At the end of January, Ljubljana got its first Family center located in the city center. Since the opening and reading all about it, I’ve been really excited to visit. Finally today was the day. We went to test this new city playground called Mala ulica (meaning Little Street) and designed as Ljubljana. You have one Small street and on each side miniature buildings, so if you look closely you are bound to recognize some of them. There is also a coffee house, a labyrinth and a padded little space just for babies. I warmly recommend it. If you have pre-schoolers this is the place to visit next time you are in these parts.
Lovely space, great ideas and as family friendly as it can get. Love the fact there is no shoes allowed in the playroom area. I could let Tesa crawl around freely and she did. She loved every minute of it and Stela was beside herself. She played in the playground designed as a house, with a small properly equipped kitchen, a bedroom and all the other rooms one has at home. She immediately found a baby doll and put her to bed, then bathed her in the little tub and by the time she wanted to make her dinner, we had to get back home for our afternoon nap.
Tesa discovered a lovely labyrinth where she could crawl to her heart’s desire and while one of us watched the two of them, the other could actually read a bit of newspaper or have a cup of coffee. Trust me, this is the best place I have seen so far for a relaxing cup of coffee. Since kids can run around everywhere and the whole room is small enough to keep track of them without having to follow them around, you’d be a fool not to take advantage of it.
We were also just in time for the story telling. Climbing to the first floor, we discovered a small library with comfy seats, where a nice young lady read us a version of Little Red Riding Hood. The book she had was amazing in itself as it was a wonderful pop-up and it was great to look at it while listening to the story. Kids thought it was truly magical. I had to of course look it up the minute I got home. La caputxeta vermella by Louise Rowe. It’s in Catalan, but it doesn’t matter because just the pop-ups tell the story good enough for everyone to understand. And I think all of us know the tale pretty good.
We had two hours of really relaxing fun. No tantrums, no shouting, no accidents – just a good time. The only down side I could find with the whole thing was that it could get crowded pretty quickly and then it’s probably a hassle. We got there as soon as they opened and there was already enough kids and parents – so I gather late afternoons might be a bit too overwhelming. Otherwise a welcome novelty for our city.
This is the Family center’s website to check out all the details: http://malaulica.si/.
More on how to spend an afternoon in Ljubljana:
