It started off reasonably promising with the kids standing in front of giant plant pots pretending to have shrunk!
However in reality the playgrounds weren't particularly great, and were baking hot with little shade. There were also lots of activities that you had to pay for which the kids wanted to do. We were surrounded by lots of people on holiday, spending money left, right and centre on fun things for the kids to do. It's one of the hard parts of this kind of travel, explaining to the kids yet again that we're not on holiday and we have a limited budget. We try to explain that most people get just one or two weeks holiday a year and so save all their spending money for that. We're away for 2 years and so can't spend as much. In one way it's a good lesson for them to learn and I'm kind of pleased that they are learning about budgeting as back home we didn't really have to think about what we are spending. Now every cent is accounted for using Trail Wallet, an app recommended to me by Sarah Crofts who had used it on her one year campervan adventure with her daughter Tabitha. The kids are now earning pocket money which they can choose to spend how they like, usually on sweets bought by me for "Mummy's tuck shop". We continuously try to get them to save some of it but it is hard when they don't know what they are saving for. If they had saved some last week they could have paid for more activities today, or perhaps the candy floss that Esmé was desperate for, but saving pocket money is something that I think will come in time. Perhaps it will feel different when kids go back to school so there is less of a holiday atmosphere?
We went for a wander to see what was available, heading through the free zoo which the kids were decidedly underwhelmed at... not sure why.
I was drawn to a Guignol puppet show that I thought the kids would enjoy and be able to compare with Punch and Judy. AJ wanted to go on some little cars, and Esmé was interested in Pony rides until she saw some family pedal cars. In the end we decided against the pedal cars which cost 15 Euros for 30 minutes and plumped for ice creams, the car for AJ and the Pony for Esmé as well as the puppet show. After eating the ice creams the kids enjoyed climbing trees before playing on a playground and watching the puppet show which Esmé enjoyed but AJ was a bit ambivalent to.
We then went to find the ponies at which point Esmé nearly walked the other way when she smelled them and AJ decided he would prefer this to the cars. The ponies were an interesting affair where one pony and a trap guided 4 more ponies with kids on, the highlight being when the young boy leading them made them trot towards the end of the ride. Both kids really enjoyed this so we ended the trip on a high.
Back to the boat for dinner and an earlyish night, hoping for an early start tomorrow to avoid the worst of the heat!
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