Our holiday in Germany - A Last Farewell

After checking out and letting the Podlings have a final play in the play park, we decided to take a farewell walk around the perimeter of the campsite and down to the countryside behind. It was so beautiful and I wish we had walked there earlier in the week so we could have followed the path further down the hill. There was a field of wheat on our left with beautiful purple vetch climbing up the stalks to delightful effect. The verge was lined with wildflowers and butterflies and to our right the open countryside afforded stunning views. It was like something out of a storybook and I wish we could have spent more time soaking it all in. I would very much like to come back here again.

Capturing this photo of a fritillary butterfly on field bindweed rather made my day!

We found the biggest dandelion clock I think I have ever seen, so I photographed it with Mark's hand to illustrate its size.

Alex couldn't wait to blow the giant dandelion clock. He was a very happy little boy!

Our holiday in Germany - Our lovely campsite

A view of Saarburg from the top of the hill

During our holiday in Germany we stayed in large mobile home on a lovely campsite on top of a hill overlooking Saarburg. The road up was steep and winding with a total of fifteen bends from the bottom to the top (Mark counted them!), so the view from the top was excellent! It was quite possibly the nicest campsite we have ever stayed on and both the swimming pool and the play park were a huge hit with the Podlings. One of the things I love about Germany is their use of wood and the play park was certainly the most charming I think I have ever seen. I took lots of photos of it as I know the children will want to remember it. We loved our time here and would definitely stay there again.

Breakfast and Angry Birds on the iPad!

Stories at bedtime with his current favourite book "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" by Richard Scarry which Alex calls his 'funny car book'

Man make fire! We had a barbecue on our last night. We were all set with lots of meat, coal, firelighters and a shiny new bucket barbecue when we realised that we didn't have any matches! I improvised some splints out of a torn up brown paper shopping bag and used the gas hob to light them. I then passed them out the window to Mark who managed to eventually get the thing going. He produced a fabulous meal for us on this little bucket!

Sandcastle building

Emma was quite sad on our last visit to the park as she loved it there and was already missing it.

Souvenir shopping in the camp shop with their holiday money.

Vineyards at the bottom of the hill

Our holiday in Germany - Some wolves and a forest

On our last full day in Germany we visited Wolfspark Werner Freund, which was fairly near where we were staying. The wolf park was created by the German wolf researcher Werner Freund and,to our surprise, is free to the public. We didn't have time to walk around the whole park as the gates are locked at five, but we did get to see several enclosures. Nearly all the wolves we saw were asleep and just looked rather like large, fluffy dogs lazing around in the woods! Lily, a real animal lover, particularly enjoyed our visit here and she was especially taken with the arctic wolves.

We walked out of the gate just before five and straight into the most incredible forest. We had a wonderful walk through the forest, gathering armfuls of pinecones, looking at wildflowers and watching black beetles scurrying across the path. The forest quite took my breath away and was one of my favourite parts of the whole holiday.

It was clearly nap time for the wolves! A couple of the timber wolves were awake, but all the arctic wolves were just lying about sleeping. They all seemed quite relaxed!

One wolf decided to check us out, but decided we weren't very interesting and went back to sleep. It's a good life!

Into the forest...

Forest treasure!

I love this photo of my boys

Our holiday in Germany - The Saarschleife

The Saarschleife

Mark had to be in Brussels for a business trip during half term, and since the children were off school we thought we would all tag along and make a holiday of it. We love Germany and since Mark doesn't bat an eyelid at driving on the continent we thought we would have our holiday there and he would drive to Belgium for his meeting. We had our own car anyway as Mark drove the whole way. We find it both considerably cheaper and more practical to drive everywhere with our family of six and all our attendant stuff! We stayed in a lovely campsite overlooking Saarburg near the Moselle Valley. The weather was glorious all week, the swimming pool was lovely and we had it to ourselves most days, the play park was one of the nicest I have ever seen and the surrounding countryside was just delightful. In short, we had a wonderful week and none of us was keen to return to reality on Monday!

It is no secret that I am fond of taking photos and since I love to record the memories we make as a family I thought I would share some of my favourites over several posts. These pictures were all taken on our visit to the Saarschleife, a rather spectacular ox bow in the river Saar. We took a lovely walk through the forest to the viewing point, soaking in the lovely view before walking back through the forest and letting the Podlings play on two of the most awesome slides they have ever been on!

This viewing platform was closed when we were there, which is just as well as I have no head for heights and it made me dizzy just to look up at it! It was a truly spectacular structure, with the posts supporting the walkway leading to the platform made of actual tree trunks! You still wouldn't get me on it though!