We ended up with very convoluted arrangements whereby Steve and Abbie stayed at home, with a bit of help from Grandma during after school times. Josiah came with us as far as the Portico where he stayed with Ernest and Buttercup for a few days. Meanwhile I took Anna, Violet and Gwenny on to Kessingland for the longest sleepover ever!

We had a free static for the week, I think they chose the worst one to give us, but it was ok for a few days. Well it was once I swapped the tv for one with an av channel for the Wii!

Tuesday was taken over with preparations for the evening, between a long rehearsal and then a quick swim before three hours of makeup and hair doing. It was an enjoyable night actually (mainly thanks to Twitter friends!), and while I sort of wanted Anna to win because I thought she was genuinely the best of the bunch, she didn’t, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief at not having to go to Grand Finals in Clacton! There are a few snippets of video here, here, and here – the latter being the hilarious finale to the Disney Show which the Teamstars did – which really was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long while.

Wednesday was a fairly boring, grey day, and we lazed around watching tv, reading, and playing wii. The girls took the living room over in the evening and pulled the sofabed out so that they could have a proper sleepover together (ie all sleep in the same room!) but Anna ended up back in bed with me by the end of the night!

Typically, Thursday was a beautiful day weather-wise and in some ways it would have been nice to spend longer on the beach, but we had to get back, so waved goodbye to Kessingland, hopefully forever!!

We spent the rest of Thursday chez Portico which was nice, and drove home late that night. Then spent Friday pretending we hadn’t got home yet and generally procrastinating over everything. Must add that Joe had a great week, as did Steve and Abbie – Steve was amazed at how quiet and peaceful it was!

Saturday was more normal; it included an orchestra practice and AGM where I somehow managed to get on the committee for ECO – well I figured it was a worthwhile thing to get involved with and all three of our children will benefit from the orchestra over the next few years.

Then we popped up to share cake with my sister in her new flat at university, of course my phone chose that moment to play up so I couldn’t ring her – I vaguely knew where I was going thank goodness but we did still drag a random towel-clad fresher out of her flat in order to let us through the building so we could find the right place!

And the afternoon was spent cleaning and tidying the first floor of the house. Which was great until I went downstairs and saw the comparative mess down there! Ironed while watching X Factor and then had an early night before an early morning Grand Prix which is a must-watch this morning!

And this was our last day. Lots of waiting around after the car broke down, but we had AA cover so while it was a little bit annoying, it was nowhere near as bad as it could have been, in lots of ways. We were only 6 or 7 hours late in getting home, so not too awful really!

In the afternoon we were basically packing up as we had to leave relatively early the next morning, so we took the awning down in advance. The children played with a toddler who appeared in a nearby pitch, and we watched the phones for texts from Aunty Emma! Then the kids took great delight in stomping on my sandcastle!

The children swam in the lake again, and we rented a pedalo on another lake for a while as well. The girls had showers, then we all met back at the tent for dinner (various BBQ bits under the grill, chips from the Frituur onsite, and salad bits & bobs) and games on the field – ball tag was their favourite I think.

Had Belgian waffles for breakfast and then the kids and Steve watched Eragon while I fiddled around in the caravan. Over lunchtime it finally stopped raining! We decided to go into Turnhout, the town nearest the campsite, and visit the Playing Card Museum, and it was fantastic! Hadn’t realised, but Turnhout is historically a place where playing cards were produced, and now holds the headquarters for Copag and Carta Mundi, international card game companies. We didn’t know it was a special afternoon there, but it was – all the printing presses and machines were working and being demonstrated, and it was free entry!

Really really enjoyed seeing all the machines still working, and one particular volunteer tried really hard to tell us as much as possible in English. The kids all chose a pack of cards at the end, you can never have too many packs of playing cards

We looked at Turnhout Castle as well, and probably would have mooched around and had coffee in the town centre but there was a fair in the main square, which was loud and offputting, so we came back to the campsite.

Sat outside with a beer while the children played cards and then had a sandcatle building competition, just like being at the beach but better, imo!

During the afternoon Steve and I popped to Carrefour on a secret mission; Steve had been hoping to pick up a small tv/dvd combi for the caravan at some point anyway, so we figured we’d do it sooner rather than later, hoping that we had the right sort of leads/sockets/adaptors to make it work! We found exactly what we’d been looking for, came back, and got it working which was fantastic, Josiah was thrilled to be able to watch his Spiderman DVD that he’d bought in Amsterdam the week before!

The rain stopped briefly over dinnertime so the kids rushed out to play, but then had to come in when it started again later. We cleaned them up (a major operation!) and had stories, then Steve & I watched the first couple of hours of 24 (season 1) which we’d picked up really cheaply in Carrefour – only 5 years after the rest of the world, but we hadn’t watched any of them before – really enjoyed it!

Started to walk towards the Manneken Pis and Planete Chocolat, our two other chosen destinations, and stopped for lunch on the way. Walked down a street full of cafes, inspecting the menus and not really knowing which one to go in, until we found Chez Leon – advertising free meals for under 12s with their parents! Woo hoo, so we went in, and the food was fantastic – theirs as well – the girls had delicious spaghetti bolognaise while Joe had chicken, chips & applesauce, which he loved. And ice cream for dessert – all free! So Steve and I *really* enjoyed our meals too Felt a bit bad to have steak rather than mussels in Belgium but I just couldn’t stand the thought of ordering them only to find out that my memory was correct and I still hate them!

So after lunch – carried on walking, had to go into the Tintin boutique just because it was cool, then eventually got down to la Grande Place (very grand indeed) and saw the Mannekin Pis, then Planete Chocolat. We’d thought we’d see chocolate making demos in the shop (that’s what the guidebook said) but as it turned out they were only on Saturdays so we just bought a small bag of overpriced chocolate and went back to sit in La Grande Place and have a taste (overrated, imo).

From there we walked back to the car, then decided to go home via the Atomium. The Atomium was pretty cool, both inside and out. Would have loved to see it lit up at night too, but we didn’t stay that long – got home by 6pm for some more playing/tea/relaxing/bedtime.

Tintin books were much appreciated later on and gave us hours of peace and quiet! Just as well, because it started raining when we got back to the tent and didn’t stop for about 2 days!

It felt like a huge contrast between the two sites – Baalse Hei was in the middle of the countryside, very peaceful, and the site itself was fairly empty and quiet. In our small camping area only 3/10 of the pitches were occupied at any one time, and this was mid-August, we were really surprised. Plenty of space for our palace this time, and we were thrilled to see a little play area in the middle of the field, which our kids had to themselves for 99% of the time!

After we’d set up we went for a walk and explored the site, sat and had a beer in the bar while the children played in the big play area, the length of the lake away! Felt as though we were going to have a lovely relaxing week, and we did

Had a toastie from a cafe on the Museumplein, and then popped back to the car for the scooters, and spent a couple of hours walking/scootering through the Vondelpark, again very pleasant.

After that we decided to drive up to Zaandam to see Zaanse Schans, a very touristy little village where a number of windmills have been moved. Walked round admiring windmills and a little cheese-making place, and had an ice cream there before heading back to the campsite for dinner.