Grossfeld Bad Bentheim

so... die letzten Tage sind angebrochen,
in etwa 273 Stunden hebt mein Flieger ans andere Ende der Welt ab. Also am 11.10. um 21:20.
Ich fliege ab Düsseldorf, mit Zwischenstop in Dubai, gehts dann erstmal nach Syndey... 8 Tage Urlaub. Von da aus dann am 22.10. nach Auckland...

... the beautiful sunroom they have. Pete and Bert were also comparing notes on the hardship of being a "floaty pen husband" – how every vacation is spent hunting for pens!

We then checked into our hotel and met Biggy and Bert downstairs in the restaurant an hour later for dinner. Wow! What a meal! It was huge and so delicious. No room for dessert, that’s for sure!

... and let him find his way home alone. Can you imagine that happening today?

In the interests of history, we explored the small Hengelo museum, which had an unusual cellar full of pickles and a Singer sewing machine. I bought an old photo postcard of the town, then we walked back to the van der Poel ice-cream shop. It claims to have 120 flavours, but we couldn't try them all. We certainly enjoyed the ones we did try.

... my sleeping bag, only to hear the whine of a lone mosquito in the dark of my room. The kids had chosen to sleep together under a mosquito net, as if Overijssel was the last bastion of malaria. I pulled the hood of my sleeping bag round me, so that only my nose was showing. Half a minute later, the mosquito flew straight up my nose, causing me to writhe and snort ineffectually in my mummified, trussed state.

I don't know how the mozzie found me, but it stopped whining after that.

Heute um 5:00 Uhr ging es los zur ersten Urlaubsetappe nach Deutschland. Der Flug hatte Verfruehung, und so war ich nach Taxi, Flug, Zug und Auto bereits zum Mittagessen in Havixbeck! Nachmittags waren wir dann auf dem Havixbecker Karnevalsumzug... At 5:00am this ...

... maker for the Leisure Pass Group Ltd & is of no benefit to the tourist. Be warned. Apart from the above, the family's stay in Paris was superb. The Hotel was great & we did cram a lot into four days. We were on a budget & tried to eat cheaply but expect to pay a minimum of 40 euros to feed one adult, one teen & one 11 yr old.

... a photographer was shooting for a promotional brochure. They asked me, as a foreign visitor, to pose at the information desk. I talked with a monk from Sweden, who had been there 12 years, while the photos were taken. Then they invited us into a side hallway that had some works of art and a history of the monastery displayed on the walls. We attended the Vesper service, in which the monks enter and sing a series of chants. It was all very beautiful-- lots of incense and ritual ...

... well, quite romantic if you were there with your partner during sunset ;) By the Aasee we also got to see the black swan who fell in love with the huge fake plastic white swan. So cute...Apparently I read somewhere that the black swan did become depressed when the fake one was removed from the Aasee. The whole jean gang had Stammtish on one of the first few days of the Programme. First time stepping into a pub...nothing great ...

... for camping. Asking salesmen they met us with disbelieve and said that the camping season is almost over... Not for us, finally we found a table we looked for. The rest of the time Alex showed Muenster to me with its picturesque old town and lots of beautiful churches. We had ice cream and hot choclate and it becames a wonderful day.

... football and Clara in the sand and on the slide. It was forecast to rain but it had only done so over night. It was lovely. Heini wasn't feeling very well so we went back to the house for soup and bread. Moni's mother also found some photos from when they had visited my parents in England and Jason was only little in them. Home to drop Heini off and we walked up to some neighbours for the traditional bonfire. The kids made bread by putting doe on sticks ...