Trips are (almost) perfect when all its participants, especially when children are involved, are happy. Happiness is subjective, I know, but when it comes to a group of small and big people, it's important that the highest coverage is offered. Like, for instance, giving some photographic corners for the adults and a lot of outdoors active fun for the rest.
It worked very well when we visited the Elstal Strawberry Village and also in the Jurassic Park of Germendorf. This time, we tried the IRRLANDIA Adventure park, just an adventure park one hour away from Berlin.
With this good will and armed camera on our shoulders, we stopped to Storkow, via Konigs Wusterhausen. It is a very simple train ride, and as it was weekend, we get ready for the low-age ambiance, while socializing with the many kids in the train with ages between 2 and 5. Good start, at least for some.
Stork means stork in German and I suppose the name Storkow means that we might expect many of such birds which we only encountered in the wooden format. Good news for the camera owners though.
With or without storks - we not even spotted any huge nests - Storkow looks like a lovely little village, with wild bushes of roses bordering the streets and 1-2 storey small houses silent under the summer heat. We carefully watched the directions to the adventures park, while trying to get the best of the urban landscape.
Surprisingly, the doors are beautiful to look at, with various colourful painted motifs which bring a different mood to any house.
Where the colours are absent, there are small little iron wrought shop signs, or just reminder of businesses from the old times.
Storkow seemed to be a middle-class hard working town, at least according to the signs on the facades.
The old city area, is even more full of life, with half-timbered houses hosting at the ground level small stores and café houses that we purposefully avoid because, you know, we are on a mission to make some wild children happy.
Years of training the attention taught to find the interesting details, regardless how high is our walking feet speed. Click on the camera to keep a memory of this massive wooden door!
The mobile wooden bridge which is still operational nowadays is an interesting technical achievement but also offers a good platform to catch some relaxing view just a couple of meters away.
After 30 minutes of walking we are about to reach the desired destination of the other half of the travelling team: the IRRLANDIA adventure park. First, as a lone view of a purple-reddish castle under a heavy curtain of maze.
Similarly with Babelsberg Film Studios in Potsdam, IRRLANDIA is open only for a limited amout of time: this year, between 18.05 and 06.10, with a daily schedule between 10 and 6pm. By purchasing the ticket, the children are able to use it for a short tour in a carrousel.
Inside, there are so many attractions for all the possible tastes and age interests that you can easily spend a full day only testing various attractions, again and again. You need to be dressed casual and eventually take your swimming suit too, as you can play a lot with water. And which kid doesn't love to play with water? (Although maybe a more environmentally-oriented education would be necessary to avoid too much waste)
You can organise here birthday parties and any kind of parties, or to take part to regular events organised by the adventure park itself.
As an adult, you can take a seat on the chair and leave the small ones to use their energy. Refuel options are gallore, with a small fast-food outdoors area and a waffles corners too. Just be ready, especially during the weekend, for some extra waiting time. If you are more careful with your diet, you can bring your own food and have a picnic, either directly on the grass or on one of the big wooden tables.
With 12 different labyrinths and thematic areas, IRRLANDIA is a big source of entertainment. And everything looks so safe and done according to the highest German standards in terms of security that half of your worries are away. At least for now.
The biggest newest attraction in July was the maize maze. Not so spectacular like the ones in Cornish, rather at a very low level, but complex enough to get lost. Upon starting the journey you got a map with numbered places and you need to follow carefully the directions. When you are wild - like us - and go without a map, you risk to get claustrophobically lost. And no, what I've read long ago in J.L.Borges writings that in a labyrinth you should always keep left doesn't apply at all in this case.
Time passed very fast in this adventure park, and we left only with the regrets that at least half of it was not accessible on age reasons. Which means that most probably will be keen to give it a try to another visit the next year too. And the year after. Maybe one day will spot those storks, who knows?
No comments:
Post a Comment