In my on-going game of blog post catch-up, I would like to engage in the (probably pointless) exercise of telling you, dear reader, about our annual family trip to Germany. Last time I kept a detailed journal, not so much this time, so I’ll wrap it up in a single post, with just the broad strokes. With Germany in the World Cup final, I'm sure you're all eager for a little taste of the Fatherland, right?
Travelling with small children is indeed exhausting, especially the flights, but I have to say, my boys are actually pretty good, all things considered and they get compliments from airline staff and other passengers. They've both been on planes since they were 6 months old, and while the Lightning Kid still doesn't get the need to stay seated, they show their veteran flyer status in their general behaviour.
Due to the German holiday calendar this year, we weren't able to spend as much time with my brother’s family, and we ended up heading to the Berlin area shortly after landing. Germany gave us some great weather this year, though it was late May, it felt like a full-on summer (meanwhile, back in Canada, the climate was still shaking off the Polar Vortex).
This gave us an opportunity to swim in the Havel river a bunch including off a boat! Shark Boy really improved his swimming and it ended up paying off a few weeks later at TriKids Burlington. I even got my own open water swimming training session, and though it didn't feel great in terms of technique, performance or accomplishment, this is the first year I've gotten one done while on vacation though that river has been there the whole time, so I feel proud of it.
This boat was docked nearby, and it gave me a daydream about living on it, and having constant access to open water, living a nomadic, triathlon lifestyle a little like Team Wuertele. Having a cottage is pretty good too, though.
We don't do much sight-seeing while there and prefer to be homebodies... it's quite cozy. Apparently some ducks thought so too - but nobody told them that ducks aren't roof birds...
The other big physical activity we did as a family was a bike ride; Shark Boy rode at 10 km on his own, and now that the Lightning Kid is a little bigger, he can ride longer in the rear seat - he is also carrying on his brother's tradition of reaching forward to try and give me a wedgie.
While we didn't sightsee, we did have to find ways to keep the kids entertained, and we looked into a couple of amusement park and play centres as we've come across them over the years. Lots of jumping and climbing for both boys, and it's great to see the Lightning Kid really rock his gross motor skill development.
After Berlin, we did finally get a chance to spend time with my brother and his family, and what we didn't have in quantity of time, we made up for in quality. Seeing the cousins play and bond really reinforces the feeling that family is something to be treasured. We took a nice hike up one of the Taunus mountains.
I also got a nice run in with my brother.
Like any vacation, it was over too quickly and now seems so long ago.
Labels: family, run, swim, travel
