Labyrinthe Aventure

Grandma and Grandpa Geels sent the kids
travel Bingo, which I finally remembered
to bring along for the kids.  The kids loved it,
I think I might have to commission them to
make aversion for Swiss railway rides as well.

Today Dennis and I took the kids to the middle-of-nothing Switzerland, about an hour south of Lausanne, to what is advertised as the "world's largest and most amazing permanent maze!!"  How could we not go to that?  From the Dole Plantation Pineapple maze in Hawaii to any number of corn mazes in western Washington, Dennis and I have evidently been training for this moment for years.  World's largest maze? Bring. It. On.

This eighth wonder of the world is housed in Labyrinthe Aventure. It was difficult to gauge, from the website, how much fun it would be, and as we rode the train further into the country and ultimately got off at a station with absolutely nothing but grass in sight, I got a little nervous.  But then, over the hill, we saw a tower of slides, and then some bouncy castles.  Things were looking promising.

And I was especially happy to find that the entrance price covered all of the activities: the gate charge was enough to cover ten minutes on the bouncy castle for my three kids at any given festival.  So any extra fun that we had was just a bonus.

Halfway into our visit, Dennis about summed it up.  "Well, it's no Parc Merveilleux," (lacking that essential element, shade. And there was nary schnitzel to be found.) "but this is pretty wonderful."

We didn't arrive until just before lunch, so we made the kids eat first, dangling the promise of infinite fun as incentive for the kids to eat well and quickly. Ella finished her sausage in under two minutes and took off exploring.  The boys weren't far behind her and made a quick dash to the little cage with air guns that shoot foam balls: it seems to be a favorite in parks here. But then we all kind of migrated to the center of the park, a large paved area with about twenty different styles of bicycles and tricycles to play on.  Dennis and I couldn't help ourselves.  We were right in there with all the other kids.

We're going in!

The kids find their first punch station.  

Our punch card

But we couldn't stay too long: there was a maze to explore, and before the kids got to tired, too.  It was actually a lost cause, where Joey was concerned: he started to melt down fifteen minutes into the maze and slept the rest of the way.  But Ella and Alex (and Dennis and I) were totally into it.  There were ten punch stations hidden in the maze, as well as ten treasure chests. The chests had lotto numbers in them, and if one of them matched your entrance ticket, you could win a free popsicle. We decided to sweeten the pot a little (and to head off potential fights over any winning popsicles) and promised ice cream around if the kids could find eight of the ten punch stations.

Joey, before he collapsed, led us on a merry chase
through the shrubbery.

It turned out no added incentive was necessary: Ella and Alex were tireless, and there were playgrounds hidden all throughout the maze to keep them going between the way stations.  Although some of them were unexpectedly hazardous...

Dennis warned Ella that he wouldn't be able to rescue her
from the traverse-wall-in-the-moat if she got stuck, but
she insisted she was up for it and crossed the whole thing.

Triumph, Geelses!

The maze was satisfyingly confusing: it was really hard to peer through the shrubs, and we all got turned around once or twice.  But we found the first eight punch stations without any trouble before finding the exit.  Ella decided that she really wanted to find those last two ("and then I want you to show everyone the card on the blog, mom, okay?") So she and Dennis went back inside and scouted around for another twenty or so minutes in the sun, until they found every last station.

Meanwhile, Alex and I went over to those bouncy castles, where Joey woke up and broke into an enormous, sunny smile.  He unbuckled himself, ran over to the closest bouncy structure, carefully removed his shoes, and disappeared inside for the next half-hour.

Alex, just hanging out on the velcro wall

Bye, Joey

Ella and I tried too, but gravity
was kinder to Alex.

We also spent a good long time in a large room filled with wooden games of all description: mazes and giant tiddlywinks and shuffle boards and, of course, foosball. Joey found a little wooden train in the corner and settled down with that while the rest of us played.

When we were done hiding in the shade, we went back out to a large field that was covered with different playground equipment, much of it best suited for kids Joey's age, but the big kids found a ball pit.  That, and their hard-earned popsicles, kept them very happy.

I was absolutely certain that the kids would sleep well tonight, but they surprised us.  Joey dropped off immediately, but Alex was in his bed, quiet, but with his eyes open, well past 9:30. Dennis said Ella was happily reading well after that, over in their room.  A little too much fun?