Tropical Islands
When we were planning our trip to Berlin Jared and I asked the kids what they would like to see or do on our vacation. They all said the same thing - go to Tropical Islands. Tropical Islands is a huge indoor water park near Berlin. And when I say huge, I really mean it, the dome was originally built to be an airplane hangar for the Soviet military and is large enough to house eight soccer fields and is taller than the Statue of Liberty. In fact, it holds a record for being the world's largest single hall without supporting pillars inside. Inside the dome, where the temperature is always set to 80 degrees, there are swimming pools, restaurants, campsites and cabins, water slides, stores, a spa and sauna, an indoor rain forest, and over 6,000 lounge chairs.
Anyway, our visit to Tropical Islands was much anticipated and lots of fun. There's not much to tell really - we swam, played in the sand, enjoyed the warmth, and had fun on the water slides. Even though there's not much to tell, there's lots to see so get ready for pictures and then maybe, yeah, some more pictures.
Natalie especially loved the sandy beach areas. She stared by burying her feet, but quickly moved on to burying as much of herself as she could.
We swam all morning and then took a break for lunch which was definitely more German than tropical - schnitzels all around. The girls were given inflatable pink dolphins with their meal, kind of like the toy in a happy meal only bigger, and Emily worked pretty hard to get her dolphin blown up.
After lunch we took a stroll through the rain forest before getting back in the water. Jared played some rain forest music, Abigail spotted a few flamingos, and Emily's dolphin really, really liked Madison. By the way, poor Madison could barely see all day. Without her glasses that kid is blind. She had to have someone lead her around by the hand when we walked from one area of the dome to another!
Abigail and Natalie had had enough of the rain forest - it was time to get back in the water. Instead of going back to one of the large pools we made our way to a kids area that we'd seen from the top of the water slide tower.
Emily, Abigail, and I had a great time trying to figure these things out. You had to move your legs in the same way you would when pedaling a bicycle to move forward or backward. The hardest part was keeping balanced and not falling off the darn thing - it was almost harder than posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit on the family blog! While the kids played around in the kids area I just kept working at mastering this little toy and by the time we were ready to move on to another area of the dome I was able to go for quite a while without falling off.
In the kids area there was also a huge playgound, a go kart track, and a pool with these fun boats (that Jared thought it would be fun to tip Emily out of). There weren't a lot of people around the whole time we were there so the kids had the little pool pretty much to themselves and it was a nice break in the middle of our day.
We went back to the big pools for more swimming, splashing, and playing around. Madison and Emily were nice enough to jump into the pool for me so I could get this picture. We also spent a ton of time at the water slide tower but we were too busy having fun to get any pictures. Natalie and Samantha were especially fearless and hard to keep up with. As soon as they'd get to the bottom of one slide they were running back up the stairs to go down another. Jared and I went down the tallest slide (the tallest in all of Germany, in fact) and it was crazy fast and kind of scary. It was just a dark tunnel that was almost vertical at the beginning and then changed to fast, sharp turns the rest of the way down. We only did it once and I think that was enough for both of us.
We got some ice cream for a yummy treat at the end of our day. All the girls got Pinocchio Eis, an ice cream sundae that kind of looks like Pinocchio with a cone for a hat, m&m eyes, and a little cone nose. Natalie ate all of hers and finished off the rest of my chocolate sundae as well.
It was a fun day and by the end we were all tired and ready to go home. Once we got on the road the girls fell asleep almost instantly - Jared and I really appreciated the peaceful drive home.
Anyway, our visit to Tropical Islands was much anticipated and lots of fun. There's not much to tell really - we swam, played in the sand, enjoyed the warmth, and had fun on the water slides. Even though there's not much to tell, there's lots to see so get ready for pictures and then maybe, yeah, some more pictures.
I almost can't stand how cute Abigail looks in her stripey suit
Natalie especially loved the sandy beach areas. She stared by burying her feet, but quickly moved on to burying as much of herself as she could.
We swam all morning and then took a break for lunch which was definitely more German than tropical - schnitzels all around. The girls were given inflatable pink dolphins with their meal, kind of like the toy in a happy meal only bigger, and Emily worked pretty hard to get her dolphin blown up.
After lunch we took a stroll through the rain forest before getting back in the water. Jared played some rain forest music, Abigail spotted a few flamingos, and Emily's dolphin really, really liked Madison. By the way, poor Madison could barely see all day. Without her glasses that kid is blind. She had to have someone lead her around by the hand when we walked from one area of the dome to another!
Emily, Abigail, and I had a great time trying to figure these things out. You had to move your legs in the same way you would when pedaling a bicycle to move forward or backward. The hardest part was keeping balanced and not falling off the darn thing - it was almost harder than posting a picture of myself in a bathing suit on the family blog! While the kids played around in the kids area I just kept working at mastering this little toy and by the time we were ready to move on to another area of the dome I was able to go for quite a while without falling off.
In the kids area there was also a huge playgound, a go kart track, and a pool with these fun boats (that Jared thought it would be fun to tip Emily out of). There weren't a lot of people around the whole time we were there so the kids had the little pool pretty much to themselves and it was a nice break in the middle of our day.
We went back to the big pools for more swimming, splashing, and playing around. Madison and Emily were nice enough to jump into the pool for me so I could get this picture. We also spent a ton of time at the water slide tower but we were too busy having fun to get any pictures. Natalie and Samantha were especially fearless and hard to keep up with. As soon as they'd get to the bottom of one slide they were running back up the stairs to go down another. Jared and I went down the tallest slide (the tallest in all of Germany, in fact) and it was crazy fast and kind of scary. It was just a dark tunnel that was almost vertical at the beginning and then changed to fast, sharp turns the rest of the way down. We only did it once and I think that was enough for both of us.
We got some ice cream for a yummy treat at the end of our day. All the girls got Pinocchio Eis, an ice cream sundae that kind of looks like Pinocchio with a cone for a hat, m&m eyes, and a little cone nose. Natalie ate all of hers and finished off the rest of my chocolate sundae as well.
It was a fun day and by the end we were all tired and ready to go home. Once we got on the road the girls fell asleep almost instantly - Jared and I really appreciated the peaceful drive home.
OMG! That looks awesome! You could spend a whole week there!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic place to be. So much fun...thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete