How to Spend a Full Day of Adventures at IRRLANDIA Park

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?

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Germendorf, the Jurassic Park near Berlin

Looking for spending some gorgeous unforgettable time with your children, not too far away from Berlin? Desperately searching for an unique place to spend the birthday of your dinosaurs-loving children? The happy parents of a kid - or two - keen to learn as much as possible about science and animals? The petting farm and dinosaurs, plus the little beach and adventure park and the many playgrounds are enough to keep your little ones and yourself busy for as much as a full day of entertainment at Germendorf.

The biggest challenge to arrive to this secret natural oasis near Berlin if you don't drive is transportation. First, you need to arrive to Oranienburg - with the ABC transportation ticket - and then to wait at the S-Bahn station for the bus 842, which during the weekend operates only once the hour. You need to stop at Germendorf station and from there, walk for another couple of minutes until you reach the park. As from the bus station there are no directions, you better use your Google Maps to reach the Tierpark or just follow people with children.

If you drive here, you can easily reach it via the highway Berlin-Stralsund, or follow the directions Kremmen/Nauen.

We personally decided to have a stop first at the Seeterrasse nearby, for a lunch with a view over the lake, within minutes of walking to the park entrance.

The park is open all round the year, from 9am to 7pm, including weekends and banking holidays. The entry is 5 EUR for adults and 2 EUR for children up to 2. The 69 hectars of land offers practically almost everything you may need for spending a family day outdoors: fishing opportunities, over 650 animals, plus the open playground and other entertainment options.

The petting farm is a real attraction among children, with the possibility of purchasing food to feed them on the spot. Besides the chance offered to the little ones, mostly growing up surrounded by concrete and stuffed animals, to encounter real life, there is also a psychological aspect of such a meeting, as the children learn to be good with the animals, to do not fear them, and respect them.

Besides the usual farm animals like goats and goose and hen, there are also the gracious deers, which are always happy to grab some food from your hand.They were as many and as friendly as the ones from the Wildpark Frankfurt/Oder, and as we've been there recently, it was a great pleasure to meet them again.

Does it look this little one as the precious Bambi? You don't have to be a child to instantly fall in love with this gorgeous creature...You can go further with your love for animals, riding the poneys, for instance. In addition, you can also visit the noisy monkeys or the collection of exotic birds.

And there is more to this park than the pets: the spectacular, huge-size dinosaurs. As shortly upon arrival it started to rain, we sheltered for a little while in a small museum playing a movie life during old ages which was both interesting scientifically-wise and entertaining for the less 'literate' small ones. However, the spectacular views created outdoors are really impressive.

Some of the dinos are uttering some low scary sounds which make the ambiance even more authentic. There is even a volcano that can be visited and the park is organised up to various geological time frames. 

Peek-a-boo! It's me, the scary dino! Compared to the ones I've seen at the Biosphere Potsdam, the ones from Germendorf do not move, but their presence is impressive enough to make you think about them a lot after the visit.

One of the many options offered by Germendorf is also the chance of spending a lot of time outdoors - when weather allows - with your picnic friends and basket full of food, sunbathing and even swimming a little bit.

With the summer holidays coming up in just a couple of weeks, there will be a lot of things to do with children in Berlin or elsewhere, such as in Elstal, and adding Germendorf to the list will only add more fun to some unforgettable family times.