I wanted to visit Berlin because I’ve always loved history…Angie was less excited because she had heard it was a large intense city. We compromised and booked a short visit – only three full days. Turns out we were both right. Plus Berlin with kids (or any big city with kids) can be tricky. Read on for how we handled it.

Unfortunately we visited Berlin in the middle of a heat wave. Our ground floor apartment like, most of the city, seemed to prioritize energy efficiency over comfort. We didn’t have air conditioning or a fan and the stifling heat was oppressive. I think we made good use of our time and I would visit Berlin again – but not in late summer.

We are starting to figure out travel with kids

To be clear, it is still challenging and they haven’t developed patience or an interest in culture. Planning for this trip is not like planning a normal European tour. We decided a few months ago to add Berlin to the itinerary and how we would get there. On a normal European tour you might spend months looking at places to visit. We didn’t research activities in the city until two days before we arrived. We only looked that early because we knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time in Berlin.

Our research consisted of Googling what to do in Berlin with kids. From that we learned that there is a Lego Discovery Center in Berlin. Before this trip, I would never have considered spending a third of our tourism time in a glorified Lego store. Then I spent two months in the British Isles being told by my kids that they didn’t care how old a Cathedral or castle was. After two months of horrified shushing of our childrens’ very public complaints of “I’m bored”, “I want to go home”, or “I want my tablet” we decided to try something new.

Our plan was to get the history out of the way on day one. Give the kids a day of playing with Legos on day two. Then go to Mass and figure out our afternoon on day three.

We figured the quickest easiest way to cover the boring history of the city was the Hop-on-hop-off bus tour.

From the Hop on Hop off bus we saw:

We also saw the Reichstag building (where the German Parliament meets) but I didn’t get a good photo. Overall for a an oppressively hot day we checked all of the boxes.

The next day we headed to the Lego Discovery Center. We hoped for air conditioning and some fun for the kids.

My favorite part of the Lego Discovery Center was the miniature model of the city…

…complete with moving trains and U-Bahns (subways) and a falling berlin wall. It was fun to let the kids see the sights they had just seen the day before – but now in Legos!

Also at the Lego Center, there were a few small rides, a master builder workshop, a race track where kids could build and race their own cars., and a 4-D movie theater (3-D plus wind and soap bubbles). We had a fun time and appreciated that kids got through a whole day with almost no complaining.

On our last full day in Berlin

We found a beautiful Catholic Church and then visited the Berlin Computerspiele Museum for another activity with minimal kids complaints. The “Video Games Museum” is actually a very legitimate museum (especially when compared with the gratuitous arcade known as the Krakow Pinball Museum – stay tuned) with more than 300 platforms spanning five decades represented. It is a great way to spend part of a day in Berlin with kids.

Ultimately we made good use of our time in Berlin. Angie and I saw the Wall and our kids now know who JFK was. We did try the jelly doughnuts and I suppose you are what you eat…