Overland with Kids

Message from Jessica: “Dear Folks! Did you know all the five continents of the world start and finish with the same letter: Australasia, Antartica, Asia, Europe and the America(s). My brother in law told me that!”

Message from AJ: “Yesterday we went to sir (see) Ludwig the II’s castle. We mist (missed) the horse and carts that take you up there because it was raining. Now me and my sister are on the computer and we are having a strawberry drink called Kinderdrink. I think I’ve got three wobbly teeth.”

Message from Jessica: “We hiked up the mountain to get to the castle and walked up a long path that led us to the castle. We bought some postcards.”

Message from AJ: “Outside there were trees and bushes (forest) all round. I liked the guided audio tour.”

Message from Jessica: ” Did you know the sun is actually made of multi coloured rays…..from orange…..to violet! and I learned that a flower closes it’s petals up at night time. But, it didn’t wake up this morning when I looked!?”

Lots of love Jessica and AJ
XX

Message from Andrew and Anne:

Locations

We are currently in Innsbruck, Austria (we arrived yesterday) and we are experiencing our first glorious day of warm weather at last. We have been freezing to the bones since leaving the UK. The past few days have seen us head south from St Goar on the Rhine in Germany toward Wurzburg - marking the beginning of our intended route along the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Road). On arrival to Wurzburg though we didn’t like the feel and didn’t think it was romantic enough! Instead we found it  too big and bustly a city centre for the children and ourselves to want to get to grips with. So, we decided to take a risk and drive straight through - another hour away eastward off our planned route - already late and following an already long day’s driving - onto a new destination called Bamberg.

We finally landed at 7pm - much later than planned to pitch camp but it was worth it - the campsite was situated in a tranquil location on the river.  Bamberg is a Unesco listed heritage site with an abundance of beautifully intact 17th and 18th century buildings, palaces and churches spread either side of the river Regnitz. We fell on our feet with a worthy visit (in the pouring rain and sleet) and one we’d recommend any day over Wurzburg (our own very biased opinion!).

Back on the Romatic Road trail again, we passed through Rothenburg ob der Tauber - a fortified and very intact medieval walled town with many equally pretty towns following this and heading deep into Bavaria. After a one night stop in Donauworth for the night, this led us onto Fusson and the piece de resistance of our visit - Ludwig’s fairy tale Neuschwanstein Castle! (and where some of the filming for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang occurred).

Fusson - the local town and it’s surrounds - is spectacular and situated in the foothills of the Austrian Alps and during our stay - although pouring with rain, freezing cold weather and us! - the only eejits daft enough to cook outside in the shivering cold as per usual - we nestled right on the edge of Lake Forgensse with the beautiful snowy Alps and the famous fairytale Neuschwanstein Castle as our backdrop. There are in fact 3 beautiful lakes surrounding the area. Given the bad weather we have been experiencing throughout our trip Andrew’s comments between other unrepeatable words included ”what are you doing taking me to snow-capped mountains? - isn’t it cold enough for you already?” - Have to say that during our trip so far - even our honey and olive oil has been virtually frozen solid at times!

Psssst !  - We have been wearing our day clothes to bed and for days at a time - and too scared to take a shower sometimes due to being, big fat whoosses about the cold.

Large hot cappacinos and chocolate cakes soon fixed us plus a roam around Fusson before a 40 minute hike in the pouring rain to reach Neuschwanstein (built high up on a mountain) in time for a guided 35-minute audio tour. Inside the castle was very impressive - we like Ludwig! The castle was probably the nicest, least boring we’ve ever seen and been to on the inside and the children remained really interested throughout - but, we felt the guided tour was far too quick for our liking. The woods, forest, gorges, natural waterfalls, ruggedness of the area, the iron bridge (Marienbrucke), views and walks around the surrounding area are equally, if not more, breath-taking. We really loved it and wished we had more time.

The area particularly around Schwangau where the castle is situated is pretty amazing and ideal for hiking/walking - well worth spending a couple of days investigating the area if your ever down this way.

Mileage and Costs

For a total of 15 nights, our costs currently stand at 1,544 Euros. This includes ferry costs from UK, site entrance fees, public transport, food, campsites,clothes washing, postcards, stamps - everything except our internet access and the books/maps etc. we bought before leaving. Mileage to-date is 1,226 with a quarter fuel tank remaining and making up 21% of our costs, campsites (incl. laundry) 24% and food (excl. cigarettes/beer) 23%. So far, we’ve done everything we’ve wanted to do.

Tips we’ve learned along the way

Baby wipes are a God send for all kinds of uses - from wiping tables to mouths and even cleaning quick small stains from (kids) woolly jumpers.

Pack of toothpicks - great for picking at pre-prepared fruit/cheese mix tubs when children are hungry - saves washing up and the kids don’t get hands all over the food (and great for mini sword fighting afterwards!)

Box of small nappy sacks (unscented) or similar size bags with tie handles - great for grabbing and storing open fresh/dry foods (e.g. opened bags of rice which have a tendancy to spill) or small rubbish items.

The Netto supermarket is great value for groceries - a big shop that we did for everything seemed really cheap compared to home.

Bakeries dotted throughout Germany are full of scrummy cakes and coffees but an expensive ‘must-do’ treat at least once. Go when your hungry and you’ll spend an absolute fortune!

Involve your kids in some of the decision-making - e,g. what to do today and how long staying in particular places. Makes them feel very much part of the trip.

Provide the children a camera for them to own themselves, look after and share.

Tips we received from Terry Hann in Australia as follows:

“I thought I would share with you an idea I had with my children when we had a week-end away when they were of similar ages to Jessica and AJ. For the week-end I planner how much it was going to cost for each day’s travel. I then put that day’s money into a wallet and gave my son, then aged around 10, the wallet and a pencil and pad. Whenever we stopped and bought something he paid for it and noted the price etc in the note book. We received some strange looks when he got up and paid the restaurant bill from his wallet but it made him feel very important. At the end of the day he had to tally up the receipts and balance the money in the wallet to make sure it all added up, another maths lesson in disguise. Another benefit we found was he appreciated the cost of things with sounds of horror at the cost of a round of ice creams. My 6yo daughter was too young and shy to be treasurer so we made her in charge of checking the tyres and cleaning the windows each time we stopped for petrol. The tyre gauge was a wedge of wood that was cut to come up to the height of the bottom of the wheel rim and had a concave cut into it to go around the tyre bulge, simple effective and a very important job for a six year old.”

We were prepared before entering but for others considering - don’t forget Vignette for vehicle for Austria on arrival and lights on motorway for driving - both are law

Education

Jessica - “Neuschwanstein” has become Jessica’s new tongue-twister word of the week since our visit there (she has made several attempts to spell it since). Times tables up to twelves. Brain Training on Nintendo DS (Jessica is currently aged 80!). Transferring flags of the world onto a map. Starter word squares. Simple crosswords. Deawing an imaginary map of Ludwig’s castle plus compass direction before visiting. Finding hidden words in sentences. Fiction and non-fiction revision. Answering facts from passages. Mini word chains (change arm to leg changing only one letter at a time then moving onto 4-letter words). Making a Top Secret Intruder Alarm (working and installed to our caravan door!).

AJ - counting and adding money (but cheating by looking at the answers!), times tables up to 4 and then 5’s attempted but struggled with. Lots and lots of adding and subracting sums. Simple shapes - recognition and number of sides. Most and least counting (who has more/less). Number patterns (guessing missing numbers). Football sticker fun. Filling in missing letters of the alphabet to make words (good for helping AJ get his letters the right way around).

Both - Memory card game (guessing where matching pairs of cards are - AJ very good at it). Card tricks, Guess Who It Is game. Painting - a make it yourself 3D Solar System mobile (work still in progress!). Making up own language dialect (Jessica is Zemi and AJ is Ambru). Writing postcards and journals. Using compass and binoculars. Experimenting with fingerprints in magnifying glass. Reading (Jessica helping AJ with the difficult words). Word searches. Colouring books. Taking photos (especially the tulip!).

Next Stop

Salzburg, then heading for Hungary

 

Diary (Blog)