Back from Germany...

Another successful road trip for the Tischlers. We just got back from our overnightger to the Tropical Islands waterpark about an hour from Berlin.

It is really an amazing place - it's huge. We are lucky that it's low season, after all how many people want to spend $50 a head to go to an indoor waterpark when it's beautiful and in the high 80s outside? So there was plenty of open space in the pools and the lines at things like the water slides were quite light.

We stayed overnight at the park's tent hotel. It was very much like camping - lots of sand, noisy neighbors and the inside of the tent was hot. Still, Noah was so worn out from swimming and running around in the children's play area for so long that he collapsed on his bed at about 11 PM and was out like a light soon after. Kathy followed Noah to sleep within minutes.


Here is Noah in the lagoon, the smaller of the two main water bodies in the park. It has waterfalls, assorted geysers and two decent water slides (oh, and multicolored lights after the sun goes down).


Here is our tent - the one dead center. In the background are the two pay per slide water slides. They are really high, but I don't like them enough to pay $5 per run.


I got up before Kathy and Noah and decided to take a stroll through the park. The park is open 24/7, and when you pay you can stay as long as you want (or can tolerate). I found that many people slept on the wooden lounge chairs on the beach. I'm sure they are made of wood to make them especially uncomfortable. One family had a queen size mattress that they had placed on top of two of these wooden lounge chairs. One guy was sleeping on the floor of one of the bars (I think alcohol may have been a factor). Lord knows what this place is like in winter when as many as 7,000 guests are in here at a time.


Here are Noah and I in front of the lagoon (his favorite place).


If you point a camera at Noah his instinctive reaction is to make bunny ears.

It was a great trip, but I am exhausted. At 6 PM last night that I had enough of swimming and the waterpark and then realized that I had 18 hours to go. Noah has a lot more energy than I do but he ignores me when I say I need to rest.