This was our itinerary:
- Monday, July 12, 2021: Flight Los Angeles - Frankfurt with Lufthansa ✈️ Yay, only one flight - and a direct one! What a relief after last year's trip which took us 3 days to get to our end destination (Los Angeles - London - Milan - Brussels)
- Tuesday, July 13: Arrival in Frankfurt around noon. We got our rental car at the Hertz counter at the airport 🚗 and drove straight to Opa Gerhard's and Birgitte's place in Lahnstein (near Koblenz). It was raining a lot - and it would keep on pouring for a couple more days to come.
- Wednesday, July 14: We got to sleep in and rest in our big and cozy apartment! It was nice inside. Outside, it rained and rained and rained... and many towns in the area got flooded 🌧🌧🌧. We did some grocery shopping 🛒 (oh, how I love the German supermarkets and their amazing and affordable selection of fresh foods!) and Ennio got Covid-tested 🏥 which was required for him to be able to go to Phantasialand the next day. Marcus, Lily and I didn't need a test because we had our Covid-19 Vaccination Cards 💉. Poor Ennio (who's 10 and too young to get the vaccine) would have to get tested multiple times during this holiday!!! Fortunately, playing 🎮 with Opa provided much needed relief!
- Thursday, July 15: Drive to Phantasialand. It took us over 3 hours to get there because so many roads were flooded due to the heavy rainfall. Many people lost their homes, their cars, their belongings... it was a national emergency 😢. I kind of felt guilty staying at the beautiful hotel Ling Bao 🐉 while so many were suffering.
- Friday, July 16: Day 1 at Phantasialand 🎢
- Saturday, July 17: Day 2 at Phantasialand 🎢
- Sunday, July 18: Wildpark Forsthaus Remstecken 🦌
- Monday, July 19: Koblenz
- Tuesday, July 20: Koblenz
- Wednesday, July 21: Limburg + dinner at the local Greek restaurant
- Thursday, July 22: Opa Gerhard's birthday and drive to Belgium. We visited Virginie who lives in Antwerp on the way. We arrived in Stekene in the early evening.
- Friday, July 23: Staying at Wouter's place, hanging by the swimming pool 🏊 and enjoying a delicious BBQ at night 🍗.
- Saturday, July 24: Knokke 🏖
- Sunday, July 25: Knokke
- Monday, July 26: Knokke
- Tuesday, July 27: Knokke
- Wednesday, July 28: Gent 😸 + 👶 🍼!
- Thursday, July 29: Bellewaerde 🦁
- Friday, July 30: Roeselare
- Saturday, July 31: Drive back to Germany. We spent the night in Lahnstein 🏰 and drove on to Stuttgart the next day.
- Sunday, August 1: Arrival in Stuttgart where we saw Oma Eva and Mia again! 😍
- Monday, August 2: Ruit 🍦
- Tuesday, August 3: Ruit 🌈
- Wednesday, August 4: Sinsheim Technisches Museum where we saw lots of ✈️ and 🚘
- Thursday, August 5: Marcus, Eva and Ennio went to Tripps Drill 🎢. Lily, Mia and I stayed in Stuttgart and took the metro 🚇 to go shopping in the city center 🛍
- Friday, August 6: Ruit
- Saturday, August 7: Drive to Frankfurt and return of the rental car.
- Sunday, August 8: Flight Frankfurt - Los Angeles with Lufthansa ✈️
