Everyone enjoys a well earned sleep even though my body clock stupidly awakes at 7.05am local time (6.05am UK) and I'm never ever awake that early. I let everyone sleep given a long day yesterday with over 100k steps collectively. To say we're just on the edge of a city the place we're parked at was very quite and would have been a nice place to run.

Al doesn't want to turn on the hot water so we're all treated to a very cold shower and if the neighbours weren't awake already they would be after my yelps. Having stretched my legs I come across a portaloo and as Al is the toilet emptier he takes great pleasure in using other people's, I've been in too many at festivals to even contemplate that when I have my own but Al is not put off.

We've got a 45 min drive to the Arnhem open air museum and I've booked us on to two crafting workshops. The first was making some sort of ointment from flowers but unfortunately we're too late and none of the staff we've spoken to seem to know where we need to be. Not to worry there's so much more to do and we first take a look around an Indonesian house replica which was where a family had lived from 1952.

Next up was the medical centre, all of the buildings here are real and have been deconstructed and rebuilt. This one was from the 1950s and smelt of disinfectant and polish. They had a room where babies were crying and someone was cheerfully taking a bath (you'd come once a week if you didn't have your own bath at home). The models are eerily life like and at some point I'm half expecting one to jump out at us.

In 1998 this Green Cross health centre was sawn into thirty large pieces and reconstructed here. The comedy moments for the kids were looking at rather detailed images of what the pieces of equipment were used for, especially ones that involved going to the toilet or things going up bottoms!

The local area was known for making apple syrup in the 1800s called Apfelkrat, the farmers made it to top up their incomes by using surplus fruit.

Next we visited 4 local workers houses through the years from the 1860s, 1910s, 1950s and the 1970s. In the oldest house there was a dead baby on a table and the worker told us how catholics weren't allowed to breast feed so had to use a bottle and tube which was hard to clean meaning many babies died. They would have a sign outside the house to indicate who had died with a white ribbon for a baby, pink or blue for a child under 12 and black for anyone else.

The site has a brewery from 1750 we learn every village and hamlet in Brabant and Limburg would have had its own (small) brewery and therefore also its own beer. This was usually a dark beer. After the First World War people were turning to Pilsner style beer to quench their thirst. This brewery was functional up until the 1920s. In the new museum brewery they brew our own traditional beer so of course Al has bought a bottle to try later on.

Being a madam even when told several times not to touch things something called the wire of death doesn't put Liliya off, thankfully it wasn't live but we learnt about the barriers that were put up during the war to prevent refugees from crossing into the Netherlands.

In the café the kids had a quick game of skittles, Robert was declared the winner taking 12 hits to knock all the pins over and Liliya just missed out with 13.

Liliya also liked all the clogs lined up 😊

We learnt about a Dutch game called Pall mall which dates back to 1390. Pall mall was a little like croquet, but was played with a ball that could weigh up to five kilos. The aim was to hit this ball through the hoop in the ground using a wooden mallet. Players and teams competed against each other and could also try to thwart each other's progress. Whoever was first to reach the agreed number of points was the winner. From 1920 onwards the game became less popular, although it enjoyed a renaissance after the Second World War and competitions are still arranged annually in the Netherlands. As we were running late this morning we hopped back on the tram to go make our lunch and the kids get a ticket to ride from the ticket inspector.

After a very quick bite to eat we're back inside and speak to a carpenter, he's currently repairing a cart and using drawings and techniques from the original time. Wheel making was particularly popular in this area.

Across the way we meet a miller who spent a long while telling us all about how rapeseed oil was made, showing us all the machines and letting the kids feel the seeds during each part of the process. Robert was in his element and said how awesome this place is. The miller is just about to go on his lunch break and tells us to visit the farmhouse next where he's off to get some fresh soup. We didn't get to try any ourselves but it smelt amazing.

The next building had several transformations, the last being as late as the 2000s, we got to watch a short movie showing the process of deconstructing and rebuilding the house including the meticulous details they put into the internal decorations.

We passed some army barracks that are currently in the process of being installed then learnt about the popular terraced houses used from the 1960s to today. It's now time for the wood crafting workshop, Robert really wanted the carving workshop but you needed to be 12 and this one the kids could try at the minimum age of 6 so worked out great for them both. The lady teaching the course was very helpful given all the other kids are Dutch and I don't think you get many English people taking the course (we were hoping when we booked it that they would be able to follow along even if it was all in Dutch). She explains that they won't use power tools, only manual strength, shows them how to use the various tools then sets them to work making a coat hook. The kids first have to measure and drill the holes, saw the pegs, hammer those square pegs into round holes which made me rather nervous to see Liliya wielding a wooden mallet whilst Al held the template for her. Then they hammered the pegs into their boards, used a plane to shape the edges and gave it a sanding down to finish. Both kids felt a huge sense of achievement and really enjoy it. They've decided once we're home they want to finish the sanding then paint them and put them in their rooms.

For a job well done we took a short detour to the play park where of course Robert made a new friend and we all enjoyed some ice lollies. We had a look at the trams and watched the blacksmith hard at work.

In the little village Al tried riding an old bike and managed not to run over any children given the thing didn't have any brakes then we just had to buy some local treats from the bakery.

We walked around various windmills learning about their different uses before ending in the holiday village that had a chalet, static caravan and holiday home with a story about a family who helped Jewish refugees during WW2.

Yesterday's long day is starting to show and within a few minutes of driving Liliya has checked out (which may screw up our plans for an early bedtime later on). Tomorrow was originally going to be a bike ride through a nature park in Germany but we couldn't find anywhere to hire bikes and didn't want the hassle of bringing our own. Instead there are some nice walks but we're not sure anyone has the energy in this heat so we decide to try stay at another location this evening next to an open air swimming pool, it apparently gets very busy though so we're not sure there will be spaces. As we cross from the Netherlands into Germany everyone is funnelled off the motorway and through a border control point, thankfully we're waved straight through so our illegal milk, cheese and meat can live to see another day. Luck is with us once again and we get the second to last spot in the car park, it's even got a play park next door but sadly we soon realise this is a part of the pool complex but it's open from 9am tomorrow so we will most likely enjoy a few hours cooling off there. The kids and I take a short walk to the supermarket whilst Al gets our evening meal cooked (with some of that illegal meat). The evening weather is now bearable so we eat outside then Al and the kids walk to a different set of shops whilst I go for a muggy run by the river. As predicted Liliya can't fall asleep and neither can Robert so we leave them to it and sit outside. After a while a couple (Mark and Anya) from another motorhome come over and have a chat, they offer us drinks and we ended up having a lovely time until after 1am!

The next morning I'm feeling the effects of the late night drinking so actually a pool day is the perfect remedy rather than a hike and it's just what the kids needed as well to let off some steam but also recharge.

Mark and Anya had kindly invited us to their place for a BBQ at they only live 20km away but unfortunately we couldn't make it as we didn't leave the pool until 2.30pm and we had a long drive ahead of us. We've changed plans again and Al finds us a quiet spot in a sports complex car park where we're the only people staying. We timed it perfectly as there was a hot air balloon setting up in the field opposite the moho so we got to watch them taking off. There's even a kids play park so they get to enjoy that before bedtime.