Legoland Discovery Centre

Saturday morning I met a new friend for coffee.  She and I are in a Facebook group for Expats in Berlin.  She is from Canada and noticed that we are also neighbors so she "friended" me and we planned to meet for coffee over the weekend.  But on Friday, we were at the grocery store, and I was approached by a woman asking, "Are you Kristin?"  I'm famous!  It was this new friend recognizing the kids from Facebook. Ha ha ha.  Anyway, we had coffee on Saturday morning and then Jason and I planned to take the kids to the zoo that afternoon.


But, guess what?  More rain. 


So, we opted for some indoor fun instead.  We had coupons for "1 Kind Frei" to LEGOLAND on our milk cartons so we poured all our milk into different containers and set out.  The kids hear "LEGOLAND" and I think they picture what we did on our recent California trip, but this was a "Discovery Center" and not a theme park. 


It is near the Sony Center so we donned our raincoats and set off for the subway.  Potsdamer Platz (where the Sony Center is) is about 6 or 7 stops away. 


Because we had two coupons, we split up to pay.  Autumn wanted me to take this while we waited for Jason and the boys to join us:



And then we checked out Mini Berlin.  The Berliner Dom:



Brandenburg Gate, quite current actually, all set up with the "Fan Mile" where you and a bazillion other Germans can all watch the World Cup games on the screen together:



And the Reichstag building which we have only seen in the distance so far:



Then it was into a Star Wars-y Miniland:



They had some interactive(ish) things where you could push a button and "race" in a pod race or make a small ship take off out of a hangar.  Pretty basic, though.


We then did a Dragon Ride.  This was in the queue:



This Dragon Ride is like any of the "dark rides" at Disney where you hop in a little "car" of sorts and it follows a track through various animated Lego scenes.  Unlike any of the ones we've ever seen at Disney, however, this one had two "elevator" parts, where your dragon car would come to a stop and then go up or down to catch a new part of a track to continue the ride.  And then at the end things would spit at you.  It caught Jason and Dalton by surprise, (Easton, Autumn and I were in a different dragon and the pic didn't turn out):



Then we went downstairs which was mostly various workshoppy areas.  Autumn wanted me to take this pic of her in a police car.  I think she looks extra beautiful here:



Here too:



Before we did any building, we headed to the "Merlin's Apprentice" ride off in the corner which was like Dumbo going around in circles except to control your height you had to pedal.  Easton went by himself:



And then Jason and Dalton went on the round after E.  Poor Autumn was too short. :(



With Easton's turn over and Autumn too short, we headed over to the "Build and Test Centre" where we built Lego cars and then they had tracks you could race them down with loop de loops or jumps.  When we first sat down at the building area it was me, Easton, and Autumn . . . and then a bunch of dads ha ha ha. 

Mine and Autumn's car (she is trying to do duck face):



Jason and Dalton at work:



Easton working hard too:



Then Autumn took ours up to race:



She is so my child:  pose!



Her face after ours fell apart on its trip down:



Easton testing his out:



And my biggest boy with his:



(Easton's probably performed the best out of all of ours, none of which did well right off the bat . . . Easton made some mods and tried again.)

Autumn played in a small soft play area while the boys finished up and then we headed over to the "Factory Tour".  This was in the queue area during our 3 minute wait:



We then did the tour which was even shorter than our 3 minute wait to do the tour, it was all in German, and it was a mock up.  Nothing real happening.  Each kid got a souvenir Duplo block at the end.  Lame.

So we headed off to a different area. 









There was a fun Ninjago area with "Spinjitzu training" that had a lazer beam maze to get through, a reaction time test and another play area with obstacles.  Then we saw they had a 4D movie to check out which was different than the 4D movie we had seen at LEGOLAND in California.  Hagrid and Harry Potter were at the entrance! Yay!





The 4D movie wasn't half bad and Batman was waiting for us at the end:



We let the kids play around a bit longer while Jason and I parked ourselves at a table in the cafe.  Autumn found a Lego Friends (girly stuff) area in one part with pretend cupcakes and a TV program (in German).  Eventually we decided to call it a day.  The kids asked to do the Dragon Ride one more time so we said okay.  This time the boys had one dragon and Autumn and I rode in another.  And this time I was prepared:



Ha ha ha.  Pose!



We browsed the gift shop for a bit then headed home for dinner.