This week was all about getting back to basics and relaxing after a busy May. Since returning from Prague, we have been enjoying family time in Berlin. Memorial Day brought warm weather to the city and a great chance to get out and explore the water features at the local park. In Berlin, many of the parks have water pads, fountains and statues that shoot water all day to help cool down kids and adults reliving their childhood. It’s not quite the pool from last summer but Logan finds it enjoyable and likes pressing the buttons to make the fountain explode into the air. We also found the new Stone Brewery tap room which provided a nice reminder of home on such an American day. They have wonderful plates and all the beers from home that we remembered.

Tuesday began a new chapter for Chad with his first day as Head of Marketing at Airy Messenger - a company specialising in the direct to customer messaging space. Their focus is on allowing customers to reach individual businesses via the customer’s preferred communication platform (Facebook, What’s App, iMessage, Alexa, etc…), and receive a detailed/ individual response to their specific question, concern, or settle their general curiosity regarding the brand. The company has built an impressive platform and established direct partnerships with Facebook, Google, What’s App, and Apple with a headquarters in Berlin and offices in San Francisco. The CEO and COO were founders/early stage at Delivery Hero & Groupon and bring an impressive pedigree of growth, scaling and taking companies public. They have plans to expand in Europe, Central & South America markets as well as expand in the US. Chad has been tasked with building the team and expanding the install base by 10x over the next year. It’s an exciting opportunity in an emerging space and we look forward to this next chapter in Berlin.

The Airy offices are a quick bike ride away from home (1.5 km) and we have already meet in the middle for lunch with plans to meet again this week. Additionally Logan’s new Kindergarten is just down the street and Chad can go visit or pick up Logan from school easily as well. Airy may not be the opportunity that brought us to Berlin in the first place but life has a funny way of working out for the better. We are happy with this turn of events - it really couldn’t be a better outcome!

As the weekend approached, it became clear that rain was in the forecast. Chad and Logan took some time together on Saturday morning to go to the Farmer’s Market. We have really started to enjoy the one at Hackescher Markt. The arts and crafts are cool to see as the seasons change and there are some great food stands. When the weather is cool they have Gluehwein and other hot beverages. The warmer months bring apple wine stands to complement the beer gardens that surround the market. The cultural diversity in Berlin provides for a mix of Greek pastries as well as Turkish dips and one of our favourite stands - the handmade pasta kiosk. Each week a local gentleman tows his kiosk to the market filled with handmade pastas, gnocchi, and raviolis. The ravioli are stuffed with various cheese such as Ricotta & Gorgonzola; and then combined with various complementary items like walnuts, pesto, and/or herbs. The gnocchi and ravioli are so delicious you have a 5 star meal at home just by dressing them with some of the homemade pesto he sells for 1 Euro.

After the market we intended to head to an outdoor festival & kids event for international children’s day, but the weather decided not to corporate. For the rest of the day it was raining on and off and prevented most outdoor activities. During one of the breaks we headed to the store for provisions and it seemed everyone in our Kiez had the same idea. 

Sunday brought more rain and some overcast weather. We took the opportunity to try a pizza joint in our area and really enjoyed the hidden treasure.

As the afternoon approached, the rain finally stopped and would hold off for the rest of the afternoon giving us enough time to accomplish a major item on our weekend list - getting Doreen a new bike. Ever since we traveled to Copenhagen, Doreen has been wanting a bike of her own. She wasn’t sure about it before and also wanted to make sure that it was something she would stick with so for the past few weeks she had been using the various biking services for our adventures. Berlin actually has more bikers and bikes on the street then any Scandinavian town and more bike paths then most cities in Europe. Having a bike in Berlin is equivalent to having a car in LA - it drastically opens up the city around you.

Doreen had a specific style in mind (classic European city with modern components) and had spotted a listing in the local paper advertising a monthly event at one of Germany’s biggest bike stores, Stadler. This place is only a few miles away and is a massive bike store. It’s probably bigger then the Field and Stream stores in the US and it’s only bikes and bike accessories. They have all the bikes in the centre and around the outer area is a series of paths where they encourage you to ride around and test out the various bikes. Doreen rode three different models and fell in love with one of them. We ordered it at the counter and they put it together in the back in less then an hour for us to pick up.

While we were waiting Logan got to ride around the kids area testing out a few different bikes and then we stopped for an ice cream and coffee before picking up the finished bike. 

Doreen had a great ride home and is already planning a trip with Logan on Tuesday while Chad is at work. It was a good weekend and we look forward to many more summer bike outings and paths we can explore.

Until Next Time,

The McNeills