Legoland Windsor: It may not claim to be the “Happiest Place on Earth” but it’s pretty darned fun just the same - and much, much easier on a parent’s nerves.
The first order of the day was to get an overview of the park. Dad Windu and Sebulba, left, and PL and Princess Leia, right, all worked hard, pulling themselves up, up, up to the top of the rotating tower and then relaxed while gravity did its thing letting them glide back down. After repeating this process a few times, they had a pretty good idea where everything was in the park. Padme and I had a wonderful time watching all the little kids, with their adorable English accents, running past us on their way to one thing or another.
Next we moved on to MiniLand. There were many replicas of the different London districts, a few of the English countryside, representative pieces from all parts of the United Kingdom, many examples of “typical” villages in other European countries and even a few pieces of the United States.
The attention to detail within these models was truly amazing. Can you see the two people who have fallen down on the sidewalk? I think they may have crashed into one another.
This train moving into a village model caught our attention and made us think of our friend, C-3PO, back home.
Here you see Princess Leia taking a look at a model of a Dutch town. See the little, white greenhouses in the front? the gabled roofs on the buildings? and the wonderful windmills (windmolen) to the right?
These creations are amazing. Obviously, many people have put in tremendous numbers of hours in the design and creation of these mini-models. Now if you’re at all like our family, you’ve been wondering how these great mini-worlds are made. But of course, with mini Lego construction workers and mini Lego earth-moving equipment! Push that dirt. Haul that load. Raise those walls.
Dad Windu is famous around here for taking pictures of road construction, traffic signage, and traffic management techniques wherever we travel, but I think these were probably his truimphant images.
After MiniLand, we headed over to the Driver’s License station. The boys were able to view a short informational film about safe driving techniques (remember to stay to the left-hand side of the road, all you Continental Europeans and North Americans) and then were released into the driving range. This was a big draw for the over 1 meter crowd.
Above is the driving range — pre hordes of kids — and below is one of the spiffy Lego cars. Princess Leia would never admit it, but I know she was just Jones-ing to hop into one of these spicy little numbers.
The rush of kids out of the gates and out onto the driving range was astounding. Each child seemed to have a special, must-have, car picked out in his or her head and they were all DETERMINED to get to their vehicle before anyone else. Unfortunately, several children appeared to be on similar wavelengths, and the slower – or perhaps kinder – of the two was forced to double back in search of the next most acceptable auto.
Sebulba takes a tight curve. The joy of driving is clear on his face.
Sebulba heads into the main thoroughfare without a care in the world…
Oh no, he’s spotted by Padawan Learner…
After being “separated” from the front of Sebulba’s car by a helpful course assistant, PL Boy is back on the road and none-the-worse for the experience. Truthfully, I think he rather enjoyed the crashing process. This does not bode well for our future car insurance rates.
They awarded these two driver’s licenses???
Moving on, we consulted Princess Leia on directions for our next destination. Yes, I know. Princess Leia.
A giant Lego Dino for our little buddy Boba back at home.
After waiting FOREVER in line for the water ride, we finally got on, rode around and splashed down the log plume – getting pleasantly sprayed but not soaked. It was hard to keep myself from being annoyed as we serpanteened around the queue fences, so I was very impressed (and thankful) that Sebulba and PL handled the wait as well as they did. I was sure that Dad Windu and Princess Leia must have fallen asleep on the grassy side yard while we moved forward foot by foot by foot. But they did not. They were posted outside the exit taking (and deleting) picture after picture after picture of logs coming down, only to find that it was not us after all. They finally gave up and were only able to get a picture of us after we shot down the plume.
Dad Windu caught a quick pic of me while I waited in line for one of the “bigger kids” coaster rides. While there is nothing that goes upside down at Legoland, this was as thrill ride-ish as they got here. Thankfully, the line was WAY shorter and much faster than the log plume ride.
We went on a Legoland Dino Safari
which also included non-dino animals, such as wildebeasts
and colorful giant spiders.
Of course, we did get to see a few dinosaurs, too.
Historical accuracy was obviously NOT an issue to these designers,
but fun sure was! I don’t think I’d want to be the one to brush a dinosaur’s teeth…
For some reason, this little patch of Lego flowers just made my day. I mean, come on, how cute is that? Just like that, in the middle of a patch of grass sit these fun little Lego flowers.
Just before leaving to go grab the shuttle back to the train station, the boys, Princess Leia and Padme took a ride on the train whip. These little engines were so fun, and they look just like the little Lego train set that PL used to play with when he was so very little. Dad Windu opted out on this spinning ride due to motion-sickness issues (he gets to feeling bad just after a few minutes on the swing set), but he got a few pictures of the four of them spinning around in circles.
See him smiling over there? Doesn’t he look like he’s had a good time at Legoland Windsor?
