Archeon - another great place to take our visitors

You have been warned! If you have plans to come and visit us this summer it is very likely that we'll be bringing you to Archeon.

The girls and I were taken here by some friends this weekend and what a wonderful experience it was. Archeon bills itself as 'living history of the Netherlands, 8800 BC - 1500AD' and it's essentially several reconstructions of dwellings and communities from different historical periods, populated by authentically-dressed inhabitants and chock full of experiences that the children can take part in. (In this photo Grace and Amber are grinding wheat to make flour, a la the neolithic period).

Of course, though, the approach to it all was very Dutch (or perhaps I should say, not British). One of the things that has typified life here (and often struck me) is the far more relaxed approach to 'elf and safety'. Our first experience at Archeon is a perfect example: we wandered into a clearing where there were a couple of mesolithic dwellings next to a pond. Beside the pond were four dug out canoes with paddles - in fact, in one of them, a group of boys was paddling about on the pond. And so we, too, clambered into a couple of the canoes and set off. (Note, this was a party of two adults and four children under ten). There was no official manning the pond (save for a neolithic hunter going about his daily business), no signage, no lifejackets - nothing. How different it would be in the UK.

It is true, that Robyn and I couldn't paddle efficiently, for toffee, and that we kept going round in circles, (and that I had to keep telling Grace to sit down or she'd capsize us!) but what fun it was just to throw our shoes off, hop in and paddle away.