Even though it's blowing a gale outside and pouring with rain from heavy grey clouds – the Luisenpark has a jungle atmosphere in its botanical glasshouse. A gigantic climbing dome, eight metres wide and four metres high, with ropes as thick as upper arms, swinging wooden ladders and rocking tubes are an invitation to a journey of adventure – and it's all in the cosily warm exhibition hall, without umbrellas or down jacket. This winter playground is opening its doors until 28 March. And park manager Joachim Költzsch has already made a promise: "From mid-April, the Explorer Dome is moving to an outdoor site."

Swinging from rope to rope like Tarzan, climbing along a swinging path in the centre of the network, or simply relaxing in the play shell and watching the others charging about: "This is simply superb equipment for this age group," says Christiane Thomas, teacher of class 2a from the Pestalozzi School, who yesterday was invited to try out the new course in advance. Daring to try new things and sparking enjoyment in sport and movement: "That's all part of school education," affirmes the teacher.

All that just leaves Mia cold, as this eight-year-old and her friends have thought out a really hot game: "We are mermaids and hot lava is flowing everywhere and we can only touch it really quickly otherwise we'll get burned." Lava? Really? "No, only in our game," reassures her friend Bianca: "It's actually just sand."

Thank heavens that the boys in her class are already equipped with buckets and spades from the Freizeithaus activity centre. They want to build a city of towers from the "lava" right next to the jungle.

And those who now believe that climbing is child's play could be mistaken. After all, parents are warmly welcome not only on the benches around the steel structure but also in the middle of the jungle.

(Article from the „Mannheimer Morgen“ newspaper dated 28.01.2012
Text by Christine Maisch-Straub
With the friendly approval of Mannheimer Morgen Großdruckerei und Verlag GmbH)