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Indoor Tropical Island
fons writes "The huge construction dome of the now bankrupt zeppelin maker CargoLifter, has been turned into an indoor tropical island. For about 20euro a day you can swim in the sea, take a walk in the rainforest or go to a beachparty. While it is snowing outside, it's a always a pleasant 25C on the island. And there are no tsunami's. It's bigger than Biosphere2 (it fits the Eiffeltower) but there's less sunlight. Would you spend your vacation in there? The Germans don't seem to be very eager."
The thing I like about travel is getting a taste of a different culture - calypso music, new kinds of frozen cocktails, ethnic food, historical sites. Whenever I go on a trip I always stop at a museum or two. Climate and scenery are not all there is to a vacation. So this is definitely not for me.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
I was imagining some sort of technical marvel like the Truman Show set with realistic looking sky, sun rays, jungle you could get lost in and most importantly an actual island with water all the way around (i think thats still the definition of an island?). Instead I see something that looks like a cross between a sports hall, a tacky cruise liner and some kind of theme park but without the rides. The whole thing looks very dark and dead, they atleast need retina-burning spotlights or something to hide the ugly structure? The jungle is just a load of trees with a linear zig-zag paved path! and I bet they won't let kids climb the trees for safety reasons, if I was 8 I would be pretty pissed off.
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They've had something like that for ages:
http://www.gluckman.com/IndoorBeach.html
I really think the biosphere 2 people got it wrong by trying to recreate all the various biomes of the Earth in one building. That, and the whole issue with the concrete reacting with their atmosphere says to me that they really didn't plan very well. I'd like to see someone try to make a contained ecosystem that is engineered with the sole purpose of keeping some humans alive and comfortable. I wonder how many species of plants and animals would be necessary for such a thing.
It seems like it could be a lot simpler than what Biosphere 2 tried to do, and a lot more likely to be successful. It would also be beneficial in helping us figure out what we'll need for long-term space missions.
Germans ain't got no beach. So what if they've now 'got one' in a bubble, it still ain't no beach. That said, its still frickin' cool
And
[If it weren't for my perfect German job, I'd be back home on the beaches tomorrow, sheesh..]
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
i've been there last thursday for about four hours. At that time, about 5.000 other people did the same. On some days between the holidays, the dome had to be closed due to overcrowding (max. 7.500 people at the same time). The visit was the birthday present for my girlfriend (together with a musical visit later that day).
The dome is extremely impressive. The size dwarves everything i ever seen before. I'm familier with large halls (productions sites) due to my connections to AIRBUS, but those are much smaller. The Statue of Liberty would fit inside the dome upright. The mentioned Eiffel tower would fit only if laid down. The tropical feeling suffers from the size. Only lower 10m (30feet) contain some tropical stuff (houses, plants, pools), the remaining dome looks still industrial. It seemed a little dark to me, i would have prefered more and warmer light.
The temperature inside is as warm as advertised. Both pools were overcrowded and queuing up was required for nearly everything (food, toilett, entry, cashier, changing cubicle, etc.). Prices are very fair. Overall rating would be a "B". There a quite a lot places to improve, but i hope the "Tropical Island" will survive.
For geeks: Every person entering the dome receives a card with a RFID chip. This card is used to pay food, drinks, etc. The RFID chip even operates the lockers (instead of a key). On exiting the dome, you pay according to the bill for your RFID card. Unluckily they had some trouble with this process. So it was up to "What did you have?" and paying what you told them.
The dome is open round the clock; i would recommend to visit it during the night, when there are less visitors (there were too many small children for my taste). You can even rent a tent for inside camping ;-).
If anyone is interested, i can add links to images and a short video later.
Regards, Martin