Zurich - Rainy Day Activity

Glass Labryinth at Hergiswil (c)Mums:Tots:Zurich Blog

The first time Geraldine ever visited me in Switzerland, it was a September, she had glorious weather. Sunshine, blue sky, high temperatures – it couldn’t have been better. And, of course, it was never like that again on any subsequent visit.

So, we had some rain during her stay, but I did have some wet weather activities planned. Somehow, it’s always the children’s stuff that sounds the most fun and I got the suggestion of going to Hergiswil glass factory from a mother’s blog on rainy day activities for children (sorry, Geraldine!). Her blog is actually a far better guide to the factory than mine, actually, so do visit her site if you’re interested.

The factory is located right by the lake, so I imagine on a sunny day it would be really spectacular. It is located close to the Hergiswil train station and was well signposted. It’s a bit confusing when you get there because there’s a museum and then there’s the factory exhibition and there are arrows pointing in two directions.

It was a bit disconcerting when we first arrived because we were told to wait to one side while everyone else went in – apparently it was the next “sitting” which was going to be in English and the others were all German speakers. However, there were lots of people still milling about and we were scared (or I was, at any rate!) of missing our correct time to go in since we were totally reliant on the woman serving at the desk (who was busy).

But all was well and she signaled to us as to when to go  in. The tour was quite clever with doors suddenly opening out of nowhere after each historic scene played out before you, and you just had to hope that you were going to the right place each time. It felt a bit Indiana Jones-ish! They are very proud of the fact that they still use the hand-blowing methods, which is presumably part of the reason for the cost of some of the items.

We were able to watch people making items with the glass afterwards, although the area for the finer aspects of design was closed, so we didn’t see any engraving or animals being molded, etc. My ticket included the cost for blowing my own glass bauble, but the queues for this were long and were clearly primarily meant for children, so I skipped this in the end.

I agree with the mum’s blog that the best bit is the glass maze. You have to pay a small fee to go in and you have to wear slippers and gloves (provided) and leave your bags behind at the desk. You enter through a darkened door and then you find yourself in this maze of mirror and glass walls. Your aim is to come back out of the door that’s just next door to the one where you went in. It’s still fairly dark inside and I’m sure that when they change the lighting, some of the glass turns into mirrors and some of the mirrors turn into glass. You have to feel your way round gently as you can’t tell where the glass ends and a corridor begins.

I didn’t even think to try to get out, actually, as it was fun groping about. In the end, Geraldine spotted a father who she thought knew what he was doing and we followed him to get to the exit. My spatial awareness isn’t very good, so this isn’t the sort of thing I’d do well at anyway, but it was a lot of fun.

There were lots of other games to do with glass as well – from hitting the glass to see what sounds it made (I only noticed half-way through my enthusiastic hitting of it that they warned you not to do it too hard!), distorted mirrors, prisms, etc. Because it was raining, we didn’t do the massive “Kugelbahn” outside where you can buy marbles and roll them down the chute and they go through a whole massive obstacle course. That would also no doubt be a lot of fun.

There’s a seconds shop and a shop with premium quality items, so plenty of shopping opportunities too, if you want them. All in all, it makes a good rainy day activity for children and adults alike!