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…
It was pure coincidence that we found Waldbad Hilden, a public swimming pool with slides in the middle of a forest. My son and I had been shopping at ALDI’s when a nice, older lady walked past us with her little dachshund. My son steered towards her, touched the leash and asked, “Can I walk…
It’s not “Irland” (= Ireland), but “Irrland” (country of the crazy) that we visited… So it’s not a typo! For our summer vacation in 2022, we took a 4-day trip to Kevelaer, a famous pilgrimage place. On the fourth day, we did visited a basilica and a couple of churches, but we were really there…
Lyons Cub loves to play outside, especially in the forest, where he can build and hide in wooden teepees, climb on tree trunks, and find all kinds of insects, such as lime hawk moth caterpillars, etc. We found a cool nature adventure park, Landschaftspark Rheinbogen, in the town of Monheim at the right side of…
Lyons Cub really wanted to go on a ship. So the day came where he would experience making a panorama trip on the Rhine river at Cologne. But that wasn’t all. He also visited the Chocolate museum and got free samples and to try from the chocolate fountain, and he went into St. Martin’s church,…