What’s it like to take a hiking trip to Wipperkotten, which contains a historic wrought with a water wheel? On an island in the Wupper river (Wuppertal is the city with the famous suspension monorail and the big zoo) lies the romantic Wipperkotten, which still houses a wrought where one can sharpen one’s knives. We…
What’s it like to visit the Irrland Adventure Park in the city of Kevelaer with its new attractions in 2024? We’ve been to this park the two years before already, and my son always enjoyed it tremendously at Irrland Park in Kevelaer. We went sliding down from the high silver tower, hid in the corn…
What’s it like to search for fossils in a quarry? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Today, we drove to the city of Hagen to meet the GeoKidz…
What’s it like to visit Museum Koenig in the city of Bonn? Do you also have a child who loves museums? Lyons Cub was thrilled by the dinosaur exhibition in the Museum of Natural History in Munster and the early humans exhibition in the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann already, but today, we traveled to the…
What’s it like to visit the aquarium in the Cologne Zoo? Well, we’ve been to Cologne several times already, to visit the Chocolate Museum, see the Gothic cathedral, and take a panorama trip on a ship on the Rhine River or to play at the indoor playground, Hoplop or visit the precious stones fair. This time, we went…
What’s it like to go to the Christmas Market at the Botanical Garden of Solingen? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub loves the Botanical Gardens of…
What’s it like to go swimming in the CaLevornia pool in Leverkusen? This weekend was very hot, around 33 degrees C, so we went swimming on both days: On Saturday, we ventured out to the Waldbad (forest pool) in Hilden, and on Sunday, we visited the CaLevornia indoor pool in Leverkusen from 9 a.m. to…
What’s it like to visit an interactive drop forge industrial museum? The Bergisches Land, literally “hilly country,” where the city of Solingen is located, has a deep industrial history. Today, Lyons Cub, mommy, and grandma visited an ancient “Gesenkschmiede” or drop forge, which functions as a museum nowadays. We were able to participate in an…
What’s it like to visit the Botanical Garden in Solingen? Lyons Cub has visited several attractions in Solingen already: Today, we set out to visit the Botanical Garden, which already exists since 1963. It was July 2nd, the day of the pineapple festival (but alas, mommy had forgotten her wallet in the car, so we…
What’s it like to visit Schloss Drachenburg and ride the Drachenfelsbahn in Königswinter? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Lyons Cub loves knights, castles, and medieval markets. He…
What’s it like to go to a summer festival at a Schrebergarten? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. A Schrebergarten, founded in the late 19th century, is a…
What’s it like to visit the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann? Are your kids interested in ancient human beings, tools from the Stone Age, mammoths, skeletons, and the like? Well then, a cool destination would be the Neanderthal Museum in the city of Mettmann, on the traces of one of the first human beings, the Neanderthal…
What’s it like to meet a waitressing robot? Well, if you’ve never seen one, come to Leverkusen to Pagode Wang for lunch or dinner. You will enjoy their delicious buffet, and then, all of a sudden, a cute, round, smiling robot with big eyes will roll over to your table and bring you your drinks!!…
What’s it like to visit Schloss Burg in Solingen? Which little boy or girl doesn’t like to play knight and princess? The name “Schloss Burg” is an oxymoron, for in German, “Schloss” refers to a representative building (castle) and “Burg” to a fortification (fortress). This building has been remodeled many times and is still under…
What’s it like to ride the suspension monorail in Wuppertal? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Today was my son’s first ride on the suspension monorail in the…
What’s it like to visit the Galileum in Solingen, Germany? Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. Has your child ever visited a planetarium? The Galileum is a modern…
What’s it like to visit a dripstone cave? Today, it was wet and cold (4 degrees C). Where could we go for an outing? Got it — somewhere warmer and drier — a dripstone cave!!! We picked up grandma and drove to the city of Iserlohn to visit the famous “Dechenhoehle.” It is the only…
What’s it like to go to the Dortmund Zoo? Well, Lyons Cub has already been at the Nashville Zoo, the Wuppertal Zoo, the Duisburg Zoo, the Aquazoo in Duesseldorf, the Cologne Zoo, the Fauna Park in Solingen, the Solingen Bird and Animal Park, and the Reuschenberg Animal Park in Leverkusen, so he had something to…
We have been to several Christmas markets already, in Langenfeld, Monheim (including an ice-skating rink), and Leverkusen; however, they all had food booths and modern stuff, such as my son’s Pikachu hat with lights. I longed for a medieval Christmas market with old-fashioned, handcrafted items, tents, torches, camp fires, and a castle. We found a…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. The Christmas Market in Monheim, which you can reach in ten minutes by foot from the Nature Adventure Trail and the splash…
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase. My son has been to Cologne a couple of times already, once to visit the Chocolate Museum, see the Gothic cathedral, and…
Lyons Cub has found his favorite indoor playground! Having tried out GeckoFun in Burscheid, Hoplop in Cologne, and Oki Doki in Langenfeld, we went to Trampolino in the city of Hilden, and this place had something of everything and some additional attractions the other places lacked. Let’s see how those four indoor playgrounds compare. Attractions…
This was Lyons Cub’s third zoo visit today! The first one was Nashville Zoo in 2019, and the second one was 2021, when we went with grandma to the Wuppertal Zoo. Alas, it was very hilly there and not easy to navigate with a senior and a stroller. It was quite exhausting, although the variety…
Today was Lyons Cub’s third visit to an indoor playground, and this one was special! After having experienced GeckoFun in Burscheid and Hoplop in Cologne, we visited Oki Doki in Langenfeld. While GeckoFun was small and nice for parents to attend because they could watch their kids from a comfy seating area, Hoplop was huge…
Today, Lyons Cub proved his bravery — he held an albino king python for the first time in his life!!! Given that his mommy used to be a vendor at reptile shows as LZRDGRL in Wheaton/Chicago, Indianapolis, Sheperdsville, and the Memphis Repcticon from 2010-2014, he totally steps into her shoes, heehee… This was his third…
Yay, this is our third day in the Irrland theme park already! We have already climbed on haystacks, fed goats and chickens, raced on tricycles, climbed on towers, and jumped on trampolines on our first day in the park, and inspected planes, gone down giant slides, played with connecting pipes on sand hills, slid down…
Wow, this is already our second day in the Irrland amusement park! If you missed out on what we did on our first day in the Irrland park, check it out here. Today, we’re off to see 12 new attractions. We spent a nice, quiet night in the Parkhotel and swam in their pool in…
On a hot summer day, pack your kids and go to a splash pad for a little refreshment… That’s what we did, and what’s more, Lyons Cub met his friend Giulianna and her daddy there. The kids had fun playing in the sand, climbing and sliding on the playground, and my son was the most…
This was Lyons Cub’s second visit to a circus. The first one he ever went to was Circus Liberty, where he got to ride a horse and feed the animals during the break. He had enjoyed that very much, so when we saw the posters advertising for the “Mitmachzirkus” (participation circus) Proscho, he thought he…
Hello expats, travelers, or even locals who need a few tips what to do and where to go with kids aged 2-12 in the Rhineland — check out our recommendations for activities around here, be it inside or outside, in all kinds of weather. I moved back to Germany after 15 years in the United…