A Walk in the Woods

Before we were all going to spend a few hours sitting down in cars or on trains to travel back to our respective homes, the whole bunch donned our hiking boots and marched towards the woods. The forest around Bentheim covers a large area and is quite famous in the region. There is also an old sandstone quarry where we walked. The royal palace in Amsterdam was built with Bentheim sandstone for example.

My old stomping ground - and my brother's

The two city slicker girls (and Stefan) swatting the flies in disgust

So who lives here? A princess? A witch? An animal? Rumpelstilzchen?

It looks so much like our old climbing area in Southern Illinois.

The most interesting engraving we encountered on our walk.

Not sure if we were able to convince Talea and Sophie that this trek was enjoyable, but at least the giant snail we discovered on the path evoked a couple of oohs and aahs. 

Angelina the Sow and Other Creatures

On our third day in Bad Bentheim, we took a little excursion to a nearby zoo which I used to go to when I was little. Here is an excerpt of some of the more interesting animals we saw.

 Isn't Mother Nature beautiful?

 Uh oh, the stork!

 Angelina the sow -

we watched her enjoy her bath from the restaurant where the menu was full of local pork dishes.

Again, it sucks to be born a pig in Germany

 Two very protective geese

 The (not so) ugly duckling

Twins for a day

Renaissance Faire

And now to the occasion for which we gathered in Bad Bentheim this weekend: the renaissance faire with jousting and medieval market.

 Getting ready was half the fun.

 Two beautiful princesses ready to meet their brave knight

 Well, there was a spotting of one at that moment walking through Delhi airport (you pick).

 Having a whirl at the medieval carousel

 Thore and his mother Alexandra

 Enjoying a taste of the mysterious sugar wool ball

 Now to the jousting performance:

 Some highlanders made it all the way to the continent

 Sophie's favorite knight Ullrich of Bentheim 

(he ended up winning)

 All knights with the bad guy on the right

 and one female jouster to round it off

 In the Turkish brew tent

A successful outing: one little prince by the hand and one big prince in tow.

Cousin Reunion

It's the beginning of a looong holiday weekend (May Day on Tuesday) so we caught a train towards my hometown Bad Bentheim to meet up with my brother Stefan and his family at our uncle Gerrit's flat. Our excuse for getting together here is a medieval festival with knight jousting in the castle park this weekend. 

 Sophie was so excited to see her cousin Talea.

 It only appears as if they were resting - they were having a jumping competition on the bean bag.

Then my uncle brought out the bubble wrap...

 Off to brunch at a hotel/garden center the next morning. What better way to help the food go down than going wild on the giant indoor play structure.