Photos on Flickr

Hi

I've started to load photos on to Flickr. I'll have to wait a while to get all of them up as my laptop has either a dead power supply or hopefully a dead fuse in the plug. Anyway, here's some Kettler Hof, Xanten and the Dorsten Jewish Museum photos.

Last day in Dorsten

We finished off yesterday evening with a wonderful bbq at the Dorsten church and yet another reminder of how much I have overeaten this holiday.
Today I did my first morning run of the holiday - I have consumed an awful lot of calories that need burning off. I got horribly lost but returned in time for our final service with the Dorsten church. This time it was all in German although we were given an English outline. Apparently the pastor didn't stick too closely to the outline we were given! Not that we were to know!
Our hosts Gabi and Verner work as volunteers at the Jewish museum and they were having a fundraising lunch today. The food wasn't quite to the kids taste although Lucy loves that sort of food so we called in to McDonalds on the way home for some familiar rubbish.
After that we spend over 3 hrs in the swimming pool. It was a huge place with the usual collection of slides, lazy river, hot pool, outdoor pools, kiddie pool, proper 25m pool, etc along with sun loungers and chairs around the sides. Much much bigger that Lisburn pool - more like Centre Parcs. As we left Jack asked if we could go back after tea - says it all! It seemed like a fitting end to a great holiday.
Tomorrow we leave at 10.30 and should be back in Belfast for around 5.30pm. So glad I'm off for the rest of the week!
Final photos -
1. Stewart and Jack cooling off in the garden yesterday.


2. Last nights entertainment after the BBQ (and Dorstens answer to Gary and Julie)


3. Kathryn and Vera clearly enjoying the festivities last night!


4. Some traditional dancing at the Jewish museum today. The local mayor turned up again to press the flesh (aren't all mayors the same?). The German word Bürgermeister does not (as the name suggests) someone who is an expert at flipping burgers in Johnny Whites. It does in fact mean mayor, a somewhat less important job. Now you know....


5. Stewart using the wall of the Jewish museum to practice his rock-climbing skillz


6. Megan felt aggrived that there were more pictures of the boys than her, so here is an older picture from our first visit to the Jewish museum of Megan and Vera listening to Mika.

Last trip - Winterswijk. and Bottrop

Todays 2 trips couldn't have been more different. First up was the short hop across the border into Holland to see a flower parade. I know this sounds awful but it was surprisingly good. Its like a cross between a 12th of July parade and the Ballyclare May Fair except ... good. The talent that was clearly needed to put on the floats in the parade makes our May Fair look amatuerish and embarrassing in comparison. These photos show the scale of what was on display, each floated painstakingly put together from individual blooms. We were all well impressed.



So that was good. Bottrop? Well ..... the local churches were celebrating 100 years in this area with a joint open air service outside the town hall in Bottrop. Rev Bell was representing PCI so he was up on stage the whole time and had to give greetings and a reading too. That was the only bit of the 2 hour service in English so once he had done his bit, I nipped off up the town for some ice cream - and very nice it was too.

Shopping!

Today we mitched off the program and took train to a big shopping centre nearby in Oberhausen. Lucy and Megan are hitting the shops while the boys and I are in Starbucks - Stewart playing Mariokart and Jack zzzzzz.
Tomorrow we go to a town in Holland and swimming on Sunday afternoon. Hot and sunny today.

Thursday 23rd August - Soest

Soest is a very picturesque town dating back hundreds of years. It reminds me a bit of Chester with cobbled streets and tudor-style timber frame houses as in the pictures. I ony wish we could have had longer to wander around the town.
On the way back we visited the Möhne dam which was partially destroyed by the famous bouncing bomb in May 1943 and made famous in the film The Dambusters. The dam and reservoir are very impressive - makes our own Spelga dam look small and ordinary compared to it! We could easily have spent an hour or 2 wandering around here.
Today in the blazing sun we thought we would be spared rain but oh no! Some very menacing thunder and heavy rain - but only when we were inside or on the bus which was nice. When its hot it is really hot. Finished day off with lovely pizza back at Dorsten church.

Excuse the dodgy verticals - the houses really weren't leaning backwards. Need photoshop to correct these.....

Some Ballyclare folk enjoying more cake with the German equivalent of the PWA! (the Evangelische Frauenhilfe)

Lembeck Schloss photos

1. Its a fine castle surrounded by a moat



2. Grand entrance



3. Kids had fun on a huge see saw



4. Jan enjoyed the merrygoround



5. Our musician for the folk singing! He´s not only better looking that Gary and Mark, but a better singer too!

Misc photos from last few days

OK here´s a few photos from Monday till now.
1. Megans favourite animals, meerkats


2. Regional Parliament at Dusseldorf


3. The doors into parliament chamber are never cleaned so we were told we could leave our fingerprints on them. Stewart and Jack decided to leave feet marks instead.


4. The kids were intrigued by some of the art on display at the parliament.



5. Inside of church at Lembeck

Wed 22 August

I haven´t had a chance to get on the computer lately and can´t load any photos tonight yet.
Monday we had a great day at the zoo. It has animals - what more can I say?! Megan saw her favourite animals (Meerkats) although I think the ones at Belfast pose better. The lions looked drugged but some of the animals like the otters put on a good show.
Tuesday was busy and was the first time things got a bit boring for the kids. We started off at a tea factory. As well as making tea (really!) they make various fruit flavoured teas with odd names such as Hot Love and Pure Lust. Hmmm. Unfortunately the only freebies we got were peppermint, camomile and some ´kindertee´. Ate lots of cake.
Afterwards we went into Düsseldorf for a bit of shopping and then a tour of their regional parliament. Time for more cake. Listening to politics isn´t that interesting in English and even less so in German! We finally got some savoury food during a visit to a brewery which was good. I chickened out of the traditional German food (sausages, meatloaf, liver, sauerkraut etc) and had ... chicken. Not too adventurous.
Today we went to Lembeck. Some interesting bits especially the castle and chatting to the Countess - she speaks French, the count speaks German and all the kids are taught in English at school so are fluent in all 3! The best part for the kids was the playpark.
The evening finished back in der Museschoppe (house of mice) for some grub and traditional folk singing. Nuff said!
Tomorrow we´re off to Soest. Its supposed to be a nice spot and hopefully the weather will be better.
I´ll upload some more photos later if I get the chance.

Sunday 19th - church service

Today we worshipped in the Dorsten Evangelical church. I hope Mr Bell doesn´t pick up too many tips - the service lasted just under 2hrs :) OK so the translation into English added on a bit. I had to read and pray - fortunately not in German!
Afterward Mr Bell, Ray McWilliam and Jim Armstrong were presented with a couple of pictures as shown in photos.
I had meant to say that earlier in week the Dorston folks put on a photo presentation of the history of the church partnership which was excellent. Lucy was surprised to see photos of her grandas cousin Sam Davison who had been on a Dorsten visit many years ago! Small world....
Second photo is from a crane lift the boys and I had this afternoon (too scary for Megan). There was some sort of festival by the river with boat races and niknak stalls - a bit like a small May Fair! Fortunately we didn´t have to paddle (although we did get the offer).
Tomorrow we go to the zoo. After a few warm dry days, the forecast is showery:

Kettler Hof - another couple of pics

The kids really enjoyed the water play area which was quite educational with an Archimedes screw and other similar things.
Its hard to describe the huge bouncy thing except to say great fun.

Kettler Hof adventure Park

On Saturday we had a cracker day with the Reinäcker family at Kettler Hof. Its an enormous adventure park with loads of activities for kids (and their parents) to do such as numerous different types of climbing frames like pirate ships, castles, tree houses, etc. Also lots of slides, tobaoggan runs, bouncy things, water play areas - a whole day couldn´t do it justice. Check out their website and my photos for more details.

Stewart climbing windmill

Here are a few pictures of Stewart climbing the windmill sails. The first shows just how high off the ground he was - with no helmet or harness! The second is just a closer view.

Friday 17 August

Apparently we are hot news in Dorsten! We had our photo taken with the mayor in the Dorsten town hall (appropriately called the Rathaus in German) and it appeared in todays paper with a news story.
Today we visited an old Roman city called Xanten. The kids got a bit bored looking at historical stuff but they enjoyed the rest of the day. Stewarts favourite part was at a working windmill where he had to help the owner get the sails ready. This involved climbing up the sails to undo some ropes and pull the fabric across the frame of the sail. We didn´t even have to sign a parental consent form! After that we milled the grain and used the flour to make our own pizza. The German ladies used some bizzare combination of toppings but salami, olives and apple didn´t taste as bad as it sounds.
Tomorrow we´re off to an adventure park with Jens and Tine and their extended family. With a good weather forecast, it promises to be a great day.

Thursday 16 August

First impressions of Dorsten:-
Weather - at least the rain is warm.
Hosts - very friendly and speak great English. I really must try and improve my German
Accommodation - what can I say? 2 large bedrooms, lounge, 2 toilets, kitchen. Its just great!
Food - tasty and plenty of it. Even Megan is coping.
Pity my brand new camera is kaput - flash died already.

5 go to Dorsten

We're all at the airport now and thankfully not a Hawaii shirt in sight. Megan said if I look at her during take-off I'll just see bones blood and organs cos she's scared out of her skin :)
Watched Snakes On A Plane last night to get in the flying mode. Good show but I'll be careful to check the loo on the plane if I have to go...