Sunday outing.
Jan. 21st, 2015 06:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckThe Christmas holidays had been filled with marking, more marking, exam prep and we didn't manage to do anything fun, because on top of it K had a nasty cold that put him out of commission for about a week.
Then the first weekend after the break was more marking and more exam prep.
Last weekend, finally, I reserved most of Sunday - there was still some marking to be done on Saturday and Sunday night - for some much-needed family time.
We jumped into the car and drove about 20 minutes to one of the smaller towns between us and the border to Belgium. There, the old Napoleonic bridgehead fortifications have been converted to a family-friendly park which includes lots of playgrounds and a small zoo. In summer, it is swarming with people, but on a cold January Sunday it was rather empty.
I believe in summer this is where families find some shade to have a picnic while the kids are running about on the playground.
A family ticket sets you back 10€ which I think is fairly reasonable compared to other attractions.
The bridgehead is huge - it turned out to be too big for the number of soldiers stationed there and the advancing German troops just used a different place upriver to cross into what was then French territory. The fortifications around the whole city held, and the siege only ended with the French troops leaving after Napoleon had abdicated.
(If you are into fortifications you have seen a model of the original Renaissance citadel - built as an ideal city by Alessandro Pasqualini - even Vauban was impressed.)
Today you can walk through parts of the casemats and also gaze at the tranquil waters of the Rur:
Other parts of the park look more traditional:
The animals you can see at the park's zoo are a weird mix of domestic, exotic and regional forest animals.
This means you get wild boar, horses, meerkats, chickens, goats, deer, lizards, owls and other birds from all over. Oh and there is a wolf, too, and some lynx but we didn't see them.
One of the resident snowy owls:
More animal pictures to follow.
Then the first weekend after the break was more marking and more exam prep.
Last weekend, finally, I reserved most of Sunday - there was still some marking to be done on Saturday and Sunday night - for some much-needed family time.
We jumped into the car and drove about 20 minutes to one of the smaller towns between us and the border to Belgium. There, the old Napoleonic bridgehead fortifications have been converted to a family-friendly park which includes lots of playgrounds and a small zoo. In summer, it is swarming with people, but on a cold January Sunday it was rather empty.
I believe in summer this is where families find some shade to have a picnic while the kids are running about on the playground.
A family ticket sets you back 10€ which I think is fairly reasonable compared to other attractions.
The bridgehead is huge - it turned out to be too big for the number of soldiers stationed there and the advancing German troops just used a different place upriver to cross into what was then French territory. The fortifications around the whole city held, and the siege only ended with the French troops leaving after Napoleon had abdicated.
(If you are into fortifications you have seen a model of the original Renaissance citadel - built as an ideal city by Alessandro Pasqualini - even Vauban was impressed.)
Today you can walk through parts of the casemats and also gaze at the tranquil waters of the Rur:
Other parts of the park look more traditional:
The animals you can see at the park's zoo are a weird mix of domestic, exotic and regional forest animals.
This means you get wild boar, horses, meerkats, chickens, goats, deer, lizards, owls and other birds from all over. Oh and there is a wolf, too, and some lynx but we didn't see them.
One of the resident snowy owls:
More animal pictures to follow.
