Thursday, August 4, 2011

A Week in the Country-Part 2

Theme 2:  Public Parks and Play Spaces

There are many things that Switzerland does well.  Public play spaces are surely one of them.

Everywhere we go, we stumble on great little parks.  These are places with a slide, a couple of swings, a see-saw, and often a ping-pong table (with a metal net) and a zip line.  And benches.

These parks seem to appear just as Christopher and Matthew have had enough walking or monument viewing.  As if someone said, "well, by now the parents are going to need to sit for a stretch and the kids will need to run around.  Good place for a park."

The ping-pong tables were especially fun to see.  I guess we should have packed our paddles instead of our tennis racquets.  Instead, we bought paddles and I suspect we'll be shipping our racquets back home, unused.  Live and learn.





The ping-pong gear now goes with us on almost all of our walks.



Play spaces have even been incorporated into serious hike areas.  On our journey down from Alpen Tower we discovered a kids 1-hour "fun trail" which told a local folk tale and provided various play spots along the route.  Including this cool maze.


And, of course, we even have found some chess opportunties.




What the Swiss know is that a little park goes a long way.

No comments:

Post a Comment