20/7
Around the corner is region called Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland, obviously quite close to the Czech border. It’s a national park but as we’ve observed before, the European type of NP that’s populated, criss-crossed with superhighways and with flora & fauna probably quite remote from what was indigenous. Nonetheless, it’s pretty & castled and we wind our way up from the Erbe River valley to the small township of Kurort Gohrisch with a large, full well-serviced campsite.
We plan to plonk for a few days. First job - wash all the bedding & ourselves.
The kids ricochet between splashing in the pool & swinging in the playground. Kel finds a sweet German friend called Hannah and has perfected ways of signing communication.
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| Kel and Hannah |
My big boy helps with the laundry and comes for a short bike explore of the village on which we locate the bakery for tomorrow and some exercise tracks for the olds.
Seeking an easy giggle we cuddle up in our PJs in front of the Tooth Fairy movie.
21/7
Woken by the early morning gravel loo-ward tramp of endless fellow campers, Jeff & I give up at 0700 and mount the bikes for a flog up and down dale.
Back 1 hour later and the kids snooze on, not rising until 0900 allowing us a first cup of coffee quietly together outside.
A gorgeous fresh pink face with dancing blue eyes emerges all dressed asking for money to fetch the bread. Off he goes on his bike full of purpose and pride. Only moments later, he returns with a loaf of sourdough and some pastry rewards to follow maths.
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| BreadBoy |
Brekkie, skype Gren and school broken up with playground pauses with foreign friends, table tennis, brief (freezing) swim, mother & son philosophical walk in the fields, daughter & mother making 3D shape nets, boyz mountain bike spin and a big spaghetti Bolognese lunch/dinner.
Later in the afternoon the Mannechoir Sachsische Schweiz, a bunch of elderly gents with BIG bellies in which to resonate their fine voices, line up in their red tracksuit tops and long cream socks to fill the campground with song to the pleasure of beer drinking holiday makers.
Light dinner of cheese and bread before a cool night has the kids happily seek the quilt cover mit boeken!
Jeff and I watch another episode of Band of Brothers which this time recounts the Americans marching into Germany towards the end of WW2 and the gruesome discovery of the Death Camps full of confronting starvation & squalor. It seems so amazing a whole nation was seemingly unaware. It’s not a horror story, it’s fact - we’ve walked on the soil of such a place. I think it’ll be nice to get to Italy and discover Galileo, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Art, ice-cream and pizza.
22/7
Up for a slightly longer bike ride this morning. It’s crazy that the kids don’t wake with us dressing, filling water bottles, lifting the bikes off locks on the other side of their beds, opening and closing the boot and main door, the rustling of trollies & other campers, younger children’s squeals…..
Back for brekkie. We move camp to the other side in a quieter spot whilst the kids swim, zipping up & down the water slide and collecting circular skin burns on their spinous processes.
We trickle out some maths (Jeff and Wil look at ratios using the gear systems used on bikes; Kel & I learn about the nets of hexagonal based prisms using opened out chocolate boxes) and writing around plays and a large, lazy late lunch of chicken korma. Sadly, the sun bolted early tiring to the stamina of the clouds that have ruled the skies since late morning.
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| Harry Potter - a phenomenon! |
The swarm of kids is increasing to the delight of ours and the evening gently comes with our only plans being to finish off the Tooth Fairy DVD. Jeff and I catch the last episode of Band of Brothers which this time is largely set around the capture of Hitler’s Eagles Nest and poignant vignettes of soldiers trying to imagine their futures back in their pre-war lives.
23/7
A good sleep sets us up for another, slightly longer again bike ride followed by a day largely like yesterday, the only difference being a cloudless sky & hot sun ALL day long!
So, the young ‘uns punch out school, freeing up the whole day to play ping-pong,
spend water-logged hours in the pool adding to their slide induced spine burns (we thoroughly enjoy a conversation with Wil about how pain is measured depending on the context of one’s activity) and annoyingly fill their pockets in the sandpit playground with Mika, Hannah, Luke etc.
Jeff finishes off a giant general practice CPD on non-cancer pain and summarizes the salient points for me. Team work!
Jeff & Wil break it up tearing off for a boys ride up the hill only to get all shook up slamming down the mountain tracks, Wil redefining his concept of pain as they climb bigger/steeper hills. Kel’s content to draw & tell me stories as I cook up a monster trephina poijke. Linner in the sun and more of the same. I find myself dozing off as I read about communism to set Wil’s next school assignment. Ahhh…Jeff washes Ed. Team work!
Wil & I chat about Hugo Victor’s Les Miserables and a possible topic for an essay.
A whiskey at 2000 and only now the sun softens....or is it our reducing arousal?
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| farewell friends |
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