Still alive

and up and running. We have grandpa over at the moment and as he is a very active person we are always on the move hence this low activity on the blog. Together with Grandpa came also the good weather and we had sunshine for 1 (yes ONE!) whole week. Fantastic. I wasn´t aware those long sunny periods exist in this area but we have used them wisely and did things like biking, running, walking and taking a trip to a Park called Conkers, which is an hour away from here.

Conkers is prevalently designed for kids and as many people had told me about it I was very keen on taking the kids. It is a really nice set-up, they have a great museum and a big outside area with different activities for kids of all ages. Unfortunately though, especially the outside area was quite shabby. The playground seemed really old and, well lets say, well-used, with isolation material sticking out, coloring that has come off and plastic handles and such that have definitely seen better days. Likewise, the labyrinth was not at all a labyrinth (we hardly understood what we were looking at) and other activities were broken. The train that connects the different areas was not working either, which was a bit disappointing especially for S. My last complaint is the restaurant, which really sucked. They had no healthy options for the kids. The lunch box contained only chocolate, super-sweet juice, crisps and a choice of either sandwich, chicken or fish fingers or a hamburger. No fruits, no greens. I really regretted not bringing an own lunch. Also our food was more than poorly prepared. My father in law had a soup that tasted nothing but pepper and my jacked potato locked more like a sad and wrinkled piece of coal.

Anyhow, before sounding to much like a bitter old b... that is rambling on about everything negative I should probably give the place some credit as well. Fact is that we spend a nice day at Conkers and especially the inside area is great and very well taken care of. S. loved the play area which resembles a jungle that is co-inhabited by fairies and spiders. There are lots of nets, tunnels, obstacles to climb over or under and for the bravest among us there are pitch dark slides that take you back down to the lower level. All very exciting. Also the museum was very informative, thought through and nicely done and I learned the one or the other. They also had some information on nuclear power, which was interesting with regard to what is going on in Japan. So taken together, it was a successful excursion and we all had a good time. AND the fun doesn´t stop here. Today we are going to go swimming again. Yiha! I will tell you more later, now it is time to get our things packed! Packed die Badehosen ein!!!

Also, I will write a bit about last weeks Shrovetime later on. Just need to upload a couple pics because they say more than a 1000 words.