Iâve been away with the scouts in our district summer camp. The nearly two weeks were absolutely amazing, mentally a great vacation. On the other hand, physically not so much. But Iâve still got Monday to recover from my holiday. :-)
Hereâs a sunset from the setup before the kids arrived the next day: https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-08-30-abendhimmel/
Sunset on the first day the kids joined: https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-08-31-abendhimmel/
Another great sunset: https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-09-02-abendhimmel/
We visited the Jurassic Museum at the Willibalds Castle in EichstÀtt. As always, taking photos indoors is almost impossible with the low lighting and reflexions everywhere. We had a great and entertaining tour guide walk us through for an hour. Afterwards, we explored two, three hours on our own.
One of my most favorite things was to pour water down the 80 meters deep well. It took something like 10-12 seconds before we heard the splash. But before that, we werenât able to see the falling drops anymore. Crazy cool. :-)
The wind was blowing strong on the big tower. Hair were flowing horizontal. The museum had also small sections for the stone age, Romans & Celts as well as sea monkeys.
https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-09-05-juramuseum-auf-der-willibaldsburg-eichstaett/
Something felt definitely wrong, I got up much earlier during the camp than when I have to work. Typically, I woke up beween 6 and 7 because I really had to go to the loo. There was almost always somebody already awake from the kitchen teammates or leaders. So, I always decided to not return to bed. When I was the very first one, I turned on the coffee machine and water kettle to the delight of the others and five minutes later, another person arrived at the kitchen. As a bonus, we sometimes got to enjoy the sunrises, like this one: https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-09-07-morgensonne/
And here some photos of the crazy kitchen we had at our glamping trip. Of course, it was waaaaaaaaaaaaay oversize. Itâs typically used to feed several hundred people, not just only 70ish. Although it was really fun to work in, cleaning the whole thing took an entire day. We completely underestimated this.
https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-09-07-willy-brandt-zeltlagerplatz-kueche1/
When we arrived for the setup, the DĂŒsseldorf youth group was dismantling their camp on the same spot that we had originally booked. But the camp site manager told us that we were the only group on the entire camp site, so we could select any spot, whatever we liked. That was really great, because originally we would have needed to transport all food 150-200 meters from the kitchen to our site. Hence, we just decided to set up in front of the kitchen. We still could just use the entire camp site for games, separate the heavy snorers from the rest, etc.
The only downside was that the sanitary facility was on the other end of the camp site. So, when taking a shower, going to the loo, washing the dishes, we had to always hike over the entire camp site. The kids and their leaders had to do their dishes themselves, this was a tent camp, not a hotel visit after all. Being a member of the kitchen team, we of course took advantage of the dishwashing machines, though. :-) In a traditional tent camp, the kitchenâs dishes are washed by the rotating dish/kitchen service. All children have to participate in that a few times.
On the second to last full day, some camp constructions were built. That spot was another ten minutes hike into the woods. Not sure why the that program wasnât done right at the beginning but towards the end. That would have been a great playground throughout the camp.
