Berlin Street Art and Other Goodies

I have always wanted to see the Berlin Wall. I remember so clearly when it came down, just months after we moved away from Europe in 1989.  

This sliver of it was on display just outside of our hotel.  

 CP and I used pedi-cabs as our preferred mode of transportation the day before the race.

 The markets of Berlin were all that.

 I ate more than one German sausage in Berlin...

 The street art scene was pretty rad...

Sloperstein were all over - reminding us of lives lost in the Concentration Camps of  WWII...

 A selfie with the Brandenburg Gate is a Berlin must...obviously

 This guy was our pedi cab driver, he was also an amazing tour guide.  En route to our hotel, he stopped at every single attraction and offered up a history lesson.

 We worked a quick shift at Checkpoint Charlie

Another view of the wall...

 Berlin's pedestrian traffic lights, called Ampelmannchen,  are an attraction in and of themselves...

ASR missed the day of site seeing, but arrived just in time to carbo load the night before the race

A Really Good Time

I just returned from my business trip to Berlin, where the ladies and I had a realllllly good time!

Flanked by her pacers (ASR and I), CP rocked her half marathon, besting her own PR by TWELVE minutes!

Seeing double? Yes, there were 2 F8610s that day...and they both crushed it.  

This was a business trip for ASR as well. She is the strategic brain behind Nike retail success, so natch we had to pose her for a photo op along the course as we passed the store.

#berlinittowinit  #### we were hashtag happy ####

Funny Confession #325

When your local Albert Heijn (and the four others you cycled to in the cold rain) is out of your favorite flavour...

you try 3 new kinds...

and go back every day until you secure the goods.

Field Trip

Just before the February break, W's class took a field trip that I hope he never forgets. In class they had been studying Hendrick Avercamp and this one of his famous paintings.

As an extension of their studies, they hopped on the tram and went to see the painting, which is on permanent display at the Rijks.

You can't hit the Rijks without catching Het Nachtwacht

After seeing the work of the Dutch Masters, the class had a quick picnic

And then they took to the rink, and skated - just like in the painting. Dutch life is good. 

We are thankful for teachers like Laure, below, who make days like this possible.  Merci!!

Funny Confession #324

This weekend O will hang home with sick kids while I jet off on a business trip.  Hello role reversal! I'm off to Berlin, where my girl CP has set a big running goal for herself, and it's my business to help her get it done!

I have always wanted to check out Berlin, can't wait to do it. Also pumped for a few nights in the Ritz with my AMS running besties! 

Sick Baby

W is sick today, bad enough to warrant a prescription from a Dutch doctor (a very rare occurrence, the usual advice is to tough it out sans meds).  So after our appointment with the neighborhood doc we needed to stop at the Apotheek.  A prescription filling is a first for us here (amen for great health!) and like most foreign firsts, it was an experience. The Apotheek (pharmacy) is just around the corner from the doc, which is just around the corner from our house- Dutch life is so simple and well designed. I have passed it a thousand times, but today was my first time in. It felt like time travel, way back...but after a long wait and some tricky language barriers we were on our way.

This ain't CVS people.