We started the day the right way, by availing ourselves of the vast breakfast buffet at the hotel. I had some pancakes the size and shape of pikelets, with unidentified jam (there were no labels on the jars), plus a couple of croissants and a bacon and sausage bun. I also had a bit of fun with the fresh juice presses and managed to get myself at least 2/3 of a glass of orange juice that I made all by myself! RJ went more traditional, and made a nice cup of tea to have with his cooked breakfast.
Down the hill was the Big Loop, one of the rides we didn't do yesterday. It's a good old fashioned steel coaster by Vekoma, which was built the same year I was born! Oddly it seemed less rough than Limit, the Vekoma SLC we'd ridden the day before! I'd read online that the trains used on it were ones from the old Corkscrew at Alton Towers, though I can't necessarily verify this. They did look similar though (and were just as bumpy and hard!)
Suitably warmed, RJ then managed to chill my spirits by somehow persuading me to go on Scream with him. This is a very high Intamin drop tower. Now, as I may have mentioned, I don't like drop towers. It's not the drop bit I mind, it's the really high bit at the beginning. This is why I don't mind rides like Disney's Tower of Terror or Mystery Castle at Phantasialand - you can't see how high up you are, so it doesn't matter. This ride, however, was built on the top of the tallest hill in the park. You can see for quite a long way, and you can very much tell how high up you are. I didn't like the idea of it at all and it showed. Unfortunately it was a walk-on, so I had no time to protest (though I definitely tried!)
Around the other side of the park, a ride we'd missed the other day was the Grottenblitz - the park's powered mine train ride. It was fairly short, and comprised a few outdoor helixes followed by a quick spin through an indoor cavern with some horse figurines inside, for some reason. It was all right, but the Runaway Mine Train at Alton Towers beats it easily, and the Colorado Adventure at Phantasialand would knock it dead by breathing on it, if rollercoasters could do that.
Another double ride now - Desert Race. We tried a first run at it and didn't manage to get anything decent on camera (RJ's head was chopped off, for a start) so went round again, and with a careful bit of "would you like to go in front?" managed to get ourselves into the front row. It turns out the ride is a whole lot more fun from that viewpoint, and we got a much better photo that time round, despite the sun coming out and making us squint.
We took advantage of the sunshine to go and ride the rapids - the Mountain Rafting ride was a fun experience that reminded me a lot of the Alton Towers rapids. As it was quiet we got a boat to ourselves, and for the first time ever managed to be facing the right way when it came to the photo point! (In every park so far, it's always taken the photo when we've had our backs to the camera. Always.) However, when it came to claiming the photo, the camera had chopped RJ's head off. The operator was able to reposition the photo for the print, but for some reason the online version still has him decapitated.
Next to the exit we could see the "How to Train Your Dragon" area (called something unpronounceable in German), which was a nicely themed children's ride area. But we're big kids, so saw no trouble in riding the Himmelsstürmer (the same lie-down roundabout model as the Avatar ride at Movie Park) and then I talked RJ into coming on to the Drachengrotte boat ride. I must admit I've never seen the How to Train Your Dragon film, so had no real idea what was going on, but hey. There were glowing eyes in caves and dragon eggs and stuff, so, you know, dragons, yeah?
On our way towards the park entrance to look in the shops, we passed the Wildwasserbahn (that's Log Flume to you and I) and decided to do that too. It reminded me a lot of the Alton Towers one before it was bathtub-ised and then ultimately closed for demolition, only this one is slightly shorter. Still good fun for a giggle.
We reached the shops and didn't really find anything of interest - we'd wanted some Flug der Damonen t-shirts but at this stage in the season all they seemed to have left was size XL, which was no use at all. Disappointed, we wandered outside to try to find somewhere for lunch. One downside to visiting on quiet days is that not all the food outlets are open. Having eaten a lot of sausages in the past few days we instead made for the Pirate Burger stall in the middle of the park, via a quick swing on the Bounty pirate ship on the way.
The burger place was busy and fairly slow to get served, and the cashier was unsure about taking RJ's staff discount (and got someone in the kitchen to ring a supervisor who told them that yes, Madame Tussaud's is a Merlin attraction...). To be fair for a fast food burger it was reasonably good and especially with the staff discount, not too expensive.
To let the food digest, we had a slow stroll back over to Krake, with the reasoning that it's a smooth and not too twisty ride, so whatever food we'd eaten would probably stay down. (As old hands at this theme park malarkey, we're fairly concrete-stomached as it is). It was a lot of fun - so much so that we ended up getting another photo, despite this now pushing us over our photo-pass limit!
Somehow I persuaded RJ to come back on the Big Loop with me, as I was loving the nostalgic feel to the ride. The ride host spotted RJ's Smiler t-shirt and seemed pretty impressed, which was nice. The staff in general were very friendly (despite our limited German) and the next section showed this.
We'd popped over to the area called "Land der Vergessenen", which Google Translates suggests is something along the lines of "Land of the Forgotten". Other than Colossos (which was hard to forget, being massively tall and disappointingly inoperative), there was a circle of flat rides. I decided we should tackle them in order, going clockwise.
First up was Breakdance, which, as the name suggests, was a Huss Breakdown. Alton Towers used to have one of these, known first as the Astro Dancer, then as the Dino Dancer and finally Dynamo. Either way, you sit in 2-person cars mounted on arms on top of a domed platform, and when the ride spins, so do the arms, and the cars sort of swing/spin. It's fast and quite fun, that's all that matters.
El Sol next door was a bog-standard Enterprise (though it already started on something of a slope), and Aqua Spin we'd already done the previous day. Huracan was a new ride for me, though a very old one in terms of ride technology - the ride is a circular disc with high walls, and you stand against the wall and for some reason put a bit of rope across the front of you, as if that's going to help. The ride begins to spin quite fast, and the centri-whatever forces stick you to the wall as the disc tilts up in the air. It's quite good fun.
Continuing our journey clockwise we would have hit Lady Moon next, but it was mid-cycle and the operator in the cabin pointed over to the next ride - Magic. I'm still not entirely sure what this was meant to do, but it was like one of those fairground rides where you sit in 2-person cars, with 3 or 4 cars on the end of each arm of the ride, and the arms lift you up into the air while they and the cars spin or at least move from side to side. It was quite odd. The operator was friendly, and as we were the only people on the ride, he told us that at the end of the cycle we should signal if we wanted him to send it round again. While my tolerance of spinny rides is pretty good, it just wasn't the most exciting ride in the world, so after two cycles we got off and went back to Lady Moon.
Lady Moon seemed to be the bastard offspring of an Enterprise and the "Magic" ride we'd just done. Similar sized cars were mounted onto a disc, which spun while the cars also part-rotated. It was oddly disorienting, and we managed a double cycle of that as well. Eventually however, we staggered off onto the final ride of the area - La Ola, the chair swing. Pretty much the most universal ride of the trip - nearly every park we've visited so far has had one!
At this point we checked the time and realised it was 4.30pm, and with the park closing at 5 we wanted to ensure we got to re-ride our favourites. So it was a fast walk around the lake to Krake, which thankfully had no queue so we were straight on, followed by Flug der Damonen again. By the time we'd got off all the rides had closed and it was time to head back to the hotel.
After a quick shower and change it was time to pop out on some errands. I'd somehow managed to forget to pack nail clippers, despite going out of my way to get some out before leaving home, and my nails (despite being cut just before we left) had grown into claws which were being annoying and catching on things. So I'd checked and in the nearby town of Soltau there was a drugstore open til 8. Also open til 8 was the Designer Outlet village which we'd originally planned to visit yesterday before remembering it was Sunday and that since German opening times make no sense, it was closed.
On our way into Soltau, however, we hit a problem. The road through the town centre was closed due to a fire (by the amount of smoke, quite a big one). Thankfully we followed a side road and found somewhere to park, and were able to walk in and find the shop I needed. Having made my vital purchase we drove out to the outlet village where I'd been saying I wouldn't buy anything...
Four t-shirts and some trackies later...
Trying to decide where to eat was difficult, neither of us had many ideas, other than RJ mentioning ordering Domino's as a joke. Having ascertained that no, Domino's don't deliver to this area, we did Google some local pizza places, and set off back into Soltau to attempt to find one. We ended up back in town and went for a walk around the high street to find the highest-rated one we'd spotted online. No idea where it was as we never found it - instead we went round a corner to find a large sign saying "pizza", and settled for that place instead. It was a fairly basic restaurant so we decided we'd rather order it to take away and have it back at the hotel instead.
The pizza was actually pretty decent (and much cheaper than the hotel buffet!) and meant we could just relax afterwards. Or indeed, write really long blog posts.
| The scores so far | |
| Favourite Coaster | Taron, Phantasialand |
| Least Favourite Coaster | The Bandit, Movie Park |
| Favourite Non-Coaster | Tower of Terror, Disney Studios |
| Least Favourite Non-Coaster | NYC Transformer, Movie Park |
| Best Food | Europa Park |
| Worst Food | Disney Explorers Hotel |
| Most Idiots Smoking | Parc Asterix |
| Best Theming | Disneyland Park |
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