2020 - Day 7: Erlebniswelt Flederwisch

The summation of today is that it is good to embrace the unusual.

When we were researching ideas to do in the local area here I came across an unusual looking museum about 50mins drive away from where we were staying called, Erlebniswelt Flederwisch. This seems to literally translate to something like “Adventure World Bat Mop” but looked online like a steampunk style garden that kids can climb on and explore. Now I had no real idea what I was expecting and was a bit nervous putting it forward as an idea for a visit especially when it involved quite a long drive to get there, but I just had a gut feeling that it looked like my kind of thing. However, when I checked earlier this week it said that their art and craft fair had restarted and would be running every Wednesday as of the week before our visit, I knew I wanted to go there.

We arrived and I immediately loved it. Lots of strange sculptures and twists and turns to explore. The kids got involved straight away in panning for gold and whilst for Paloma this pretty much consisted of tipping the pan of water down the front of her dress (several times) they all had a great time.

Panning for gold.

Once we had wrung out Paloma’s dress and put it back on relying on the heat of the day to do the rest of the job we went for an explore. There were strange metal flying animal machines, submarines, metal sculpture insect gardens, airship ports and lots more. In amongst these were little stalls of people either selling and/or demonstrating their crafts and activities for the kids to get involved with too. Much to the disappointment of the kids many of these were shutting for lunch so we decided to join them albeit after a quick paper making session, which was self-led, to placate the kids’ tears.

Working as a team on the flying machine.

Onboard the submarine.

Cub in a glass bath. (Photo by Forrest).

Making paper.

After lunch we explored some more, including what looked like some more educational sections with old printing presses and Bavaria’s largest steam engine and the kids took part in a couple of the crafts. These were extra on top of the entrance fee but at roughly 1-2€ each it seemed a fair price to me. My favourite was the string art; the lady running this stall took so much time and care to try and explain what to do in English (and yes we are those annoying tourists who speak no German and our Czech friends weren’t with us at this point to help) and it was such a simple idea with great results that it is definitely something I want to try again when home.

Clay art.

String art.

String art.

I really loved this place and would have been interested to have been able to read some of the information plaques to see if they gave a bit more understanding of what was going on but in some ways the bizarreness and lack of understanding added to the overall surreal effect. The place was like a mini-maze or warren and I am sure there were areas we missed out altogether, however, it was a very warm day today and the fact that it was so intimately laid out required the wearing of facemasks at all times as social distancing just wasn’t possible so we decided to move on.

With a little bit of time to kill we decided that a trip back to Großer Arbersee would allow us to grab an ice-cream and get some fresh air by completing the walk around the lake.

View back across the Großer Arbersee.

Kids posing by the Großer Arbersee.

Adults posing by the Großer Arbersee (with photobombing Forrest)!

Jana and family had headed straight back to start cooking tea and so it was lovely to have a bit of family time wandering around the lake path and boardwalks before heading home to a delicious meal of fishcakes.

Blogged by Amber.