Finally the Dino Park is Open!

Gartenschau Opening 2011

April 1st the Gartenschau in Kaiserslautern opened for the season and Colin and I couldn't have been more excited. Yesterday the sun was shining, it got up to (gasp!) 70 degrees and, dare I say it, it was HOT! It was a perfect beautiful day so we packed a picnic lunch and headed to the park to buy our season pass, because we will spend a lot of time there this season before they close the doors again on October 31st. Colin was excited about seeing all the dinosaurs and playing on the numerous playgrounds. Of course the biggest hit was the sand area, I hate sand! But, Colin loves it so he played there digging and dumping for a long time.

There is a huge play area with a GIANT tower that has probably 100 stairs to climb to reach the top and there are about 5 different slides coming off it at various heights. Colin of course went straight for the top and I thought surely he won't come down, he'll get up there and chicken out like usual...he can be a little scared when it comes to slides. Apparently that fear is history because he sailed down the slide squealing and laughing all the way and when he shot out the end I think a few German moms choked on their seltzer water. He was a little small for it probably, but he loved it and as soon as he got off it he ran up and did it again, and again, and again. He spent a good 30+ minutes climbing stairs and sliding down the huge slide.

We ate lunch and watched kids play, did a little swinging and some rock climbing and after a few hours it was time to head back home so we could go to a party at the neighbor's house. Before we left we bought some ice cream at the park, which Colin was very excited about. The eis stand in our village just opened up a weekend or two ago and we've only been over there for a visit once, so ice cream is still a big novelty so far this season.

The Gartenschau is a big garden park that also has a ton of playgrounds, dinosaur exhibits and water/creeks to play in. It would be a great park even without the flowers, but the flower displays are fantastic. The grounds are beautiful and there is also a big indoor exhibition hall that they change out the displays in seasonally. Right now it is all done up for Easter and it was really pretty with all the bulbs and springtime flowers, Easter eggs and rabbits. The Germans are really big on Easter, in fact the Easter Bunny idea originated here and decorating eggs and all is popular here. Most German homes have an Oster Baum, or Easter tree, in their home that is decorated with eggs. I loved the ones in the garden hall exhibit, so pretty! I would have liked to have snapped some more pictures, but Colin was far more interested in getting outside to the dinosaurs than he was in the Easter decorations. Oh well...