Spieleland (Playland)

The last few days have been totally mad, with no time to even download the bazillions pics on my camera, let alone blog, but here I am (phew), actually sitting down.  It has also been h-o-t, around 35 degrees celcius, and I'm getting a very interesting t-shirt tan on my previously winter-pasty self.

Yeterday we drove to Ravensburger Spieleland, which is in Liebenau, Germany, about 1 hours drive from Liechtenstein.

As you would expect, it's a massive park where you can set kids free to do lots of super fun things that involve going fast, crashing into things, climbing thousands of stairs and getting wet. If the child in question is under 8 years old, it is usually necessary for a parent or Aunty to also be speeding, climbing, crashing or getting soaked.

The queue was really short, and as we arrived after 2pm, the cost was €17 (it is about €24 for a full day, but the locals generally get a season pass).  It was at that point that I remembered something.... I had no euros, only Swiss Francs, which Spieleland do not accept. Luckily Sistasana and the bro-in-law rescued me. :) Liechtenstein and Switzerland are not part of the European Union, although they do interact with EU countries via all sorts of treaties. As such, like the UK, they have retained their currency, the Swiss Franc.  In talking to the locals, it is obvious that their currency is a point of real pride. Tourists should just practice the 'when in Rome' rule (or, in this case 'when in Liechtenstein') - Francs in one pocket, Euros in the other.

We started with a late lunch at the cafe. The schnitzel/salad combination was suprisingly good quality for a theme park (about 10 steps up from the sad offerings that I experienced at Movieworld in Aussie).

Then it was on to an exhausting few hours, which involved such things as taking a 'magic carpet' down the curly slide to the left of this space-ship looking complex of fast slides. Miss J was keen to try the nearly vertical one in the middle, but just as I'd worked up my courage for it, the assistant told us that you couldn't do it as a tandem, and Miss J was too small to do it on her own. This resulted in a proper tantrum at the top of the slide, but the bad mood dissolved into earsplitting delighted squeals at the first speedy turn of the curly tube slide.

Other activites were more relaxing, such as the fantasy boat ride.  This had a theme of pirates and Cap'n Blue Bär, who is a mascot of the Spieleland.

There was also a flying bee ride (which did not require an adult sidekick)

The pedal boat, however, did need someone with legs long enough to reach the pedals. This was definitely my least favourite part of the day. Pedalling on a shade-less lake in 'hot-as-hell' temperatures is not my idea of fun times. I also managed to crash the boat, through a natural lack of nautical skills and a very confusing steering system which consisted of a single lever that you push right or left. You can imagine how easily one could mess that up.

Having determined that I can't drive a pedal-boat, I was thrilled to discover that I do possess mad skills at driving a purple hippo.

It was also awesome to get some wind and water after walking around feeling a bit sticky and sweaty. If you make it to Spieleland, I'd recommend multiple turns on the purple hippo. This is just what we did, going out the off-ramp then jumping the fence directly back on to the on-ramp. The assistant turned a blind eye, helpfully giving us the full instructions every time we turned up at the gate. We purple hippo'd pretty much until closing time at 5, then headed off to dinner at a haunted Austrian castle (more about that tomorrow).