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The other day I turned off the Autobahn, telling Sequoia it was one of our Brown Sign-Following days. Damn if the kid didn’t get lucky: the first brown sign we came upon pointed toward Lochmühle, which I suspected was the Lochmühle Freizeitpark that I’d read about. We drove into the forest to find out. Lo and behold, we came upon the children’s amusement park, nestled in the foothills of the Taunus. At first glance, the park appears to be merely a giant playground, but we headed in—at only 12€ me, 10.50€ Sequoia, it couldn’t possibly be a disappointment.
The first attraction was a large barn of indoor playground equipment—trampolines, slides, funhouse mirrors, a metal roller slide, and some hand-cranked rides.
I assumed the latter were just a few old, hand-powered novelty rides. However, when we walked around the park, I realized that there were quite a few rides you had to work at! There was a small ferris wheel powered by another party on bicycle. Also pedal-powered was a helicopter monorail, in which two people sit and make their way around the track (or in our case, me alone while Sequoia, legs outstretched, lamented that she could not reach the pedals). On swings too large for child leg pumps, Sequoia could pull on a rope to swing herself. It’s an undercover physics lesson park!
My favorite ride was a boat launch. The boat was pulled up a track at about a 45-degree angle, then released; it shot down and skidded across a pond until it slowed, hit some rubber tires, and then was pulled back by the rope. I was soooo jealous it was just for the kids!
There were your typical roller coasters—one that zoomed in circles, fast as could be, forward then backward until I wanted to die; and another larger one with sideways loops—along with spinning tulip cups, swings, merry-go-rounds, etc.
Pendulum and spinning rides, however, were controlled by the rider—as were most attractions. For example, you walk up to this pendulum-style ride, wait for the ramp to lower, cross, enter the cage, lower your bar, and push the button. Then you tug a rope as many times as you want for as high and fast as you want to go. Sequoia: banned from pulling the rope after about a minute.
All around the park were different petting zoos and feeding areas to watch your step in. Then if the kids forgot that you’d paid for their entrance into an amusement park, they could play in the creek.
There were also giant jungle gyms, smaller playground equipment, all kinds of weird swings, sand boxes, a giant court of 18 side-by-side trampolines, other bouncy fun, mini-golf, etc. It was little kid heaven. A friend noted that we’re so afraid in America that kids will get hurt, that we could never have a place like this.
Litigiousness is such a buzzkill.
[…] with a picture of a snaking trail of castles. We all know how I feel about brown signs and how Sequoia shares those feelings. Hmm….that has […]
This looks great! I am going to have to have my own “brown sign day” and find this little gem. Thanks for sharing!
perfect for young kids, max maybe 12 years old, and i think that’s pushing it. i saw 3 rides that were for ages 7 and up, so i’d say you’re safe up to age 10-11. every kid there was having fun, though–no complaining about rides being not fun or big enough. i thought it was a pretty cool little park! (and “brown sign days” are AWESOME!)