Busy, Busy, Busy

I can't believe we've been so busy that I haven't had time to blog. All through our holiday in France, whatever happened, I was able to settle down in the evening and put pen, as it were, to paper. This weekend it's been all go since we arrived on Thursday evening, until this morning. I started yesterday, but managed to delete it by accident :(

But, Oh my GOD! We've been busy doing fun stuff. On Friday, after walking the girls to school I was able to sit down and read for all of an hour, before we went shopping with Zoe, and then on to pick up Jenna from school - as she's so young, her day ends at 11:15. It was a special sports day for the other two, we went straight off to pick them up from the sports ground.

When Chrisoph got back from work, we all went in to Heidelberg, because Jasmin had an appointment with her heart doctor. Heidelberg is a lovely old town, with a super castle, and the longest shopping street I've seen outside of London. So long that we were unable, in just an afternoon, to do it complete justice.

Eventually, stopping just short of Lush (and drawn to investigate later by the smell) we dined outside at Pizza Hut. Sadly, the service was dreadful, and it took quite a lot longer than it should to get our supper, leaving people grumpy and out of sorts.

But Saturday dawned bright with promise of a new day. The sky was blue, there wasn't a cloud to be seen, and the children were cheerful. We decided to take a trip to the Louisenpark in (I think) Mannheim, which is a really super park. This place has dozens of little parks dotted round it, all with play equipment of their own. The only downside was that we couldn't take Emily, the dog, We had a lovely boat ride, and then bought waffles, for which I asked - in German! Ha!

When we got the children home, we gave them supper (anyone else remember how gorgeous Pizza Hut pizza is the next day?), and Zoe and I went off to meet a couple of her friends for a girly night out. We met in a bar near to here, and Zoe was keen that we get there not too long after 7:30, because happy hour only lasted until 8:00, and cocktails are half price. Apparently we'd want to get in a couple of cocktails before the 8pm cutoff! I ordered a Margerita and a salad, both of which were delicious. They did a nice range of alcohol-free cocktails, of which I availed myself just before 8.

Sunday started just as well, although there was a whisp of a cloud, very high up. Our plan, once Christoph returned from his tennis game, was to leave for Lochmule (sorry, I don't know how to add all the necessary umlauts to the letters), an amusement park near Bad Homburg (yes, I know, Bad Homburg!!)

This park is a lot like Legoland, except that there are no lego sculptures, and about 1/10th the staff. In fact, apart from a couple of rides near the beginning and a couple near the water splash, most of the rides were unmanned! This sounds completely strange to us, expecting that we'd have to produce a birth certificate for the children to ride, in this park, once they'd warned you (with a sign, in German) of the minimum age for a ride, it was up to you to police that yourself! And up to you, and the people coming after you, to start the ride. This usually involved you strapping yourself in, the people waiting shutting the door and pressing a button, and then you could press a button and start the ride. And there were some pretty good rides! I think my favourite was called Luna Loop, which allowed you to roll round a small circuit. There was a water splash ride where the small boat was winched up a ramp, and then let go, to plunge into the water! This was Lizzy's favourite. There was a section of the river given over to rafts, where many children in many different states of undress (and yes, there were some completely naked) were allowed to play on a handful of rafts, with wooden poles. All of this was completely unregulated, leaving only the good nature of the kids to govern their own actions. This is surprisingly successful, and apart from a couple of grievences ("I said they could come on my raft and they made it rock so much I fell off!") all the children played really well together. There was a roller-coaster ride which was just like the little dragon ride at Legoland, except that even the smallest children could ride it alone. I'll not forget the time, at Legoland, having to ride the mini-dragon roller-coaster 3 times in one go, because the three girls I was with were all under the height limit for riding on their own.

A smashing day was had by all, and we arrived back home exhausted, and happy.

I think this morning (glum and rainy) we're going to visit the castle, but I'm not too sure. Since I'm baby sitting all the girls tonight, I might get a chance to settle down to blog again...