Owen’s 6th Birthday Adventure: Legoland Berlin and the German Museum of Technology

We have a six year old! How?! I’m a bit late a lot late insanely late in posting this, but we spent Owen’s birthday weekend in Berlin a few weeks ago about a month ago so that we could take him to Legoland Berlin and spent more time in a city we loved so much when we were back in May.*

*If you can’t tell, this post has been in drafts for … a while.

Why Legoland Berlin? Ehhh … availability, mostly. We knew we didn’t feel up to throwing a big party this year, and having traveled to Malta for Fiona’s birthday, we decided a trip for Owen would keep things fair. We thought some kind of theme-park trip would be cool and toyed with a number of options, including the Harry Potter Studio in London and various other Legoland parks in the UK, Denmark and Germany. Ultimately, though, our choice landed on Legoland Berlin for two reasons: 1) there were direct flights available within the limited time frame we were working with, and 2) the reasonable price of said tickets (about $70/each).

I’ve never been to Legoland before, so I have nothing to which to compare it. I’m told other Legoland parks are bigger and have more in the way of rides, so possibly Legoland Berlin is probably not impressive if you’ve been to the others. That said, if you are looking for something fun to do in Berlin with kids, we think it is a good choice. But, we’ll get into this. First, the details of our very quick weekend in Berlin:

How we got there: A direct flight to Berlin on RyanAir, which got us in Thursday evening and had us heading back home about 9 p.m. on Saturday. Cost was $290 for all four of us, which we thought was quite reasonable (if not spectacular). Once we got there, we mostly used the excellent metro system, except for when we got too hungry or cold and used Uber.

Where we stayed: Once again, we stayed at the Berlin Marriott Hotel using points, in this case 70,000 points for a two-night stay. As in May, we thought the facilities were quite nice and the location near Potsdammer Platz was extremely convenient. It also turned out that Legoland Berlin was only about a 5-minute walk from out hotel, which was a major bonus for us!

What we ate: Oh Berlin, how I love your food! With the exception of the two major activities we did (Legoland Berlin and the German Museum of Technology), this weekend was allllll about eating. Our favorite spots were:

Burgermeister. As ever. This time we waited for about an hour in the cold for our opportunity to buy burgers from this small takeaway stand that, in its past life, was actually a public toilets facility. Worth. The. Wait. We ordered four burgers, but –unfortunately for the kids and fortunately for us — the kids’ burgers did not come out plain as we’d expected. Naturally they freaked out, so the only solution was to tragically strip one down for them to eat alongside their plain fries, while Chris and I batted cleanup on the other delicious burger as well as our own. This baby has apparently turned me into a monster, because I remember being so stuffed I could barely finish my burger back in May, but I destroyed 1.5 burgers this time and legitmately could have had another. Also, cheese fries.

Don’t forget the cheese fries.

Otito. We’d heard that Vietnamese food was a must-eat in Berlin, but last time around we missed our opportunity. This time around, we made it happen. Me and Chris both had excellent meals, though the kids were less than thrilled. But Owen’s favorite foods are apples and completely plain baked chicken, sooooo … don’t take his word for it.

Lowenbrau: We ended up going here somewhat on a whim, as it was only about nine minutes by public transit from our hotel and we had about an hour and a half to kill before we headed to the airport. It ended up being remarkable in that Owen ACTUALLY ATE, so it earns a thumbs-up from me. (He had the currywurst … sans curry sauce. Sigh). I had the kasespatzle, which I thought was delicious but the baby boy STRONGLY DISAGREED.

And finally … the one that got away. SOB.

Benedict. We spent half an hour on public transit getting to this place on the recommendation of a friend, during which time I obsessively studied the menu on my phone. Unfortunately we neglected to realize how busy it might be, and were too hungry to wait for more than an hour for our opportunity. WAAAAAAAAAA. Whenever we are next in Berlin, we are absolutely going here. And this is coming from a non-breakfast person.

So, on to our activities.

Legoland Berlin

Our first order of business Friday was hitting the Legoland Berlin for Owen’s official birthday celebration! We’d pre-bought tickets, but I’m not sure it was entirely necessary as it wasn’t particularly crowded the day was there. Always a nice perk for us!

Legoland Berlin basically included elaborate Lego displays — super fun for our Lego-obsessed kids — and then a ton of stations where they could build their own creations. There were also a few rides (including one they wouldn’t let me on after I answered the question “Ma’am, are you pregnant?” with “ummmmm … a bit.”)

We spent a lot of time at the various stations building things, which seemed to be as fun for Chris as it was for the munchkins. Which is lucky for them, because I am amazingly challenged when it comes to setting up those things myself.

A big hit with both kids was a station where you could construct your own cars and send them down various race tracks, though it proved to be much more difficult than any of anticipated. Unsurprisingly, there was a heavy concentration of deeply invested dads hanging out at this particular area …

For a bit more active play, Legoland Berlin also had several small jungle-gym type set ups, as well as one area where you could try out your spy skills by attempting to pass through a hallway without crossing any of the laser lines. We basically had to drag Owen away from that one …

Plus this awesome wall, which moved downward as you climbed. I was super impressed with how great both kids were at climbing.

Overall, we had a great time. I even destroyed Chris at a fast reflex game, which isn’t surprising because I AM THE MASTER. Sorry hon, but it is my blog.

Legoland Berlin gets eight thumbs ups from our family.

German Museum of Technology

Our second and last day in Berlin brought us to the German Museum of Technology (and incidentally, right next door to the epiiiiiic line for the Berlin Comic Con that day. Lots of Harry Potter characters mixed in there — just what I like to see). This was another huge hit for Chris, Owen and Fiona.

Me …. eh.

Listen, I like museums! A lot! We go to lots of them! I’m not yelling!!

Butttttt if I’m being completely honest …

Possibly weirdly, I do still highly recommend it though. The newer section of the museum is enormous and filled with planes, while another is visually stunning with a lot of models of ships. There are trains you can climb on. If you’ve got kids who are in the “all modes of transportation are awesome” stage, this is your place, guys.

If you find that sort of thing interesting but not “let’s stay here for four hours” interesting, then I recommend coming with your devices fully charged.

The older section of the German Museum of Technology had a pretty cool technology section, complete with guiding robot, which the kids were pretty into. (Though once again, why are things from our childhood in MUSEUMS now???) We also “discovered” an amazing illusions section that was right up our alley, but at that point I was so hungry that we couldn’t stay any longer lest I actually eat someone. #pregnancyproblems #jkImalwayshangry

So, since we spent the rest of this day eating (BURGERMEISTER!) and Lowenbrau, that about does it for this recap! But overall, we are still in love with Berlin. Especially with kids. If you are thinking about going … go!