Lovely Long Weekend

Yesterday was bank holiday here in Germany. For the whole weekend, the weather was as nice as it could possibly be - sunny and +25°C. (A couple of days earlier, it was about +32, which was way too hot for any activities.)

Even though we stayed at the walking distance from our home, it felt that we had a small holiday.

On Sunday, there was the Nerobergfest. It is a family event on, you guessed it!, Neroberg.

There are several activities for children, like a bouncy castle, sledding hill, ball shooting and puppet shows.

Fräulein was still a bit small for this event, but she enjoyed the atmosphere and the amount of children running around.

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon at the Nerotal park. Usually, there is one or two other kids at the playground, but now it was quite crowded there.

But there is always room for one little girl!

*****
Täällä Saksassa nautittiin kolmipäiväisestä viikonlopusta, sillä eilinen oli täällä vapaapäivä (kätevää kun Helluntaita juhlitaan sunnuntain sijaan maanantaina!). 
Saimme nautiskella kauniista kesäkelistä sunnuntaina Nerobergfestissä ja eilen ihan vaan ulkolkoilemalla lähipuistossa.

Playground Review Part 1: Wiesbaden Northwest

There are quite many playgrounds for children here in Wiesbaden. You can find information about some of them from Spielplatznet, but I thought I could do my own review from the perspective of a smaller child. As there are so many playgrounds, I will divide this review to geographical areas. I will start with the northwest part of the town (officially part of Wiesbaden Nordost, which I don't totally understand...), so I'll cover the playgrounds in Neroberg and Nerotal going from the valley upwards. The grading scale is from 0 to 5 cookies.

NEROTAL  

This really is a nice playground for small children! The playground is quite compact and the surroundings are peaceful.

There are following equipment on the playground:

- Jungle gym with slide

- Wide seesaw, nice for small children

- Tunnel

- Spring riders

- Sandpit, well, actually most of the other equipment are placed in sand, but you can easily make sand cakes there

- Climbing blocks

If there were also a swing or a roundabout, this playground would get five cookies. But as a positive addition to this playground, there is also a bond in the Nerotal park, where you can feed ducks.


DAMBACHTAL  

On Dambachtal there is a small playground. It has the very basic equipment, and judging from the many layers of leaves on the ground, I think it is not on the city's maintenance list. However, this is very quiet and nice place for small children.

- Slide
- Sandpit, if you can find the sand under the leaves
- Spring rider
- Swings

TRÄNKWEG / IDSTEINER STRAßE  

There are two playgrounds on Tränkweg. The other one is placed by the intersection of Idsteiner Straße. When we went to visit the playground on review purposes, the city workers were blowing the leaves there. My daughter thought that was the most exciting thing there, although we weren't really able to test any equipment because of all the dust.

- Swings
- Sandpit
- Slide

I think there has been a jungle gym in this park before, but it was now gone. Although this playground is close to two roads, it is on the edge of the forest and therefore quite peaceful. A plus point for small children is that you can see a lot of dogs passing this playground. On the other hand, there are acorns in the ground, and those quite easily found their way to baby's mouth...

TRÄNKWEG   

The other playground on Tränkweg is by the spring. The surroundings are peaceful, but the playground is more widely spread. Also most of the equipment are more suitable for older children. 

- Swings

- Spring riders

- Roundabout, where also the smallest children can spin by themselves

- Ditch for playing with water. This is the speciality of this playground, but a bit too dangerous for a one-year-old. And there is no bridge over the ditch, so if you want to move your buggy from the swings to the roundabout, you have to go by the road

- Jungle gym over the ditch, only for older children

- Sandpit

- Robe for sliding for older children

MINI-KLETTERPARK ON NEROBERG  

This playground gets only crumbs from me, because it is not designed for very small children. As it is like a Kletterwald for children, there is only a jungle gym. I guess this playground is great for children older than two years, but for someone who can barely walk, there isn't much to do. Unfortunately, I have only one photo, in which part of the playground equipment can be seen, but it is not worth it to climb all the way up there just to take a photo...

Attractions in Wiesbaden No. 3 - Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche

The Christmas Market started today here in Wiesbaden. It was announced that to celebrate the opening, there would be fireworks at 6 pm. I assumed it would be very crowded downtown, so we drove to the Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche, where there is a great view over the city, to watch the fireworks.

We were there a bit early, so I took some photos of the church in the night-time lighting. A couple of minutes before six we took seats by the view. But nothing happened. Not a single firework. At 6.15, I gave up and we drove back home. Just when I had undressed my daughter - yes, you guessed it - the sounds of the fireworks started. We have a great view from our balcony, but it is not directly to the city, so all we saw was some lights reflecting from the clouds.

But I don't want all that trouble be for nothing, so I'll take this opportunity to introduce you the Russisch-Orthodoxe Kirche or Griechische Kapelle as it is also known. It is one of those attractions, which you can find in Wiesbaden postcards. The church is located up on Neroberg, so it can be seen from far. It has golden onion-shaped domes, which shine beautifully when sun (or at night-time the artificial light) hits them.

in February

today

I won't get into the history in detail, because all my knowledge is based on Wikipedia, which you can study yourself. Let's just say that there was a 19-year-old Russian princess, death in childbirth and a grieving Duke.

Like with the Cuckoo Clock, it is also worth looking around the main attraction. There is a beautiful cemetery, which is the largest Russian Orthodox cemetery outside Russia. And the view over the city is quite amazing.

the view in October