Rain Rain Go Away

Here it is, June, and its cold and rainy. There are the optimists, who say things like, "Oh, its a particularly bad year," but c'mon, let's face it, every year here is a bad year, weather wise. There are only a couple of days of warm sun each year, and they aren't necessarily consecutive, which means when you have a nice warm, flip flop day, you can't just assume summer is here and put all your cold weather clothes away, because, I promise you, you'll be pulling things back out less than a week later.

Which brings me to my next point: kinder cafes. Before they started cropping up all over Prenzlauer Berg, we were desperate for a change of venue for our little one. Hanging out at the playground when it is cold and rainy, even if we are properly dressed, is just unpleasant, and after awhile, staying inside makes everyone crazy. So we would go to Ikea, and check our daughter into their super awesome play area, which she totally loved. The children can do a craft with one of the caretakers or play in the super enormous ball pool. The problem for us was that we were then in the middle of nowhere with nothing else to do but walk through Ikea, and, as you probably know, this can be pretty expensive. We'd leave with a cute little fan our daughter made in the play area, as well as a couch, two new end tables, and a set of dishes. Another one of our brilliant ideas, was to bring her to the ball pool at McDonalds, but only to play, not to eat, of course. But soon, no matter how strong our nutritional principles seemed to be, we gave way to happy meals, big macs, and large orders of fries. This was all a few years ago.

Now, there are these little kindercafes everywhere. They please everyone, and are perfect destinations on a rainy or cold (or both) day. I've visited several, but by far the best I've come across is Onkle Albert on Zionskirche Strasse between Zionskirche Platz and Teutoberger Platz. Its built on three floors, with a few other levels for the children to explore. It is intimate, friendly, and totally relaxed. There are toys appropriate for children up to about 6. The prices are good, the coffee great, they have a fresh homemade cake everyday, and they even sell second hand childrens' clothes. The best part about it is that it isn't totally sterile and new like a lot of these kindercafe places and the women who run it are totally friendly and laid back. Check it out!