Let’s Play: At Legoland 6

My favourite part is probably the mini world, where they rebuild cities and places in Lego. I could have spent hours there.

Also a whiptail found that a balcony in Venice is the perfect place for its nest.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved
The huge dinosaurs are the best thing anyway.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Let’s Play: At the Legoland 5

No, really, I don’t like rollercoasters. Maybe it’s an acquired taste or one you need to learn young, but it’s not my fun part. I rode my first one last summer and before even considering this one I researched whether it was faster (no way!) or slower than the one in Spain. I don’t like the sudden movements, though I was not fighting unconsciousness this time as I did in Spain. It’s not like I don’t like speed as such, there’s some fast stuff i really like, just not this. So enjoy the pics from the “harbour trip” in small boats at slower than  walking pace.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

Wednesday Wings: It’s a Hoot!

There have been multiple exasperated conversations here about how wildlife, especially birds, refuse to cooperate with our attempts to get pictures. I swear that there is a memo going around when I leave the house as to whether I carry a camera or not. Last week was no exception. On Monday, when we had our friends over, I took my camera for the walk. I also took many pics the days before, the ones posted on Saturday, so I left the camera at home on Tuesday. When we arrived at our fountain we took a small break and sat down. I looked up at the old willow tree and was like “This branch looks strange. It is fluffy. It also wasn’t there yesterday and trees don’t grow thick, short, fluffy branches over night.” I took a closer look and it turned out to be a young owl, drowsing there in the branches of the willow.

I was so fucking angry. This was the first time in my life that I saw a wild owl. Oh I hear them almost every night, no problem, but seeing them? Only at the zoo. And no camera but the crappy phones.I told Mr “I’m going back and I’m going to get the camera and heaven help this owl if it is no longer there!”

So that’s what I did. 1 km back home, 1 km  back to the fountain, so about half an hour later I was there again and of course the owl had moved! But only a few metres and it was actually two owls. Back home I tried to identify them and my most likely guess is a tawny owl, since they’re also the ones I keep hearing, but honestly the pics I found all look very much alike.

To cut a long story short, I saw owls and here’s the evidence:

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Let’s Play: At Legoland 4, or capitalism sucks

Theme parks will always try to milk you for more money. From the entrance fee to overpriced food to games where you can “win” overpriced toys at every corner, it’s an all out assault on your budget. I don’t know if other theme parks “offer” a similar “service”, but at Legoland you can buy “express passes”. In their most basic version (just 20 bucks per person per day!) you can reserve you place in line and then wander off to eat some overpriced food and then return at your scheduled time to take your place in the line. This goes up to the premium version (almost no waiting time for only 70 € per person per day!) and of course you are simply not making any friends when you walk past people who’ve been waiting for an hour and take “their place”.

Now, it would be perfectly easy to integrate the basic version into an app for all customers and thereby eliminate those fucking waiting lines altogether, but that might lose them some money (maybe it would make them some money because people would have more time to hang around the food courts instead of eating home made sandwiches while standing in line?), therefore it’s inconceivable!

On the other hand I mentioned to Mr: “Imagine we’d spent some 600 bucks on those express passes and could ride one of those things every 15 minutes. Wouldn’t that be horrible?”

I still don’t know what I find worse: waiting in line for the rolercoaster or riding it, but I’m tending towards the latter. Before you think I’m all grumpy, enjoy some images from the “Atlantis” aquarium.

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Spring Comes to the Woods

From my regular walks. Some flowers are in my garden, but the delicate clover blossoms are in the woods, where they’re grabbing the sunlight now before the trees grow their leaves.

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I planted these last autumn, and the package promised almost black flowers. Well, never trust a package, but they ARE lovely.

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Will I ever get people who use poison against dandelion? I hope not.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

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Let’s Play: At the Legoland 1

I have no idea when I became a person who goes to amusement/theme parks. Probably an unexpected side effect of becoming a parent and family cultures. We were not a family that went to theme parks. In fact, the only one I ever visited was the original Legoland in Denmark when I was six years old on a holiday with my parents. Mr’s family usually didn’t have money for a holiday, so their holidays were occasional day trips that included amusement parks*, so when the two merged and the kids learned about the concept of theme parks, we became people who go there.

Since the Easter holidays were badly timed, we decided against a week in nearby France and instead booked a two days trip to the Legoland in Bavaria. The very redeeming feature there is the wonderful Lego creations, which I’ll share with you, together with the anecdotes of the Giliell family at a theme park.

Our first attraction was the Safari, where you sit in little cars that roll on trails through the savannah.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved
Interestingly, the grey animals come out looking like badly pixelated images from the dawn of computer graphics in the pictures.

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You could get a nice shower there.

©Giliell, all rights reserved

©Giliell, all rights reserved

 

*We do come from families that are remarkably similar and different at the same time.

Get the Party Started!

It’s Good Friday, which means that in Germany you are officially forbidden to have fun. I’m not joking (that would be illegal), there is a “ban on dancing”: No public dancing (clubs must be closed), no frivolous movies.

Coincidentally, it’s also my grandpa’s birthday today, he would be 98! So instead of mourning a fictional character, let’s celebrate a wonderful man who was a humanist and socialist, always fighting for justice. And the best grandpa of all as he gave us the most precious gift a grandpa can give: time.

Taken in 1993. By the look of the garden and the fact that he’s wearing a dress shirt it could even have been his birthday.
©Giliell, all rights reserved.

The smile you see usually spelled mischief. He never lost that boyish joy. I swear he even cheated at chess and that’s a whole other level.

So, here’s to you, grandpa!

It’s also my uncle’s 60th birthday tomorrow and to celebrate with the solemn seriousness the occasion deserves, we made him a piñata:

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He wants money for a new motorcycle helmet and we’ll make him work for it.

So, get the party started!

Tummy Thursday: a Sweet Surprise

Well, do you remember this?

©voyager, all rights reserved

Which got turned into this:

©Giliell, all rights reserved.

And sent off to Germany, where it got turned into this:

©Giliell, all rights reserved.

Again, thank you very much, voyager. It is most delicious and no comparison with what you can buy here as maple syrup, no matter how often they say “Canadian grade A”.

And I swear that one day you WILL have the opportunity to share it with me in person.