The Arrival of Uncle Laurence (Part Two)

A couple of days after Laurence arrived, the free bicycle that I'd sent off for a month or two ago(having collected tokens from 140 packs of yogurts) was delivered to our door. Very convenient as Laurence is such a whizz at building things. He and Luca had it up and running in no time and Luca has hardly been off it since!

Almost finished!

On the Saturday afternoon of Laurence's visit we were able to leave Amy and Tanya with Manolo whilst we went to a museum/art gallery. There were three exhibitons; the first about silk was very interesting with a nifty touch screen showing the growth and developement of the silk worms (Luca particularly enjoyed that bit), the second was called "Pop Design" full of interesting pieces of furniture etc from the sixties and seventies (Luca was a bit disappointed that we couldn't try out the seats!) and the third was contemporary art which was quite bizarre and difficult for any of us to appreciate or explain. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the building but Laurence took a few outside.

Would have liked to take a couple of these home for the twins!

Not the museum but old buildings nearby with impressive display of wild flowers in front.

On the sunday we all went to a nearby neo-gothic castle surrounded by spacious gardens - ample opportunity for the kids to run around and the rain just about held off, for once! We attempted to follow the guided tour (only us in the group) but after the first 5 minutes I had to stop translating for Laurence in order to concentrate on keeping the twins quiet and stop them ruining the displays inside! Next time we'll just buy the guide book!

A view of the front of the castle.

Another view of the front.

These steps proved very popular with all three kids!

Picnic time!