dolls

To the Lineaushof today with the crew. A stinking hot day (by my standards) usually results in massive crowds, but today being Mother's Day it was mercifully quiet. The Lineaushof is Europe's largest playground and is furthermore remarkable for the fact that none of the attractions are mechanical, meaning that every 'ride' means manual labour. You want to make the merry-go-round go around? Start pushing. Want to enjoy the view from the cable cars? You've got to pedal your fat arse around the place yourself! It all makes for a heavy physical afternoon not helped by the weather, but a nice day out for everyone (we managed to knock nearly 6 hours out of it).

The Lineaushof was originally a botanical gardens with a small playground to keep the kids entertained, but following a change of ownership in 1945 the balance has been subtly shifting in favour of the more money-generating (and let's face it, more interesting) playground. The last flowers were chucked out back in the sixties, the former hall where the prize exhibits were kept now an indoor playground. And it's from this indoor playground that today's Blip comes.

Looking around the place for interesting pictures, tucked away in a corner I found what looked like a puppet show in a big glass case. There was a mishmash of puppets in the case, all done up in a sort of gaudy 50's paint-style. Quite possibly using radioactive paint (as was the norm in those days) which perhaps explains the case. For 20 cents I could bring this merry collection to life, but 20 cents is a bit steep I feel having already been fleeced to the tune of 66 euro for the six of us to get in. At the very least this particular display should have been free. So instead I took lots of pictures. All of them free.

My son was watching me take the pictures, amazed at how a grown man could be in any ways entertained by the junk in the box.

"ah son, you wouldn't understand"

I was right. He didn't understand. I was halfway through my lengthy and oft-recited monologue about how "when I was your age this was all we had for entertainment" when I looked around to see where he was. He was no longer standing beside me. He'd long ago run off and was in the bumper cars with his sisters. Ah well.

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(iPhone 4 with Hipstamatic)