Photo blast of some recent activities

Some highlight pics from end of summer:

Summer Outing: Get on train, get on bikes, cruise around Brandenburg, return.

Klaistow berry farm outside Beelitz, our bike destination that Sunday.

This is quark, a relative of sour cream. There were some potatoes on the dish, but the gigantic pile of quark nearly abolished their presence.

Office Spree Boat ride. Every summer we board the river boat and cruise up through the government quarter downtown. Here's the Reichstag at dusk from the water.

Dinner at La Perla Ionica on Schöneberg's Belziger Strasse with Chris.

Jasper is experimenting with hair colors.

The coloring kit is a bunch of chalk pieces. Got it on loan from our rave-girl babysitter.

Last thing we see in the mornings when taking Jasper to school.

Berlin has no shortage of atmospheric props for its restaurants.

Date Night: Cabaret! The story of an English author who moves to Berlin in 1930, meets a showgirl dancer and the various other characters as the city parties away while the Nazi threat looms ever larger in the background. Made more famous by the 1973 movie with Liza Minelli.

Volkspark Jungfernheide is a vast park about 20 minutes away on the U9 line. We had noticed during a previous visit a "Kletter-Wald" (climbing forest) ropes course, so made a return visit to let the kids try it out.

Jungfernheide KletterWald. The kids get their harnesses all sorted.

They were super into it, except when kid-traffic jams occurred on the platforms while waiting for slow and clueless children ahead of them. Next time, we'll take them to the adult section which is much less crowded.

From Jungfernheide we crossed the north of the city to Volkspark Friederichshain to meet up with the T-bird group for a picnic. Cops told us that we shouldn't grill out since we were under the trees and if the Ordnungsamt came by they would give you a hefty fine. This kind of interaction would have been unheard of in Berlin 15 years ago.

On the "Long Night of Museums" you can check out nearly every museum in the city until 2am. The kids only lasted until 10:30, but we hit three: Pergamon, Asisi Panorama @ Checkpoint Charlie, and the Martin Gropius building. Next to the Pergamon an orchestra played for Berlin Ballet Company dancers.

Asisi Panorama at Checkpoint Charlie: a near 360 degree wrap-around image, a couple stories tall, of the view of the Wall from a corner on Sebastianstrasse in Kreuzberg on a typical day in the 80s. 

Walter Gropius House: Temp exhibit of "Garten der Irdischen Freude" (Garden of Earthly Delights). There were some definitely wierdo exhibits in here.

The old Schöneberg Malzerei (Malt Factory). Mothballed in 2008, now it houses art installations, tours through the dusty abandoned parts, and events like last weekend's Africa Day with music and food stands from many nations.

Handball is a bit of a craze as the Berlin team (Füchse - Foxes) is quite good. So we went to go check out a game with Cody's bud Hugh and his mom Coco.

Foxi the mascot

First week of September now, and the air is cooler. Perfect Fall bike riding weather. This summer was just a little too hot so we're jazzed to get back to the cool.