As promised, we took the boys to Legoland Deutschland last week. It is about three hours away by train, so we stayed overnight at a small hotel near the park and spent two pretty full days enjoying the adventure.
We have been traveling using our Eurail passes- we got 3 country passes that allow us to travel for 10 days over a 2 month period. All of the big trains over here have two classes of travel, first and second. Our passes are good for first class travel, but the hitch is that you need to purchase reservations on the train. You can always travel without reservations but you run the risk of not finding a seat, and in our case, we run the risk of having us all sitting in different locations. Purchasing reservations is very easy, and it can be pretty cheap, but the trick is to travel second class. As an example, we have already reserved our seats on the train to Paris in early July, we reserved second class seats and it cost us 40 euro (10 euro each), to reserve first class seats would have cost 4 times that much. Well, on this particular trip, Steve found out that first class was much cheaper, so we went that route for our trip to Ginzberg. We had a small compartment with 6 seats, three on each side facing each other and a waitress comes around to take drink and food orders. On our trip to Legoland we had to share our compartment with two other women, but on the way back it was all ours. We also had another new experience on this trip, we ate dinner in the dining car. The car has about 10 or so tables, set with tablecloths and real china and silverware. A waiter comes to your table to take your order and then serves your meal. We ate dinner and discussed the Legoland adventure and the countryside flew past at top speed. Both Charlie and Henry decided that traveling this way is much better than by auto, and I must say that I think they are right.
We arrived in Ginzberg at 11 on Wednesday morning and from the train station we hopped right on the Legoland bus. We were deposited at the entrance to the park by 11:20 and after storing our bags in a couple of lockers we hit the rides. The park was very nice, it was divided into several sections and there was a good selection of rides- everything from tame to wild and crazy roller coasters. Our guys made a dash for one of the bigger coasters at the back of the park. The park was not too big, and easy to get around. There were lego creations everywhere- some were just unbelievable. Take a look at the enormous Albert Einstein head below. The most amazing part was “Mini-land” a series of lego cities that are modeled on real places- Frankfurt was even there. I got a photo of Steve and the boys in front of Romer Place in Frankfurt- ask Steve about that place sometime, he, his parents and the kids had an adventure with a lost bag containing Steve’s wallet, cell phone and glasses! (don’t worry it was resolved with a happy ending). The details on the cities were amazing. Both Charlie and Henry have some ideas for creations to make at home.
We all rode the big roller coasters together- and we were able to ride them multiple times. The lines weren’t terribly long, and sometimes we hopped off and got right back in line to go again. One ride that Steve and I only attempted once was the “Bionicle Ride”. Each pod holds two people and the riders are able select the moves that the robotic arm will make. You do this on a computer before you get on the ride itself. Your ride selection is stored on a little card that you hand to the ride operator who plugs it into the machine. I rode with Henry and Steve rode with Charlie- fortunately we were staggered, so Hen and I were able to shoot some good footage of Steve and Charlie on the ride.
Because Legoland is so far from Frankfurt, we stayed overnight and did 2 days at the park. We booked a package deal and selected a small hotel in the next town over. It was very convenient, literally steps from the train station and it was a sweet little spot. They have a nice restaurant with outdoor seating that specializes in regional foods. I continued my schnitzel sampling- this one was quite good (see the before and after photos below), but not as nice as the schnitzel in Rudesheim. It was fun to see the other families on their Legoland adventures as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment