We drove from Austria to our good friends from Shrivenham, the Lacher family, in Germany. On the drive we stopped for a picnic in a local park and let the kids stretch their legs at the playground.
As we drove back to the main highway we passed a field filled with beautiful flowers. We saw a large sign indicating they were 'pick your own' and were curious. We decided to stop and experience this for ourselves.
The flowers are paid for on an honesty-policy. They even have a knife at the cash desk to help you in cutting the flowers which are growing in the field nearby and prices per stem for each flower variety available.
The kids chose sunflowers and dahlias which Tyler cut with a bit of sawing once the kids chose the specific stem they wanted. Claire wore Laura's sun hat to feel like mommy.
At the end, we used the same knife to cut the top off a water bottle in the car to use as a vase and then secured it in the back of the van while we drove the rest of the way to the Lacher's home.
When we arrived at the Lacher house we were thrilled to see our friends again and spend time with our Goddaughter, Viktoria. The kids immediately began playing with their older girls, Magdalena and Lizzie, while the adults sat on the porch finding some respite from the hot day. The next morning we enjoyed a delicious German breakfast before taking a ferry across the Rhine River to a ropes course in a beautiful woodland.
Since Magdalena and Lizzie had done this ropes course many times in the past, Germar and Ina stayed on the ground with Viktoria. Tyler knew Laura wanted to do a ropes course like this so she geared up with the safety harness to tackle the challenge with Callum and Claire. They received a brief explanation of the safety system and how to disconnect and reconnect at each stage of the course and they were off.
Callum bolted ahead with Magdalena and Lizzie while Laura took it slowly with Claire, encouraging her to be brave as she tackled the first three sections of the course. Suddenly they came upon Callum, stopped ahead with the three adults below trying unsuccessfully to encourage him to continue. The particular bit that had stopped him in his tracks didn't have anything to hold onto with your hands and was a series of logs suspended in the air. As he didn't know yet to trust his harness attached safely to a rope overhead he was crying hysterically believing if he took one step forward he would surely fall to his death. After MANY attempts to persuade him to continue on, the staff at the ropes course helped us by attaching Callum to a shorter safety rope which helped his legs to dangle and pulled him along across the particular obstacle until he was able to carry on.
After this Callum was able to proceed all they way until the finale which was a zipline all the way to the ground below. Callum again hesitated for so long that the gal working there attached him to her line and they both went down together. Claire also went down with the worker her first go. We were all shocked, after so many tears and anger from Callum asking why we ever took him here, that he declared, "Let's do it again - that was so fun!" as soon as he landed on the ground after the zip wire. On his second attempt he was much braver and completed all the obstacles without any assistance. He finally trusted his equipment!
Claire also completed the entire course a second time during the one hour time we paid for. We were both very proud of Callum and Claire for their bravery and completing the course two times.
After the ropes course fun we had all worked up an appetite. We enjoyed a picnic lunch with the Lacher family under the trees in a field nearby. We were sad to say goodbye to them so quickly but had to return home to England as Tyler had a work trip. We are thankful to be able to spend so much time together while exploring Europe and happy our kids are such great little road warriors. It was well past bedtime after we took the chunnel back to England, visited a National Trust Property on the way and finally returned home.
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