Woke up in the nice hotel, had hotel breakfast, drove to Lübeck, had a look around, ate some cake, saw the cathedral, drove to Blank-eck where we were gonna do two days camping. They had a Greek restaurant so we had Mikkels birthday dinner there. Massive portions!

The day before Mikkels birthday we went to Schwerin because it was going to rain a lot and we couldn’t find hotels in Lubeck. Schwerin was lovely, and had improved a lot since mama was there last in 1995. We stayed the night in a lovely countryside mansion. The kids wanted to stay in bed and watch German TV, perhaps because they are afraid of mosquitoes. But the parents went out for a bit of chess and boules.

Since the WordPress update we are really struggling to add to the blog. We have to upload with our phones and make posts with the iPad. The only way we can add more than one photo is with a gallery, and some photos go sideways. We will have a tidy up when we get home. If you want to see whole /large photos right click/ hold to open.

PS. Ronja is not in many photos because of the mosquito on the face incident…

After leaving Lille and travelling into Germany we struggled a bit finding a hotel so we ended up leaving the motorway and finding a place in the hills. the roads got smaller and smaller and n the end we were in Bödefeld in a little old spa hotel. They had a nice restaurant and a pool. The rest of the town was 20 houses a church and a cake shop.

On Sunday we woke up with 200 moskito stings. Mikkel was worst on the back, Ronja on the face. We had left the window open not knowing the hotel was next to a lake. Had a great breakfast, which was lovely, then drove towards Lille.

Stopped at Tyne Cot cementry to see the thousands of graves of young Canadian and British boys and men who died at the fields of Ypres during the great war. It moved all of us, especially because of what is going on in the world, but also because some of them were only thirteen!

Then we went to Lille.Only after checking in and going for a day we realised it was bastille day 14th of July. Walk in the park, drink by the river, food at a bistro,- snails and all! – then football match and fireworks. So lucky!

It was still raining alot in Haarlem, so after breakfast we went to Belgium. Everyone was a bit tired when we parked in the centre of Ghent. while we had Indian food for lunch in ‘the best Indian in Belgium’ we booked a hotel just outside of town before we walked around town, looked at the cathedral and the castle and had some waffle /ice cream. Great to check in to the hotel after driving three and a half times around theblock /loop before we got it right!

Shower and film 4!

Breakfast wasn’t included so we went to Bar Celona for that. Great place. Then we messaged Rebekka and asked if they were home. One thing led to another and then we drove to Haarlem to visit Rebekka, Dion, Sayah and Herne. We cooked burgers and had some wine. Our family stayed in their office in the top floor.

After packing up we drove across the border to Germany. Had lunch in Husum and had a look around. Very nice! A bit of a tiring drive with a lot of ‘stop and go’ and a full on drive through rush hour Hamburg we found Bremen. Very positively surprised. Had a walk around and looked at the old town hall and the cathedral . Ronja and Mikkel had their own room so there was a bit of a party in there!