All hail the Berlin playground

Since arriving in Berlin a few weeks ago, Milo & I have been trying to soak up as much arty & cultural stuff as possible, as is the main aim of Love Arts Berlin.

Every week we go to a wonderful art class together called Little Art Lab, which we both absolutely love. We have visited some museums too – most recently the Deutsches Technik Museum & the Deutsche Kinemathek, Museum fuer Film & Fernsehen. The first was amazing for Milo, the second involved a very short visit with an angry toddler, culminating in a loud screaming fit in a changing room. Oh well.

I’ve also enjoyed some contemporary art in the wonderful Berlinische Galerie – whilst Milo slept – and together we have taken in the city’s cultural sites and marvelled at the street art (a lot!).

However, in between all of this we have been moving our entire lives from one country to another. We have had to sort out endless reels of paperwork for finding an apartment and then actually convince someone to let us live in one. We schlepped all the way to Hellesdorf (far away!) to register with the city, and we are currently without a kitchen or much furniture. So all in all it has not been as easy to “art around” as much as we would have liked. But the point of this post isn’t to moan & groan or apologise for our lack of artyness but to celebrate the wonderful Berlin playground. Because in between all of the stress of moving and relocating, our haven for those not-so-arty days has been the amazebobs selection of Berlin playgrounds that we have at our disposal. And in fact they are so bloody creative that I think it probably does count as being cultural.

(Gleisdreieck Park)

(Hexenspielplatz, Schoeneberg)

There are literally hundreds of them. They range from the wee Kinderspielplatz tucked in between big Altbau buildings or on local squares, to wonderfully themed playgrounds with enormous & terrifying structures to clamber all over. Our new apartment is in the district of Schoeneberg and so very close by are the Hexenspielplatz (Witches playground), complete with a witches hut and cauldron, a Rubber playground with a lot of rubber stuff to climb over and one which is Wild West themed. We have yet to go to the Wild West one but we will soon. Where we stayed in Kreuzberg we also had a nice selection of smaller ones near Bergmannstrasse and bigger ones at Gleisdreieck Park, all of which Milo enjoyed.

I am in awe of how many there are, how creative they are and how fabulously easy this makes my day sometimes – those days when we just have to leave the house but don’t want to venture too far. It pleases the small one so much and in the end leaves me feeling rather chuffed that he is so utterly satisfied. Being a mere year and half old Milo is limited to the smaller equipment in the bigger playgrounds but he still doesn’t seem to mind. They mostly seem to be able to cater for kids right from baby/toddler to older kids. The big themed ones are definitely perfect for bigger children. If you want to see for yourself how many there are and where, take a look at this website http://www.ihrspielplatz.de/Karte/default.aspx. In addition there are some reviews of the big ones on the website Berlin for all the Family.

So there you go, and here are lots of pics of exactly that. A small child thoroughly enjoying himself in the Berlin playground. Sometimes I really don’t think he would mind if we did this every single day ;).