My question for yesterday was quite a strange one: "Where do Bionicles go to die?" First of all, you have to know that Bionicles are a fictional mechanical creature, and some have particularly special powers. There is an entire Bionicle world with books, video games and movies about their lives. Secondly, you have to know that Bionicles were created by Lego and are toys you put together and build. Based on my limited knowledge of the stories, when a Bionicle dies, his mask goes dim and the light force in the "heart" goes out. Beyond that, I guess they go off to that great Bionicle heaven in the sky. But in our family, we went off to that great Bionicle heaven in Germany known as Legoland!!
Honestly, I must admit I was doing this for the boys. We had planned to go more around Christmastime, but we discovered that it closes on the 9th of November this year and won't open again until late March. So we took our only weekend left before it closes and headed north. Legoland is about 65 kilometers away (about 40 miles) near a city called Ulm. We really had no idea how much of a theme park it was with rides and shows and all until we got there. It has quite a few water rides in the Pirate kingdom, but since it was in the low 50s (F), we refrained from riding any of those.
There were a couple of smaller roller coasters that we did ride that were a lot of fun, and one really big loop-de-loop coaster that we didn't ride since we had had a very big lunch. There were also the standard twirly rides, like the teacups at Disney, swings, and round-abouts that race up up and down while you go round and round. We thoroughly enjoyed the one that was like the teacups but ran out of time for the others. There are also Lego movies in 4D, which we did not have time for, and a couple of really cool playgrounds.
Then, there was also the Lego Factory that showed you how they make Legos and actually gave you a "warm" brick. It wasn't actually still warm, but they had just made it. They had places where you could build Lego sets, show that they worked and get a diploma as a certified Lego builder. They had other places where you could build a Lego car and race it down pinewood derby style.
And then there was the Bionicle ride. It was too much for my younger son and I to ride, but my husband and older son rode it. Basically, it was a roller coaster seat put onto the front of one of those big robotic arm machines you see in a modern factory that puts cars together. You could choose your "movements" based on your willingness to get thrown all around. My crew was only willing to go up to level 3, but there were some we saw before they went that were definitely a level 5. It spun you, turned you upside down, swung you sideways and jerked you back and forth. It was a hoot to watch, but I'll let the others have that kind of fun.
But the part that really shocked and awed us all the most was the Miniland (all pictures courtesy of Legoland website since silly us did not remember to bring our camera!!!) It had many cities and countries represented in truly remarkable detail all built in Legos. Many of the parts were working, such that the blacksmith putting the shoe on the horse at one mountain spot was "kicked" by the horse. They had sound affects to go along, so it was quite funny. They had working gondolas, ice skaters, dancers, working ferries and windmills. They had massive buildings built to exact replication down to the Lego flowers in the windows which had fancy trim and all!! They had a complete representation of Munich's airport, with a working repair bay that pushed and pulled a giant plane in and out of the hanger. They even had a rock concert with all the people dancing and screaming to "The Who". But I think the thing that most impressed us all was the Allianz stadium - a very famous soccer stadium here in Germany. It was probably 15 feet in diameter with a large cut-away on the front to see into the stadium. There, they had the flags go up over the crowds of the two big teams. It even had some of the audience have cameras with flashes going off all over the place. In the side portions, it had restaurants, complete with Lego people in chef hats, a pizzeria with stacks of pizza boxes, and on and on. You just have to see it in person to really get a perspective of it.
And of course the last thing that everyone must do is go to the Legoland stores where you can buy individual pieces in every possible color and shape, to the big store where you can buy even some of the cityscapes which are rated for age 16 and up!! In all, even I had a really great time at Legoland. We will definitely be going back there many times more before we go.
This weekend we will be going to Stuttgart for the day to check out the Mercedes Museum, try to take in a soccer match, and finally eat some Mexican food. There simply is NO Mexican anything nearby. Even when we have tried to buy spicy salsa and such at the store (in its VERY limited shelf space), it is not spicy at all and rather sweet. Another part of the adventure is that we will be taking the train from Kempten to Stuttgart, so that should be a lot of fun for the kids.
The question for the day today is "What is the most common candy in Germany?"
The word for the day is Toy: das Spielzeug - shpeel tsoig ("toys" is die Spielwaren - shpeel vahr ehn)
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
