Berliners and Hamburgers

"One thing about trains -- It doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on."

-- The Polar Express


When we boarded a train earlier in October, we knew where we were going, but the kids surely didn't care. What was important to them was a new adventure: bunk beds on a train! We took the "City Night Line" from Basel to Berlin, and experienced spending the night on a train. Berlin was a good city to travel to because we did not need to change trains during the night, and we were able to have enough time to get a decent night of sleep (we were on the train from 9 pm until about 7:30 am). Bob and the boys seemed to sleep fine in our family compartment -- I, however, often woke up with braking and rumbling from the train. Oh well, we had some laughs about the bunks and nearly had a roommate (who was in the wrong car). The train is not the quickest option, but it can be much cheaper than flying especially if you account for lack of hotel room costs. 

Last stop on the bike tour, Brandenburg Gate

Berlin was a huge city with a lot of history and a surprising amount of green space. We enjoyed a full-day bike tour (similar to the one we did in Paris).  It was a great way to cover a lot of ground with the kids. We saw famous sites such as Checkpoint Charlie, the Wall, and Brandenburg Tor (Gate). These were important history lessons that really had impact by touring the city in person. For example, the Holocaust Memorial was a fairly stark and simple monument that encompassed a city block and was very powerful. I was surprised by how much re-building is still going on since World War II, especially on "Museum Island". We visited the Pergamon Museum  which was a great place for all of us to see Egyptian artifacts, especially because Landon is studying Egypt in school. 

The next stop on our train journey was Hamburg, a major port city. We made sure to take a boat tour of the harbor. The coastal feel of the city was something we haven't experienced in a while, given that we are living in land-locked Switzerland. It reminded us of New England and although the weather was quite rainy, we enjoyed doing a lot of walking. We also took a day trip to Lübeck, a small city famous for its medieval gate and marzipan.

According to the train theme of this holiday, we visited Hamburg's "Miniatur Wunderland", the world's largest model train layout. It was very impressive, with layouts modeled after countries such as Switzerland, Austria and Scandanavia (and some US sections). There were model trains, of course, but also planes, gondolas, subways and cars. The layouts even lit up for night cycles. It was worth a visit.

Lübeck

And did we eat a few Hamburgers? Well, we actually enjoyed being able to find more International restaurants while traveling to Northern Germany. In fact, we're not sure if it's true that Hamburgers came from Hamburg. But we did enjoy Berliners -- a sugar coated, jelly donut. Bakeries seemed to be around every corner in Berlin. But Berlin is also home to 29(!) Dunkin' Donuts! I have to admit that we were excited to also make a stop at one of the chains to have a Halloween donut. It very much reminded me of home!