Xanten and the Landschaftpark Nord

It was a lovely weekend with Mum and Dad visiting, and a very busy one, so i'm still exhausted from last week!  The week was long, because it was super busy at work.  Mum and Dad arrived on Friday evening, and we started the weekend off with a trip to Shanke, the local pub, for a schnitzel, chips and a beer.  Delicious!

On Saturday we went to Xanten (it took ages due to a replacement bus and a language barrier issue, but we made it eventually.  Lola had her first trip on a tram, bus, train and escalator all in one day.  She was a bit overwhelmed I think!

Xanten is such a beautiful place.  Unfortunately it was pouring with rain when we arrived, so we took shelter in a tea room and had a huge slab of cake and a hot chocolate.  Mum and Dad had a look around the Cathedral while I had a look around outside with Lola, and then we went into the Archaeological park.

The park is all reconstructions of buildings from a Roman town, as similar to what it would actually have looked like on this site as possible.  The amphitheatre is great, and I even took part in a demonstration on a tour of how much clapping your hands echos around the construction. (Clapping only because I can't make Lola bark on demand!).

There were a few traditional stalls out, and one of them was dying wool to make clothes with.  The colours were all authentic of what would have been around in the Roman times.

The dig season was on too and students from around Europe were excavating and showing some of their finds - pottery mostly.

On Sunday we went to the Landschaftpark Nord, which is the Landscape Park in North Duisburg.  The park is amazing!  It was an old steel and iron works that has been left to rust and become part of the park.  The buildings are huge and really interesting to look at. I look nearly 200 photos, so choosing which to go on here was really tricky!

Mum and I climbed the 70 m high tower.  The view was great, and we could even see buildings in Duisburg centre, and Dusseldorf!

The outer staircase did make me feel a bit wobbly I must admit!

It was a great weekend all around for us, despite the rain and chily temperature.  Matt had a great time in Monza, Italy watching the Formula 1 in the scorching heat.  I'll post some photos later on in the week of his weekend.