Day 2 of our Billund adventure was spent in Lalandia's indoor water park. Lalandia is a resort. I think it's made up of residences, sort of like timeshares, that people own and then visit or rent out It has a huge facility with restaurants, an arcade, sports, and an indoor water park. Because Denmark is chilly, even in the summer.
As we spent the day in swimsuits, I didn't take many pictures. Even without photo evidence to prove it, I contend that the boys had a great time. This day of our vacation was Alex's favorite one. If Will and Alex were to select a vacation on their own, they would spend it floating around on a lazy river all day. Of course, Lalandia had more to offer than just a lazy river. It also had a wild river.
Lifeguards
I have taken the boys to a waterpark before. Last August/September, we went to Soak City at Knott's Berry Farm. In the wave pool, there were about 6 lifeguards. At the top of each water slide, there was at least one lifeguard on duty who was providing instructions and making sure everyone was the proper height for the ride. There were bunches of lifeguards around the lazy river. This was helpful for when Alex decided to put his face on the bottom of the lazy river and scrape up his nose. (Although, we still find it strange that there are no water proof band-aids at Soak City's first aid station.)
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| 2015 Lazy River + Face Incident |
In Billund, at Lalandia, there were far fewer life guards. It's as if people need to be responsible for themselves. It seems the rule is: Don't act stupid and when you do, don't sue someone for your stupidity. Lalandia's web site says,
"The whole family can swim safely at the Lalandia Aquadome, although your visit is at your own risk – safety is always top of the agenda! ...At the Lalandia Aquadome, there are always at least 3 professional lifeguards on duty to keep an eye on our happy bathing guests."Three lifeguards! For hundreds of people.
The Wild River
Back to the wild river. It's a really long water slide that starts and ends inside, but goes outside also. It is split into two parts. There is a slight pause pool in the middle.
At the top, there is no lifeguard. There are some general instructions about letting people have their space and only go feet first. Neither of these guidelines is adhered to. Here is a picture of the top of the slide. It is tricky to see exactly what is going on in the picture since there are so many people starting the slide all at once, barely spaced, sometimes two at a time.
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| Crowded Slide Entry |
This next picture shows a few things. You can see one of the outdoor pools that are part of the Aquadrome and also a hot tub. You can see that the weather was kind of windy, rainy, and cold for the middle part of the day. And, you can see just past the pool, the dark blue wild river slide and the middle pause part. At this part, you can get out if you like, or you can get in for the second part of the slide. This is one of the only places there was (almost) always a life guard. I think it's because the first part of the slide deposits you into a churning pool of water. You have to climb up to the other side of the slide to do the second part. During the busy time of the day, there can be quite the traffic jam. And when smaller kids are crashing down into the churning part of the slide, it gets a little crazy.
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| Wild River Slide Pause Pool |
The next photo is the end of the slide. You can see Alex in the green suit and Will in the orange shirt. Yes, they are not properly spaced out. Alex is about to land, feet-first, in the back of the girl in front of him. Will is about to land on top of Alex. And the kid behind them is going to complete the pile.
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| End of the Slide |
I, personally, got pretty bruised up from this slide. Whether it was crashing through the middle part or getting hit in the legs from behind at the bottom, I took a beating. The kids loved it though. They probably rode the slide more than 20 times.
This Photo
And then there was also this:
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| Consider the play of light and the angle of the "stair" dimension on the left |
I know, it looks super cool, like a modern painting that is on display in a museum. But no. In my efforts to go up and take a picture of the top of the wild river, I climbed the stairs to take the photo, then went to return down the stairs (As I could not go down the slide with my phone). This is not the correct direction to go. I slippped down about 4 stairs on my back and forearm. Fortunately I grabbed the hand rail with my right hand and held onto my phone with my left while falling. The phone thought it would be good to capture its near demise and snapped the artistic picture.
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| Resulting Bruise |
Taking vacations with kids is rough. After two days of completely kid-focused activities, we were done. It was time to get back to boring, touristy activities. Onward to the Copenhagen part of the adventure!
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