We had been hearing about this really fun transportation museum in Luzern for several years now, and finally decided to take the kids to see what all the fuss was about. Nick's best friend, Till, had a birthday a few weeks previously, and for his present, we told him we would take him with us when we went. He was very excited about this, as he had been once before and really enjoyed it. I wasn't really sure what to expect, and my kids were convinced it wasn't going to be very fun. Nick thought it would be a big room with a bunch of cars lined up. Noah was excited to see the ships, and the girls were trying to be positive, but cautiously so.
We had also decided to buy a year-long Swiss Museum Family pass, that would get us free entry into several museums all over the country, and discounts at a few more. The website said we could purchase the pass at any of the participating museums, so that is what I planned to do. When it came time to buy the tickets, however, the very nice lady explained that they didn't sell the pass there, and I would need to pay full admission price. What are you gonna do, right? So I just sucked it up and hoped that we would at least have SOME fun. Silly, silly me.
This place is fanFREAKINGtastic! First of all, it's huge. HUGE! We were there for 5 hours and didn't even go inside two of the buildings. And there are so many fun hands-on exhibits, cool displays, and physically engaging things for the kids to do, there is no way they could get bored. And that isn't including the IMAX theatre.
This is the actual prototype of the current REGA (Swiss air and rescue) helicopter.
They built it to try out different configurations for the equipment, and for the rescuers to practice on, before they were sent out on real missions.
We were here for a good 30 minutes, while everyone took a turn being pilot, and flying on rescue missions in their heads. To keep the kids occupied that were waiting for their turn to fly, there was a table set up with a Playmobil ambulance and airplane.
You had to take the injured person from the mountains to the hospital using different routes, depending on what the weather was like. The kids loved telling each other which route to take, and made sure no one went the wrong way. Alexandra had a hard time sharing the ambulance, but we eventually got her to let the other kids use it as well.
Then we went on to the space section. Color me embarrassed, but I had no idea that Switzerland even had astronauts, much less a space program. Apparently, they do! They don't send up own rockets, but they have a whole center where they train astronauts and send them on joint missions with America and the Russians. Swiss astronauts spent considerable time on the Mir Space Station, and there was some cool memorabilia in this room of that time. The kids liked the spinning carousel, designed to help you feel what g-forces feel like. :)
There was also a whole section on flight and airplanes with two different simulations of what it felt like to be on of the Wright brothers on their airplanes. That was definitely a favorite with the kids as well. In fact, they all went on it more than once, which was okay, since there weren't any other kids waiting to go on it at the time. This was the high tech version, which was more like a video game.
The other one was much simpler, but just as fun. You laid down on a large trampoline, suspended from cables in the roof, with a circle in the middle. You placed your head over the edge, so you could watch the monitor placed in the floor which was showing footage from a plane flying. The gentle motion of the swaying trampoline, combined with the pictures, really gave you the sensation of flying. Very cool.
By now, we had already spent so much time in the museum, that people were getting hungry, so we went outside to have our picnic. There was also a restaurant you could eat in, but they had a few picnic tables set up for thos
e who chose to bring their own food. Eating outside gave the kids a good chance to scope out the rest of the museum offerings, and decide what they wanted to do next. First, they decided they did NOT want to go on the bungee-jumping type ride, but that going back inside to the media center sounded good. It had been closed for a private party when we first arrived, but was now open for the public.
That was really fun, aside from the typical surly Swiss man running the thing, who had let the power go to his head just a wee bit. No trip like this is complete without at least one tongue lashing from some know-it-all who has to point out every little thing you have done incorrectly. Apparently, we went through the entrance that was only for people in wheelchairs, although I made a point of going back and looking to see if this was actually marked anywhere. No, it wasn't. But thanks for the lecture, dude!
They had a mini radio station set up, where the kids could mess with all the volume/bass/etc buttons and pretend to broadcast their own radio show. There was even a big microphone where "guests" could perform for the audience. We tried to record it and listen to it afterward, but apparently, we pushed a wrong button somewhere and it didn't work. :( No worries, though, because next we got to make our own tv show.
They had a large monitor set up, where you could choose from several different backgrounds, and styles of tv show. Behind us was a large green screen, and a platform you could stand on, if you were too short for the camera. There were several green aprons hanging on a hook that the kids could use to make themselves disappear, if they wanted. The whole thing was recorded, and then it would play on a continuous loop on one of the large monitors in the entrance hall. The kids had such a blast watching themselves on real television! No sound, of course, since there were several other people's movies playing at the same time, but it was still pretty exciting. After they had finally had their fill of seeing themselves on the screen, we headed back outside.
The older kids were excited to go ride the bicycle/go-kart things, but discovered that it was an actual driving course, and they would need to wait a few minutes until the next course started. Luckily, right next door was a giant construction playground, complete with wheelbarrows, shovels, and tons of rocks!
They were completely covered in gravel dust by the time we were done, but they had so much fun digging around in the dirt and pretending to build roads and buildings.
While the oldest four took their driving course, the younger kids and I hung out on the bench watching them, and had a snack.
When they were finished, each child was issued a "driver's license" that looked pretty close to the actual thing, along with a coloring book and a pack of colored pencils. Pretty cool!
After that, it was almost time to go. I had only had enough spare change to pay for 5 hours of parking, and we only had 30 minutes left. I gave the kids the option of staying longer, after I got some more change, but they decided they were pretty much ready to leave. Of course, then we went to the maritime portion of the museum, and they quickly changed their tun. Too late now, kids, sorry.
First, they all raced against each other on the rowing machines, then we checked out the recreation of an engine room on a large ship. One of the kids discovered the magic button that set off the boat whistle, and proceeded to push it several times in a row, to the delight of the children, and the consternation of others, I'm sure. On the top floor, there was the coolest marble pathway setup that I have ever seen. We stood there mesmerized for at least two complete rounds, but finally tore ourselves away to climb in and out of several actual cable cars set up on display. There was also a miniature cable car you could send up and down the Alps, so fun!
All over the museum, there were mannequins set up in very lifelike situations. Some were sitting in airplanes, or hanging from helicopte
rs. Others were lying in boats, pretending to hunt ducks, or standing on the prow of a boat "steering". So, when we walked past a display of the inner workings of a canal boat, we weren't fazed by the two mannequins standing there, "repairing" it. Until, of course, one of them moved and scared the living daylights out of me. Seriously, they had been standing so still, staring at each other, I honestly thought they weren't real. Also, it shows how lifelike the other mannequins had looked. The kids and I got a big laugh over that, once the initial shock wore off.
On our way out the door, as everyone was excitedly talking about all the cool things we had done, I decided to ask about year passes for just this museum. Yes, they had them. Yes, our admission for the day could be counted towards the price of the pass. So, we are now annual pass holders, and the kids can't wait to come back with Papa and show him all the cool stuff they discovered.