What’s that, you say? A fun family evening with ice skating, ice bumper cars, an animatronic polar bear and food and drink too! Yes please, that will do nicely!
And that’s exactly what we enjoyed with a family visit to Winterland at Propyard in Bristol, where the Christmas spirit has arrived in a big way. We’d been to Propyard on a number of occasions before, most recently for the excellent Van Gogh experience, while the venue will also be showing all of the World Cup games on Bristol’s biggest indoor screens.
This time, however, we were there to skate… Well, I say skate – while my wife and children were set to glide effortlessly around, I was destined for more of a ‘hang on to the side and try to fall over too often’ role. With plenty of parking available along the road outside, we were soon inside and swapping our shoes for bright blue ice skates, fastening them up as tight as possible without losing feeling in our toes and then doing that ice skate tottering walk towards the ice.
For our visit, the rink was pretty clear and my more talented skating offspring were soon off and away. For youngster skaters there were special twin bladed skates available, while the real littlies could make the most of the sit-on dolphins so that you can push them around while holding yourselves up at the same time. Now we’re by no means regular skaters – it’s generally a once a year thing around this time of year – but straight away we loved this rink, with the fresh ice not covered in pools of water, meaning that if or when you fall over, you’re not immediately drenched to the skin.
While my lot sped off, I followed the dad in front of me who looked not a lot better but good enough for me to learn the basics from a safe distance, meaning that soon enough I was looking less like a gazelle on rollerskates and more like Christopher Dean in leg braces. Around me, there was plenty of laughter and selfies being taken, with the super friendly and far too good at skating rink team making sure good order was kept and anyone who took a tumble was quickly helped up again.
OK, no, it’s certainly not the biggest rink around but that’s alright, everyone seemed to be loving it. And by the time we needed a rest, the second treat of the evening was starting – an amazing animatronics polar bear called Bjorn. While the show was aimed the younger children, a crowd of all ages soon gathered to see Bjorn wander on to the stage, meet the crowd and generally prove that we can all be charmed by cute technology.
This was also a great chance to find out about the life of polar bears, including what they like to eat and what to do if you encounter one, which could be useful for a night out in Clifton.
Then it was time to join a short queue for the ice bumper cars, which were pretty much impossible to control but loads of fun. With four cars available at a time, we were soon desperately trying to bang into each other without going into a super fast pirouette which the kids loved while it made me glad I hadn’t eaten since lunchtime.
Finally, we decided to indulge in the Bratwurst and chips (the vegan variety is certainly to be recommended) on offer, along with a hot chocolates (other drinks are available) and a choice of puddings. All in all, this was a most excellent evening out that the whole family enjoyed and successfully put us in the Christmas spirit. Now, all we need is a little Slade and Mariah Carey, and Christmas is indeed here again.
To find out more about Winterland and to book tickets, go to propyard.co.uk/events/winterland/