We eschewed the quite frankly expensive breakfast at the hotel and instead popped to the bakery next door where we purchased some croissants, as well as some rolls for lunch. We then visited Netto, both to purchase some ham and cheese to make our lunchtime sandwiches and to deposit our empty plastic bottles in a whizzy machine - the deposit refunds from which saved us €1.50 on our purchases.
Back at the hotel we checked out and got on the road. It was a very long road, leading us from the north of Germany over to the Netherlands, and not much that was interesting happened. RJ and I switched driving duties every hour or so.
There were a couple of long stretches of roadworks, including one fairly hair-raising contraflow where the outside lane was barely much wider than the car, and with lorries on the inside lane often right up to the line and a fixed metal barrier on the other side, it took severe concentration to get through it, especially when said lorries were a bit wobbly. Cruise control definitely helped here - fewer things to concentrate on.
I was also surprised that what seemed to be one of the major east-west routes across the country was only a 2-lane motorway. With the inside lane an almost constant stream of lorries there was a great deal of congestion every time one overtook, and traffic in the opposite direction had several large jams - thankfully our side managed to avoid this on the most part.
Our lunch stop was taken shortly before the border into the Netherlands, where I decided to fill up with fuel. This proved to be a good decision - petrol in Germany turned out to be around 30¢ per litre cheaper! Roads in the Netherlands were much the same as the German ones, even down to the road signs being similar. Despite varying amounts of congestion we made decent time and eventually arrived at Efteling around 4pm.
The park itself was open til 6pm, and the friendly receptionist at the hotel gave us our 2-day tickets along with our room keys. The room is rather more luxurious than the Ibis we stayed in yesterday, with two double beds, a large wardrobe and a bathroom with an actual bath!
Having dropped our bags in the room we proceeded out to explore the park. The hotel guest gate brought you into the park in the middle of a kids' play area. We took a path through the woods to see what we'd find. On the lake in front of us were some boats, and in the distance we could see rollercoaster tracks. The first ride we came across, however, was a rather large and detailed pirate ship. Of course we had to have a go on that!
The next stop was something rather familiar - a Vekoma steel coaster, with an identical layout and colour scheme to that of Big Loop at Heide Park. In this case it was called Python, and it had one key difference - the trains (vinyled with a snakeskin design) had had new restraints fitted, similar to those used on B&M flying and wing coasters, where you are held in by neoprene straps and have wider-spaced bars to hang onto should you wish. This made it a much less uncomfortable ride, as you had nothing to bash your head against and were held in securely in the twists. The ride was popular - even on this off-peak day they were running both its trains full.
Moving along, we found the GCI wooden duelling coaster Joris en de Draak (George & the Dragon) and just had to have a go. It has two tracks - Water Dragon and Fire Dragon. Trains are released simultaneously and race around the track, with the winning train getting its banner unfurled both at the winning post and in the station. We rode Water Dragon first, and had our second surprise of the day - unlike some of the wooden coasters we'd ridden on this trip it wasn't rough at all. There was none of the horizontal slamming into corners that we'd had on rides like Bandit. The only annoyance was the seemingly pointless seatbelt you had to wear, which went across both riders - there were individual lap bars as well, so the belt seemed redundant! We went back round and rode the Fire Dragon, which lost its race (I didn't notice which won on the first circuit!) Outside the ride was an enormous animatronic dragon, which was a very nice touch.
The water coaster De Vliegende Hollander was nearby, and we'd seen its main drop from the previous ride. The entry way was through an imposing themed building full of barrels and rope, as well as a sailors' bar. You make your way through the queueline into a double-sided station, where 16-seat boats load and unload on one of two platforms, which made throughput pretty rapid. The boats were heavily themed as old wooden vessels, with a lantern on the front. This proved very useful as we went through the indoor dark section thick with fog, before being surrounded by stormy weather effects as we approached and ascended the lift hill. At the top, doors opened exposing us to the daylight outside, and we dropped onto a section of rollercoaster track which circuited an area behind the ride building before taking us up to a block brake in a tower structure. We knew what was coming now - a drop down towards the lake, and over a small bunny-hop into the water, with a light splashing similar to that on a log flume. The boat then made a leisurely circuit of the lake and back into the station. Interestingly the boats were at no point actually floating - they ran on a track on all the water sections!
The station building itself is a high-ceilinged Victorian factory type affair. You board the ride shuttle, which like Krake has 3 rows of 6 seats, and are then taken forward into a room where projections of the White Ladies fly around the walls and music plays. From there it's onto the nicely-themed lift hill, and up to the top where as is customary on this type of coaster you're held for 3 or 4 seconds over a the misty mouth of the mineshaft, before being dropped vertically into it. The ride then goes through an outdoor section including two inversions, before returning to the station. The outdoor section feels longer than that on Krake, and despite it having a smaller drop the theming is very good and overall it felt rather nicely done. The orchestral soundtrack added to the ride experience.
By this point it was now 6pm, closing time, but there was one more thing to experience. At the end of each day, Efteling put on a fountain show on their large lake, involving lights, water and fire effects. We found ourselves a spot by the water's edge and settled down to enjoy. Which we did. A lot. It was very nicely done - the whole thing lasted around 15-20 minutes, with fountains and lights timed to various pieces of familiar classical music, and it was spectacular. We'll definitely be back to watch that one again tomorrow!
After a quick browse in the (now heaving) gift shop, we headed back through the park to the hotel guests' exit and up to our room, where we attempted to decide what to have for dinner. The hotel restaurant didn't have the world's largest menu, which was proving a bit of an issue for RJ who wasn't overly taken by any of the choices.
Back in the room, I ran a bath. Or rather, I put the bath on to fill, and about half an hour later it had finally got to ankle-deep - the tap wasn't the fastest thing in the world. However, a nice bubbly soak listening to the News Quiz on iPlayer was a pleasant way to relax!
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