Busy Is An Understatement Part 2

I am trying to pick up where I left off but likely the biggest development has been that Calvin started daycare! It has been a very different experience from the US daycare experience. In Germany they do a very slow transition process in order to make sure the child feels very comfortable being left there. In hindsight, it would have been so much easier to start this process after we moved into the new apartment given that the daycare is located on the first floor of our building. We are on the 3rd floor and could literally lower Cal down with a bucket and some rope if we wanted to. Instead we started at the beginning of July and it involved me taking a 25 minute walk to daycare pushing a stroller in heat and/or rain, staying there with Calvin for an hour and walking back home. We did this for a week and on the 4th day I would leave the room for 10-15 minutes and come back in to get him. Week 2 we transitioned this time to an hour and half or 2 hours and I would leave for 30 minutes and eventually an hour and then come back. While it was nice to do the soft transition for Calvin, it was hard on this pregnant lady some days especially when it was hot and humid. Week 3 he was going for about 5 hours and at that point I would drop him off and then go home, and then come back to pick him up. It equated to about 2 hours of walking a day. Great exercise but it took everything out of me. To sum up how it went though, he happily and confidently walks into daycare now and says bye or "Tschuss" to mom or dad and is totally fine to go do his own thing so the process really does work. He seems to love it there and I really enjoy their approach to letting the kids have choices in just about everything they do. It is all play focused and they do not really start "teaching" children here until much later in life. They want kids to be kids and learn through play and it just seems like so much less pressure to perform compared to the US.

Towards the end of July we took our first weekend trip. We went and explored the city of Berlin. It was a great experience taking the high speed train for the first time in Germany. We basically took a bus to the main train hub here in Hamburg. This was crazy, so many tracks and tons of people. It was a bit overwhelming at first but as soon as we figured out how the system works it was really simple. We paid for first class tickets and the train was incredible. So much space, so clean and very comfortable. It is about an hour and 45 minute train ride from Hamburg to Berlin. There is a cafe on the train with a car full of booths to go sit and eat if you would like and we actually took Cal there for a bit to kill some time and get him a snack. In our train car there were also servers that would come and take a drink or food order as well which was nice. We loved the train and can't wait to take it to more places throughout Germany and Europe.

We stayed at a wonderful hotel right by the Zoo in Berlin called the Pullman Berlin Schweizerhof hotel. It was so nice and the service there was wonderful. We ended up getting in there around 6pm on Friday evening so we grabbed dinner from the hotel restaurant, got Cal bathed and in bed and snuggled up and watched a movie. Wild night I know but it was actually so nice and did I mention air conditioned!?! We woke up fairly early as we typically do these days and got coffees from the hotel, took our time getting ready and then headed out. Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie. This was one of the Berlin border crossings through the Berlin wall that connected the US (West) and Soviet (East) sectors. The actual checkpoint is still there in the middle of the street and there is a giant billboard with a picture of a US soldier on one side and a Russian soldier on the other side. It is hard to describe the feeling being there but you really just feel like you are transported to a time in history that was full of turmoil. To think this huge city was just completely cut off from one another on either side of the wall is pretty incredible. We were there so early that it was virtually empty and so nice to be able to go up and take pictures in the middle of the street.

Our second stop was the Bradenburger Tor which was a quick train ride from Checkpoint Charlie. This is a triumphal gate that was built at the end of the 1700's. It is the only remaining gate of the last 18 Berlin city gates. It is the most famous Berlin landmark with many historical events of the 19th and 20th centuries taking place here. It stood directly on the border between East and West Berlin as well. It is also thought of as a symbol to overcoming the split of Germany and Europe since 1990. This was full of many tourists taking photos by the time we arrived and I am sure only got busier throughout the day. I took a picture of Aaron and Cal and will also show you a pretty eye opening photo back from the Nazi Era in that same exact place. This was cool to see and it gave Cal an opportunity to run around the huge area and expel some energy.

Our third and final stop was the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was just a short walk from the Bradenburg Tor. This memorial was designed by Peter Eisenmen and consists of 2,711 concrete cubes or blocks of different heights. An interesting fact about the number of cubes is that there really is no significance to that number. In walking through it you become engulfed and almost lost in the chaos of it as it is extremely hilly and you can be engulfed in these little tiny rows with these cement blocks just towering above you. One interpretation is that it was created to be a "zone of instability" to try and help grasp the extent and scope of the holocaust which is almost impossible to represent in any traditional way. At other areas of the monument you can look out to a sea of the blocks that seems to stretch on forever. It was a sobering moment for sure and I am so glad we got to go see it.

After leaving our touristy spots Aaron really wanted to go have a traditional German meal so we ended up at this spot called the Alt-Berliner Wirtshaus. We lucked out in that Cal had fallen asleep in his stroller by this time and so we were able to enjoy lunch completely uninterrupted. Aaron got a traditional giant beer with his German platter of Currywurst, Schnitzel and German potato salad. I had a huge baked potato and it was delicious especially after walking around all day long. We had plans to go back to the hotel and freshen up before hitting the zoo but we ended up smack in the middle of a Pride parade where our bus stop was located to get back to the hotel. Because it was Pride weekend in Berlin, a lot of streets were shut down. We ended up having to walk back to the hotel and it was a solid 40 minute walk pushing a stroller and 27 pound baby in about 80 degree heat. I was absolute toast by the end of that walk. We got back to the hotel and we did relax a bit. We tried to rally and go to the zoo but it was still so hot and Cal was pretty ornery after our long day we only made it about 30 minutes before heading back and deciding to get dinner and bring it back to eat in the room. We couldn't even stomach trying to eat out at a restaurant at that point. We got a great Italian meal and were so happy to eat in our comfy clothing while also sitting in a fully air conditioned room. We hit it pretty early and the next morning we began our trek back home. It was a wonderful albeit short weekend trip and we enjoyed Berlin. I would love to go back and do some more exploring as we really only got to see a small part of the city. We were happy to be home because the following week we were moving!

As rough as the transition process was to get Cal settled into daycare, it was so nice that he was fully transitioned by the time we officially moved into our permanent flat! Drop off is now a complete breeze and takes about 3 minutes. We are so in love with it. Yes, it is much smaller than our home in Atlanta but for Hamburg and truthfully European standards, the apartment is very spacious. It is a 3 bedroom flat with a big balcony, so much natural light, a modern kitchen and plenty of storage for everything we could not fit. There is also a large playground in the middle of the complex for the children and it's awesome to see so many families out there every single evening and weekend. We are really working on making it our own and just feel so happy and grateful to be here.

The building is brand new and so one thing we need to do as tenants here that is different from home is put in all new lighting fixtures. Apartments here come wired with some light bulbs hanging down but they do not come with standard light fixtures. It is our responsibility to install those. As annoying as that can be it will be nice to add our touch to every room in that way. I know I mentioned previously there are no built-in closets in the apartments here as well. This has been a challenge trying to put things away and we have purchased two wardrobes and will add another one to the hallway and both kids rooms in order to have more storage space and the ability to hang coats/clothing and store shoes. I promise to add some pictures soon but would really like to have everything in order before doing so.

We are focused now on getting our apartment cleaned up and fully settled in here and then we will start exploring the neighborhood which already seems much more lively than our previous one. We have already gotten take out from a few great restaurants, found a few coffee shops we love and are making ourselves at home here. I will keep you updated on that and the best finds soon. Hamburg is feeling more and more like home for the Ham-Berger's!

Tschuss!

Katy