To Bispinger Heide We Go!

What could be more fun than 7 hours in a car with two children under the age of 5, both of whom had thrown up in the last 12 hours?

Here we are, somewhat suspicious of what lay ahead, but clueless nonetheless - all packed up and ready to go.

Great visibility, eh? Makes you wish you were on the road with us, doesn't it?!

(Have I mentioned how much we love our portable DVD players?)

Since Jack had SEVEN days of Fall Break (wait, didn't school just start?!) , we took the opportunity to take a road trip across Germany. (How did we know the stomach bug would strike after we already had the car packed?!) Frankly, it wasn't intended to be such a LONGGGGG trip across Germany, but due to the road construction and traffic, our 4-hour jaunt turned into almost 7 hours.

Now, there's some fun. We drove...and drove...and drove...through tiny little villages where all the buildings were made of red brick with red roofs...like driving through the pages of a fairy tale book.

Europe has a variety of "family vacation hotels," built with kids in mind. Earlier this year at a Kinderhotel in Austria, we met a family that recommended CenterParcs, another family resort. So, after a few hours of surfing http://www.centerparcs.com/, we were all set for a long weekend in Bispinger Heide, in the heart of the Lüneburger Heide between Hamburg and Hannover, Germany.

This place was a kids' wonderland. We had a 3 bedroom cottage, with two bedrooms and a playroom decorated like a circus tent. Jack and Luke quickly built the world's largest MegaBlok tower...

The CenterParc was a huge campus, the center of which featured a MarketDome, with numerous restaurants and shops. Luke called it the Zoo because it had "Mangos" which is Lukey for Flamingos, along with ducks, turtles, parrots and a few spiders.

Picture by Master Jack...he's got a photography gene!

The MarketDome also housed the AquaMundo, a large water play area, with pools for adults, children and babies, plus several water slides for all ages. It even had a huge wave that reminded us of the Pacific!

Finally, it had a crazy indoor play area, complete with a racecar track! The kids had all sorts of fun driving and climbing.

For the older kids, the CenterParc had archery, boating, climbing walls and other "adventure" activities.

It was cold and rainy the whole time we were there. This snow was just for fun...not real...YET!

So, with all this fun around, what do you think the boys enjoyed the most?

...Riding bicycles...in the rain....

And we drove how long?!

P.S. Must have been a One Act Wonder stomach flu...we were all just fine once we left home.