Day 1774. Sammy was up early, and then the others got up as well, followed by Randy who made breakfast for them. I got up even earlier than yesterday, before 9 am, which was terribly early having gone to bed just before 2 am. We ended up leaving the house just before 11 am. It was our last day in Klagenfurt, and we had some great plans for the kids.
We drove the 20 minutes to Minimundus, a famous place where over 120 buildings from the whole world are rebuilt on a much smaller scale. I hadn't been there in 40 years or so, so it was great for me as well to go there. The kids were still free to go in, which was a blessing. They got these books called "Around the world in 80 days", like the famous Jules Verne book, and it had 18 stations all around the park, where they had to answer one question. Then they had to put the sticker of that station in the right spot on a globe in their book. Once they had them all, they'd get a certificate for their achievement. Tammy was very excited about this challenge and was excited every time she saw another station. As for Emmy, he started having a fever last night and still had some fever today, so he was not his joyful self. He wanted Randy to carry him much of the time, and so he was slower with the stickers.
But first we went to the exhibition inside the building. There were globes with buttons, which was especially exciting to Sammy. It made videos appear on TVs or animal sounds start. We walked on and got to a video screen, where you could kick an actual soccer ball and score a ball. Emmy had a hard time getting the ball into the air, so Daddy did it.
Then there was a mini car. Emmy and Tammy got in right away and started driving around the park. It was actually a preset movie, so you could really not steer the car that was moving left and right. But all three kids got to sit at the wheel and enjoy it. Then we walked on and the kids sat on little horses before they put their heads into the holes so they looked like astronauts. Then there was a pretend train with a video rolling on the windows, but we ride enough trains not to need that and walked on. There was the statue of liberty, then we walked down the ramp and got to a huge slide. The kids went up and down a few times, while Randy put Sammy into the helicopter. Sammy also sat in the copy of a plane, where they windows also had a movie going to make you think you're flying, as well as the noise from the engines of the plane.
We walked on and saw the entrance to the 4D theater. It said "not recommended under 6 years of age", but the kids insisted they could do it. Even not knowing what it was, we also thought they'd be alright, and so we went in, to the showing at noon. We sat in the first row and put our 3D glasses on. I had Tammy with me, while Randy had the boys on the other side of the aisle. It ended up being a 7-minute video of a crazy ride on the Great Wall of China and was fun.
Coming out of the theater, Tammy mentioned that she was hungry, and so we headed to the restaurant right there. It was still a little chilly in the shade, so we sat inside. We got two dishes that we all shared and had a good time eating. Then it was time to finally explore the actual park.
And so we started walking, trying to follow the arrows on the ground, reading what and were the buildings were that we saw. Most of them we didn't actually know, and there were lots of Austrian buildings there. Sammy was not that interested in them and preferred the buttons that were there to push at times, usually to start or stop the trains. And he also enjoyed whenever there were fountains or other forms of water.
After having walked through two thirds of the park, we got to a playground. We'd been in the sun and were hot, which Tammy had already made clear, and so they were excited about the water pump there, where you could pump drinking water. They took their shoes off and went inside the water flowing down the hill, then they all tried to drink some with Randy or me pumping. They spent most of their time there, but also went on the swing and inside the car for a little bit. Then we moved on.
We walked by more buildings and got to a little icecream shop. We all had some icecream and sat down to eat it. We could hear some weird noises and looked what was on the other side of the fence there and saw two big dinosaurs. We just knew that the reptile zoo was right there.
After having eaten our icecream, we moved on. Emmy wanted me to record a little dance of his, so I did. We saw a cute, little dog, then continued on. We reached some American buildings, including the White House, where we took a picture together. And then we were back where we had started. The kids had completed all their questions of all their stations and were ready to receive their certificates. We went inside the building and in the direction of the exit, going through the shop and taking their globes with the sticker to the lady sitting there. She then got the certificates out and wrot etheir names on it, then gave it to them, together with coloring book, crayons, and some gummibears. The kids were excited. Then we left and walked back to our car to return to our house, which took us less than 20 minutes. By 3:45 pm we were back home.
We were pretty tired. The kids got on their tablets, and I lay down in bed with my phone to relax a little. Half-way through the just over one hour we had at home, Sammy came to me, and we ended up playing and having lots of fun. Nobody wanted to eat anything, so I didn't make any sandwiches. We only took snacks with us, when we left the house just after 5 pm.
Emmy had been asking to go to the cirus, and then we saw a circus in walking distance from where we were staying. However, when I looked it up online, I saw that they were still setting up and not playing yet. Then we saw another advertisement for a circus, and when I looked it up, it was in another town along the lake, and tonight was the first night it was playing. Perfect! Randy was less than excited, as he doesn't care of the circus, but I was glad he agreed for us to go. On our way home, Emmy thanked Daddy from the bottom of his heart that we had gone there.
It was about 20 minutes to get to Velden. I'd had an extremely hard time finding the location of the circus online but had finally been successful. Still, it wasn't where I thought it was on the map. We continued driving and happended to find it on the side of the road. The next question was where to park. We stopped and asked a family walking to the circus, and the lady was so nice to walk inside to ask and came back to tell us to park on the lawn right next to the other vehicles sitting there. And so we turned around and parked there. Then we went to the ticket counter to buy our tickets.
The circus had already told me on Facebook in advance that Sammy could get in for free, which was nice, so we only had to pay for the four of us. And then the guy was so night to give us better tickets for free, putting us in the first row. How kind! It turned out that he was actually the director and that he was a local, while the rest of his team are all from Paris.
We walked inside the tent and found our seats to the left and on the side. Emmy wasn't feeling so well, that was obvious, but he was excited to be there. And then the show started - a trip to and through Paris. It was the smallest circus I'd ever seen, but it was like a small family, and they did a great job. They had one family that was a part - a mouse - that climbed down a rope and into a hot-air balloon and was balanced on the director's chin. They also had a clown and a fun act that made all three kids laugh a lot. And of course there was acrobatics. I had Sammy on my lap for most of the time, but then he went to Daddy. During the first half of the program Sammy had so much fun that it lit up Daddy's eyes. He kept saying, "Look!" and greatly enjoyed the music.
A little more than half-way through the program there was a break. We left the tent, and then the kids wanted popcorn, even though we had snacks with us. We ate them, and then it was already time to walk back inside.
We enjoyed the second half of the show. In the end the Eiffel Tower was back up and there was a Happy End for the man and the woman. They said good-bye and that they were taking pictures with whoever wanted to, so we took one with the director and one of the artists. Then we headed in the direction of the car.
While walking that way, the director came out and we had the chance to talk to him briefly. We told him where we were from, and he told us they were coming to Vienna as well and asked us to tell people about them. Then we got in the car to drive back to the house.
By about 8:20 pm we were back at the house and got them ready for bed right away. It didn't take long for them to fall asleep. Randy also went to bed early, while I pushed myself to continue working until I could not more: Itw as close to 2 am by the time I went to bed.
