On our final night in Germany, Martin booked us
a hotel in a Berlin neighborhood that was recommended by a fellow German
parent. On the drive back into town I googled nearby playgrounds (because that
is what we do now) and came across three options. After dropping off our bags at
the hotel we set out for the first option: Spielplatz Knesebeckstrasse.
One block on our way there and I began to get the feeling we had been here before... the neighborhood that is, not the playground. There was something familiar about the elevated railroad tracks, with its arched brick buildings below... and what were the odds of finding a cafe next to a bookstore in this stretch of town? I was remembering Martin and my first trip to Berlin and our afternoon of homemade strudel and the amazing book store with the ridiculous garden gnome book (which I now read with Oskar). And sure enough, after 10 years of never knowing where the cafe or store were actually located, we stumbled upon them on our search for a playground for our two kids.
It wasn’t until we got home that I fully comprehended the situation. 10 years ago, Martin and I (with the newness of love, the excitement of dating a European and the looming question of could we make the relationship work long distance and into the future) had an amazing weekend in Berlin and stayed in a hotel just three blocks away from our hotel this past weekend.
One block on our way there and I began to get the feeling we had been here before... the neighborhood that is, not the playground. There was something familiar about the elevated railroad tracks, with its arched brick buildings below... and what were the odds of finding a cafe next to a bookstore in this stretch of town? I was remembering Martin and my first trip to Berlin and our afternoon of homemade strudel and the amazing book store with the ridiculous garden gnome book (which I now read with Oskar). And sure enough, after 10 years of never knowing where the cafe or store were actually located, we stumbled upon them on our search for a playground for our two kids.
It wasn’t until we got home that I fully comprehended the situation. 10 years ago, Martin and I (with the newness of love, the excitement of dating a European and the looming question of could we make the relationship work long distance and into the future) had an amazing weekend in Berlin and stayed in a hotel just three blocks away from our hotel this past weekend.
And now here we were with our two beautiful kids and a lifetime of memories already created.
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| Young and in love in March 2009 |
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| Exhausted but filled with love in June 2019 |
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