Summer Holiday

Our vacation already feels as if it was very loooong ago, sigh. But it has made me think about what vacation really is? To me it is time and freedom, mixed with a little luxury - doesn't hurt. :) When I was a child there was no such thing as vacation. Before I was ten we just went to our summer cottage. Not that there is any "just" in that, because it was fabulous (the sun always shined when I was a kid!). But we went to our summer cottage every weekend and all vacations all year round, and since my mum was a homemaker, she and us three kids moved to the cottage all summer and my grandma moved from the Isle of Bornholm to us too. It was really cosy. I think I was in 2nd to 3rd class when my parents started driving round in Denmark, and later outside the borders, in their vintage cars of course. My parents didn't have much money so dad thrifted a tent which was torn from top to bottom, which my mum repaired. We had four vintage and leaking air mattresses, the tent was also for four persons, so dad always waked up outside the tent. He had simply been pushed out during the night, because we were five. But away we went, we saw a lot, we were together and we ate pancakes and the like that could be made over a vintage primus. Here we are resting roadside and drinking primus coffee:

I'm wearing red and the car is is Frederik, which I have told you about before and which my mum still drives daily.

And here mum and dad plan the rest of day:

As seen in the photo dad later thrifted this super-smart combicamp. He had to do a lot of repairing on this one too. My parents slept in it and we three kids slept in the old tent. It was luxury.

This year DH and I were not going on any special vacation since our trip to the US in February was quite expensive. But I know very well that after about 10 minutes at our summer cottage DH is feeling so bored that he starts building a new shed - and we don't need more sheds! ;)

So I found a great offer for a trip to Harzen in Germany. I know, now we really sound like an old married couple, but Harzen is truly lovely. We drove my vintage car all the way and back home, and although a new strange sound appeared for every 100 km, it survived. We lived in the City of Wernigerode, which has the most beautiful town hall:

And in the area real vintage steam-powered choo-choos drove around:

I love them.

We visited an old iron ore mine:

It was very interesting (and cold) and would definately have been even more interesting if I had understood German. In Gernamy everything is only in German, ough.

We had to visit the famous witch dance ring, and some one had to do this:

There was the most beautiful view which proves that you don't have to be very far aways to see something different:

We visited a Miniature Park where they had made the most lovely miniatures of different famous buildings in the area. Here is the Castle of Wernigerode - you can see the real castle in the background:

And some one went shopping - in fact so much that he had to buy a rucksack to be able to carry it all. My mouth is sealed:

I bought a fountain pen, three nail polishes and a few other small things, so I have been really nice.