The kids have been seeing billboards all over the city for Tramway Tag, which sounded like just the activity for us (more specifically, Oliver). He was so excited about it that he ripped out an advertisement from the newspaper and grabbed a flyer at the train information center when we were already on the way there!
I really didn’t know what to expect since I have never been to a Tramway Tag before. I am so glad we went! There were a lot of older trams on display which we got to go inside, explore, and sit down in. At the public transit museum you can see the old trains, but not go inside, so this was very exciting for the kids. They liked seeing the older trains and how they are different from the new ones. There were also really neat electric train setups inside the building along with a “vintage flea market” selling old electric trains, tram numbers, old bus schedules, and all kinds of memorabilia for trains. Poor Oliver saw so many amazing things he wanted to get, but I wasn’t willing to spend $250 on lego trains or $300 on electric trains. It might have been slightly tempting though. There were a lot of really neat train sets.
This was also an event that got the kids excited to do normal everyday things by themselves as many times as they wanted. They got to “purchase” train tickets and stamp them at all different stamping machines. The machines were open so you could see the mechanical workings while you stamped. There was also a ticket printing machine that you see on the trains that was open on the side so you could watch while your ticket was being printed. My kids love train tickets, so this was all super exciting and this would have entertained them for hours if there were not other children waiting.
It was also fun to see how entertaining “old” phones are for children. They loved pretending to call people on all the old emergency phones. I think I need to get an old phone for my house. Who knew the phones of my childhood were so entertaining?!?! It was pretty great hearing the kids talk about the “antique phones”.
There were train workers handing out really fun postcards with paper cutouts of trains that could be punched out and folded. The kids all loved those and had fun making them and playing with them. Then we discovered a bounce house shaped like a train and a fun station where there were coloring pages and puzzles that the kids could do to receive a “present”. The present was awesome – they got stickers, train tattoos, bubbles, yoyos, and candy. So many fun kinds of public transit memorabilia! Oliver was in heaven! They had a fun old bus the kids could pretend to drive as well. Elora found a face painting station and there was a button making station that the kids really liked.
There was even a public transit puppet show station! Seriously, this was so amazing! The kids put on a great puppet show about a train with rocket boosters that accidentally took off and landed on top of the Donauturm.
After collecting so much fun memorabilia, the kids were excited to take a picture in front of the awesome building where the Tramway Tag took place.
Marion had a really hard day. We had to get off the train on the way to the Tramway Tag because she was getting really mad and pushing Oliver. She fussed because sometimes she wanted to see what was at the stations and she was too small to see and wasn’t allowed to push other people out of the way. She was upset because I went to stand by James and Oliver when I was supposed to sit by her while she colored. She wanted a chocolate and I told her to walk over to get one with Elora since Elora knew where they were handing them out. She was angry if anyone looked at her funny, said the wrong thing, or if I took three steps away from her. We only stayed because Oliver was so excited and really the kids had a great time that was only a little bit marred by Marion’s day.
When we went to the park she had to sit by me instead of going to play until she was ready to apologize for the final meltdown she had as we were leaving the Tramway Tag. She sat in my lap calm and quiet. It was a strange moment after the day we had. I tried to ask what was wrong, but I am not sure she knew. She was just having a bad day. We finally got out her bubbles that she got at the festival. She had a beautiful fifteen minutes of blowing bubbles and running after them, and wasn’t even upset when she spilled some bubbles and had to be finished playing. I love this ball of fire. I am also so grateful for those bubbles. The rest of our park playtime was fun for everyone with no tears or complaining when it was time to go home. Maybe Marion just needed to be away from crowds and alone with Mom and her bubbles. Some days are like that.
As we left the park Oliver saw an old train drive by with people on it! So we headed back to the festival and ran into our friend who lives nearby. As we chatted, we spotted the station where the old trains were coming from and realized that anyone could hop on to ride! Seriously, this was such an exciting moment for the kids! We ran to the stop and hopped on an old train, complete with an old time conductor who gave us historic train ticket replicas and we rode to Schottentor on the train (not towards home…) The kids were so completely in awe of this amazing experience the whole time they were on the train. I am actually amazed at how excited they were, it was the perfect end to our day.
Here are the kids in front of the old train we got to ride. Oliver was talking about how cool it was the rest of the evening. We had to walk home from Schottentor because for some reason our trains weren’t running and then the kids did not want to wait for the bus and chose to walk instead (so weird. They all chose to walk, that never happens). We stopped for ice cream and then enjoyed a short trip through the flea market that was going on in the street by our apartment. We must have walked a lot because during story time James asked me to put him to bed and he fell right to sleep. We loved Tramway Tag! This was the perfect festival for our public transit loving children.
