Ulm -> Legoland

It turns out that the same holy day, Ascension, that gave us a holiday from school and work in Switzerland is also observed as a national holiday in Germany.  The point being, the shuttle from the hotel to the Ulm Hauptbahnhof that we were planning to take was not running this morning.  Since it was unlikely that there would be any restaurants open, either, it seemed the hotel breakfast was our only, and therefore best, option this morning.  

Ella scouted ahead and came back hopping with excitement; when we told her it was okay to take a plate, she made a beeline for some very specific things: a little basket of miniscule chocolate croissants, some tiny summer sausages, and a tiny little jam bowl that she'd filled with corn flakes.

She finished her lilliputian meal quickly and ran off to join Joey at the Lego table in the corner of the room.  He, unfortunately (but also unsurprisingly) was much more interested in the toys than the food, and spent the morning ignoring the croissants and ham we waved in front of him, instead meticulously picking out all of the blue legos and piecing them together, like a puzzle.  Blue, he's told me, is the best color.

This drove Alex crazy.  He has reached the unfortunate age of being old enough to know better, and so we made him stay at the table, forcing him to eat bread and jam. It's a hard-knock life.

Unfortunately, that was the only thing that was really delicious at breakfast.  I do believe they secretly replaced today's regular coffee with dark, sparkling, decaffeinated Folgers crystals. Bleh.

This should be cultivated!

Oh well.  It was sufficient to get us on the road.  The kids continued to do really well: Ella, after eating her itty-bitty breakfast, was incredibly amused when she found an enormous dandelion, the globe of which was about four inches in diameter.  And then she spotted some enormous poppies, and, well, the progression was natural: she transformed into Alice in Wonderland, first too big for the food and then too small for the gardens.  And, as we walked, Alice carefully harvested the seeds from the dandelion and tucked them in her purse, hatching plans to grow a dandelion garden when we return to Switzerland. Excellent.

Dennis had planned a bus route to the Hauptbahnhof, but we missed the bus by minutes.  So we walked the mile to the closest train station, where we discovered that we'd just missed the train as well, and so we needed to wait half-hour.  And when we finally made it to Ulm, we had yet another half-hour to wait for our train to Günzburg.

That particular train was the first one we've seen this year with berths instead of benches and chairs. It was unfortunate: because of the inefficient use of space, the corridor was stuffed with other people unlucky enough to have reservations.  We, with our stroller and suitcases, couldn't even make it out of the entryway.  But at least it was only for fifteen minutes, and the kids continued to hold up, but just barely, I suspect.

To complete our morning of inconvenient transportation, when we arrived at Günzburg, we learned that we were slightly to slow in getting to the curb.  The bus to Legoland had pulled away minutes before, leaving us with, yep, one more half-hour wait.

But things got significantly easier when that magical bus, the one covered with pictures of legoes and mini-figs, finally pulled up to the curb.  We'd purchased this vacation months ago, taking advantage of a winter deal for park tickets and onsite accommodation.  Not only was our lodging within walking distance of the park, but, when we pulled up at the park entrance, our bags were taken for us to the front desk. Yes, things were definitely improving.

And we'd gotten a very early start on the day, so it was barely lunchtime by the time we arrived at Legoland.  The kids, just happy to be done with traveling, probably would have been perfectly happy to play at the entrance gate for hours, hopping around on the primary-colored squares painted on the sidewalk.  But we interrupted their fun and made them actually go inside.

For those of you who have been to Legoland in San Diego, there are many differences between the parks, but the most important is that the food is much, much, much-much better in Germany.  And, as should be a matter of course, you can get an enormous, cheap stein of beer on the side. I also think that there is more emphasis on big, open playgrounds (rather than rides) at the German Legoland. Which are excellent places to take said beer, to the enjoy while the kids are running around.  So we spent a good long portion of our first day watching the kids play in the Adventure Land Spielplatz: after a day and a half of sitting on trains and long forced marches, it was what they needed most.

We also took the kids through an aquarium, Lego-Atlantis–themed, with brick statues in amongst the fish.  That was Joey's particular favorite.  I used to take Joey to the Seattle aquarium frequently after I dropped Alex off at preschool, and he'd settle in and watch the fish as intently as if they were a Dora cartoon or a Sesame Street episode.  And that's exactly what he did today, too, paying particular attention to the sharks ("Hey! Where shark is?") and pretending to talk to the Lego divers ("Hey! You in with fish! HI!").

 Ella and Alex had a little less patience for the fish, so I took them on a Lego Safari ride next, but, judging by their bickering in line, it seemed a better idea to save the rest of the rides for the next day.

My monkeys

So we headed back to the playgrounds, letting Joey and Alex play in a Duplo-themed village while Ella went on a height-restricted ride with Dennis.

The cutest minifig

But the kids really found their groove in the Build and Test Center, where they spent the rest of their free time. Every day I become more convinced that I have three small engineers on my hands. Joey stuck to his strengths and spent a long, happy time, building and breaking things on the earthquake table.

Helping the table out a little: JOEY SMASH!

Ella's creation

Meanwhile, Ella and Alex hunkered down, building little cars to race along on a test track.  Ella, determined to do it all by herself, struggled to marry form and function and finally lost her cool when her butterfly car broke on the track.

Alex, throwing his hat in the ring.

Right. Time for dinner.


Remember what I said about the food?  While we were walking around, Dennis and I scouted the options, and discovered that they have a whole restaurant dedicated to schnitzel.  So we went to this glorious Schnitzel Depot for dinner. Following my mother's advice, we decided not to stress poor Joey out and didn't make him share this time. Wouldn't you know it, he ate an entire slice of schnitzel (big as his face!) and most of his fries, too, all by himself.  He had plenty of time to munch: our table was right next to a water ride, and the kids never did get tired of watching the boats splash into the water.

A mushroom gatherer

It was close to the 6:00 closing time, and so we decided to leave after eating.  To get to our hotel, we needed to leave through the back entrance and walk through a kilometer-long wooded path. (With, of course, a few legos along the way.)

Room numbers

And hotel wall art: so much better
than a landscape!

I was glad we left early when we got to the hotel.  I didn't realize from our online booking, but the hotel complex is actually made up of about a hundred little duplexes, grouped together in little themed villages: race cars, pyramids, pirates, knights and castles, and ours, which had sort of an Indiana-Jones adventurer feel to it.  And, in the middle of each cluster was a wonderful little playground.

So, after we gathered our bags and found our room, the kids eked out their last bit of energy trying to conquer all six playgrounds.

Joey, finding someone just his size, made his move

Sorry, Bro...no hard feelings? Let's
hug it out.

Crashed-plane playground, just outside our door.

The complex also had a large playground and sandy beach next to a lake and the hotel restaurant. Joy!