Berlin

Maybe I should title this post "A 6-8 hour drive without any technological advancements, except the car and cameras"

We finally found some time where Tim could take a couple days off work and we could make the trek out to Berlin.  Berlin is roughly a 6 hour drive from our home, and since we have children, that makes the drive a LOT longer.  Tim wanted to take the Honda (I seriously still don't know why we didn't just buy another Honda when we moved here instead of the stupid Dodge) because it just drives so much better than our van with the movie player.  He wanted to take it so bad, I finally agreed.  We also agreed we'd do the trip without DS's or iPods, or anything gadgety.  I pulled out the travel bags, which got the kiddos so excited (I created that travel bags for the long road trips to Utah from Cali.... the kiddos love them) and packed us up for the trips.  We didn't have a set plan, we knew that we had a few places we definitely wanted to see while out there, and we figured we'd would just sort of wing it.  We stopped at BK for lunch, then off we went.

My favorite thing about my new phone, is the easy "selfie" feature that made taking this photo so much easier.

Found mini etch a sketches at the store, and they were the BIGGEST hit of the entire trip

"Mom, let's take a picture together!"

Maybe an hour into the drive........ "Mom, I need to go to the bathroom, where can we stop?"  Why right here at the graffiti covered rest stop my dear.  Please don't touch anything, and hurry!  (BTW the sink in the rest stops are so freaking cool!  This one had one button you push, a small stream of soap drips out on the right, then you wait, then a stream of water rushes for a few seconds, then you wait, then air starts blowing. All in one little sink alcove)

I think what I love about Europe the most are the ruins, everywhere.  This was just off the side of the autobahn, and on the other side.....

Another one..... 

When traveling with children, or at least our children, eating adventurously doesn't happen, so McD's it is.

 Finally, coming into Berlin.  (Please excuse the bug carcasses, it was us or them!)

Davin gave himself a marker mustache

Turns out, after the initial complaint of not having their gadgets in the car, the kids had a great time on the drive.  Corben and Rylissa took pictures with their cameras they got two Christmases ago, and were constantly looking out the window telling us what they saw.  Davin and Tayzia went nuts over their etch a sketches, and little whiteboard doodlepads.  There were hardly any complaints, except when they needed to stop at a bathroom (way too often...) and I think we'll travel without gadgets more often.

We rented an apartment for the weekend.  We found that it isn't much more expensive than a hotel room (which, let's face it, in any area except Utah, wont' accommodate a family of 6 without taking your arm and leg) and it's an apartment.  Meaning plenty of room for all of us.

A kitchen

A living room

 A long hallway that leads us to 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a shower room.

 All of the bedrooms looked like this, meaning they all had two twin sized beds.  This room had the beds together as a queen, but the rest had the beds separated, which worked perfect for the kiddos.

The apartment had 3 bathrooms technically, this one, one that had just a sink and shower, and one that just had a sink and toilet.  It was literally just an apartment.  The location was great.  We were right across the street from a bunker museum, that sadly was inappropriate for children (something about a museum inside of torture devices).  It was almost in the city center, so it was close to metro stations, and a 13 minute walk to Checkpoint Charlie, which was where we planned to go the very next day.  Sadly, there was absolutely NO parking anywhere.  We finally found a train station that had a parking garage.  You could pay for up to a week of parking.  It was about 5 blocks from where we were staying, but we weren't planning to drive around Berlin at all, so we opted to pay.  It was a huge relief to have a spot, and know we wouldn't get ticked for parking on the wrong street, or wrong place.  We finally settled in and went to bed, which was very hard because the people that actually lived upstairs were very noisy, all night long.  Thumps, bangs, walking in heels, and dragging sounds.  Ugh