The Old Dragon in the Magical Wood

Twins

Water play

 

I’m about one month behind on the blog.  Still writing about mum’s visit when she left mid June!  Maciek has taken the kids out to the park (pouring of rain but rain gear and wellies makes it all good!) so that I can have an hour to do a bit of catching up.

An overview of 1st stage!

Entering the Magical Wood

Picnic with a view

We took Mum (aka The Old Dragon, a name given to her by Maciek but don’t worry she likes it, she even signs herself off as The Old Dragon on emails and cards and stuff, and she is in Maciek’s contact list on his phone as Old Dragon too.  More like a term of endearment!), so we took Mum to Ellmi’s Zauberwelt, home of the Magical Wood.  We’ve written about this place before as we visited last September/October.  You get a train up but Maciek decided to ride his bike to get in some practice for the upcoming race, and what a shame when he actually arrived at the top sweating like crazy and huffing and puffing, as in my distraction with the kids all I managed to say was ‘Oh hi’ with no applause or excitement at his achievement!  Bit of a let down for him but that’s what you get for calling my mother an Old Dragon!  Ellmi’s is at the top of a mountain and has loads of play equipment plus water play for kids, the Magical Wood where you can hear the cackling of witches and whispering of wizards as you walk through.  Full of moss and winding paths leading up into the deep dark forest with intermittent sprinkling of water so it has a rainforest feel and it really does feel magical (and a bit creepy!).  We visited the Goblin’s treehouse this time which we didn’t get to before, had a picnic in the sun and made mum put her feet into the ice cold stream (poor mum!). 

Cooling down

Time for a drink

The day was very hot so a drink in the Alm at the end of the day made it all worthwhile!  That was the Saturday before she left.  So Sunday morning we allowed her to relax (for the first time in two weeks!) and pack and then we drove to Munich. Mum and Maciek enjoyed a Stein in the Hofbrauhaus and we walked through Marienplatz (the Glockenspiel was still out of action!) There was a huge festival on that day, not sure what it was all about but the city centre was full of beer stalls and demonstrations of traditional Bavarian handicrafts and such.  And there was even an Irish tent selling Guinness and a band on stage, can’t remember their name, but kilt-wearing Germans belting out Irish rock using bodhrans and tin whistles makes for good entertainment!  Then I tricked mum into scoffing down a big Bratwurst in a bun.  She thought we were all having one.  But no.  So then she had to eat it all on her own, how embarrassing!

Ready for descent



It was quite late when we got to the airport and as we needed to get the kids home to bed and ready for school next morning (it’s a two hour drive back) we said goodbye to Mum at the departure gates.  It was all a bit of a rush and in all the excitement we didn’t have time to be sad.  It only hit us a couple of days after when the empty spot on the couch and the free socket which gave life to her laptop 24/7 began to make their presence known!  Aww.  We miss you mum.  My ironing pile is nearly hitting the ceiling!  Only joking, that’s not why we miss you.  The floors are in need of a good mop!

Prost in Munich

Love ya, ye old dragon ye! X



Hiding from the goblins