LEGOLAND!!!!

I did promise photos and stories from our first mini vacation, so here they are.

Last weekend, as a belated birthday celebration for Michael and as a 'finishing first week of work' treat, we organised a weekend away in Günzburg. We got a great deal where by we got a night's accommodation in a hotel (a good one at that) including breakfast, and a 2 day ticket each to enter Legoland. We thought it was great, from the fact that we were on our first break, right down to the fact that we got to be kids again for a weekend! It wasn't quite up there with Disneyland Tokyo, but it was bigger, and we still had an absolute ball!

Day 1:
We left Munich at 10am, as we had to wait for the printers to open so we could print our tickets. We caught a train to Günzburg and then a shuttle bus took us the rest of the way - straight to the theme park before 1pm. We stored our little suitcase in a locker and then got down to business - Lunch! However, we took our lunch seriously, plotting our two days of adventures using the park map (in German!).

So this was the first sign that we were close to the park - up on the hill of the highway offramp for Legoland, we saw the bricks and started to get excited!

And we had finally arrived. Don't know who was more excited, Michael or me!










So in the end, our plan of attack was to divide the park into two halves. There were 9 lands in the park. For any one who has been to Disneyland, you will know that one day is not nearly enough to get through 5 lands. So we were going to do our best to see 9 lands in 2 days and do every ride possible. Luckily the park was open till 10 on Saturday night.

So, we decided to do the right side of the park on day 1. This started with Lego X-Treme land, Land Der Piraten, Land Der Abenteuer (adventure), Reich Der Pharaonen (Kingdom of the Pharoahs), Imagination Land, and in the end, we also tackled Miniland.

We were very impressed by this lego sculpture - No real sense of scale here for you, but it was very tall. I think I would have come up to his moustache.

So this was the first ride, in Lego X-treme land. It was an awesome rollercoaster, with some great sculptures.

This was one said sculpture.

This was not us - clearly. We were still in line waiting....

Us after the ride - I think we enjoyed it!

We then went on a techno version of the teacups ride, before lining up to visit Legoland Atlantis. This was not a ride, but rather a very beautifully built aquarium. It started with a video movie of the lost city of Atlantis and how the lego men were trying to find it. Once inside the aquarium, the fish were swimming all around the lego men and the ruins of Atlantis. It was really pretty.




The lego men had different things they were doing, some in submarines, others in scuba suits drilling, and one was just bathing with a big scrubbing brush.

And then there was this guy!

Here you can see some of the Atlantis ruins, and the bathing guy with the scrub brush in the background!

Even I got involved in the action!

Finally through X-treme land, we headed up into Pirate land. It was amazing what they had built, but it was definitely only for kids (or big kids who were young at heart), or for those who had brought their togs. We had to be careful watching the various attractions because we could get wet if we stood still for too long. They even had a waterbomb site complete with catapults!

Seeing as we had seen all we could see in Pirate Land, we made our way to Land of Adventure. Here there was plenty for us to see and do. We started with a safari tour. We couldn't help but admire the work that had gone into the animal sculptures. There are times when you find it hard to believe its made of lego!

This guy wouldn't stop looking at us while we were queuing.

Finally in my Safari ride! I think I wore appropriate pants!

Ah - My favourites!

This one was for Carlie!

Again - so clever with the sculpting.

Like all amusement parks, you had your photo taken on every ride... this one though was great because you were already laughing at the buffalo wearing glasses!

This sculpture was very clever.

Some of the sculptures were electronic, and had moving parts. This elephant raised his trunk (and head) and sprayed water at you as you drove past!

We skipped over the other cool ride in the Land of Adventure (because Michael didn't want to get wet!) and we went up to the Kingdom of Pharaohs. Time for a little posing we thought!

We did go on the main ride here, and it was awesome - but perhaps not worth the 80 minute wait. It did involve riding through the tombs and shooting at various things with your laser gun. Of course when the scores came up at the end, Michael did beat me - but only because he plays computer games - like all the time. I was not that far behind him actually!

But I couldn't help but sit and take a break afterwards on the camel's back!

From the Pharaoh land, we could see the observation tower going up and down. We were excited about going on it, but that was being reserved for day 2.

So then of course it was time to stop for afternoon tea. I had an ice cream, but Michael was pretty keen to try something he had seen in Pirate Land.

A waffle on a stick covered in chocolate! He enjoyed it very much!

We then headed to see a performance in the Arena - from the Chinese National Circus. This was absolutely spell binding. They were incredibly talented and flexible and strong. We sat in awe for nearly an hour.

So, strangely enough, after all that, it was nearly 7pm. We were going to save Miniland for day 2 and have dinner in the park and wait for the fireworks at 10pm.

We changed our minds and we were glad we did. We did mini land which took over an hour as we stopped to admire every single mini village. This started with the Star Wars section where Michael was very excited to pose with Yoda!

The real cities started with Holland.

I spotted this in Holland and couldn't help but laugh. They really did make a set up of a dog pulling a girl too hard!

When we got to Berlin, we found this structure. The Reichstag building. It was the most impressive piece of work.

The design and construction took builders 1858 hours to complete and they used over 1 million lego bricks. It weighs over a tonne and occupies an area of 12m2.

The detail on the front panels was most impressive.

Still in Berlin...

This was a sweet scene.

And the detail was fantastic.

Again, in Berlin - the Brandenburger Tor.

Of course, everywhere there was a button or a lever, Michael had to play. There were about 4 cranes in Miniland - Michael got to operate every single one!

This was the impressive Allianz Arena. This was absolutely massive and the detail was incredible.

Again, over a million lego bricks were used, but it took 4209 hours to create. It is the largest lego building built in the world. It also saw the creation of a special translucent lego brick so that it could replicate the light changing effects of the real stadium.

In this model, there was also a live camera feed that could be operated by the public from outside, and the video would show on the large game screens inside the stadium. There were also flashes from little scale model cameras all over the stadium!

This was just amusing. Even in the lego world, graffiti is a common occurrence!

Finally in Munich - this is the Munich Airport. There were some very impressive electronics at work here, with all the planes moving about, coming in to dock, others heading out to the runway. They did everything - even load luggage - everything except take off!

We also spotted Adam and Eve!

Ah - Schloss Neuschwanstein. My favourite!

We then reached Venice - and the Rialto Bridge.

We also spotted the Bridge of Sighs.

This was the last photo we took as we left the park. This was on the left side of the park, the side we had saved for day two. This made us very excited. We could not wait for the rides the next day.







After mini land, we decided we couldn't be bothered waiting around the park for another two hours for fireworks, so we made our way to the carpark to find the shuttle bus - and just as well we did. It started to sprinkle rain as we were getting on the bus. As the doors closed, it started to absolutely bucket down. We were pleased when we got to our hotel, only got slightly wet, and we were able to eat a lovely meal of schnitzel at the fantastic restaurant in our hotel. Great end to a fantastic day.




Day 2:
Today we started with a lovely breakfast at our hotel. We then headed to Legoland via taxi and were through the gates before opening time. We headed straight for Little Asia where we queued immediately for the Flying Ninjago ride. This was the one that excited us most!

This is what it looked like while we were waiting in line. It was simple, only flew in one direction, you didn't do anything amazing.

But you did control your own seat with your wings. Michael managed to get his chair into a full orbit spin and went round several times. I only managed to rock myself, but it was still fun!

We managed to catch the dragon as he breathed fire! Well, smoke....

The next ride was in the Lego City Land. This was the only ride we did twice. It had the shortest queues yet it was the most awesome ride. It was a mechanical robot arm with a chair, you were asked how fast you wanted to go... "Schnell oder Langsam?" asked the operator. We chose schnell of course. He pressed a button on the panel and off we went! It threw us about, turned us upside down and spun us around. We loved it!

We then visited the Lego Factory. We saw how the bricks are made and how they put paint on them. We were given a special commemorative brick made right there and we also then got to make our very own lego man from a huge array of heads, bodies, legs and accessories.

this was the injector machine in progress.

Making yellow bricks.

This sign made me laugh ...

"Every year over a million new lego friends are born!"

This was the back of the printing machine, where the yellow bricks made earlier were being prepared to go into the machine to be printed.

Leaving the factory.

We headed into Land Der Ritter (Knight's Kingdom), where we went on the Caterpillar ride. This was the location of the first major clutz moment for our trip. Yet, I don't think it was really my fault. The ride - though it is for little children - flung me so hard against the lego brick on the side, I now have a massive bruise up my left ribs. Was still awesome though!

We then rode the Fire Dragon Coaster!

Again, the sculptures were amazing. The entire table and book were made from lego!

Michael found a new friend!

This was the Fire Dragon in action. Was an awesome coaster. I wish we could have taken more photos inside the castle while on the coaster itself. It has so many amazing sculptures of lego before the ride took off!

I will smite you with my mace!

So then we made our way to Imagination land where we found lots and lots of giraffes. I was very happy!

I loved this one for wearing ballet shoes!

We also found an evil bunny. He reminded me of the bunny out of Hoodwinked. He even had an evil laugh soundtrack playing as you walked past him! Freaked me out a little.

We had lunch at the Dino Grill. Very amusing restaurant.

I had a delicious meal of pasta with prawns. But could not believe the size of my meal!

Michael had a burger - but we both wished afterwards we had ordered the spare ribs, considering we were at the dino GRILL.

We then took in a 4D movie - the Legends of Chima.

My fancy 4D glasses!

Finally I talked Michael into going on the Jungle X-pedition ride in Adventure land. We did get wet, but we laughed so much during the ride, and afterwards we happily stood in the heated drying machine for 5 minutes.

This was the dinosaur who initially wet us. He spat water as the boat went past - but you think he's just a motionless sculpture at first, and you go 'awww', then suddenly he turns and spits at you! I copped the most, he spat directly in my lap so my pants were soaked! His second spit hit Michael is the side of the head!

See - innocent enough looking!

We finally made it onto the observation tower.

About to go up....

The view from the top.

We saw for miles in every direction.

There's the flying Ninjago again.

The castle....

The entrance....

We got hungry....

We saw Elvis...

Then we did the last ride - the Tret-o-Mobil.

A lovely pedal car ride past the giant giraffe!

Proof we pedalled!

This was the footballers walk of fame. There were famous heads from the soccer world and I haven't included them all, but I was surprised to see Victoria Beckham in there... sure David, but not Posh!

Funniest thing though was watching a young boy go up to her statue and fondle her nipples!

We did love the bathroom signs where ever we went in the park!

And this statue of lego kids trying to jump the fence at the entrance.

Michael liked this statue of the plumber.

So at the end of the two day adventure, we said good bye to the lego head gates, and made our way home.


We had such a great time and were really grateful for the two days which allowed us to spread our time and try every ride.

Goodbye LegoLand!