So back from the last minute summer holiday and had a great time.
The plan originally was Japan in October but we can go for 4 more days next year in the summer holidays for 2k less.
Hired a motorhome and did the following....
Ferry to Dover, 11pm ferry and drove through the night to the Hassenhorn Coaster.
We do like a good coaster and this was a peach, lovely town and really nice drive up in the Black Forest area and Todtnau was a great scenic place for food.
Back in the van and headed to Rust to a motorhome park right by Kenzingem station so was less than 10 minutes to Rulantica Water Park.
Awesome, arrived at 09:30 and got the bus back at 23:30.
At 9pm we went and joined the outdoor bar with DJ and the kids loved the swim up bar. Just brilliant, well run, clean, huge.
Next day was Europa Park, we were here from 10:00 to 23:00 and could have done another half day. Prices were all reasonable for food in the park, the rides were great and things like the roller coaster water ride were new. Me and Maxwell did Voltron which is the best ride we have ever done. It had a link with Rimac with the electric motors I believe. The longest queue we had was 1 hour but queue you in a way where you are always doing something though so they never felt long. Lots of different countries within the park and lots of rides for young and old.
We ate at FoodLoop where your food arrives from the top level on rails, if you pick the right table it even does a loop the loop before arriving.
Bit of a driving day as I really wanted to see Cologne Carhedarel in person. Incredible structure and does put a lot of what we do to shame as it is so flamboyant. I didn't get to see any Baroque churches sadly as Cologne when we were there was a disappointment. Dirty streets, lots of illegals and once you see your second man standing vertically and shitting where he stands while shouting, it removes the shine a bit.
So on to Hamburg, what a wonderful city, I never knew about its love of bridges, we do enjoy a nice bridge, and Hamburg has 2500 of them. Clean, wonderful design and lovely people. We mainly went to see Wunderland as my youngest is train and plane mad. It has a scale airport running with a proper schedule, fully autonomous airport vehicles linking with the planes and as many trains as you could wish for. I even got to see a model Shay in operation.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ACkmg3Y64 ... 3D%3D&ra=m
The layout was great and it was open till 01:00, we were there for 7 hours and could have stayed longer but we had a 6 hour drive to Brugelette in Belgium.
Pairi Daiza is a zoo, it is huge, it's the best zoo we have ever been to. The tropical zone alone was worth the ticket price and if you want to stretch the budget you can have a room with a glass wall, half submerged, in the polar bear enclosure
. Lots of rooms at the park are linked with enclosures and it's incredible. The tropical section is the biggest in the world and we spent 3 hours in there alone. When finished there is a water park attached where a lazy river goes past a lot of the animals like Komodo dragons and Otters etc. there is even a restaurant within the aquarium.
the main park is huge, has 4 60 gauge steam trains with 2 more on the way, lots of animals, lots to do great walking routes and you could easily spend 2 days there.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ebv1SEyB ... mE%3D&ra=m
On from there to Ypres as I last visited with Cadets 28 years ago.
The Menin gate honours those from the commonwealth who died in the Ypres Salient in WW1. We couldn't stay till the last post but lovely town, nice food and drink and a good stop off before the drive back to Calais.
Already planning an adults trip to Hamburg again and the kids want to go back to Europa Park and Rulantica so will keep an eye out for some cheap flights.
Tired now but well worth it.
Dave!
)
. Lots of rooms at the park are linked with enclosures and it's incredible. The tropical section is the biggest in the world and we spent 3 hours in there alone. When finished there is a water park attached where a lazy river goes past a lot of the animals like Komodo dragons and Otters etc. there is even a restaurant within the aquarium. 
