The Hunsrück

Published on: by Meegan

For years Simon has been telling me about this fairytale place from his childhood. He described it as straight out of Hansel and Gretel. It is his Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kurt’s vacation home and he used to go and visit his cousins there. Opa Friedel and Simon decided to take the girls there one day. It’s about an hour and a half drive from Köln. The girls had a BLAST exploring, just like their Papa. Kiera just saw these pictures and said, “Ooh! It’s the Fairytale Forest!”

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Simon said he had the best fish he’s ever eaten at this little restaurant. The fish comes from the pond just behind the restaurant.

Seilbahn (rope train) to the Rheinpark

Published on: by Meegan

Directly across the Rhine is our favorite Spielplatz (playground). We can see it from our living room window! It is AMAZING, like most German playgrounds. I’ve noticed the playgrounds here seem more organic/ natural than ones in the States. I don’t think I’ve seen a plastic structure yet- and we’ve been to LOTS of playgrounds here. Germans seem to favor climbing structures, which is perfect for our girls since they LOVE to climb and have been going to indoor climbing gyms since they were about 3 years old (thanks to Papa being an avid climber). Everything is made of well crafted wood or rope. The Seilbahn is a fun way to get across the river to the Rheinpark.

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There is a BIG “Swimmbad” (fancy indoor/ outdoor heated pools) culture here. I should do a post on just that at a later date. Here’s a pic of one that we took from the Seilbahn. That circle shape you see in the water pulls you around the circle while you relax and float on top of the water.

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Off to the Rheinpark!

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Zip lines are big here- this is a really long one. Check out the Döm in the background…

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That’s Quinnie up at the top in the turquoise pants. It looks more treacherous than it really is- if you slipped and fell there are little platforms in place so that it would be pretty difficult to fall all the way down (or so I’m told..-hope we never find out!).

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There’s Papa- who I sometimes like to call my 3rd child…

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Simon remembers coming to this wading pool when he was even younger than Kiera

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You are SO busted Simon (lol)!!

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Little beach on The Rhine

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Papa teaching the girls how to skip rocks on the water

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