If you are coming down to Birmingham to do your shopping or to visit the Frankfurt Christmas Market, why not pop by to the Winter Skate. They are open for a limited of time only, until 5 January 2014, every day from 10 am to 10 pm. This morning, we were all so excited to don our ice skating boots as the children had never tried it before and it had been over 20 years ago that Mr C and I were last on the ice.
Winter Skate is located at the Centenary Square, beside ICC and the library. We had parked our car at the NIA car park and the parking fee is reasonably priced. We paid £6.80 for 8 hour of car parking and the pay and display machine takes both cash or credit card. The only downside of the car park is that it is not suitable for wheelchair user/pram as there are no lift.
We walked passed the ICC building before we reached Winter Skate. The box ticket office is close to the road on Broad Street. It is very easy to find them. We arrived at the ticket office 5 minutes early but had to wait till 10 am before they officially open. Once we got our tickets, we exchanged our shoes for the skates (included in the ticket price). The shoe size starts from size 8J to 15. Once we all had our skates on, I left my bag at the locker for £1. As there are a lot of families with young children, Ms C and Mr K were unable to use the penguin skating aid.
Once we were on the rink, there were two marshals helping anyone who had fallen over or in trouble. They were very quick to attend to anyone who needed help. There were also two first aiders standing around the exit to assist anyone or even give them a helping hand to move across.
All four of us clung to the barrier for quite a while. Ms C was very scared to skate as this was a new experience for her. She gave up skating after 10 minutes on the rink. So daddy C went to the resting area with her.
Mr K was keen but every few metres, he fell! Everyone was very helpful or careful when they skated around children. It took me 20 minutes before I had the confidence to skate properly. Soon after, we found a penguin aid for Mr K. The penguin aid helped Mr K feel confident enough to skate by himself. I also found it easy to help Mr K to skate along with him using the aid.
The ice rink is at least two basketball court sizes in area. In the middle there is a Christmas tree surround by a square box. The Ice Cafe is located next to the ice rink which serves food and drinks throughout. If any friends or family members are not keen on skating, they can sit there taking photos for you. It get quite busy especially during the overlap of each of the hourly sessions.
Mr K and I had a great time skating. We love that this is so unique as the rink is outdoors and there are always help when we needed it. We then went to do some shopping at the Frankfurt Christmas Market and bought a lot of yummy snacks like nuts and doughnuts! It was a great day out! So if you are around that area, do pop by for an hour session! It’s a great workout and maybe reward yourself with a delicious hot chocolate or German beer as a reward?
Disclosure: We have received complimentary tickets for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own.