Mauritius

So seeing as there were no burnt body parts this time round, we managed to go on our postponed holiday to Mauritius! Oh, poor us :) We stayed at a beachcomber hotel - Le Victoria - in the north of the island in between Grand Baie and Port Louis. We did the whole all-inclusive package holiday thing - something Benedikt and I are not usually keen on... (we hate being tourists) but boy did we enjoy it! It was a week of being lazy and waited upon.

Our excursion on day 2:

On a catamaran! We were driven to the east side of the island where we boarded a cat.... manned by 4 very cool dudes playing their rasta and dance music all day for us!	There was just enough wind to sail for a stretch. It was good fun being on the boat. Nico loved it of course
We ventured out of the hotel just the once - after that we decided it was easier and more relaxing to stay put! Sitting in a tourist bus for hours is not fun with a toddler	Nico loved the 'tampoline' in the middle and amused our fellow touri by jumping up and down all day on it
We were taken on a smaller boat to this puny waterfall.. which was pretty and all, but its funny what they make into a tourist attraction	They dropped us off on 'Île aux Cerfs' which our hotel guide had called 'Paradise Island' (SriLankan accent) for the afternoon. Which would have been very pleasant if it wasn't along with 5000 other tourists!
All in all it was a great day. We drank Rum Coca (French accent this time) and basked in the sun and marveled at the beautiful blue ocean.	We also got some snorkeling done... but the coral was half dead and disappearing. The Kenyan coast has set VERY high standards for us

Our room was big and spacious:

Family bath and shower time before supper at 7pm. Fun fun fun	Two handsome fellas! (Trust Nico to like those lucky packet sunglasses)
Taking over our bed. And having a lie in	Our sea view

The glorious beach:

Alot of the water activities were included. Bonus	(Extreme)Paddling with dad. Another water based activity that Nico enjoyed
So glad we took his crocodile. He was the envy of all the other kids. And we forced him to share it!	Dad doing some swimming training. We both actually swam a lot in the sea -at least 1km per day. Was so easy and enjoyable in the flat water
John Lennon? Stevie Wonder? He loved those darn glasses	We spent hour building dams and sand castles and moats and and and
Photo shoot time to capture the beautiful sunset. And beautiful subjects of course	Cute little guy isn't he?
The happy Schneiders on holiday. (I do believe Benedikt and I were each about 3 or 4 pims down by this stage!)	The photo taken after this one is not pretty :)

We also went on the pedal boats a few times which were a novelty. And we went on the glass bottom boat on our last morning. Nico now loves boats of course

The unbelievable pool:

The pool blew my mind. It was just amazing. As you walk into the hotel you just see the huge expanse of a perfect and huge infinity pool with the beach and sea behind it. This is it taken from the beach side. It was just so well designed	We would spend the morning on the beach and the afternoon by the pool. Nico loved this shallow section cos he could stand.
Nico is so good at holding on around your neck while you swim. And boy did he love spending all this time with his dad	His jumping in is still pretty feeble. We need to work on that
Cool photo taken by moi	He got thrown and spun around a lot this holiday!
Oh, the endless games	Just so unpleasant huh?

Meal times:

Pancakes for breakfast! He actually didn't even eat them most mornings. The beauty of a buffet :)	Eating his soggy croissant that he'd dipped in his hot chocolate. hmmmmmm
Our special wedding anniversary night at the seafood restaurant. Note our matching shirts!	Didn't stay clean for long of course

We were SO glad we took the all inclusive package. We would order bottles of wine or champagne and just drink one glass. And use our bottled sparkling water to wash the sand off cos we couldn't be bothered to walk to the tap. The wastage is sacrilegious.
We tried a baby sitter our second night and it was fine, but we decided it was much nicer to have Nico with us for supper each night. That and he LOVED the dance floor after dinner! It was CRAZY HOUR for all the little kids clearly. The disco ball lights and the stage and all the kiddies dancing (badly) together was just too much fun.

On the cat	Ready for swimming training!
Tea time darling	Happiness is
On the flight there. He was so good on both flights. It helped that there were loads of other kids. And that we had the ipad with tons of kiddie apps and movies	Sleeping on the way back to the Mauritius airport. He stayed sleeping in my arms after that for a further hour. All through security and everything. That was a first!

All in all it was a brilliant week. We loved it. And loved the hotel. It was just so well managed, the staff were all so friendly and kiddie orientated, the food and service was excellent and the weather was just perfect - not too hot in the day and cool in the evenings.