Summer Card Day / Sommer Card Tag

Today was a Sommer Card day, using our cards for free entry into three places starting with the Schladming swimming pool in the morning. It was just as we’ve come to expect of European swimming pools: coed locker rooms, warm water, no life guards, and a variety of water features like bubble benches, water falls, and river currents. This pool was unique in that it was aluminum, so you had the sensation of being in a very large kitchen sink. They also had no lighting, other than the large windows on two sides of the very large room, and so it was a little like swimming at twilight.

By the time we were finished swimming, the weather had taken a turn for the better, the skies clearing and the temperatures rising to pleasant levels. We headed to the town of Gröbming which is an idyllic Austrian hamlet nestled between a few enormous mountains. We ended our day in the center of town playing mini golf, which like other European mini golf courses has no-frills holes and, usually, a random number of holes like 17 or 11.

The biggest highlight of the day was also the most unexpected and was our middle stop. We had seen something called Mini-Parcours in our Sommer Card guide book and since it was for children between the ages of three and five, we thought it might be worth a look. On the far edge of Gröbming the road enters a forest, and it is just into the forest that you reach the Gröbming Abenteuerpark. Actually, when you get there, all you see is a bunch of cars parked along the side of the road. But if you look up, you realize that the trees are full of people.


Apparently high ropes courses are popular here. People of all ages were propelling themselves here and there, all with helmets and harnesses and carabiners. Not even for one moment did Nikolas think this was a bad idea. “Where do I get my stuff?” he wondered, tearing out of the car and walking slowly, with jaw hanging low, completely awestruck at this completely amazing world above us.

The mini-parcours consisted of two courses, both about five feet off the ground instead of the 30 + feet for the adult courses. The beginner course with 14 stations didn’t require use of the carabiners, each challenge (tight rope, balance beam, swinging steps, etc.) within netting which was sometimes part of the challenge and sometimes simply for safety. Nikolas raced through it, examining each station first, figuring out the best way to proceed, and then crossing to the next platform as if he had been wandering around nets in trees all his life.

The second course required carabiners, as there was no safety setting. Nikolas (we) had been given a quick lesson on correct useage, always having one clip clipped when moving between stations and never unclipping yourself completely until the end, and it offered an additional challenge. The nine stations were low enough that we could help move clips around (either from the ground or from benches strategically positioned) and spot him when/if necessary, but otherwise, Nikolas was pretty much on his own as he figured out how to balance and move through space with little to hold him up.

The final station was like the sideways swings he has so enjoyed in the parks here, minus the swing, of course. Clipping his carabiners where a swing would normally go and stepping off a platform, Nikolas flew down to the earth and liked it so much he had to do it again. It was such a totally amazing place and such a totally amazing experience that Nikolas would like to do “again, and again, and again!”