Grieshof

A few weekends ago we went on a mini vacation (3 days) to the Grieshof, a working farm two hours outside of Köln that Ruth told us about. The girls are crazy about animals so this type of vacation is pretty perfect for us right now. We only paid 60 euros ($84) per night for our own little suite. We also chose to pay extra to have breakfast and dinner cooked for us at the farm.

The girls got to help feed and take care of the animals every day, and go for horse and go-cart rides. They took the farm dog (Ally) on long walks. Well, Quinnie did at least.  Kiera was too scared of her- Ally was very enthusiastic/ playful and kept jumping on her/ knocking her over/ chasing her. Quinnie woke up early every day to play outside with the cats (a luxury for her since Simon is so allergic she’s not around them very often).

There are also some amazing castles nearby that I wanted to tour until we found out they don’t open until the end of March. I could tell Simon was relieved about that- I guess when you grow up in a country that has lots of castles they might bore you a bit? There aren’t many castles in the States so it’s kind of a novelty for me. Maybe next time!

 

 

The go-carts were a huge hit

Especially with my third child (lol)…

Big playground right outside- and that’s a den full of rabbits (little wooden house)

 

 

View from our bedroom window (which I’m just realizing I forgot to photograph- it was a big room). The girls slept on the Murphy Bed (that was hidden in the wall in the living room), which of course they thought was very cool.

 

The rooms were the perfect size for us (even bigger than we needed actually). They weren’t fancy but were very clean and had everything we needed.

 

 

 

Playing Goldie Blox 🙂

Here’s the Dining Room where we ate our meals. The food was traditional homemade German food and VERY delicious. The family who owns and lives on the farm (a couple and their two teenage children) do everything- tend the animals, cook the food, do the horse rides, organize hikes, take care of all of the guests needs.

The girls got their very own carafe of Kakao (Hot Chocolate) every morning.

Feeding the Rehe (Bambi Deer) little potatoes was a huge hit. There was a huge herd of them but I never got a pic of them all together. They were skittish- you had to stand still with the potato in the palm of your hand and wait for them to come up and take it from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biggest Donkey I’ve ever seen- size of a large horse

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quinnie made lots of friends there.

 

 

It was a nice change of pace to be in the country- beautiful views.

 

 

 

 

Since we were on our own for lunch we ventured into town to get some Chinese food. The owner’s son (Kevin) and Quinnie became fast friends. They were joking around the whole time and while we were waiting for our food I saw them outside wrestling each other on the ground and laughing their heads off. The next day she kept asking if she could go back and play with him again.

Eis (Ice cream) for dessert

We also went out to eat at another restaurant down the street. Unfortunately we missed a walk through the woods with fire torches (Fackelwanderung) that the Grieshof owners had organized that night.

 

 

It was a very relaxing weekend.