Stuttgart and Legoland

May 19-22, 2014

Jason had the brilliant idea to go to Legoland.
Our last trip to Legoland in California took us about 10 hours to drive there. Legoland Deutschland is only 3 hours away from us!

We planned for 3 whole days.
Our first day Jason found a zoo in Stuttgart. About 2 hours from us, it made for a good stop.

The zoo had a lot of beautiful landscaping. Not like the 100% concrete ones that I've been to in the US.
Very green and lots of trees.
My favorite was the goat mountain which was also inhabited by monkeys! The monkeys would actually climb onto the goats and groom them. It was really cute!

There was also a cute monkey Gavin's size that was playing peek-a-boo with him in the primate house.

There was also a bontanical garden and several fountains. And throughout the park there were fun little climbing structures with ropes or beams for balancing.
It was a good time and Gavin left with a bright orange snake.

After Stuttgart we headed to our hotel in Günzburg.

Wow, it was so awesome! The hotel was quite cute and had a very large and comfy bed for Jason and I as well as a bunk bed for the kids, a small dining room and a bathroom with a very confusing shower. The best part of our hotel was the location. It was right on Marktstraße and our view of the street below was super sweet.

After getting settled we took a stroll through the town and chose from all the restaurants where to eat....we decided Chinese.
We were not disappointed. The food was yummy, the weather was lovely and because we were sitting outside our food was served over two warmers. The kids loved it (Brytons roast duck was delicious!) And after they ate they played around the fountain in the middle of the market.

After dinner we walked to the Gelato shop. Yum. I had chili chocolate ice cream. Burning hot and ice cold.

Day 1 down. It was such fun, but we were tired!

Day 2 started at the bakery down the street. After a great breakfast we hopped in the car with our Camelback's and headed to Legoland with a quick stop to buy ice for our bags (totally with it)

A few weeks before we planned our trip Gavin had a happy meal with a 50% off coupon for Legoland. So only paying 80€ for a whole day of fun was definitely a bonus!

Little did we know that going to Legoland on a Tuesday would be one of the best ideas ever. There was no one there. We parked right up front! We never had to wait in line...at all! We cruised through the park going on ride after ride nonstop.

It was a very warm day and when the water themed rides opened we headed on over and left completely soaked! One ride simply consisted of sitting on a very slow boat with squirt cannons while passersby and passengers other boats assaulted us with 500 gallons of water....freezing cold water!
Totally refreshing.

Legoland was a huge success and the kids were spent before the park closed.

Gavin was just shy of being tall enough for a few of the rides but it didn't get him down.

Both the kids are mildly obsessed with the Lego movie. So each were allowed to pick out a Lego set. As if they weren't spoiled enough, but what are vacations for?

So our 3rd day was supposed to be another day at Legoland, but having done everything there with hours to spare we decided to leave and check out of our hotel a day early.

On our last morning we went to another bakery for breakfast, and headed back to Stuttgart.

I found a fabulous park there. Kind of like a Central Park it was a very very large landscaped area with flowers and ponds and a playground. But our first stop was a giant climbing tower. 4 or 5 stories high we climbed to the top of the spiral staircase and enjoyed the view from the top. Our calves were thanking us later for this climb after 2 days of walking.

The kids enjoyed themselves at the sandy park for a while and then we headed deeper into the city to checkout a really cool market we heard about.
While it was cool, the market was literally a market. Spices, fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses. Pretty neat but we weren't there to buy groceries.
So we took to the cobble stone and we toured the shopping district.
These shopping streets are always very cool with lots to see...and eat.

Finally though, it was time to come home.

A day early, half priced tickets,and a very inexpensive dog sitter ($30) this vaca wasn't as expensive as we had expected, and was over-the-top fun!