This post is a bit after it happened, so bear with me when it comes to some of the details.
Last summer we decided to take the kids on a camping trip to Germany that would allow us to go to Europa Park but also to do a few other things in the area. I spent some time finding a camping site that would be able to take our huge family tent, the dog, be in a good location for ironman training and not too far from Europa Park.
We settled on the great campsite Campingpark Oase in Ettenheim. This campsite had plenty of spaces for camping, including large tents, has a playground for the kids, an onsite café for cocktails and pizza and right next door is a swimming pool complex that we got a discount too. We were really happy with the choice.
So the holiday started with us loading everything up into the car, quite a challenge given we were taking the huge tent, the dog, a lot of camping stuff as we like to camp with plenty of “essentials” (one might almost call it glamping), 4 bikes and enough stuff to keep the kids entertained. Once it was all loaded, it was time to head off.
It was a very hot day and as the drive was going to take 4.5 hours we decided to break it up with a visit to some friends who live just outside of Basel. The dog and the kids were grateful for the time outside in the garden and we used this stop as a chance to get some food and drink in. In the end it was a nice 3 hour stop and then back into the car to continue our journey through to the campsite.
Unfortunately, we had not looked at the information sent to us from the campsite about check in until we were on the road again after our long break in Basel and realised, we would be arriving after the early check-in time of 5pm. We called ahead and the friendly staff said that it would not be a problem, they would still be there to check us in. We arrived and were shown to our camp site, and then it was time to set up the tent. This is a long process and can pretty much be done by myself, except for 1 point early on where I need help to put the two mains poles up. Vanessa and the kids stuck about until I had passed this point and then all of them headed over to the water park next door to play for a bit and cool down while I was setting up the rest of the tent.
Vanessa was watching the kids attentively at the pool over a beer and found that the wasps really enjoyed her beer also, good thing she did not swallow it. We found that at this time of year in this area, the wasps were pretty bad.
As with so many of our holidays, this one fell at a very important time in my training program for the years Ironman race. This meant I had to train most days while on vacation and the first training was a morning run of 25km which took me through some farming land, past Europa Park and through a few small villages.
Training done, it was time to do some stuff with the family. This was mostly spent over at the swimming pool, where we also grabbed some food for the kids. They had a great time playing in the swimming pool there, as well as in both the pools. Kieran was really practicing his swimming, which meant we constantly had to be on watch as he was going without any arm bands and Sam really enjoyed also joining him in the big pool with the arm bands on. It is surprising though just how much Kieran also enjoyed just playing with his sister in the little Kiddy pool or in the sand box and playground with her. It was a nice break for us.
After drying off we decided to take the kids and the dog for a walk through the local village. Still quite hot we did not get far before we decided to stop at Cafe Restaurant Rohan to have a drink under some shade. The kids enjoyed the break from the sun and spent most oof the time we were sat here playing in the water fountain. The dog mostly just hid under the seat out of the sun. The food looked good here but Vanessa had already picked out a Kebab shop on trip advisor that she wanted to take us to, so we continued our walk through town in that direction.
The Kebab shop had good food, and we were able to sit outside in the rather tatty outdoor terrace with the dog. Again, fighting off the wasps from our drinks and food. With it still bright outside it was a rather pleasant walk back to the camp site.
The next day is what the kids had been waiting for. Our first day at Europa Park. So everyone was up early to get ourselves there. We had to be there extra early as I had booked Voodoo in to stay with a dog pension that did collections directly from Europa Park. Hundehotel | Toms Hundewelt in Riegel (toms-hundewelt.de). We had to run from the carpark around to the hotel entrance where I agreed to have Voodoo collected to make it on time. We got there and started waiting, and waiting and no one showed up. So, I called the pension, it turned out I had booked his stay from the following day, but they were so nice and arranged to come get him right away so we could go into the theme park. Voodoo was bundled up into their van (he didn’t like the travel containers) and taken to their premises for an overnight stay.
We then went into Europa Park. It was our first time there so didn’t fully know what to expect, but it was really easy to go through ticketing, plenty of clear maps, a good app and lots of information on display. We all had a great time wandering around the different themed parts of the resort and going on different rides. Leading up to lunch time the kids needed just a normal play area and kid friendly food so we headed over to the Irish themed area which is specifically for children. The kids had a great time playing inside the maze in the castle and we order some pub styled food there.
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After lunch they played a little more and then there was a bubble show. This was really well done and Sam got selected to go up on stage to participate in the show. She ended up in a bubble bigger than her.
We continued around the park for the rest of the day, going to all the areas and pretty much going on all the rides that the kids were able to do. Even though they were small at 4 and 6, there were plenty of different rides for them to go on from the spooky haunted house, to rollercoasters, to log flumes. The kids were having so much fun and also enjoying just how much water there was around to help cool down throughout the day. We also made a trip over the horse arena to see the show there and the show at the dive pool. By the end of the day everyone was a little tired but excited that we still had another day to go back and do it all again.
A quiet night back at the tent and just a simple meal cooked on the camp stove we had taken with us. We had hoped to have coal BBQ dinners but because of the heat wave across Europe there were fire bans and the camping would not let anyone use their non gas BBQ’s. Probably better that way.
The next day was much the same. But this time we started the day with a game plan of the things we wanted to go to first to try and beat the lines. So a strategic plan was made by me and off we went. We got a few roller coasters in and joined a line or two that were growing bigger as the day progressed. And by lunch time we settled on eating in the Scandinavian section of the park. Fish and chips (or a variation of it anyway). Middle of the day was spent near the water rides, log flumes and river rafting, and with the kids running out in the splashes of the log flumes coming down to get wet and cool off. As the day wore on we made it to the parts of the park we had not seen yet, took in a few last rides and then wandered around seeing the last bits before it closed and we collected voodoo again, back at the park where we had dropped him off. The people at Tom’s had done a great job looking after him but we was very happy to see us again and to join us at back at the tent.
For dinner tonight we found a nice Asian fusion place to eat with an outside area to sit in the warm evening. The food was nice and the price was fine. Again we had to fight off the wasps (a lot of them this time) but the kids were able to play in the car park area a little and we enjoyed the evening out.
The next day we started what Vanessa had been most looking forward to on the trip. Driving around, looking at old villages and aimless wandering. We headed out in the direction of France to drive through the Schiesser Outlet store that Vanessa had seen the day before after leaving the theme park. We did a little shopping there but overall the outlet store was a bit of a let down (and checking on google now it seems it has shut down since then).
After the outlet store we went to one of the German supermarkets, Norma (https://www.norma-online.de/) to stock up. We also found a unique gift for a friend of ours whose birthday was not too far away. We bought him a machete in the supermarket. We really just bought it because it was such a random thing to find in the supermarket and then we worked out we could keep it as a gift to justify buying it anyway.
After the shopping we went down to the swimming lake near by. It is an old quarry which can be used for swimming and apparently diving also. Be warned, the parking for the swimming lake is the opposite side to where google lists it. The business that is on the google side was not particularly friendly (or maybe I just need better German) but we found the other side and parked up. Vanessa, the kids and the dog all played while I did my swim training in the lake and then we all played some more. Trying to teach the big dog to swim is a bit of a challenge, but he was getting used to it by the end.
We went back to the camping and still being hot and sunny we went back to the pool centre next door to tire the kids out a bit more.
The following day was the day Vanessa had most been looking forward to. After I did a quick run and we got into the car to do some aimless exploring around old villages and wandering through towns.
We first headed to Sélestat and parked up to walk around the old town. There is a really nice old town here with a more German feel to the old building and cobbled roads. We spent only about half an hour wandering around the village here but it is well worth a stop.
Then we noticed that there was a castle in the area and as I love castles we headed up to Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg http://www.haut-koenigsbourg.fr/ and we were glad we did. It is one of the best castles I have been to. It is well preserved and even had quite a substantial amount of reconstruction done it to by a German emperor prior to the world wars. This castle was first mentioned in 774 and has been open to the public. It was about lunch time when we arrived and there is also a restaurant in the ground so we took a table, had some food and then set off to explore. We spent about 3 hours here including the lunch and I am sure we could have spent more time here exploring if there were no other random villages that needed exploring by Vanessa.
We got back into the car and aimlessly headed off again. This time we stopped at the village of Bergheim. It is a nice little village which apparently had the entire population wiped out in the past and was rebuilt with immigrants. We didn’t spend too long here but it was a nice little stop.
Then onto the last village stop of the day. We stopped at Ribeauvillé .Another great old town to walk up and down with the kids. A nice market type feel on this street with all the shops lining it and so many people. Voodoo also liked the fountains on this street to get some much needed drink in the heat.
When we got back to the car we had a quick look to see if there was anything else nearby we could do with the kids and found there was a butterfly garden nearby (www.jardinsdespapillons.fr). So we bundled off to get there before it closed. There was some nice information about butterflies and bees and then we spend some time walking through the enclosure looking at all the pretty butterflies they had there. Well worth the stop off with the kids.
The kids were now satisfied but Vanessa and I were in the Alsace region and we really wanted to try some local wines. So we headed off in search of a cellar to do a wine tasting and buy some wines. In the end we found Gîte l'Agapé (http://www.alsace-agape.fr/) which had an outdoor area for tasting and allowed for the kids to play a little while we were trying some very nice wines. We left the cellar with a box or two of wine and finally made our way back to the campsite.
This was now our last day at the camping before we would go home. I got up and went for a short bike rode before the family were all up and then we settled in to relaxing on the final day before we packed the car up and we went home. We made another trip to the water park and the kids practiced on their bikes some more. It was on this day that Kieran finally fully worked out cycling his big bike all by himself. It was a nice day where we did very little and then we finally packed the tent up and piled everyone back into the car for out return drive home.
And that was the end of another family vacation. Until the next one.