European playgrounds

Hanging out in Nuernberg, DE

It's true-my family does view all of Europe as our own "private" playground, but the real European playgrounds are for the kids! As a prior Waldorf School employee, I've long admired the European playground. They are designed to be used in a multitude of ways, allow some risk (and responsibility on the part of the parents), and don't dictate the ways in which children must use the equipment.

Amazing playspace with a view, Mellau, Austria

Many of the playgrounds include rope-related equipment, that requires the children to use balance and core muscle strength. You see rope-based equipment frequently in German playground, and it really does demonstrate the German idea of "survival of the fittest"!

Swingin'-Nuernberg, DE

You will also find balancing logs and platforms, teepees, basket-style swings and water features. I know that many communities in the U.S. have fabulous playgrounds, but having living a sort of off-the-beaten path, peripatetic lifestyle, it wasn't until we arrived in Germany that we actually found these creative play places for children. Watching our risk-adverse child scale a rope web or jump off of pylons is a delight, and as parents, we appreciate the child-centered design of the playgrounds in Europe. Also, there is little plastic in the equipment, which provides a certain aesthetic quality to their spielplatzes.

A gigantic fairy house in a playground near our village.

The best feature in any European playground? The food and drink! One of my favorite playgrounds in our area includes a huge water pump with a drainage system and an adjacent biergarten. The shot below is from the Gartenshau Kaiserslautern where, in the fall, you can enjoy kurbis (pumpkin) wine and pumpkin soup. Playtime doesn't get any better than this:

Kurbis delight with JillyBoo playing in the background.

Citizens of the World

 



One way that you can tell that I'm a teacher is that I go through long periods of quiet on my afterschooling blog! Since my last blog entry, we visited Portugal, Regensburg, Germany, Colmar, France, and Mellau, Austria. Visiting other countries is a unique opportunity for employed expats with only one child, and we take advantage of this as frequently as possible.


When we visited Malta, we learned that JillyBoo needs down time, even on short vacations. Repeatedly dragging her through fields of megalithic ruins makes for a miserable trip for our entire family. For our Portugal trip, JillyBoo's daddy made a creative itinerary that satisfied both our need for some adventure and culture, and her need to have a homebase away from home.


We stayed in Afife, a small town north of Viana do Castelo in an apartment that we found on HomeAway. The bonus of setting up camp in an apartment, besides the price, is that you can purchase groceries and save on meals. Also, we like the fact that we don't have to schlep our bags around, taking a chance on losing our personal items to opportunistic locals.

 

Afife is not glamorous, not set up for tourists, and features miles of gorgeous beaches that are only lightly used in the spring. For us, it was paradise! We had unseasonably warm weather, and planned our week around alternate days of exploring and lazing about on the beach. Among the towns we visited were: Soajo, Guimares, and Viana do Castelo.



So what makes this trip afterschooling blog-worthy? The entire cultural experience! You might expect that a country that is part of the EU and is just south and west of Spain might seem more civilized. We were pleasantly surprised to find that on many times on the trip, we were the only light-haired people around for miles. For a little blondie, it was astonishing for JillyBoo to realize that, at times, she was very much the minority. And if those people weren't speaking German or English, what the heck language were they speaking?

Also, the food, so new, so salty, so much fish, such excellent bread and pastries. Bacalhau, a salty, dried cod laid out on palettes in the supermarkets, covered with flies, tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, soft white cheeses and pesto slathered onto crusty Portugese bread, the food was divine.



Equally beautiful in form and fashion were the people. They were helpful, curious, helpful, did I say helpful? They accepted our Spanish when Portugese failed. They pointed us in the right direction when our GPS was less than directional. The talked to us at length about their country, their port wine, their food (again, did I mention the food?).



Any time we travel, we try to instill into our 5-year-old the idea that she is on a world journey, on a life journey. She is a citizen of the world, and as such needs to experience, respect, and learn from the people of these cultures. Luckily, JillyBoo likes to try new things...especially if they are covered in chocolate or take place at the beach!