The weekend forecast called for 70% chance of rain on Saturday and 80% chance of HEAVY rain on Sunday. Unfortunately, the forecast was completely accurate - so much for lounging on the beach! But we outfitted ourselves in our rain parkas and ended up having a great weekend anyways.
On Saturday, we hiked in the misty rain on the Beatusweg adventure trail. The short trail has signposts along the way that tell the story of St. Beatus and how he slayed a dragon and saved the villagers (and also converted them to Christianity - thereby "saving" them twice.). To accompany the story, the trail has a castle, boat, dragon footprints, etc. along the way for the kids to play on. Lukas LOVED the story and has since been talking about dragons and St. Beatus nonstop. It was actually kind of cool that it was such a foggy & dark day - it made the trail even more mysterious & eerie.
Ship that Beatus sailed on.
We definitely missed the views on this hike, but we kind of liked the fog.
Lukas & his slug collection at the start of the hike.
The next day it was POURING out so we decided to explore the St. Beatus caves where it obviously wouldn't matter if it was raining. Plus, Lukas was very excited to see the cave where St. Beatus slayed the dragon. The cave was huge - we took a one hour tour that took us 1 km into the mountain. Lots of stalagtites, stalagmites & underground rivers. Of course at one point in the tour there was a huge dragon in a cavern. The guide warned us that they were going to tell the story, turn out ALL the lights - it would get pitch black - and then the dragon would light up like fire. We warned Lukas. A few minutes into the story, Lukas proudly proclaims "I'm not scared." Seconds later the lights go out & Lukas is shrieking ;-)
The cave tour also included a little dragon museum and dragon playground so Lukas is now into fullblown dragon mode. At home all of his knights are now St. Beatus and all of his dinosaurs are dragons.
RAINY, RAINY play in a dragon's mouth
The hostel was fun - kind of like a summer camp: set your own table, strip your bed linens, board games in the dining room after dinner, quiet time after 10p.m., etc. It was a great casual kid-friendly atmosphere. We also lucked out & got the best room in the house with a balcony overlooking the lake. The rain cleared for a few hours at night so we did get a sunset:
Thanks Jim & Clare for the recommendation!
1 comment:
Sounds fun, except the cave in the dark - aah!
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