, she picked a place in the Netherlands called Clip n Climb, which was the location for one of her friends’ parties last fall. This year she requested a galaxy cake. Two of her friends asked for the recipe, so it was definitely a hit. That’s another notch on Clare’s cake-making belt. Even though she claims to not be good at it, she has a track record of some pretty incredible cakes.
Meg climbing
Meg the speedy climber
Galaxy cake in the middle
One of the climbing adventures was a timed one – Meg did it about 10 times in a row, getting faster each time. I think her first one was over 40 seconds, and she eventually got done to about 15 seconds!
This year we didn’t really celebrate Spencer’s birthday directly on his birthday, because his birthday was over Carnival weekend, and we instead went to Berlin for a long weekend. Instead we adjusted the schedule a bit, but kept some of the traditions. We had Spencer’s family birthday dinner of Schnitzel, Käsespätzle, Broccoli and ice cream cake with Dave and Ellen on the 18th. Then on Friday the 28th Spencer and most of his soccer team, plus his best friend from school Andre celebrated at the local laser tag place. It was legen — wait for it — dary!
Spencer helping make the cake (with a ski mask of course)
Our last day in Berlin was probably my favorite – we took a tour of the Bundestag, including the dome. The Reichstag building was built in 1894 and housed the German parliament until 1933, when it was damaged by fire, and the Nazis dissolved parliament. The fire was an act of arson, which was blamed on a Dutch Communist, but was likely done by the Nazis themselves as an excuse to dissolve parliament. It wasn’t until 1999 that it began to house parliament again. Tours are free, but need to be booked well in advance, which Clare took care of. She was able to reserve a tour in English, which was helpful for her parents to understand what was going on. Some other interesting aspects of the restoration include leaving some of the graffiti left by Soviet soldiers after the end of World War II.
Elementary school across from our apartment
Fedibbletys by the Brandenburg gate
Clare and Meg by the Reichstag building
Spencer at the Reichstag
Rob, Spencer, and Meg at the Reichstag
Spencer, Meg, and Rob at the Reichstag
Soviet graffiti from 1945
Art displaying speeches from the Bundestag
Mixture of old and new in the Bundestag building
Offices in the Bundestag for ministers, including Angela Merkel
German eagle, weighing 2.5 tons
The building across the street was formerly in East Berlin
Monument in the basement with the names of all the Bundestag members from 1918 to 1999
This stair marks where the Berlin wall used to be
Part of a tunnel from the Reichstag to the former office of Göhring
Model of the Bundestag and surroundings
The legislative assembly hall
Glass dome as seen from the plenary hall
Meg in the plenary hall
View from the top of the Bundestag building
Dome from the roof
Inner courtyard art – “to the people”
Government way
360 mirrors reflect the light into the plenary hall
One of the benefits of the Welcome Berlin card we bought for the public transit was some discounts at some restaurants – we were able to take advantage of these several times. One of the options was at MacLaren’s Pub, a restaurant created after the pub of the same name from the tv show How I met your Mother. We had just recently finished watching the show together as a family, and the kids were very excited to go there. The 5 minute walk from the subway seemed longer in the wind and rain, but it was worth it. They had all sorts of cool memorabilia, and pretty good food and drinks too. Spencer and I wanted to suit up for the occasion, which meant that we both bought new ties at the mall of Berlin.
Clare, Dave, Ellen, Meg, and Spencer at Checkpoint Charlie
For our second full day in Berlin we first headed to the Berlin wall museum at Checkpoint Charlie. I think we all really enjoyed it. There is a huge amount of artifacts and information about the wall packed into a relatively small space. Other than the occasional piece of the wall here and there scattered about Berlin, it is nearly impossible to notice the differences between West and East anymore.
Car used to smuggle people from East to West Berlin
Map used by Churchhill at the Potsdam conference to split up Germany
Meg looks through the victims of the Soviet persecutions in the GDR
Raoul Wallenberg helped many Jews in Hungary escape the Holocaust
Another car used for escapes
Meg and Ellen by the big globe pointing to Denver
Meg and Ellen pointing to Würselen on the big globe
For our first full day in Berlin, we headed out to Potsdam to visit the famous palace of Sans Souci, which means “without worry” in French. Frederick the Great spent his summers there in the 18th century. The entire park houses several different palaces. Sans Souci was Frederick the Great’s favorite palace. It is actually not that big for a palace, with only about a dozen rooms. We took the train from Berlin out to the park. We arrived near the new palace, but had timed tickets for Sans Souci, which is on the other side of the park, so we had a pretty long walk to get there. Fortunately it wasn’t rainy.
Meg by the map of the grounds
Back of the new palace
Greenhouses in the park
The Chinese tower
Dibbles by the Chinese tower
Mistletoe in a tree
Strolling through the gardens
Terraces of Sans Souci
Swan in the river
Ducks near Sans Souci
Pretty duck
Meg and Spencer with Swan in background at Sans Souci park
Meg on the steps of Sans Souci
Ceiling of entryway to Sans Souci
Clare in Sans Souci
Chandelier and rokoko relief
Rokoko table, with leaf designs inspired by nature
Fireplace
Portraits of Frederick the great
This room was later resigned with neoclassical columns
Ornate rokoko ceiling with spider’s nest
Chandelier and ceiling
Piano – Frederick the great was an accomplished musician
Marble bust
Marble floor
Ornate dome
Crystal chandelier
More rokoko detail
Guest bedroom
Subtle door
Paintings of Italian scenes
Snowball vases from Meissen
Fancy clock
Flower chandelier
Flowery details on walls and ceiling
Andy Warhol’s Frederick the Great
After the tour of Sans Souci we had a little snack of leftover rolls from breakfast and some fruit, and then found a bus that took us back to the new palace for the tour there. We stopped at the museum shop there to get a cookbook that Meg liked, and then we got a tour of the new palace, which is much bigger than Sans Souci. Frederick the Great had it built to display the wealth and power of the kingdom of Prussia. Emperor Wilhelm the second spent much of the last several years of his reign during World War I here. One of the many interesting facts we learned was that Frederick the Great allowed common people to tour the palace even while he was in power, so long as they were dressed appropriately (which for women apparently meant wearing a dress 6 feet wide).
Gigantic porcelain vases
Previously the kitchen for the new palace, now part of Potsdam university
Gate connecting two buildings
The new palace was built to display the wealth of the kingdom of Prussia
View from the steps of the new palace
Statue near the entrance of the new palace
Statue in the grotto room
Marble floor in the grotto room
Real seashells in the walls
Over 20,000 seashells in the walls
More seashells
The red salon
Ornate rokoko
Parquet floor
Sans-Souci-051
Snowball vases
Photograph of the room from 1913
A signature pineapple in the chandelier marks it as being made in Berlin
The fest hall marble floor
Marble stucco wall
Ceiling of the fest hall
The fest hall is 6000 square feet
After the tours we had a tasty lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in Potsdam, then made a brief stop at the Nauener gate before heading back to our aparment in Berlin near the Brandenburg gate.
Fedibbletys at the Nanauer gate
We had to change trains from the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn at Zoologischer Garten, and I managed to drag everyone to the Kaiser Wilhelm remembrance church, which, while only a few blocks away, seemed long for tired legs. I think it was worth it though, to see the contrast of one mostly-destroyed church from WWII, and the new church right next to it, which is bathed in blue light from the stained glass windows.
The swim club has an internal swim meet every December. In January they present the awards. Meg was really excited for it. Last year she got 3rd place, and this year 2nd. Her times were: 56.40 50m freestyle, 1:10.22 50m breast, and 1:09.84 50m backstroke. This was Spencer’s first year, and he didn’t make it into the top three, mostly because he was just getting over from a nasty cold, but he still got a medal. His times were 47.78s 50m freestyle, 1:06.72, 50m breast, and 1:05.13 50m backstroke. We are very proud of both of our swimmers!
