Showing posts with label Berlin children. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berlin children. Show all posts

Monday 9 July 2018

Berlin with kids



Berlin is a great city to visit with kids. You will find plenty to do whatever the weather. With hundreds of playgrounds, two zoos, two aquariums, leafy parks, lakes and great museums, your kids will not be bored! 

OUTDOORS

Playgrounds (in German Spielplatz or Spielplätze plural)
Berlin has hundreds of playgrounds scattered around the city.
If your child needs a break from sightseeing or shopping, you will not need to search long to find a playground. Type in Spielplatz into an online map service to find the one closest to you.

Spielplatz am Heinrich-Lassen-Park
Some of the best playgrounds in Berlin are
Hirschhof Spielplatz (Prenzlauer Berg) – close to the Mauerpark.
Spielplatz am Wasserturm (Prenzlauer Berg) – it’s very close to Kollwitzplatz; green and child-friendly neighbourhood with lots of nice cafes.
Spielplatz am Kollwitzplatz (Prenzlauer Berg) – visit the market on a Thursday afternoon or on a Saturday.
Blauer Spielplatz (Mitte) – inside the Weinsberg Park, where you can get a bite to eat of a proper meal at the cafe/restaurant in the middle of the park.
Spielplatz am Monbijoupark (Mitte) – close to Museum Island.
Tiergarten – there are several playgrounds at different ends of the park; you could combine it with a visit to the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, the Zoo or the Aquarium.
Volkspark Friedrichshain (Prenzlauer Berg/Friedrichshain) – there are three playgrounds; this park gets very busy at the weekend.
Gleisdreieck Park (Kreuzberg) head to the Museum of Technology first and the stop off for lunch or dinner at the Brlo Brewery.
Spielplatz am Heinrich-Lassen-Park (Schöneberg) – brand-new playground with a castle. It’s right next to a swimming pool with a small outdoor pool and close to Volkspark Schöneberg-Wilmersdorf. It’s only a short walk from Rathaus Schoeneberg, where John F. Kennedy gave his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner speech”. Meanwhile, David Bowie fans might like to head to Hauptstraße 155, where the great artist lived between 1976 and 1978. There is a memorial plaque outside the building.

On a hot day, look for a Wasserspielplatz, a playground with water.

Swimming pools and lakes 
Some of the best outdoor pools (in German Freibad or Sommerbadand lakes are
Kinderbad Monbijou (Mitte) – best for small children.
Sommerbad Pankow (Pankow) – good for all ages: there is a paddling pool for the little ones, a swimming pool for older ones and a leisure pool with slides and diving boards; it can get very crowded on a hot day and at the weekends, but there’s plenty of space on the lawn. 

Freibad Orankesee
Strandbad Weissensee (Weissensee) – good for swimming, sunbathing, having a drink and hanging out with the locals.
Freibad Orankesee (Hohenschönhausen) – good for swimming, sunbathing and avoiding tourists. There is a spacious and shady Biergarten nearby.  
Schlachtensee (Zehlendorf) – beautiful lake surrounded by trees located in the posh area of Berlin. There is a large beer garden and adjacent playground. It gets crowded at the weekends, especially close to the S-Bahn station.


Parks
Tiergarten – the city’s green lung. There are plenty of paths and hidden treasures to discover, as well as two nice beer gardens where you can stop off for lunch or a drink: Café am Neuen See and Schleusenkrug.
Volkspark Friedrichshain – large park with playgrounds, cafes and a beer garden but gets very crowded with local Berliners at the weekends.
Gleisdreieck – former wasteland converted into a park. I’ve written about it in the past.
Tempelhof – the old airport runway has been transformed into a huge park; very popular with the locals. Read my previous entry.
Mauerpark – get there early on a Sunday to avoid the crowds and visit the flee market; the karaoke starts at 3pm and will keep your older kids entertained. I’ve also written about this in the past.
Schloss Charlottenburg – visit the castle and/or walk, play, run in the grounds. 

INDOORS
Labyrinth Kindermuseum

Museum für Naturkunde (Natural History Museum)
Don’t miss the dinosaurs! Tristan Otto is the only original skeleton of a T. Rex in Europe to date.

Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Museum of Technology)
The museum has a huge collection of steam engines and is also a great place for plane and boat lovers. Don’t miss the Rosinenbomber on the top terrace!

Spectrum Science Centre
The Science Centre makes science fun for children. It is just across from the Museum of Technology and tickets are valid for same-day visits to both the museum and Spectrum.

Labyrinth Kindermuseum (Wedding) – the former factory has been converted into a spacious children’s museum, with a special focus on diversity. There are different areas and lots of things to discover and to play with. Aspiring chefs will love the large kitchen area.

Kindermuseum MachMit (Prenzlauer Berg) – housed in a former church, the large museum offers endless opportunities for playing, climbing and learning through play. There is also a cinema. The current exhibition, which has been extended to June 2019, focuses on Native American culture.

Legoland – housed in a basement on Potsdamer Platz, it’s noisy and expensive, with only artificial light. Parents hate it, but kids love it. Best to avoid at the weekend.

Zoo it’s one of Berlin’s most popular attractions both with adults and children so it gets very busy, especially at the weekends.

Tierpark – not to be confused with the Tiergarten. The Tierpark is Europe’s biggest animal park and is in the Eastern part of Berlin.

Aquarium – the entrance is next to the Zoo. It’s a good place for the little ones and for fish and/or reptile lovers. Don’t miss the sharks! You can get a combined ticket for the zoo and the aquarium.

Sealife – it’s smaller and narrower than the aquarium. The best part is the lift that takes you into the AquaDom at the end: the massive aquarium inside the Radisson Blu Hotel lobby. It’s cheaper if you buy tickets online.

Berlin boat trip – the one-hour boat trip along the Spree is probably the best option for smaller kids. They tend to get bored after a while!

Friday 13 June 2014

Babyland Berlin



This Blog was supposed to be about Berlin, but is turning out to be more about babies, toddlers and baby sleep. In fact the two things are more closely related than some might think, as Berlin is one of the cities in Europe with the highest concentration of babies. Prenzlauer Berg, where I used to live (I've now moved slightly north into Pankow) has long been famous for its prams and buggies. Everywhere you look there is a Mum or a Dad pushing a pram, carrying a baby in a sling or holding a screaming baby in their arms (that would have been us!). However, this baby craze is not just confined to Prenzlauer Berg. Whether you're out shopping in trendy Mitte or you're in a bar on Schlesiche Strasse in Kreuzberg or you're on the U Bahn heading to Charlottenburg, or even worse chilling in hipster's paradise (Neukoelln) you are bound to see at least one baby, if not more.

Babies are everywhere in Berlin, there is no way of escaping them. You could attempt to leave the house only during the hours of darkness, to go out exclusively to smoky bars or Kneipen or to the few cafes with the no pram sign. But whatever you do, keep away from playgrounds, parks, family-friendly cafes, cinema matinees (they might have a special mama with baby screening) and ice cream parlours. 


With the surge in the number of babies born each year there is obviously a growing need for nurseries (or Kitas as they are called in Germany). Despite the fact that there seems to be a new Kita opening every other month (I haven't counted them, but there will soon be more Kitas than Spaeties*, and that is saying something), there is still a shortage of Kitas in some areas, which means that women have to enrol their babies (technically still foetuses) onto waiting lists, before they are even born! 

I was told that there was a shortage of gynaecologists and paediatricians in Prenzlauer Berg, but that didn't turn out to be true (at least not for pregnant women or newborn babies). However, the Kita shortage is real. Being offered a Kitaplatz without being on at least 10 waiting lists is close to a miracle. And don't even bother turning up at the Kita Sprechstunde once your baby is over six months old. They'll just shrug their shoulders and look at you as if you were an alien. One way of getting a place in some Kitas is to turn up every week with a home baked cake. Luckily I didn't have to go down that path, but I've heard it works.

*A Spaetie is a Berlin institution: Spaetie stands for Spaetkauf and is a shop selling mainly drinks (hundreds of varieties of beers) and snacks that is open 24/7. The 24/7 part is extremely rare in Germany. The more entrepreneurial Spaeties now also have bikes for hire.