Holiday Update #3

Our holiday is slowly drawing to a close, so I thought another update was in order. 

After the heat wave broke a few days ago temperatures have been far more tolerable, with most days around 25 degrees, which, for me at least, is quite a nice temperature - enough to not be cold in shorts and a light shirt, even when in the shade, yet not so hot you don't know what to do with yourself. My stepmom sent me a message today, and apparently temperatures near Frankfurt have been around 39 degrees for a few days now. My folks are in Wiesbaden, which always has a pretty oppressive kind of heat in the summer because of it's strange situatedness between the Rhine on one side, and the mountainrange of the Taunus on the other, so weather tends to sort of get 'trapped' in there, and it  gets very humid and unpleasant. I'm feeling really sorry for them, especially as they had been planning to come and see us for about a week but then had to cancel because of an awkwardly scheduled op - having to recover in this heat must be particularly awful.

For us, the slightly lower temperatures have meant a lot more activity, which has been nice after the enforced inactivity. A few days ago we went to a mountain bike trail that D and boy #1, who both have a bad case of mountain bike obsession, had discovered. It was a 30 minute drive away but there was a nice cafe for grandma and me to set up camp while the boys enthusiastically pushed their bikes up the hill, rode down, and pushed them up again. I occasionally followed them up the trail to take some shots, and I have to say it looked pretty good fun. 

For lunch we took our sandwiches up the hill, where we found a huge climbing wall and a bizarre structure that none of us could quite make sense of. You may have seen a picture of it that I posted as part of my 100 of 10 series, but here are a few more shots.

I assume it might be some kind of viewing platform? There are stairs going up through the middle of the two large concrete disks, and there are additional more shallow steps going up the sides on top of the rubble. We didn't go up because it was quite a way and we had the bike and the picnic, but if it is a viewing platform, wouldn't the large concrete discs partially obscure the view!? I don't know... It  looked fun though - a bit like part of an alien space ship that got buried in the hill. 

The day after boy #1 needed to rest so we decided that we should have a calmer kind of a day. Boy #2 was determined to go to a 'boot camp' we had spotted not far from us, so we decided to have a look because there were benches where boy #1 would be able to rest should he need to, and it since it wasn't more than 5 minutes bike ride away and you pay for an hour only, it wouldn't be a big outing.

It was pretty good fun. If anyone has ever watched Ninja Warrior on TV, this is the kind of place that people who go on the programme might train. The guy who owned it (who wouldn't have looked out of place on Ninja Warriors himself) said he'd  built the entire course himself, and he proudly told us that it's the biggest boot camp in the Netherlands and that the Dutch team had come to train there. 

It was pretty easy-going. We paid and off we went. He didn't even stick around, just told us to pull the gate shut behind us when we were ready to leave. I have to say, I'm loving the lack of red tape and the much more easy-going attitude here...

The boys obviously honed in on the one really manky pool in there. Seriously, the water in that pond was absolutely rank, and they obviously did fall in - thankfully not head-first, though, and only up to their knees, but still... Showers were in order after we made it back!!

Yesterday we finally, FINALLY, made it to Amsterdam. I've never been (well, I might have been when I was 10 or 11, but I have no actual recollection of this so it doesn't count). I knew that due to boy #1's ME we wouldn't be able to do much, but just soaking up the atmosphere for a while was such fun. Our main pursuit was finding an art supply shop, carefully researched on the internet before the holiday, where the boys would be able to see and buy their much-coveted Copic Markers. These are very expensive alcohol-based markers for illustration, and boy #1 in particular loves them (though he so far only had one and a bunch of knock-off cheaper markers). This mission was achieved, as was a little wander around town, so everyone was happy, although, shock! horror! I didn't make it to the yarn shop I'd picked out, so no souvenir yarn!! This has never happened and it will likely take me a while to get over the shock. :) 

How cute is this entrance with the roses and that little gate?

Van Beek art supplies

How amazing is this train?! It's a double-decker? I'd never seen one like that!

I do miss big cities at times. It's not so much that I really need to live in a city anymore, I'm more than happy in our little village, but I sometimes need my big city fix. I guess it brings back memories of studying in Munich...  If we come back here next year I may plan in a little trip to Amsterdam just for myself so I can explore a little further. 

In knitting-related news, I've got as far as I can with my sun hat so I'm now working on my mohair cowl, which is growing quite nicely. 

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