Riding the bikes

Bella in her best dress out cycling (on the bike Malc picked up at the rubbish dump) , and Sebby on the like-a-bike, testing Bella's capabilities and patience, as he constants drives towards her.

Avoiding e-coli in Europa Park

We went to Europapark in Germany, about a 3hr+ drive away for the last long weekend. The park is brilliant, it has lots of different areas respresenting different countries in Europe, with some very simple rides for little kids and some high thrills for big kids and everything in between. In England for example you can eat fish and chips, go on a crazy taxi ride, and a double decker bus swing. In Portugal you can ride the water rapids. You can even visit the colonies. It's a rival for EuroDisney, without Mickey of course, although there was Euromouse out and about.

We spent two days in the park. Sebby managed to get his one metre tall wrist band (just) so he even managed a crazy log flume type thing. We went with 2 other families, so lots of kiddy fun, and drinking partners (for the evening). The accommodation we booked was in tipis in a Wild West theme village. Not sure what the Wild West was doing in Europe but never mind. You can see from the photos that unlike the picture on the website, which was clearly a 12 person tipi with 4 beds inside, the 4 person tipi was VERY small. More like a king size bed for 4 in a tent with no headroom. The kids loved it, thought it very cosy. Which it was, until Sebby decided to throw up all night on the first night. Just what you need when you are camping, no clean sheets, towels or running water within striking distance.

On the camp was a saloon bar, where we got to watch the wild west shows, spot the belly button dancers and sing along to Sweet Carolione in the evenings.

During our visit there was a deadly e-coli outbreak in Germany associated (allegedly) with salad and vegetables, so this was a great excuse to eat chips and burgers all weekend. The kids found it rather odd after years of being told to eat their veggies and salad, seeing them whipped away from their plates and disposed of, and hand disinfectant being passed round afterwards. Only appeared to be the Brits doing this I might add, everyone else was having a side order of e-coli with their chips He.he.