Our Recent Visti to Erperheide, a Center Parc

We recently spent several days at the Center Parc location called Erperheide in Belgium.  The girls had a blast and Christine and I enjoyed ourselves as well.

Anna and Sarah "working on the farm"

Although we have had several vacations, this is what you might really call our first “family vacation”.  Center Parcs are really designed for “family vacations” with a lot of activities for kids.  There was a huge indoor pool made up of a dozen or so pools (including one indoor/outdoor pool), various water slides (including a couple of pretty impressive slides), a wave pool, and many other pools.  There was also a big indoor playground for the kids.

Feeding the goats

Our friend Claudia was also with us.  She had been at this Center Parc before, so we had our own expert along for the ride.  She has been to a couple of other locations with some other friends of hers.  It was nice to have Claudia along.

 
Anna was all excited about the water slides.  She went on the smaller of the two big ones with Claudia and then talked me into going on it with her.  By our second to last full day at the park, Anna had managed to ride the big one several times.  She kept wanting to go down the slides and you practically had to pull her away.

Anna and her little friend

 

There were several nice activities available for kids to get involved in.  Sarah got to dress like an Indian (Native American to be politically correct).  The kids did a nice little dance for the parents when we came to pick them up (I posted a video of this at our YouTube Channel and have embedded it in this post).  Anna attended one activity where she got to make a decorative Halloween Witch.  Both girls got to “work on the farm” and got to feed some of the goats and animals there.  In addition they got to pet a couple of rabbits.  As you can probably imagine, Anna requested that we get a goat, rabbit, and so on.  Anna went on a pony ride with Claudia while Christine and I picked Sarah up from one of her activities.  I took Sarah on a pony ride, but I didn’t hear where I was supposed to take the pony and ended up taking Sarah and our pony on an extended trip around the park.  After realizing that I had made a wrong turn or so, I tried to turn the pony around and he (?) didn’t want to cooperate.  I did get some funny looks from people as we walked along where there were no ponies.  Sarah had a lot of fun and we did get our monies worth on that pony ride!

Sarah dressed as an Indian

 

On Wednesday we were visited by our former neighbors from when we lived in Belgium a few years ago.  First Edith and Evelina met us in the pool and later on Gert met us after he finished work for the day.  The Center Parc that we stayed at was only two exists away on the highway from where we had stayed when we lived in Belgium.

 

We did a lot of swimming in our time at Erperheide, so I wouldn’t mind not going to the pool for a little while (so I can at least get that chlorine smell out of mind). We had a great vacation and will probably be going to Center Parcs again in the future. With locations in Belgium, France, Germany, and Holland, we’ll have some choices to make.  I posted several other photos in a folder at Flickr.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Beardie Walk in October

Beardie Walk- October 2008


Last weekend we attended another Beardie Walk. Anna and Sarah went with us this time. Hobbit's mom and an aunt were there, in addition to four of Hobbit's sisters, there was a cousin as well. Hobbit was the only male, but he didn't seem to mind being outnumbered. The weather was cooperative, we had a nice autumn day for the walk. Unlike the walk that was held back in July, this walk was open to all of the people that had bought puppies from our breeder and many of Hobbit's farther flung siblings didn't attend. It was a nice event and we look forward to the next meeting.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Copenhagen and Malmo

Copenhagen

In June I was on a business trip to Copenhagen. I took some pictures of Malmo, Sweden and Copenhagen while I was there. I finally got around to putting them into a photo album @flickr.


Statues in Malmo City, Sweden

Since all the hotels in Copenhagen were booked my first night, I booked a hotel in Malmo City, Sweden. My flight was delayed so I arrived late at night. I took a train to Malmo City, but since it was so dark outside I didn't really get to see a whole lot. I had a nice view of Malmo City from my hotel (I've included some of the pictures that I took from the hotel in the Flickr set). The second picture posted here is of some statues that I saw on my way to the train station. but many of them didn't turn out osed My first night there I stayed in Malmo City, Sweden. The train trip back to Copenhagen included some amazing views of the sea. There is an incredible bridge connecting Malmo, Sweden with Copenhagen. The Øresund Fixed
Link was quite a construction project as it connects Sweden and Denmark, spanning an awful lot of water and it goes through Pepparholmen and artificial island via a tunnel. Since its opening in 2007, approximately 18 million vehicles and over 44 million people have crossed the bridge.



The sun reflecting on the harbor in Copenhagen

My second night I got a chance to see some of Copenhagen. Walking around the harbor I was very impressed. Of course there were some of the nautical sights that you'd expect to see, but in addition there was a vibrant and active city centre. In the very first picture posted above you can see some of the varying color of the city. Imagine that you're looking at the bridge in the harbor area facing the sun streaming down, on your right is a series of cafes and restaurants. The last picture is a status of Hans Christian Andersen, famous author and one of Denmark's most famous people, may of his stories are translated into English and available here. Standing at the statue you can see the Tivolli Gardens, a fairy tale amusement part. I really enjoyed my brief sight-seeing in both cities and would love to see both cities during longer visits in the future.



Hans Christian Andersen



Tivoli Center

Blogged with the Flock Browser