Winter Holidays

Earlier in the year there was time for a couple of vacations - a week in Germany with the in-laws during Chinese New Year, and then during the end of March 2 weeks in the UK and a Portuguese island called Madeira.

In Germany this time we spent a couple of days in Berlin. I enjoyed an outdoor market with excellent Gluhwein and the kids enjoyed the street musicians. We also found a fantastic indoor museum-cum-playground for children (technically a Museum for Children) with all kinds of things for kids to play in, such as tents, art activities, clothes to dress up in, and more. Greatway to spend a wet and cold winter holiday

Back in Doberlug-Kirchhain we had fun with the dog, sheep, local playground, and the two-decade old toys that are still going strong, such as the kids' piano. We also found an incredible place called Tropical Islands. One of the largest indoor domes in the world, it used to house airships (I believe) but was covered into a tropical paradise at 28 degrees all year around with a lagoon, 2 swimming pools, a beach, several water slides, hundreds of tents and hotel rooms, and a ginormous kids playground (complete with kids activities every couple of hours)... all of it boiling hot. There is also the world's largest indoor rain forest - and since it is done by the Germans it is really an indoor rain forest that takes several minutes to walk around and has all sorts of insects and animals amongst the trees.

It is a great idea; it is not cheap, but it is certainly cheaper than getting to an airport and flying overseas for a few days of beach time. The kids had a wonderful time; the adults also had a great time. Even the food there was decent (at least 6 different restaurants) and there was one of the world's largest changing rooms! Lots of people travel from all across Germany to go to it and it is well worth it. A place that we will frequently go back to again (though remember your swimming gear as the shop there is expensive!)

Andrea and the kids had more time off than me so they managed to spend some time in England as well - Leah was obsessed with the dog of course; Hannah got into painting various adults' faces and they played in the playground a lot.

At the end of March I took the the two kids back to England (the first time i had taken the two kids on my own on a flight or away from their mother for a significant period of time) - Leah was in love with her little suitcase that she wanted to pull behind her all the time, though she still loved Cocoa (the dog) more. She tried to throw sticks (unsuccessfully) though did successfully manage to fall flat on her face in the mud in the park as her feet got stuck in the mud.

We spent 8 days in Madeira, which is a Portuguese island off the West coast of Africa and was nice and warm (though not generally warm enough for swimming, it was warm enough to play with the water and sand). We saw a few really impressive gardens which the kids enjoyed--waterfalls, animals, Chinese-style gardens, Japanese style gardens, and all sorts. In one of them mum organized an Easter-egg hunt which of course was popular. Perfect except for having a sleeping baby in a buggy needing to be carried up and down stairs and over rock pools!

It is a very rocky island so there were lots of incredible views from the coast and a couple of sandy beaches, though inland there was also a lot of mist which somewhat ruined our outdoor activities there (no views, too cold and dangerous to go canyoning). It was a fairly relaxing holiday with lots of cab rides, some minibuses to explore the sights around the island and the kids playing with each other and with their aunties/grandma.

We found a museum about Madeira which had some entertaining aspects to it, such as part of a plane that Hannah enjoyed playing in and directing everyone (now we are landing, now we are serving meals, now we are putting our seat belts on....), and we found an incredible toy museum with several rooms packed with thousands of toys - cars, teddies, action figures, dolls and all sorts. In fact it was more fun for the adults than the kids, since the kids didn't really know most of the toys (some of which were very old) but we all enjoyed it.

We saw the pretty old villages and the main town that has a high street full of interestingly painted front doors (anything to interest the tourists), some interesting fish and fruit markets, a tour around a rum facility, and a couple of fantastic restaurants.The food was generally cheap there and some of the fish was fantastic; especially when cooked on a hot slab of marble in front of you. There was regular music at the restaurants and very good service.

It was a year or so after the trip to the Canary Islands (Spanish islands nearby) and another very successful sunny winter holiday.