Germany Day 11 – Kids' Day Out

A small, historical stop
on the road to Berlin

We reached Kyra's limit on day 10. We'd spent a couple of days of serious site-seeing in Hamburg, walking a lot, and enjoying boring things like the weather, the scenery, the architecture and the history. If she knew the phrase "death march," she would have used it. And we followed it up with a long car ride from Hamburg to Berlin, by way of a couple of small, but historically significant towns. This morning we'd thought to get started with a bus tour of Berlin, to get our bearings, and to stop at a few of the major destinations, such as Checkpoint Charlie and the Reichstag and The Brandenburg Gate, and cross them off our list. And she just couldn't take it anymore.

Kyra - having fun
at the trampoline

When she had turned nine, we'd decided that now was the time to start traveling with her. It felt like she'd reached an age when a window of opportunity was open, a window that is likely to close again when she's 16 or so, and too busy or too cool to spend several weeks at a time with us. She's old enough now to keep herself occupied and amused for decent stretches of time. We've traveled with her before this of course, to see her grandparents, or to visit friends with kids, or to go to Disneyland. But this is different – a trip with long plane and car rides, lots of site-seeing, and long stretches without other kids.

We've made some accommodations for her. For example, we brought along some DVDs of her favorite TV shows, so that in the morning she can sit around in her pajamas for a half hour watching some familiar TV before getting up and going. And we brought along the laptop with some really good video games, so that she can kill some time in the evening, if there's nothing else to do in a hotel room, or if the grownups are sitting around chatting in that boring way we sometimes do. We brought along a big stack of books, and always have one handy, in case we're stuck waiting for a train, or standing in line, or sitting on a boat looking at castles for a little too long. We brought along her favorite stuffed animals, and don't blink when she wants to bring one along to a restaurant, or on the subway. And we've considered her interests when we're making our plans, which are short on museum visits, for example, and long on stops for ice cream.

But we hit her limit today, and needed to reconsider our plans. Fortunately, our hotel is right across the street from the Berlin Zoo, and so we didn't have to think too hard about what to do. We spent the day at the zoo, and it was great.

The zoo itself was beautiful. Walking through it felt like walking through a park with lush vegetation and winding paths. Some of the animals were familiar, such as elephants and zebras, but sometimes even the familiar ones looked different. (I think their zebras may have more stripes.) And sometimes the animal selection was completely different, so that we saw some we'd never seen before, for example wild animals that closely resembled pet kittens. The habitats were smaller than at our local zoo, and the safety precautions different, so that the animals were much closer to us than we were used to, and we could see them much more clearly. We saw an elephant bathing himself in a pond, for example, squirting himself with water from his trunk, and we felt a few drops of water land on us. He was so close that had he wanted to, he could have easily drenched us. And we watched penguins swimming by so close that we could have reached down to touch them.

On the playground

But the best part of the afternoon was at the playground in the zoo. It was the most elaborate playground I'd ever seen, with trampolines, and other play equipment I'd never seen before on a playground. Kyra found some girls her own age, and even though none of them spoke English, and Kyra speaks nothing but, they figured out how to play together, and she played there for about two hours. When she was done playing, she was tired, flushed, and happy. We spent the evening playing in the hotel pool.

The funny thing is that Paul and I had needed a day off from our vacation too, only we don't tend to cry or whine, so if it hadn't been for Kyra, we probably wouldn't have taken one. But all the plans we'd had for today, wonderful things that we may only get to do once in our lives, and which we were gritting our teeth and approaching like an onerous duty, we're now eagerly anticipating doing tomorrow. At least, Paul and I are eagerly anticipating them. Kyra is willing, and she knows that if nothing else, she'll have along a book to read.