Alemann Adventures

  Serengeti Wild Life Park Hodenhagen - Germany We wanted to break up the long drive from Berlin to Amsterdam (7-8) hours so chose to visit a zoo/amusement park as a change from all the city walks we'd been doing. This is James' account of the day. Serengeti wild life park Germany is a safari zoo where you can drive your own car through multiple different enclosures of a wide selection of incredible animals. Along with that it also has a small theme park side to it which was lots of fun too. The main safari was mind-blowing. Lions, tigers, bison monkeys, giraffes and soooo much more just right out the window. No barriers, no fences, no nothing. We had horses blocking the road and sticking their heads in the car. Giraffes licking the car and Sophie getting to pat one. Lions just in arms reach. The theme park side had a lot of smaller safaris with animatronics. Like a submarine, bus ride, quad bike, monster trucks, two speed boats, and air boats. There were other rides like a sma...

Sophie's Berlin Berlin has a lot of history. We went to some museums that taught us a lot of history. This is a summary of it. A person named Hitler and he got voted president so when he was president he wanted to rule the world so he started World War 2. When the other countries came closer and closer he decided to kill himself so he would not go through so many consequences from the other countries. After he died some countries said Germany can not rule themselves because they started world war 1 and world war 2 so there was a big wall set up so the countries were separated to West Germany and East Germany. Every one wanted to be on the west side because it was the free side with no bad rules. On the east side there were a lot of bad rules like not a lot of food for a lot of people and when you are young you have to go to the army; that is just two of the bad rules but there were so many. Since the rules are so bad so many people tried to escape from the east side. There was not ...

 Berlin Berlin had interesting vibes. It was the most run down (sort of a dump) place that we visited. A lot of graffiti and rubbish everywhere. The people seemed to be just going through the motions rather than having any sort of zest for life. It was also the most educational place for the children. We visited a museum of the future where they learnt coding (by programming a robot), and electronics (by building a robot). We also visited the Berlin Wall memorial museum where we all learnt a lot about that part of Germany's history. We looked at the art work on the wall at the East Side Gallery. Of course we passed other monuments including the Brandenburg Gate Reichstag and Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I was impressed with how much information the kids absorbed in one day and how many questions they asked. Some of the WWII memorials were difficult to view, such a somber experience. We finished the day with the best playground of the trip, an ode to Harry Potter. ...

 Dresden We broke up the drive from Prague to Berlin by stopping in Dresden, and we're glad we did. Not only did it have a lovely small city feel with amazing historic architecture. We also happened to be there at the same time as the German Olympics (finals for a lot of German sports all happening in the same place. We managed to watch some lacrosse, breakdancing and climbing all held at various sights around the city. We spent a lot longer there than planned but wished we'd known about the sports in advance so we could've gotten gymnastics and athletics tickets. There was also a temporary village where we tried a couple of different sports with a great festival atmosphere.

 Prague Prague was the first place that we stopped for 3 nights (before we packed up and moved every 1-2 nights). We shared a house with friends who drove up from Romania. It was obvious why Prague is called the European Disneyland. The buildings looked like a fairytale, and they extended all over the city. Other cities had magnificent architecture just in the old town but Prague's seemed to go on forever. We explored a lot on foot as always but also did some luging and visited a couple of museums.

 Munich On to Germany! The German border was the only place we got stopped along the whole trip. A little nerve wracking to be questioned by soldiers with big guns but it only took a minute or so. Everywhere else we've just driven on through down the motorways. The first stop in Munich was for James to meet with a rollercoaster engineering company as this is what he wants to do when he's older and there are only a few places in the world that do that kind of work. The engineer he met with was very generous with his time and James spent a good 90 minutes asking questions.  We spent the rest of the day walking through the English garden and around old Munich as well as some shops. The garden has a lot of waterways, some flow fast enough for people to practice their surfing. Old town was interesting but not as awe inspiring as other countries that we had visited. We think the Germans lost a lot of their historic buildings in the WWII bombings as it was the same in Berlin. We ende...

 Salzburg Do re mi fountain Inspo for hiding in the abbey We really liked Salzburg, a beautiful town on a river. Most of the tourists seemed to be there because of the sound of music. It was advertised everywhere and tours etc. are still thriving 60 years after the film was released.  We showed the kids the movie before going so they knew what they were looking at and we managed to recreate the do re mi scene which James edited into a little video.  Everywhere was a lot smaller than it looks on film but still a lovely place to visit. We got absolutely drenched in the rain walking around. One of the only places on the whole trip that we've had rain.

 Vienna Vienna was an amazing city - the most impressive architecture that we've seen so far. Just huge! We went to the zoo (the oldest zoo in the world) and also walked around the Schonbrunn Palace grounds. Again, huge! The zoo was good and interesting to see the tiny original cages that they kept the big cats and bears in (they have much larger enclosures now thankfully). Highlights included seeing some species that we haven't seen before and watching a rhino blow bubbles underwater. The next day we went to Prater Park, which is full of amusement rides and then spent the afternoon exploring the old town of Vienna. Of course we had to stop and eat some traditional schnitzel (average) and strudel (delicious).

Austria Driving through the Austrian mountains was absolutely stunning. There was some postcard perfect villages to see along the way. It was strange driving through in summer as I always pictured it with snow etc. but still amazing to see. Our first stop in Austria was a small place that we knew nothing about (but was on the way to Vienna from Slovenia). We used it as a bit of a rest stop and to do some more local things. It was also the first rain we had so perfect timing! We happened upon a Lindt chocolate factory and shop (with samples, yum!) went to a local swimming pool (with a natural pool as well as typical with slides etc.) and went out for the best Chinese food we've ever had.  Side note: the Austrians are a bit of a grumpy bunch. 

Slovenia - Lake Bled After driving from Croatia, we ended up in a place with a lake called Bled. After parking and walking to the lake we hired a row boat to go on the lake. Lake Bled is a very clear lake so we could see lots of little fish near the outskirts. Rowing our way along to our destination/Daddy racing other boats and going as fast as he could and us almost tipping over. Anyway when we got to our destination, which is an island on the lake with a church on it, we went up the stairs and got changed into our togs + had an ice cream. We went for a quick swim because we needed to get the boat back in time. When we got to land we walked around the lake and stopped at a playground in a park to have some delicious pastries for lunch. Walking more around the to another free swimming spot to have a good swim. Going all the way back to the car and heading to our accommodation which was a huge apartment with amazing views. The next morning we went to do what James wanted to do for a lon...