kinder und jugendmuseum

In the Black Forest area? Looking for a great, cheap, whole-day way to entertain the little terrors on a rainy day? Look no further than the kids museum in Donaueschingen. It's the best family friendly museum I've ever visited (and I used to work in this sector!). Located within walking distance of the train station on the whole of the first floor of the old Library, the museum is rammed full of experiments, hands on interactive displays and science curiosities which are child-proof-robust and interesting enough to engage all ages. We visited as a German speaking group with three adults and four (hyperactive!) kids aged 16 months, 6, 8 and 11 - had I known before what the museum was like we would have scheduled in a much longer time than the 3-4 hours we spent! As well as the larger displays and experiments in each room (the four rooms are divided into themes: people, technic, nature and 'room of wonder') there are shelves and shelves full of boxes, each containing more activities to do at your leisure - everything and anything from building a yo-yo or davinci bridge to finger-painting activities, 'edible t-shirts' and so on. Although we were a German speaking group and most of the info is laid out in German, there are also instruction in English on most of the displays. On the day we were there, there were both Italian, Spanish and english speaking visitors, who were being assisted by the museums staff. The staff, it must be said were great; well equipped at entertaining children, defusing tantrum situations, explaining the displays and what other fun stuff there is to do and giving multi-lingual assistance. When one of the littles in our group decided to take their afternoon nap in the middle of the room on one of the jumbo beanbags situated around the museum, the staff were kind enough to help us move her to a quieter corner off the museum and were more than happy for her to continue her snooze undisturbed.The entrance price is 3.50 euros for kids and 5 euros for adults and it's well worth the money. What's more, if you're a regular visitor to the area, you can buy a years ticket for only 25 euros and to be honest there is so much variety within the museum (with changing activities and additional workshops during the school holidays) that you could visit weekly for a whole year and still not get bored! I can't recommend this compact, well thought out museum enough and I can guarantee that even the most learned of adults will find something within this museum to enlighten or entertain.