Because I get ridiculous amounts of holiday time (all paid; thank you British tax payer!), I decided to travel around and mince about for a while before I met up with everyone for the Dutch Live.
The first stop was Amsterdam for 4 days. I'd never been here before, so wanted to give myself enough time to see the city properly without feeling rushed (in other words, to be able to go out at night and wake up to do tourist **** in the afternoons).
I found the "hotel" (in reality a few rooms above a bar) easily enough. It was a **** hole, but it was relatively cheap and the location was perfect: right behind Dam Square and a 10 minute walk to the train station.
Some pictures of the hotel and surrounding area to break up the writing:
The canals are really nice, but confusing at 3AM, after only being in the city for a few hours, and slightly intoxicated. It was a good night though. There was a fab bar called Prik one street over from my hotel. It closed at 1 (tuesday night, very quiet), but a couple of the bartenders invited me to go with them to some other bars in a different area. Getting back was where the "confusing" aspect comes in.
Anyway, Dam Square is probably really attractive when it isn't ruined by a tacky fun fair (no Credz before you ask).
Opposite the hotel was this amazing-looking shopping centre:
And a couple of streets/canals over was this big church and a house that's famous because some girl wrote a diary there or something:
Have a few more random canals etc. pictures:
Just south of the city centre is the museum area. I didn't go in any of them because they were a bit expensive, and the main one only had a few rooms open because of renovations anyway. The area itself was really nice though:
I think it was on this day that I ended up doing the dungeons as well. I wasn't going to bother with it at all, but I'd already seen the city, passed it accidentally anyway on the walk back to my hotel, had a flyer for a few euros off in my bag, and it was closing soon after as well.
No pictures unfortunately, but it was pretty good. I haven't been in any other of the Dungeon attractions to compare it, but it was all really well done I thought. The coaster was rubbish as just a coaster, but as a whole attraction was enjoyable enough really.
I really liked Amsterdam, apart from the other tourists there unfortunately. It's a really nice, fun city, and the locals are great: really friendly, chatty, easy to hang out with etc. It's just a shame that so many of the people visiting are just there to get stoned. Nothing wrong with that necessarily (it would have been rude not to really), but a few of the people there ended up really pissing me off.
I'll never understand why people can't enjoy pot, yet still wash their hair and avoid dressing as if they're homeless. There's nothing "cool" or "dangerous" about spliffing up in an Amsterdam coffee shop where it's perfectly acceptable and Mommy isn't going to catch you.
Then there was the stupid Greek bint who seemed nice enough at first, but soon decided that I was personally responsible for the fact that half of the Parthenon is in the British Museum. She didn't seem to be placated by the fact that she's allowed to come and see it for free anytime she wants. Gamoto skeela!
Right, onto the parks!
On my last day in Amsterdam, I decided to go to Duinrell and Drievliet as a day trip. After asking people who'd been before (driving, but still), I figured that I should be able to do both parks in the same day, and that turned out fine.
Getting to Duinrell involved a train and two buses. The train part was easy enough, but I was a bit worried about the buses to be honest, since Duinrell isn't a final destination, isn't directly on the bus route and involved a bus transfer on some random street and not an actual bus station.
Anyway, it turns out there was no need to worry at all. Even though they were going through the middle of nowhere, the buses have screen information/announcements for every stop (like the buses in London basically), and the drivers speak perfect English and are very helpful.
After getting off the bus, it's a short walk down this road,
and after about 5 minutes you get to the entrance of the park. I arrived about 10 minutes before opening, with about 30-40 people waiting to get in.
The park's lovely. It's actually more of a campsite with a small amusement park and water park attached. I wasn't interested in the water park at all, so just bought an "attractiepark" ticket. They have a good system where you can buy tickets for both parks separately, a combination ticket for both parks, or you can upgrade your attractiepark ticket by "adding on" time at the water park: an hour, two hours etc.
Onto some of the rides then. They had this "tea tray" thing, which was fun, but didn't have the risk of wetness that Oakwood's has. There's only a basic layer of water at the bottom to reduce friction; you don't actually skim over the top of it.
Upcharge (stick a euro in the slot) boats on ropes
which are NOT A CRED! I did both sides anyway because I haven't actually been on one of these before.
The water park:
Predictable chair swing thing, which I didn't bother riding:
There are only two coasters here. Though rcdb reports that there's another under construction, there was no sign of anything going on anywhere. The smaller coaster is a kiddy Zierer thing.
It's the same coaster as Catwoman's Whip at SFNE, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train at SFGA, Treetops at Oakwood etc.
Although it's a small park, the rides are nicely themed and the setting in the forest is really nice. The thrill rides here were a regular top spin and frisbee, and there was a water chute thing with an option of a wet or dry boat. The dry boat has a glass roof on it; it's the first time I've seen one of these outside Japan.
The "dry" boat is still open at the back though, so if you sit there (like I unknowingly did), you still get a soaking wet arse and back.
The major coaster here is "just" a eurofighter, the same model as Rage at Adventure Island and that new Bear Rug coaster in the states.
Personally, I've never had an issue with Eurofighters (except one that was to come later inn the trip maybe), and I actually quite like them. This one was really good. It looks lovely in its setting, has an attractive colour scheme that makes it fit its surroundings and is a really smooth ride as well.
There's a good headchopper at the end as well, when the train passes under the wing of the plane, flown by Duinrell's frog mascot.
Along with Rage (and perhaps Mystery Mine), I'd say this was the most reridable of the eurofighters I've tried, and I got 4 goes on it before I decided that was enough. The location gives it a bit of an edge on Rage though. Even though it's the exact same ride, it feels less "plonked" to be honest.
The best thing at the park though is probably their toboggan things.
There are two tracks (I did both, no discernable difference), they're pretty long and you get some really good speed on them. On the first go I actually banged my shoulder and nearly came off on one of the corners.
It's one of the versions that you get a "full circuit" on, as you sit in it before it goes up the lift hill.
Still NOT A CRED, though I did both anyway to boost my NOT A CRED count. It's probably the best toboggan ride I've done after the one at Everland (which was spited to make room for T-Express). You can walk up to the top of the ride as well, where there's an observation platform to look out over the surrounding countryside.
About two hours here was enough time for me to ride what I wanted (skipped the frisbee and top spin even though they were walk on), get a few rerides on Falcon and have a decent wander around. Luckily, the park was really quiet, so I didn't feel like I had "rushed" the place for a basic cred run.
To get to Drievliet I had to get on the same bus that had dropped me off and continue on to The Hague. At the bus stop, in the middle of nowhere, on a quiet suburban street (see the picture at the beginning of the Duinrell part of this report), two African guys were in the process of getting arrested. The police asked me what I was doing and told me I shouldn't be hanging around until I pointed out that we were all standing directly underneath the bus stop and I was waiting for a bus.
They kindly moved their whole drama about 10 feet away from the bus stop, and after telling the police officer to "talk to me in **** ing English you **** ing bitch", the African gentlemen were bundled into the car and driven away.
I got off at The Hague station
and had to get on a tram to some unpronounceable place outside the city, following the road signs after I got off. If you cross this, you're going the right way:
Continue through the scenic industrial estate,
and you reach the (empty!) park:
I'm convinced there must be another tram stop at the other end of the park somewhere (there was another exit I think), but the website sends you the way I tried. It's not difficult, just a bit of a faff really.
The area around the main entrance was really, really quiet. They've been doing some rethemeing work to the rides in this area. They looked ok, but pretty cheap really. The area itself still seemed a bit run down and empty to be honest.
So far, I wasn't impressed at all. However, the back end of the park is a lot nicer. It seems that most people agreed with me, as it was also quite a lot busier as well. The rides were all still basically walk-on though, with a few 5 minute waits thrown in.
The first coaster was Twistrix, a really piss-poor spinner. There was a bloke with two small kids waiting in front of me, and he asked me if I'd ride with one of them. Not a problem, and resulted in a pretty decent spin.
Twistrix is in a farm-themed area, which had this AMAZING barn thing. The tune to Old McDonald is playing, and as you press buttons around the barn, the animals (cow, pigs, geese, chickens, cat, dog, sheep, goats) and machinery join in with the song.
Next up was Formule X, the launched X-Car coaster. The only other X-Car I've been on is G-Force at Drayton, which I absolutely **** ing despise, so I wasn't looking forward to this. It's actually really good though!
The launch is decent enough, not brilliant but good for a small coaster. It's a smooth ride as well. It is really short though, which wasn't an issue when the park was so quiet as I could get plenty of rerides. There's an infuriating custom theme tune as well, which, to be fair, is nice to see from such a small park.
I'll just stick a few more Formule X pictures in here:
Some other random ride pictures including the ghost train, which wasn't bad at all really. Been on better, been on worse.
The other two coasters are right next to each other and both share a "mine" theme. The first one I tried was the powered mine train.
It was themed really well, even if the whole mine theme is a bit lazy and overdone, and was pretty decent for the ride type.
The other coaster was a basic wild mouse coaster. No better or worse than all the others basically.
And that's it!
Drievliet is an ok park really. The back end of it is actually really nice; it's just let down by the tired area around the entrance. They are in the process of addressing this though, which is great. There was construction going on around the area, so hopefully the individual rides' themeing isn't the end of what they're trying to do with it.
After the park, it was back to the tram to get back to the station, followed by an incredibly easy train ride back into Amsterdam for a final night out there before the next stop on my trip, which I will hopefully put up soon.
Sorry this wasn't a Thorpe/Alton/Chessington/Blackpool report, and that you've had to endure pictures of coasters you may not have ridden, but feel free to comment since this has just taken me two **** ing hours!
The first stop was Amsterdam for 4 days. I'd never been here before, so wanted to give myself enough time to see the city properly without feeling rushed (in other words, to be able to go out at night and wake up to do tourist **** in the afternoons).
I found the "hotel" (in reality a few rooms above a bar) easily enough. It was a **** hole, but it was relatively cheap and the location was perfect: right behind Dam Square and a 10 minute walk to the train station.
Some pictures of the hotel and surrounding area to break up the writing:
The canals are really nice, but confusing at 3AM, after only being in the city for a few hours, and slightly intoxicated. It was a good night though. There was a fab bar called Prik one street over from my hotel. It closed at 1 (tuesday night, very quiet), but a couple of the bartenders invited me to go with them to some other bars in a different area. Getting back was where the "confusing" aspect comes in.
Anyway, Dam Square is probably really attractive when it isn't ruined by a tacky fun fair (no Credz before you ask).
Opposite the hotel was this amazing-looking shopping centre:
And a couple of streets/canals over was this big church and a house that's famous because some girl wrote a diary there or something:
Have a few more random canals etc. pictures:
Just south of the city centre is the museum area. I didn't go in any of them because they were a bit expensive, and the main one only had a few rooms open because of renovations anyway. The area itself was really nice though:
I think it was on this day that I ended up doing the dungeons as well. I wasn't going to bother with it at all, but I'd already seen the city, passed it accidentally anyway on the walk back to my hotel, had a flyer for a few euros off in my bag, and it was closing soon after as well.
No pictures unfortunately, but it was pretty good. I haven't been in any other of the Dungeon attractions to compare it, but it was all really well done I thought. The coaster was rubbish as just a coaster, but as a whole attraction was enjoyable enough really.
I really liked Amsterdam, apart from the other tourists there unfortunately. It's a really nice, fun city, and the locals are great: really friendly, chatty, easy to hang out with etc. It's just a shame that so many of the people visiting are just there to get stoned. Nothing wrong with that necessarily (it would have been rude not to really), but a few of the people there ended up really pissing me off.
I'll never understand why people can't enjoy pot, yet still wash their hair and avoid dressing as if they're homeless. There's nothing "cool" or "dangerous" about spliffing up in an Amsterdam coffee shop where it's perfectly acceptable and Mommy isn't going to catch you.
Then there was the stupid Greek bint who seemed nice enough at first, but soon decided that I was personally responsible for the fact that half of the Parthenon is in the British Museum. She didn't seem to be placated by the fact that she's allowed to come and see it for free anytime she wants. Gamoto skeela!
Right, onto the parks!
On my last day in Amsterdam, I decided to go to Duinrell and Drievliet as a day trip. After asking people who'd been before (driving, but still), I figured that I should be able to do both parks in the same day, and that turned out fine.
Getting to Duinrell involved a train and two buses. The train part was easy enough, but I was a bit worried about the buses to be honest, since Duinrell isn't a final destination, isn't directly on the bus route and involved a bus transfer on some random street and not an actual bus station.
Anyway, it turns out there was no need to worry at all. Even though they were going through the middle of nowhere, the buses have screen information/announcements for every stop (like the buses in London basically), and the drivers speak perfect English and are very helpful.
After getting off the bus, it's a short walk down this road,
and after about 5 minutes you get to the entrance of the park. I arrived about 10 minutes before opening, with about 30-40 people waiting to get in.
The park's lovely. It's actually more of a campsite with a small amusement park and water park attached. I wasn't interested in the water park at all, so just bought an "attractiepark" ticket. They have a good system where you can buy tickets for both parks separately, a combination ticket for both parks, or you can upgrade your attractiepark ticket by "adding on" time at the water park: an hour, two hours etc.
Onto some of the rides then. They had this "tea tray" thing, which was fun, but didn't have the risk of wetness that Oakwood's has. There's only a basic layer of water at the bottom to reduce friction; you don't actually skim over the top of it.
Upcharge (stick a euro in the slot) boats on ropes
which are NOT A CRED! I did both sides anyway because I haven't actually been on one of these before.
The water park:
Predictable chair swing thing, which I didn't bother riding:
There are only two coasters here. Though rcdb reports that there's another under construction, there was no sign of anything going on anywhere. The smaller coaster is a kiddy Zierer thing.
It's the same coaster as Catwoman's Whip at SFNE, Blackbeard's Lost Treasure Train at SFGA, Treetops at Oakwood etc.
Although it's a small park, the rides are nicely themed and the setting in the forest is really nice. The thrill rides here were a regular top spin and frisbee, and there was a water chute thing with an option of a wet or dry boat. The dry boat has a glass roof on it; it's the first time I've seen one of these outside Japan.
The "dry" boat is still open at the back though, so if you sit there (like I unknowingly did), you still get a soaking wet arse and back.
The major coaster here is "just" a eurofighter, the same model as Rage at Adventure Island and that new Bear Rug coaster in the states.
Personally, I've never had an issue with Eurofighters (except one that was to come later inn the trip maybe), and I actually quite like them. This one was really good. It looks lovely in its setting, has an attractive colour scheme that makes it fit its surroundings and is a really smooth ride as well.
There's a good headchopper at the end as well, when the train passes under the wing of the plane, flown by Duinrell's frog mascot.
Along with Rage (and perhaps Mystery Mine), I'd say this was the most reridable of the eurofighters I've tried, and I got 4 goes on it before I decided that was enough. The location gives it a bit of an edge on Rage though. Even though it's the exact same ride, it feels less "plonked" to be honest.
The best thing at the park though is probably their toboggan things.
There are two tracks (I did both, no discernable difference), they're pretty long and you get some really good speed on them. On the first go I actually banged my shoulder and nearly came off on one of the corners.
It's one of the versions that you get a "full circuit" on, as you sit in it before it goes up the lift hill.
Still NOT A CRED, though I did both anyway to boost my NOT A CRED count. It's probably the best toboggan ride I've done after the one at Everland (which was spited to make room for T-Express). You can walk up to the top of the ride as well, where there's an observation platform to look out over the surrounding countryside.
About two hours here was enough time for me to ride what I wanted (skipped the frisbee and top spin even though they were walk on), get a few rerides on Falcon and have a decent wander around. Luckily, the park was really quiet, so I didn't feel like I had "rushed" the place for a basic cred run.
To get to Drievliet I had to get on the same bus that had dropped me off and continue on to The Hague. At the bus stop, in the middle of nowhere, on a quiet suburban street (see the picture at the beginning of the Duinrell part of this report), two African guys were in the process of getting arrested. The police asked me what I was doing and told me I shouldn't be hanging around until I pointed out that we were all standing directly underneath the bus stop and I was waiting for a bus.
They kindly moved their whole drama about 10 feet away from the bus stop, and after telling the police officer to "talk to me in **** ing English you **** ing bitch", the African gentlemen were bundled into the car and driven away.
I got off at The Hague station
and had to get on a tram to some unpronounceable place outside the city, following the road signs after I got off. If you cross this, you're going the right way:
Continue through the scenic industrial estate,
and you reach the (empty!) park:
I'm convinced there must be another tram stop at the other end of the park somewhere (there was another exit I think), but the website sends you the way I tried. It's not difficult, just a bit of a faff really.
The area around the main entrance was really, really quiet. They've been doing some rethemeing work to the rides in this area. They looked ok, but pretty cheap really. The area itself still seemed a bit run down and empty to be honest.
So far, I wasn't impressed at all. However, the back end of the park is a lot nicer. It seems that most people agreed with me, as it was also quite a lot busier as well. The rides were all still basically walk-on though, with a few 5 minute waits thrown in.
The first coaster was Twistrix, a really piss-poor spinner. There was a bloke with two small kids waiting in front of me, and he asked me if I'd ride with one of them. Not a problem, and resulted in a pretty decent spin.
Twistrix is in a farm-themed area, which had this AMAZING barn thing. The tune to Old McDonald is playing, and as you press buttons around the barn, the animals (cow, pigs, geese, chickens, cat, dog, sheep, goats) and machinery join in with the song.
Next up was Formule X, the launched X-Car coaster. The only other X-Car I've been on is G-Force at Drayton, which I absolutely **** ing despise, so I wasn't looking forward to this. It's actually really good though!
The launch is decent enough, not brilliant but good for a small coaster. It's a smooth ride as well. It is really short though, which wasn't an issue when the park was so quiet as I could get plenty of rerides. There's an infuriating custom theme tune as well, which, to be fair, is nice to see from such a small park.
I'll just stick a few more Formule X pictures in here:
Some other random ride pictures including the ghost train, which wasn't bad at all really. Been on better, been on worse.
The other two coasters are right next to each other and both share a "mine" theme. The first one I tried was the powered mine train.
It was themed really well, even if the whole mine theme is a bit lazy and overdone, and was pretty decent for the ride type.
The other coaster was a basic wild mouse coaster. No better or worse than all the others basically.
And that's it!
Drievliet is an ok park really. The back end of it is actually really nice; it's just let down by the tired area around the entrance. They are in the process of addressing this though, which is great. There was construction going on around the area, so hopefully the individual rides' themeing isn't the end of what they're trying to do with it.
After the park, it was back to the tram to get back to the station, followed by an incredibly easy train ride back into Amsterdam for a final night out there before the next stop on my trip, which I will hopefully put up soon.
Sorry this wasn't a Thorpe/Alton/Chessington/Blackpool report, and that you've had to endure pictures of coasters you may not have ridden, but feel free to comment since this has just taken me two **** ing hours!
