The summation of today is Forrest finally got his dino day.
Today was primarily about heading west, with just five days to go until we're back home in High Wycombe and starting the day deep in the German Alps, we needed a day mainly on the road, but that didn't stop us having a number of breaks, one in particular not at a typical holiday destination!
After leaving our hotel near Füssen we were soon on Autobahn 7 and counting down the kilometers at more than two and a half to the minute. Not only from driving in Germany with no limit on much of the Autobahn network, but also across the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria with formal limits of up to 140kmh (87mph), it makes you realise just how antiquated we are still in the UK with our 70mph maximum on motorways. It's also noticeable, especially in Germany, just how good everyone is on the road with their lane discipline.
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| Forrest wanted a family photo with a dinosaur. Done. |
Our first stop today was for our dinosaur loving son, Forrest. Since leaving Matty et al the countdown has been how many days until I can see dinosaurs and finally it was here. In the town of Holzmaden, just east of Stuttgart, is the Urweltmuseum Hauff. Translated into English, the word Urwelt is closest matched to "Primeval World", and this privately run natural history museum specialises in prehistoric fossils, particularly those found in the local area. Forrest (and Paloma, who is starting to share her brother's palaeontologist traits) enjoyed looking at all the fossils and also the few dinosaur models they had in the grounds of the museum. It's not a massive place, but was the perfect stop to break up the journey and keep the little ones happy.
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| Forrest in his element, photographing the fossils. |
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| A large ammonite photographed by Forrest. |
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| A lovely large specimen of an Icthyosaur (Temnodontosaurus). |
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| Some beautiful fossils of plants too. |
The next stop was just a short distance away, and not somewhere we would have gone too far out of the way to visit, but since we were in the vicinity we visited the Grimm's Spiel & Holz Design factory outlet shop in Hochdorf. For those not familiar with Grimm's, they are a well respected maker of wooden toys that are only available in the UK through a small number of suppliers. The car is quite full, but we purchased a couple of small items that Amber wanted for the kids, one that will go away until Christmas. This was also a good time for a picnic lunch that we ate at a local park.
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| A selection of slight seconds at the Grimm's factory shop. |
Back on the road we had one final stop before reaching our hotel in Cleebronn, our base for the next two nights, and that was IKEA! It may not be the most common holiday destination, but when a small item you want has been out of stock in the UK since Paloma's birthday and there's an IKEA directly on your route that stocks the product, it would be silly not to stop.
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| Paloma loved the trolleys over here. |
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| Forrest wanted a go too but Paloma insisted on pushing! |
Having reached our hotel at a reasonable time and with the attached restaurant having a good reputation online, we thought it would be a perfect location for a quick meal. Two and a half hours later we had all enjoyed dinner, but it certainly wasn't quick! Fortunately the kids were on good behaviour tonight, but we'll probably go somewhere else tomorrow.
Blogged by Matt.
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