Will Dig Life

Since gaining my freedom after quarantine, we have been busy getting to know the many local swimming pools (cost for entry: €3!) certain playgrounds and not much else. I'm definitely going to wait to take them anywhere else, because the heat is really getting to the kids - can't deny their Britishness! Playgrounds are nice when they're shaded though, and many of them offer water/ mud play which the kids are enjoying immensely! A few pictures from the past few days... There was a woodworking workshop at a playground and D(5) made a lion! "Opa" Helmut, my uncle, is the closest thing to an Austrian grandparent for them, and we celebrated his 78th Must have ice cream Free painting on offer at one of the pools, they loved it N(6)'s masterpiece: colourful landscape D(5)'s masterpiece: creatures that eat flies.

After finally receiving my negative test result first thing in the morning, we were able to go out and we made our first outing a memorable one: a full day at the Gänsehäufel, an island in the Danube that's got beaches (into the Danube) and several pools, lots of shady trees, and an altogether comfortable atmosphere.  Our first go on public transport was fun. Straßenbahn, U-Bahn, and Bus - we went on them all to get there, and they loved it! The first place I took the kids, thinking it would be a huge win, was the kiddy pools. Water spraying, climbing structures, slides... and they did have fun, but not for long, because the water was "too cold"! I could hardly believe it but by 11am the kids were asking to go back to the flat...! I convinced them there was more to experience and we moved over to the beach. Win! Even though there was no play equipment other than a sand box (which they weren't interested in), the river gave them plenty of interest - lots of little fish...

I honestly didn't allow myself to believe we'd be in Vienna this summer. Until we boarded the plane, I kept my guard... because of the continually changing Covid situation, need of test results, my vaccinations, Delta variant - so many things could interfere! Heathrow was an utter shambles, a huge queue of mixed flights where people kept panicking because their flight time was getting close, then they'd be pulled out to the front of the queue which caused delay to the others and then another lot would need to be pulled forward.... in the end we had to RUN to our gate (not fun with two little kids with bags!) and got there just before they closed it. The kids were amazing though, whereas I was extremely stressed. Two hours on board were soon enough over - N(6) remembered Kenya, of course, and asked if she had to try and sleep on this flight? She was relieved to find she could just stay awake and it wasn't too long a journey. Arrival was easy too, the taxi met us as arran...

We had a wonderful time in Doniford near Watchet, at a caravan park (archetypical British child friendly holiday) - two kids, me and Mr, and his parents. And of course Fred the dog too. The British weather didn't disappoint at times, mostly it was forecast worse than it actually turned out to be...  We had a few cycling sessions - N(6) is still not quite there yet, whereas D(5) is a confident cyclist by now: The beach by the caravan park was pebbly and full of rock pools, which were teeming with little crabs... There were various creative offerings, their favourite definitely being the sticking of foam clay onto pottery - interesting choice D(5) made... More beach times! There were opportunities to meet various animals... All in all, us grownups are pretty shattered but super happy after a wonderful time together.