Re: Viennese whirls - now upto part 3 (prater)

[caffeine_demon]

Well - I've finally got around to writing my vienna trip report!

Day 1: Schonbrunn palace and see what else happens.

As it was my birthday, I ordered breakfast on the plane.



The flight with Austrian was very nice - Lots of legroom and a tasty schnitzel to boot! Only thing was I paid for a window seat.

And could only see a few clouds! :drinking:

Landed and had a nice early hotel check-in (Hotel was a bit dumpy), and headed out to the schonbrunn palace, via the naschmarkt for lunch - dozens of food stalls - all closed - a quick google search said that this was because it was actually a bank holiday - corpus christie, and on a thursday... Ended up in a little cafe having goulash soup (yum)

Then on to the schonbrunn palace - I was thinking of spending an hour or so, and then heading off back to the prater.

They were really lovely gardens, and there was a free concert by the Vienna philharmonic orchestra, so I spent the rest of the day there. have some pics!







Beautiful signage - I guess it was just for the concert!


Also splashed out on the maze and labyrinth


Loved the labyrinth which had some cool interactive stuff, like this

what's that - why it's climbing chiming poles of course!

wobbly boards and water features

musical stones

mirrors

and stepping stones


headed up the hill to the gloriette:


Great views on the way up



even better at the top


What a nice city!



Had dinner and got set for the concert


The concert was excellent!

let's finish day 1 with another kind of selfie!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Re: Viennese whirls

DAY 2 - Family park

thinking that the friday would be a quiet day, I had a bit of a lie in and arrived at the park at about noon.

I went via a nice coffee shop in the train station

served with a nice little ice cream - yummy!

Incidentally - Wien Mitte/Central bahnhoff, IS NOT THE HAUPTBAHNHOF (this added another hour to my journey there)!!

However - as thursday was a bank holiday, most schools also had the friday off - and I arrived to an absolutely heaving car park.. on the way to the entrance, there were another couple of heaving car parks, SO i was getting rather nervous about getting everything done.

Headed straight to Goetterblitz (seems I didn't take many pictures) - the queue was only about 10 minutes - and it was actually a great little coaster with some nice pops of air - certainly better than the one at Europa park! Had another couple of goes before moving on to the insanely well themed air meeting at 30 minutes the queue was the longest of the day - but I got some good spins in.

Theming throughout the park is exceptional - pics just don't do it justice. - After lunch I headed to Rattenmuhle via the goat pestering zone.. The rat coaster was another great family coaster.

They have this cool silhouette playing in the loading station
[youtubevid]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAUuYLCpmU8[/youtubevid]

I took some pictures of the fairy tale area




They have some very german signs on the toilets!



Cute bunnies:


Porn pigs:


I got a selfie with a cow

and for some reason, a photo of my feet

 

[caffeine_demon]

Re: Viennese whirls

Days 2, 3 and 4 - Vienna Prater

Obviously the main reason for the trip was the prater with the newly installed olympia looping. I did the rides here over 3 evenings.

got there on the first evening and tried to get one of the prater cards, which give a small discount on the rides. it seems NONE of the ticket booths sell these, I got directed to a couple of info offices, with no luck, and then lead down a dark pathway, before giving up!

I love these places with lots of rides crammed in, carnival style!


before I talk about the coasters, I'll start with a mention of the best ghost train ever!

PSYCHO HOTEL!

An oldschool style, utterly modern, totally fab dark ride. Makes brean's look tame!


And these tv screens at the exit are cool too!

and now it's COASTER TIME!
firstly - olympia looping, which had been on my bucket list for a while!



classic schwarzkopf - super smooth, lovely intensity - great ride, even if the otsrs have a little tendancy to squish!

I'm not going to do the others in the order I rode them, so here goes.

wilde maus

A standard Maurer wild mouse layout - decent fun!

and on the subject of wild mice:

They have 3 spinning coasters!
Dizzy mouse is a ghastly reverchon spinning mouse - I skipped it and saved a few euros for rerides on the decent stuff!


Insider is a nice enough indoor maurer spinner


and masquerade is an indoor gerstlauer - and a little gem, short but so so sweet!


and talking of indoor coasters: Zug des manitou

was as +1 as they get!

and talking of +1s - the race was spiting!


and talking of spite, hochschaubahn becomes "stopped"schaubahn at night...

Glad I rode it the day before - A nice fun little brakeman coaster

Every carny park needs a crummy pinfari!


I also skipped the ghastly volare


but megablitz was actually fun enough for a reride:


I rather like boomerangs:

and this one had nice restraints:


There was also the little kids only coaster
https://rcdb.com/3139.htm

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Other notable rides included:

2 big wheels - the old school one, and the blumenrad

so called because it looks bloomin rad all lit up!

Horror house - a reasonable scare walkthrough


this rather strange indoor bounce tower thing:



about 12 dark rides including this ghost train near megablitz

simple and oldschool - but one rather nice effect which was worth a reride to see how it was done

and 2 original dark rides, for the nostalgia!

(seems to close earlier than the rest of the park)



a plethora of fun houses


etc...

star flyer


flats galore:


AND SAUSAGE THEATER!