Title: Prenzleurberg neighborhood park - there are tons of parks and lots of kids!

 This is a cool tilted disc that spins and there's no real place to hold on.

 Coke validating his U-Bahn ticket.

 on the U-bahn....

 Trying an instrument at the..... guess??? ....Ukelele shop

 Checking out the cool 'who knows what it is, but it looks cool. oh and can we buy it?"

 Graffiti all over the place. It feels like NYC in the 80's.

 Wood bridge

 Our 'hood'....

 Saturday's food market two blocks away from our apartment.

 lovely food...

 Coke in front of part of the remaining wall.

 Display of the Reign of Terror - The rise of Hitler and the Nazi's. This is in front of the original Nazi/Gestapo headquarters building. There is an exhibit inside but we skipped it. They don't recommend it to kids younger than 14.

 Bicycle and beer!!

 Our neighborhood grocery store. It's so awesome!! and there's a fake cow in front to greet us! 

 Sunday in Mauer Park -FULL of people and a flea market.

 Cold beer on a hot sunny day! Helps to  get over the jet lag.

 Coke got this Russian army hat at the flea market.

 If only we could ship this vespa back to Berkeley....

 A meteor rock that landed in Berlin.

 Local pool - very nice and Huge!

 They don't use chlorine at all.

 Hot day!.... really hot day!!

 another great park with loads of things to do.

 Part of the Berlin Wall near Mauer Park

 another part of the wall....

 looking down into Mauer Park flats area.

 Roof of the Sony Center.

 Reischtag - we haven't been inside because they were cleaning the dome so next week we'll go back.

 Monument to the exterminated Jews. It's a huge area and it's like a maze. People run through it and play games. It's very fun to walk around it and visually impactful at the same time. There is a museum below but again not for kids under 14.

 Here it is SONY....was wondering if I would bump into any old co-workers!

 Standing in front of Check Point Charlie. Coke and Camille are on the 'East side' of the check point.

 We thought the sign had a nice ring to it....

 Brandenberg Gate. I think it's sort of funny that when Napoleon defeated the Germans he took the horse and chariot from this gate and brought the whole thing to Paris. Eventually he/they felt guilty and gave it back to the Germans!

This is the Monument to the Jews from another angle.

Leaving from Jerry Seifelderplaz station...

 The U-Bahn station we commonly go to as we travel around Berlin is this one. To remeber it we called it Jerry Seinfelderplaz station.

 We went to a real deal German beer garden. It was a big really big central courtyard area full of mature trees and rows and rows of long tables. Great social summer vibe.

 Here we are with essentially German Bar food and well beer in big glasses. Fun stuff.

 afterward we found a place that made wonderful organic smoothies with style.

 Here is a shot of a typical sidewalk here in Prezlauerburg the neighborhood where we are staying. You can see - they have wide sidewalks and narrow streets with wonderful trees forming a canopy overhead. These are some of the nicest city sidewalks we have seen anywhere in the world.

The subway or U-Bahn stations are very old but very beautiful in their finish and design.

Here is a video that I just finished editing of the backpacking adventure Coke and I and my brother Aaron recently went on. Also check it out on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnEXWRsvKPQ

Hi Ho Berlin

We had a relatively good flight to Amsterdam and passed through customs without incident then went on to Berlin with relative ease - just outrageously tired. The jet lag traveling in this direction is always quite difficult.

Our first impression of Berlin is that it is pretty great - a very livable city. We also ended up in a great neighborhood called Prenzlauerburg that is like the hip Brooklyn of Berlin. It is an area that was formerly East Berlin, so when the wall come down artists and such moved into this area to get the great old buildings that were in disrepair. The streets are narrow and the sidewalks are broad and there are shops and cafes and restaurants and families and hipsters - it's great.

 This is the central courtyard space of the building where we are staying. I will post more shots of the neighborhood later.

 There are great playgrounds in the many small parks nearby. This is in Kollwitzplaz park. 

 We were first struck how there is much graffiti around, sort of a throwback to the early 90s.

 This is an organic Market that is held every Thursday and Saturday in Kollwitzplaz park about 2 blocks from where we are staying.

 We are getting Camille a rain Hat.

 We took the U-Bahn, or underground train, about a mile down town to Alexanderplaz which is the big central plaza then walked to Museum Island from there. 

 Coke and Camille in Alexanderplaz.

 Coke and Camille at the Berlin Zoo.

 Coke and I with a close relative.

 The winter enclosures were what one might think of as very East German.

 We also went to the Pergamon Museum. You see, the Germans practically invented archeology, so they have absolutely tons of amazing antiquities. This museum had a tear inducing contemporary photo realistic trompe l'oeil that was in a giant cylindrical structure of the ancient Greek city of Pergamon as a historical recreation. We couldn't take photos of it. What you see here is a portion of the Temple of Pergamon that they have in the museum.

Please excuse any spelling errors. More to come...