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For our Spring Break holiday this year we booked a week at Center Parcs, Dutch-style.  The venue was De Kempervennen, which is near Eindhoven.  We had heard that the continental Center Parcs were very good value for money and very well organised and we weren't disappointed. 

One of the big attractions of De Kempervennen is an on-site ski centre with real snow, hence the picture on the right.  Chris elected to learn to fall down a lot while attached to a snowboard, while James and Catherine went for the marginally less painful pair of skis.  Even Julia and I tried strapped on some skis at the end of the week and survived the experience.  None of us had skied before so it was a great way to get a taste without spending a whole week in a ski resort.

There were loads of other activities on offer too, from an introduction to Scuba for Catherine, to lots of death-defying stunts involving hanging upside down from ropes.

The accommodation was nicely laid out in the woods all around the various activity centres, but was not the prettiest I've ever seen - think 1960's prison camp - from the outside at least..  Inside our little house was just fine: basic but clean and functional.  Fortunately we were able to supplement the rather limited choice of Dutch TV with a DVD player and some DVDs that we brought along for the journey.

 There was lots of wildlife all around, including a very noisy cockerell who was lucky to survive the week.  There were red squirrels, rabbits, ducks and geese all running around just outside our house.

In the central dome there was a supermarket, restaurants and a big swimming pool with crazy slides.

Most impressive of all were the friendly Dutch staff, who could simultaneously describe complicated activities and equipment in three or four languages,and always with a joke and a smile.

There are no activities on Monday, as weekenders are going home and mid-week people arriving, so we flexed our SatNav skills and tootled off to Efteling, which is Holland's biggest theme park and only around 50 minutes away from De Kempervennen.  As it was a bit of a drizzly Monday and the local schools were not on holiday, we more or less had the park to ourselves, which was nice.