Oh we love our church! We so enjoyed being with so many great people. Mario & Mitsi, The Marienfels, Katia & Sophia, the Distel family, Marcia, Susan, Esther, Inga, Eva, the Zehrs, the Das family and more.

Sophia drew an amazing portrait and Emily added ‘hair’ of Autumn leaves.

Games, walks, talks, food, and plenty of fun for adults & kiddos alike.

We’re having a really lovely, long Autumn and so decided to come to Eifel-Camp by the Freilinger See in Blankenheim. It sits within the Eifel region- a low mountain range covering Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. The campsite offers a limited number of kitchen-and-ensuite options, which we are glad for. Small cabins with a tiny but comprehensive kitchen and a really good-sized bathroom — both of which are heated. There is a lovely little wood at the edge of the site, and its just perfect for nature-loving ladies to sit in for some quite time in the mornings while her family is asleep.

There is a Cafe at the lake which we refer to as “The Cafe with Mekken Chips” (because we once asked the cafe owner what the secret to them was and he kept saying “mekken” and seemed frustrated we didn’t understand. Eventually, he brought out the packet: frozen “McCain” fries).

We like to go into Blankenheim town to walk around the small lake there and the girls love the great play area there. And no trip is complete without a visit to Cafe Schlossblick for waffles with cherry sauce, ice cream and cream.

Walking around the Dreimühlen Waterfall in the Apache Valley was beautiful, we and enjoyed some sustenance at the Nohne Mill Cafe there afterwards (and picked up some lovely hand-knitted throw blankets made by ladies in the village!). We sat inside to start with but the girls weren’t so comfortable around the decorative dolls, which apparently are creepy.

For something extra novel, we had a lovely explore and walk around “Kartsteinfelsen mit Kakushöhle” – the Kakus cave in Mechernich in the Feytal valley and one of the most important prehistoric sites in Europe. Hunter-gatherer Neanderthals of the Middle Paleolithic period left behind animal bones and tools, indicating they lived here around 80,000 B.C. Amazing.