Silent Sunday

Playground Review Part 2 - Wiesbaden Mitte

Now that the days are longer, it seems to be a good time for my second review of playgrounds in Wiesbaden. As you can see from the pictures, I've been gathering the material for a couple of months...

This time I'll take a look at the playgrounds downtown. Like in Part 1, I'll consider the playgrounds from the perspective of a one-year-old child and give them up to five cookies based on the equipments and surroundings.

KOCHBRUNNENPLATZ   

The playground at Kochbrunnenplatz is very conveniently located, but also very crowded. Thus it is not the best playground for small children.

Sunday afternoon rush

The equipment of the playground:

- Roundabout
- Sandpit
- Spring rider
- There has also been a swing, but last time we visited this playground, it was taken out for some reason.

- Junglegym with slide for older children

KLEINER KURPARK (Frankfurter Straße)    

A nice and cozy playground for small children.

- Jungle gym made of robes (a bit too demanding for a one-year-old)

- Sandpit
- Swing suitable also for small children

- Roundabout

BLUMENWIESE (Parkstraße, Kurpark)   

This playground is also cozy and quiet, but the equipments are not the best for a small child.

- Jungle gym, which is very demanding, with
- Slide, which has a very high drop at the end of it

- Slide, which is so wide that small children cannot reach the handles

- Sand
- Two swings
- Spring rider

BÜDINGENSTRAßE   

If this playground would have either a baby swing or a roundabout in addition to the current equipment, we would definitely visit it more often.

- Swings

- Jungle gym
- Spring riders

- Two slides

ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL   

- Baby swing, this was actually the first playground in Wiesbaden, where we found one!
(Since then, I have found one from the Fasanerie as well.)

- I'm not sure what to call these things shown in the picture below, but they were nice for a small child anyway

- Jungle gym made of robes

- A lot of benches, which Fräulein loves

- Roundabout; if only this had been suitable for small children, this playground would have received five cookies from us!

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...