Day 1: Charleville-Mezières, near the French-Belgian border. About four hours from home: far enough away that it feels like we've accomplished something, but not a huge drive.
Day 2: Everyone is quite tired, the campsite is noisy at night. Damien accomplishes one of his major goals, making proper coffee on the camp stove. We find an excellent park along the river Meuse, with multiple play areas, basketball courts, and even a "Papa playground" (one of those outdoor gym things).
Afternoon trip to Orval (Belgium), which we visited on our honeymoon. It's clearly the best of the "beer abbeys" to visit. The original abbey was destroyed in 1793 and the new one was built next to it, not over the top, so you can walk around the ruins. Also, the beer is much cheaper in the abbey shop than anywhere else. From experience, this is rare - you'll often pay a premium to buy Trappist beer at the source (looking at you, Maredssous).
Bonus: one of the buildings had bats nesting in it.
Day 3: Moving day (in the rain). We drove through Belgium, including a stop for chips.
We must have crossed the Meuse river at least ten times in the course of the day, much to Isidore's delight. Had a bit of an issue trying to take the car into Aachen (Germany) because we didn't have the right environment sticker. Found a campsite somewhere north of Monchen-Gladbach, run by an old man on a scooter. There is a good, but muddy, playground. Last night's leftover pasta seems to have fermented, so we had to crack out the emergency Babybel supply (thank you, Billards!)
Day 4: General living-type stuff. Found a supermarket, took a picnic over the border into the Netherlands, which we ate on the banks of the Meuse (yes, again). Damien played the accordion in a forest while Raph built a den.
Day 5: Moving day, again. This one involved quite a long drive up to Schleswig-Holstein. Today's picnic destination was a park near Schloss Rheda called Flora Westphalia, which had the Best Playground Ever. We could happily have stayed for hours, but alas, the Autobahn was calling...
Arrived at our best tent pitch yet, in a family's back garden. It's quiet (at least it was before we arrived), there's a treehouse, and there are TINY FROGS. We're staying here for four nights, which seems to have been a Good Move.
Day 6: Lübeck. Mission 1: do some washing. Seven people can make a lot of laundry in six days. Mission 2: the Hanseatic League museum, to find out exactly who these people are we're following around the Baltic. Some enjoyed it more than others.
Day 7: Kiel. Pretzel picnic while watching the very very big boats on the Elbe-Baltic canal, then the (free) Maritime Museum. We inadvertently parked in what appears to be the Red Light district, about 100 metres from the port... Sophie noticed that all the ladies on the posters were showing their belly buttons. Back at the campsite, we made a fire in the fire pit and cooked sausages. Margaux started a collection of tiny frogs in a jam jar (then released them).
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