Autumn in Berlin

I love the colours of Autumn in Berlin. Today we rode our bikes from our place to Potsdamer Platz to go to the movies. It was about an 8.5km ride each way.
the weather was cloudy, but no rain, and not cold. A jumper was all we needed.

We rode through the Tiergarten and it was just fabulous.

We saw the movie Wall.e, and then we rode back home.

A Hungry Sparrow

Sitting in a cafe in Kreuzberg today, and Cameron thought it was hilarious that this little sparrow jumped up onto the man's table and started to eat his blueberry muffin.
The photos are a bit blurry, because Cameron used the zoom in lens as far as he could, so he wouldn't disturb the bird



The man had finished his muffin and was happy to let this sparrow eat what was left. I hope that this little sparrow doesn't think he will be able to do this with every customer....he could be in for a very rude shock!

Go Fly a Kite!

Phil took the kids up to Teufelsberg to fly some kites on a windy day.
It was raining, but the kids didn't care!

There were not just pumpkins...

There was also an incredible corn maze... In German, Corn is Mais (pronounced Maze). So the boys named this the Amazing Mais Maze.

The kids and Phil had a great time wandering around in the corn maze.

There were lots of different corn to buy at the produce markets as well.



One of the last Sunflowers out in full bloom

While Phil and the boys were getting lost in the Mais Maze, there was a "pick your own Raspberries". So, Nicole bought a plastic container for 20 cents, and picked these berries.

525 grams in total (Cameron remembers that number) the total price was Є2.36...what a bargain! The lady was surprised at how many I had in my container. She said that most people has only found a few handfuls.

Well, the boys were lost in that maze for over 45 minutes... So there was plenty of time to look for raspberries.

So it's raspberries and ice cream for dessert tonight.....yum yum yum.

( We took 118 photos at the pumpkin festival today. Just wait until the strawberry and asparagus festival next year!)

Pumpkin Festival

if you do not like Pumpkins....look away now!!!

Buschmann & Winkelmann is a running farm where you can buy local produce.

Each year they have different types of festivals. Currently it is the Pumpkin Festival!

WOW, we didn't know so many different types of pumpkins existed...

A wall of pumpkins, all different, from all parts of the world.
ohh...look what we found on the wall....

A rainbow of pumpkins

A fountain surrounded by pumpkins



Pumpkins for carving for Halloween.

This years theme for the Pumpkin Festival was "Noah's Ark"
there was a pair of Kangaroos...
Can you see the Joey???
2 Camels...
2 Elephants...

2 Giraffes...
2 penguins and 2 goats...
Noah and his ark (this was an impressive structure). We wondered if it was built just for the festival. Our friend Karen says "No, last year was a "Wild West" theme, and the boat was the Santa Maria"
The male horse...anatomically correct
A wedding cake of pumpkins
guess what I had for lunch??? That had to be obvious!

Apart from pumpkins, there were lots of things for the kids to do.

A giant jumping pillow....a small petting zoo of farm animals, and a great playground.

Here is Alexander on the jumping pillow...
A cool basket swing, hold on tight!
A view of the jumping pillow to show how big it was
The goat managed to jump into the feeder for the best pick of the hay.

The 3 boys.
These Halloween Pumpkins were heavy!
Alexander
All of us
Cameron

and we bought a pumpkin to take home....pumpkin soup tomorrow night for dinner!

Cameron's new toy

Cameron wanted a skateboard for his birthday, and we said we would get him one when we were back in Berlin (A skateboard would take up too much room in the luggage from Melbourne, that's space I could use for Milo and Vegemite!

So, yesterday went to Karstadt. After 1/2 hour of pulling all the boards off the rack, turning them over and finding "just the right" design, we bought this one.
As an extra measure of protection, we bought all the pads as well...(even though we live a 5 minute walk to the emergency department at the hospital.)

Once we got home (and swept the path from all the Autumn leaves that had fallen in the past 24 hours), he tried it out. As Cameron is our "extreme sports child", he wanted to be able to go really fast right away. So, it took a lot of convincing to get him to practice getting his balance going slowly down the path that has a tiny slope to it. He is starting to get the hang of it, and learning how to move his body to turn it.



He hopes to be as good as his cousin Dylan one day!