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!

Be Prepared

Before the boys go to bed, they get their clothes out for the next day. This way there is no running around looking for clean jumpers 5 minutes before the bus arrives.

Cameron has developed a new way of laying out his clothes on the floor.

Berlin Wall Walk

I know how to pick a day to plan something.

Alexander's birthday last year we had the Love Parade (think Sydney Mardi Gra Parade). The kids were highly amused at those outfits that day (or lack of outfits in some cases)

Today we planned the beginning of the Berlin Wall Walk. We will walk the entire length of the wall in the next 12-18 months. 137 kilometers all up.

Some of the other families are joining us as well.

Today we had planned to meet at Potsdamner Platz and walk to the East Side Gallery - a 7km walk.

The Berlin Marathon was on today. Potsdamner Platz was fenced off for the runners. To get to the meeting place (near the remaining pieces of Wall), we had to walk under the S Bahn Walkways. Once we were all there, we had to walk back under the S Bahn to begin our walk.

Lots of people around, and amazing people running the marathon! It was a great day for it, not too warm, and no rain!

4 families altogether, 8 kids, 8 adults. It was a great walk.

I didn't take any photos along the way ( This is the 3rd time I have done this length of the Wall)

But we took photos of the kids at the beginning and the end of the 7km walk. We might try and get all of them to write a little bit about the walk, and see if they can submit it into the school newsletter??

Rosinenbomber

The work foreign language training department arranges 'get togethers and outings' - and with the closure of Templehof airport, an outing was planned to visit the site and see the 'history' for one last time.

Templehof airport.

Templehof Airport from above.

Templehof is famous as the airport that was used during the 'airbridge', which supplied all the food and machinery parts into Berlin during the Soviet blockade. We had the opportunity to see a film on the blockade, and then take a flight on the Rosinenbomber - A DC-3 built in 1944 and used by the RAF in the air-bridge operation. It has since been fitted with seats and flies from Templehof around Berlin, at a height of about 600m (apparently the lowest height they are allowed to).

Templehof Airport to the right of the wing, and the Fernsehnturm at the top right tip of the wing.

We flew for about 30 minutes and did a loop down over Potsdam and back, The fog was still on the ground, so much of what we could have seen was obscured. It was still a wonderful flight.

The plane will move operations to Schoenefeld airport next month. I may even think about taking the kids (I know Alexander, in particular, would LOVE it!) and flying out from there, but it will not be quite the same as flying from the original base of Templehof. For more information on the history of the Rosinenbomber, click here

Malchow and Müritz-See

A quick overnight visit to Malchow.
The car ride there proved to be an interesting drive to the border of Poland and right around. A 1 and a 1/2 hour trip turned into a 5 hour drive when "she who will not be named" put the wrong thing into the Nav system. (someone may get a nav system with maps for Xmas). Anyway we eventually got there.
The lake system at Müritz is enormous, and lots of different ferry cruises to choose from.
We brought Harry along so Alexander had someone to play with as well. They had a great time at the back of the ferry. Here is the silly shot taken care of so we could get the above "proper" shot.
The bridge swings to the side every hour to let the boats through

It's Apfelschole, not beer...honest!



At a lunch stop there was this paddock with 2 horses. The kids enjoyed feeding them the "grass that was greener on the other side". The kids would grab some grass, and run beside the fence and the 2 horses would follow..they had a great time!
The see-saw in the park beside the lake was great fun. The kids played on it for over 45 minutes.

They came up with lots of great games to keep them amused.
The adults kept themselves amused by watching the Zimmer Olympics.
Red Jacket won by 1/2 a wheel. We are not sure about the final result. There was a stewards inquiry into the use of performance enhancing drugs .
The things you have to do to help your kids get conkers out of trees!
to finish off a picture of a little cluster of mushrooms

Axel

I walk past this hotel construction once a week, and the sign always has me intrigued.
"heterofriendly"

I alway wondered if the sign writer got mixed up with the wrong word.
But then I googled the hotel, and it is a hotel for same sex couples. However they don't discriminate against hetero couples. That's cool!