Bundesgartenschau 2011

These pictures are in reverse order of our day, but I'm just going to post them like this anyway. Last week Thursday, on my dad's day off from school, we went to the Bundesgartenschau in Koblenz. It's a national garden and plant exhibit that is organized every several years, and this year it happens to be pretty close to my parents' house. Since they already had two tickets, we decided to make a fun afternoon of it with the girls. They had some fun play grounds for kids with unusual "attractions" like this sideways rotating "table", a platform in the trees with bridges going up and down, and a great water play area (see more pictures below).

Opa on the platform between the trees

More playground

A group picture toward the end of our day

Rhea catching a ride on Opa's shoulder

Stopping to smell the flowers along the way

Lucia taking a quick rest on a bench

Checking out the "poor man" that really concerned Rhea - there were so many holes in him!! He was some sort of war memorial in the midst of the flower beds. Rhea kept saying "poor man, poor man" for quite a while after this.

Rhea enjoying the view over the river after our coffee break

Posing with one of their favorite treats! :)

Mmmh, the real deal: Gelato!

Lucia picked lemon and mango... a girl after my own heart. :)

Coffee time - or ... ice cream time.

The fun water play area: Lucia turning on the water mister by climbing up the "web" and pushing a button on top. She enjoyed seeing the rainbow that appeared whenever the mist was coming down.

Taking a little break with Opa

So much fun!

Getting ready to splash in the water!

An area where the kids could dam the water in different places to see how the flow changed. Pretty cool designs! And here you can tell this picture was taken in Europe: A little boy running around in his undies (not pictured: the decent number of kids running around in their birthday suits :) )

On the cable car above the Rhine river, crossing from one side of the exhibit to the other

Another view from the cable car

The kids had a blast (so did we), and were exhausted by the end of the day. On the way home, we stopped to get a bratwurst, the real deal (in my humble opinion ;-) ), so the kids would be fed by the time we got home, and they fell into bed at 9 p.m. We had GREAT weather for the day (even being able to enjoy the water play area... rather unusual for this time of year) -- I would certainly go back (even without kids -- that way I might be able to enjoy the plants a bit more. :) )