Last week we went on our second family holiday of the year. This time we left the country though and headed to Germany. I thought it was the right time to introduce the kids to my home country and show them around my actual home town.
We had a very early start on Friday morning. Our flight departed at 7.20am which meant we had to be at the airport roughly around 5am. Generally not a problem for Matthew but Chloe is not an early riser at all. Thankfully we had the brought the buggy with us so she could sit down and wouldn’t have to walk. She is a bit lazy in terms of walking anyway. Once checked in, we sat down for some breakfast, before heading to the gate to board the plane to Berlin in Germany.
When we arrived in Berlin Schoenefeld, we had to take two trains to get to my hometown. It took a total of two hours. Probably one of the worst train rides I had. That day there was a festival on somewhere and so the train was absolutely packed. We didn’t get a seat at all. However when we went home a week later, the train wasn’t any better. Either the trains are always like that, or it’s just because it was a Friday.
Once we arrived in Waren, we grabbed a taxi on the way to the holiday home we spent the week in. Funnily enough this was managed by an old school friend which was very handy. She greeted us and showed us around the holiday home. The kids felt at home already checking out upstairs and digging into the sweets they were given. I had to go and pick up our rental car for the week so we could get around easier and we also had to do a food shop. As we were up so early that day, I prepared a quick dinner and we all went to bed pretty early.
Saturday morning we had a lovely continental breakfast. We got ready to meet my long-term friend Sabrina, her boyfriend and her son at the zoo in Neustrelitz. It is about a 40 minutes drive from my hometown. It was the perfect day to explore. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze and it was very warm. We arrived first. I bought the tickets for the zoo and an ice cream for the kids to pass the time. A few minutes later they arrived. The boys went off to the playground for a while. Then it was time to walk around the zoo. The grounds are small enough but there are still plenty of animals to see.
Chloe stayed in the background a bit. She is not too happy when she meets people she doesn’t know. But she does warm up two or three hours later. She stayed well away from the animal enclosures. She likes to see them from far away once they are behind a fence but she doesn’t like to get too close. Instead Matthew and I walked into each enclosure to meet the animals up close and personal. Matthew is actually a big animal lover. He got to pet a deer and goats. Normally you can go into the monkey enclosure too but it was closed that day.
We finished off the zoo visit with a quick lunch in the cafe place. Finally some yummy German food. I had potato salad and a Wiener sausage. The kids had the sausages as well and chips on the side. Afterwards they went off playing again for a little while. Even Chloe warmed up at that stage.
The plan was to drive to Sabrina’s house out in the country. We organised to have a BBQ that evening. Her son Olli and Matthew were best friends by then and loved messing and playing together. We went for a village walk. Matthew got to see a harvester on the field and how the tractor made the hay into straw bale. He was mesmerised by it. We wanted to walk down to the cows then but Matthew was getting a bit tired of walking and so we walked back to the house.
Back at the house the boys started to mess with the big pool in the middle of the garden. Olli jumped in and I took off Matthew’s clothes as well bar the underwear. They got soaked. They had their fun though while the BBQ was cooking in the background. Around 7.30pm the BBQ was ready and I dried off Matthew and put his clothes back on. The table was set and we enjoyed a feast of a BBQ. There was chicken, sausages, meat, garlic bread etc. Basically no one could go hungry. We ate until we could eat no more. There was a good bit left over and we took some of it home for the next day’s dinner.
The sky went dark and looked like it was about to rain. We helped bringing everything inside Luckily the clouds passed though. It was getting late and we still had a half an hours drive home in front of us. We said goodbye and thanked Sabrina for the lovely day and food and drove home. In the holiday home the kids sat down for a little bit to wind down before heading off to bed. Our first full day in Germany was a great day for them. (part two to follow)
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