Birmingham Airport, UK

Our New Year's trip to Rome started with a flight from Birmingham Airport, which was one bus and one train ride away from our Yorkshire home. We took an early bus to Leeds so we could catch an early train to Birmingham. We arrived around noon and had a yummy lunch at the airport. We also saw signs for the children's play area, which we went to right after finishing our food. Well, J and L dragged Mommy off while the rest of us finished our plates. (We traveled with some friends).

At the play area, the first, most obvious thing to play with was the large foam blocks on the padded floor. J wasted no time turning them into his favorite activity--an obstacle course!

Birmingham Airport's best feature

Ninja Warrior at BHX play area

The kids also wasted no time taking their shoes off, which led to unfortunate consequences. Inside a large, igloo-like tent was the promise of some light show or other fun. L raced in, not realizing the floor was slickly-polished wood. Her feet got out in front of her and she landed on her back, smacking her head into the slickly-polished wood floor. She cried for a bit but was soon okay.

Rainbow Pod...of Doom!!!

Just outside the rainbow pod was an interactive quiz where J was matching flags and cities to countries. He didn't do too well on his own but soon had help.

Where in the World?

Call a friend!

Just beyond the world quiz was the largest tablet computer ever, on which many different games could be played. In one, players had to put the planets back in order from the sun outwards. Another game matched animals to their natural habitats. A third was really tough, with balls connected by lines that overlapped. The goal was to arrange the balls so the lines didn't overlap. Quite tricky, I can see why a tablet app version hasn't taken off like an Angry Bird.

Hardest game won!

Another even tougher game was Buzz Wire, where players had to move a small ring carefully along a metal tube without touching the tube. I tried twice and was unsuccessful.

Dexterity required!

The play area was a great way to kill some time waiting for our flight to take off, which it soon did. The flight was uneventful and our cab took us to our apartment in no time at all, so all was well getting to Rome.

Sadly, this was the only playground we visited on the trip. Rome just doesn't have a lot of playgrounds near the famous sites. We only saw one playground on our adventures and that day was rainy so we couldn't play. Hopefully next vacation will work out better for the kids.