Parks Galore

When chatting with my brother Tyler the other day, we got on the topic of parks around our house. I tried to explain how parks work here, but a visual is much easier. There used to be an awesome website highlighting all the amazing options, but it seems to be down. Here's the link in case it goes live again.

As a reference, Paul's face is where we live. To walk to the top park - Armin - right by the Kita would take about 20 minutes, and the Buttbreaker in the SW corner also 20 minutes. Because we have the ultimate bike set-up, we only walk if it is less than 10 minutes.

Before Corona-time, I'd tell you I'm not a park person as they usually don't check the box of fun for parents and adults. When school was going and life was normal there wasn't a lot of time to go to parks. Paul would maybe take the kids out on one of the weekend days while I had some downtime. I subscribe to the French parenting motto of "Kids play, parents talk" or if I'm by myself "Kids play, Mommy exercises". But enter Corona...and you'll find me (or one of our awesome babysitters) at one of these locations.

Armin Platz

With half day school, this is a regular hang-out after I pick Ella and Crosby up from school. They do have some breaks in half-day school, but a little more running around is always good. We pick-up Hugo and then Ella practices her babysitting skills.

This park also helped Crosby hone his climbing skills back in his Kita days. These amazing climbing structures would never fly in the USA. Another reason we're thankful to be here in this phase of parenting.

I don't even know park

Paul went to Mauerpark with the kids (the big green area with three parks). When I went to meet-up with him, he said to follow his face on google maps because he'd never even been to this park before. (Many people think it's weird that Paul and I have trackers on each other, but we think it's handy.)

Anywho on the way to 'I don't know this park', we ran into Crosby's bestie and ended the night eating burgers. Unplanned hang outs are my favorite. 

Hugo gets pretty grabby when he's tired or injured. Thankfully Carmen is tough. This happened 5 minutes later:

I convinced Nicole to ride next to a sleeping Hugo.

Dining all fresco - the only way to dine these days. We use the back child-seat as a high chair for Carmen and the boys sit in the bike bench when there isn't a big enough bench for all of us.

Mauerpark

Mauer means wall in German. This is where you'll see us posed next to graffiti walls, rollerblading, and sledding. 

(truthfully though, there's so much graffiti in this town it could be anywhere - including our front door.)

I can't resist showing off Hugo's amazing skating tricks - the roller skate somersault.

This new park just opened in time for Corona. 

Lots of climbing opportunities for "Free Solo Jr"

To the right you can see another one of my favorite German park features - inlayed trampolines.

Train/Corner Park at Kollwitzplatz

Throwback to life with two kids and no Corona.

On Thursdays and Saturdays you can find us at Kollwitzplatz for the market. On Saturday we come for the Quarkballs:

Quarkballs put donut holes to shame. So fluffy, so good.

More quarkballs on the go... the corner park in the background.

Saturday is a much bigger market with more food but Thursday is less busy.

Pirate ship Park AKA Helmholzpark

In addition to having an awesome pirate ship, this park also has a wide-open space for lighting fireworks or rollerblading. A note on the former, NYE gets crazy with fireworks that aren't legal in the US - roman candles and bottle rockets to name a few. Apparently the very dedicated also go to Poland to pick-up even more illegal fireworks, which I can't really imagine. Suffice it to say, NYE in Berlin is not a place of peace and quiet.

We also used to roller-blade here until Mauerpark got even more amazing and paved.

OK, this might seem like false advertising because this isn't actually Helmholz. But, Helmholz does have two tables as do many other parks. Berlin = Ping Pong Paradise

Buttbreaker AKA Arkona

This park has a market on Fridays - so Mommy is there for food and shopping while the kids run around. We took one of Crosby's school friends on a playdate. Here they are posing for their first album cover.

Crosby nicknamed this "buttbreaker" because the slide has a very sudden drop at the end. This park was recently rebuilt but the buttbreaker remains.

Circus Park

This is a new favorite. For starters, it has a bench with tables. Deluxe. Secondly, it's by our new favorite breakfast grab and go - Brekkie 44. 

Brioche egg sandwich with choice of bacon, ham, avocado. So delicious.

Thirdly, our friend Val has circus skills:

Finally, it's got direct sun:

Parents are talking, kids are playing, and Val is chasing after kids/taking photos of us. ha! A note about the outfit - this is my winter cold look. Gold hat and boots, blue boys' Large onesie. Like the little boys, I may or may not be wearing PJs underneath.

I left a couple park descriptions out. So many parks, so little time.