Where to begin?

Hello!

I have returned and here I am ready to report...although I am not sure that I am...I have a tendency to write a billion blogs from a billion different angles in my head whilst away and then the reality ends up being very brief and not at all interesting! So, are you ready for brief and uninteresting? If so, then you have come to the right place.

So I went away for two weeks with my six year old niece Naomi and we had a blast, the amount of moments when she was being stubborn or brattish were very few and far between, such so that I would travel with her again. All the things that I may have done on my own in Berlin were not done with Naomi, instead we had a semi-kid-centric trip.

Lets see now...what did we do...

• Hop-on Hop-off tours in Hamburg and Berlin
• Berlin Zoo
• Berlin boat tour
• Visited a church in Hamburg after getting nowhere trying to find the science centre and not being willing or able to wait the two hours to get into miniature world.
• Tropical islands (Europes largest indoor swimming resort)
• Charlottenburg Palace
• Museum of Photography
• Plotzensee Freibad (swimming in a lake)
• KaDeWe shopping centre
• Berlin Aquarium
• Laundry!

Ok, so that is all we did - one activity a day not including any street performers or markets/rides etc. - and we had two rest days. We managed to spend about 8-10 hours a day on our feet. Towards the end of the second week was when the weather sky rocketed and was in the 30s (centigrade) and so we went indoor swing instead.

We stayed at four hotels, and travelled by ferry, coach, boat, bus, train, car and plane. We spent a small fortune on paying for public toilets and were mesmerised by Spongebob Schwankopf. Watching the shows in German made me think about characters and their voices and how in languages other than the original, those countries won't necessarily hear them. I hadn't considered it before being English. Imagine Sean Connery...without the voice? 

Anyway, I did take 500+ photos even though it seemed like less, I should probably have taken twice that but photographing everything is quite antisocial and you tend to focus less on what you are seeing or who you are with and more on composition - or at least I do.

Of the pics that I did take here are a few of my favourites...and apologies that they arent alll Germany sspecific...but you know how I feel about flowers! I also took a pic of a polar bear (that I love) and a brown bear who seems to be looking at his reflection (this is my favourite) and I hope you enjoy them all the same.

There is a garden/park in Hamburg and we managed to spend ten minutes there before it rained - it rains a lot in Hamburg. There were a lot of bees all over all the plants and then hundreds dead on the pathways...it was all weird and I am sure there is a reason for it...so if you know, then please share in the comments. Anyway, I took a pic or two before we left..

 My niece was hoping to see a frog amongst the lily pads but no such luck!

This is a pic of a random statue somewhere in Hamburg which I just liked.

This was near to the Miniature museum that we never went in, for the love of bikes, I am not a fan but the kids seats on the back didn't look the most comfortable.

This was back in the park on a different day and at the opposite end, just before we had some ice cream and saw a red squirrel come down from the trees and still a biscuit from a rubbish bin.

When you enter Berlin Zoo you are met with this chap not far from the entrance, Naomi decided to ask for directions.

Brace yourself...this is my favourite picture....tadaa! lol

  And my second favourite...

A rather fascinating road sign...oh wait...not so fascinating..hehehe.

I saw this in Berlin, I forget where, but I liked it.

An obligatory sign for the Germany underground.

Charlottenburg palace, my niece suggested we go inside, and we walked around the rooms with a audio guide which kept my nieces interest as you had to press the button for each room.

I tried to take picture inside the palace of some of the portraits but every time i did they would come out like this! Obviously a shy bunch.

I saw this and thought it would be a great design for a cross stitched bell pull? 

Queen Charlotte had a thing for the blue and white china apparently, it was all very OTT but acceptable for a queen.

This was just for fun, I stood underneath the chandelier in the ballroom to take it.

This is the mausoleum.

It was orange AND a flower...how could I resist??

This sculpture in the garden reminded me of Hummel ones.

And....that is all for now...I hope it was enough! I have to get stitching...three weeks to finish Anna and Elsa!