The wife and I have just left Blow Up Hall 5050, which (depending on your viewpoint) is either the classiest or most pretentious luxury art hotel in Poland – so we're feeling a bit aloof and sophisticated and thoroughly grown-up as we barrel down the autobahn.
- But if there's one place on Earth that could knock just about anybody off their high horse, it's our destination. Sitting right on the Polish-German border, Kulturinsel Einsiedel (which translates as "Culture Island") is a giant, lovingly handcrafted fun park where childish adventure rules the day and creature comforts are left … well, to the creatures.
We're here to stay in the Baumhaushotel, or Treehouse Hotel, but first we have to make our way there, which is a little more difficult than it looks. Our English-speaking guide Ulrike Konrad explains, "what looks like the short cut is never the fastest way here" as she leads us through maze-like bamboo channels, over rope bridges and ladders, and through underground tunnels to the back of the complex. Word to the wise: don't bring your oversized suitcase on wheels. Your correspondent was not wise in this regard.
The five hectare Island (it's not actually an island) is the brainchild of one man, explains Konrad: "The founder of this place is called Jürgen Bergmann. He started off as a forester, but then he learned the craft of … let me think how to say it in English – like wood carving? Specifically in the way of being an artist, like big sculptures and stuff. Sculptures for playgrounds all over the place. He also had an exhibition of all his playground objects, and every time people visited, even if they were just passing by, they were playing with those things. So he finally decided, let's open up a park. It grew from just being a farmhouse to being an area of five hectares."
She points at a purple tower – the Zauberschloss, or Enchanted Castle: "See that on top? It's an antenna. It's supposed to make people who grew accidentally into adults – it returns them into children." And with that we're going in an oddly-shaped wooden door, up a claustrophobic spiral staircase, across a balcony, down a tube slide in pitch darkness into an underground cave, before finally popping back out, completely disoriented. "The tunnels are really fun," says Ulrike, "especially when there's lots of guests and everyone gets stuck in the middle."
There's no such thing as a right angle at the Culture Island, yet every piece of wood fits perfectly against the next, and structures often weave themselves in with the landscape and trees. It boggles the mind how the Island’s craftsmen can work with such organic shapes.
"In the shared living complex, there’s a horse, and donkeys, and a buffalo – they’re housemates,” Ulrike points out as we cross a high and narrow wooden bridge. "And over here, this is a hot tub, you can light a fire underneath and take a bath. We call it the cannibal pot."
Finally we reach the Treehouse Hotel, and it’s a marvel in itself. There are nine tree houses in total, connected by a series of ramps, walkways and platforms built into and around the tall trees. Everything is hand-carved in a precise yet ramshackle style that defies photography but feels quite magical. Some houses sit around 10 meters off the ground, others are higher, and there’s a conveniently located tunnel slide at one end of the complex if you want to take the express route down.
Source: Gizmag
