The summation of today is our kids are certainly not scared of dinosaurs!
Today we said goodbye to Germany, the country where we've spent the vast majority of the trip. We decided to skip breakfast to get on the road, however when checking out from the very nice Gasthof zum Ochsen in Cleebronn the staff did insist that we take some fresh pretzels with us! Again the main focus of today was to head west, but with a nice break two-thirds into the drive to visit Gondwana - Das Praehistorium.
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| A good hearty lunch of bread and sausage. |
Located close to the town of Neunkirchen, Gondwana is a museum a little different to those I've been to before. Using a combination of 3 and 4 dimensional cinema, animatronics and the more traditional historical artifacts, Gondawana tells the story of evolution from the first life on earth through until the current day with a bit of time travel thrown in for good measure. There is a strong focus on the time of the dinosaurs, something that Forrest in particular really enjoyed, although as I mentioned the other day, Paloma through brainwashing is also a fan and could be heard repeatedly saying "more dinosaurs".
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| Dimetrodon snarling from the top of the cliff. |
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| The sleeping crocodilian suddenly woke up making us jump! |
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| Paloma imitating her brother. Taking "photos" with the audioguide. |
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| Some of the animatronics were quite gory. |
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| On to more "modern" times with a woolly mammoth. |
We were warned when buying the entrance tickets that our kids could be a little too young since they could find parts of the experience scary. There were certainly a few things that made you jump, but other than Paloma asking for a few mamma cuddles during the films, the main reaction we got to all the dinosaurs was giggles. Forrest's favourite part was when we went "underwater in a submarine" to see a Megalodon (large extinct species of shark) and it started smashing the glass window with water spraying on us. He actually asked whether it was a real shark, the 4D effect was so good.
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| Gondwana also had an indoor play area. |
Once we left Gondwana we were soon back on the autobahn heading west and we crossed in to Luxembourg close to the town of Schengen, made famous by the treaty signed back in 1985 that paved the way for borderless travel within much of mainland Europe. At this point we were driving pretty much along the Luxembourg / France border, so whilst it will not be until Saturday evening that we drive into France, we've certainly seen some French fields today. Whilst I've seen many new places on this trip, Luxembourg is the only country that I'd not ventured into before our travels, or at least I believe that's the case since the school ski trip to Zell am See may have driven through it many, many years ago!
We're staying for the next two nights in the town of Pétange, 20km south-west of Luxembourg City, at Hotel Gulliver. After a quick trip to Aldi to stock up on some milk and fruit for the kids we enjoyed a nice meal in the hotel's Italian Restaurant before trying to convince the kids it was time for bed with an early start planned tomorrow for a trip by train into Luxembourg City.
Blogged by Matt.
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