Germany TR - 6 days of fun!

[caffeine_demon]

Day 1 - Schwaben park and BONUS!!

Following an early flight to stuttgart, I headed to schorndorf to catch the bus to Schwaben park, had an hour to kill, so explored a bit

Quite a nice little town, I love german buildings!




They come in red too!!


I didn't know they made coasters with a pretzel loop!


enjoyed a coffee here


and got on the bus - about 30 minutes later, I spied something beginning with Z

yep - a Zierer!


Quite a nice little family coaster, definitely more than a +1


This pic was from my second go - you may have noticed no ride op

he was on a break! Happened when I went for my third go too

Further into the park - I spied something beginning with S

a schwarzkopf oldie - grab the kleenex!

what cute little cars!


Rode just like I expected - nice enough!

They also had another Zierer

I quite like these for some reason

Coasters done, I headed to the Bobkart

complete with posh ORP studio


It was excellent - MUCH better than Toverlands - had some good speed and a couple of airtime bumps, I took a video but will get it uploaded at home.

Final ride I wanted to do was the nautic jet

Genuinely terrifying, love em! Also did the self operated cable car.

Also indulged my inner child with the tractor ride..

featuring piggies

doing ballet

and drinking



and for some reason...

an amorous cow and farmer

Get a room...



and then did the porn ponies

complete with Aztec theme


other stuff around the park included cute kiddy water rides



with crocydiles


The seven dwarves, with a bunny


random gemoetry tools


Pedal powered ferris wheel


Goats

and an alpaca (or is it a llama)


monkeys and tigers, which I didn't photograph

The park had 2 or 3 decentish rides, but seemed rather run down - when looking for info on line I saw a comment on the conditions they keep the animals in - one of the tigers was limping quite badly.

It was pretty empty - Either the cold had kept people away, or the prevailing stench of animal crap around the whole park - even the control panel looked quite ill


BONUS!!

On the way through bad cannstatt, I spotted a big wheel and booster from the train


I thought "must be a fair, think I'll check it out on the way back. Walked down the first aisle, and thought "does that sign say what I think it says??"

it certainly did - what a ride, good length and just the right amount of spinning!

had goes on several fun houses and cool ghost trains



and then saw:


OHH YES - another great ride - don't know how they make it so smooth!

they also had a wild mouse, which I skipped

Final attraction was "!the tower"


there were spooky walkthroughs up one of the towers, a bar on the top floor, spooky walkthroughs coming down and a segway cred, which I thought I took a picture of!

Great day!

 

[caffeine_demon]

No comments yet? - shame, comments give me wood!

anyway - on with day two - Holiday park

I must have been in the vegan part of the train


I didn't see it until after my sausage and egg mcmuffin!

It's a park I visited about 7 years ago- Have to say, it's looking great under plopsa ownership!

expecting long queues later, I went straight to sky scream (am I the first cfer to ride this?), and had 3 goes in under 20 minutes.

although I was disappointed I couldn't bring the dog on with me!



It exceeded my expectations, The airtime you get at the top of the spike, and on the two drops is sensational! I can only describe it as bloody genius! The world needs more of these!

The star flyer was playing spite on my last visit, thought it was again this time

But it opened at 11am, I quite like star flyers, better than wave swingers and windseekers!

The condor was also playing spite last time - but not today - shame it was meh



the no dogs pic seemed to be on everything here, and in tripsdrill.

Also did Hollys fahrt thing

meh,+1

And then it was time for....


COKE ZERO...

No - course not, time for EGF. Last time I went, we were disappointed in egf - This time, I had about 6 goes ealy, late afternoon, front, back, middle to make sure, and still say it's very overrated - It's definitely a "front" ride, and did warm up on my later goes (front particuarly), the first two hills, as well as the bunny hops at the end are great for airtime, but I felt that the rest of the ride lacked something - skyrush, bizarro and piraten are more "complete" rides IMHO.

Before lunch I also did the drop tower

I had to do the walk of shame last time, but got on this time! good, but I prefer grona lunds, and possibly apocolypse

after schnitzelly lunch, |I paused for a filthy sounding game!


And castle Falkenstein - which was one of theose continuous moving dark rides- Now I like dark rides, and enjoy even the cheesy and crap ones, but I named this one "Castle wa*kenstein", later on they had live actors in there - which made it "Castle slightly less w*nkenstein"

The new kiddy area was very cute and nicely themed


definite sunflower theme going on


The tree has eyes!!

The area had porn grasshoppers

flower themed rides

and a restaraunt


Only complaint was single train op on egf - should be a no brainer that even in moderate queues, if you have 2 trains, you can do the time consiuming loading whilst the other train is out on the track, easily doubling throughput!

Left a little early, so I could check out another fair I spotted in heilbronn - but it was being dismantled...

Dinner was a traditional german "texan" burger with barbecue sauce at an american diner in heidelberg!

 

[Ian]

I love it....

 

[oriolat2]

Love the report so far!

Schwaben Park looks like a cute little park, but details like the putrid-looking water are a bit off-putting.

As for EGF operating one train, I have NEVER seen run on two trains. Shame, because it could easily be ridden over and over again. I blame Plopsa (and former operator) for being cheap-asses and not wanting to spend more on maintenance.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Day 3 - Erlebnispark tripsdrill.

another park I'd been to before, but without mammut and karacho.

The park itself is a bit of a burden to get to- On the monday there was one bus there and one back- as luck would have it these were both from heilbronn where my hotel was.

I arrived to see about a dozen coaches parked, and had to q for tickets behind all the drivers and teachers, was dreading what the queues would be like in the park! So I headed straight for Karacho

complete with unfinished theming



Built in 1880 apparently


The "one train" theme continued here - despite the cars only seating 8! 3 extras were lurking behind these windows here!


The ride is very good and has clamshell style lapbars instead of otsrs which is nice , for those who'd like to know about the indoor bit (I'd recommend anyone going on it soon to leave the surprise) -

Spoiler

the car travels around a u turn, and goes straight into a small (but good) drop, immediately followed by a heartline roll, into a corner and another small drop into the launch out into an airtime hill.

. The first airtime hill has nice air, along with a few other little pops throughout- The inversions are also well executed. I recommend first ride is in the back seat to keep the indoor surprises secret! front has better views though

Glory hole!


I then went to mammut where I realised my queue fears were unfounded, walk on!

there's wood chopping in the queue

Rode front and back, and did the same later - rides ok, but should have been a GCI!

next up - Gsengte Sau

I love Gerstlauer Bobsleds - 'nuf said!

and the cool log flume

with mona lisa in the queueline


Whose mum is this?


It was a nice flume too - video to follow too!

Lunch was disgusting mushroom noodles, about 50% brocolli and carrots, no sauce!!

after lunch I did the drop tower


for those who don't know its' dirty little secret

Spoiler

It violently tilts forward before dropping

Other cool stuff I did included:

WINDMILL SLIDE

And the fun house - which |I thought i took a pic of..

Maypole - outwards facing waveswinger, rather nice!


This building had ladders outside - when you climbed them, the window opened and a figure popped out and said somnething funny


But whats in the well on the right?








OMG - it's BABIES!!

random scene:


More goats


The not so good washing basket ride:



Finishing - the park had 2 "pseudo viriginia reels"..
one with parasol topped tubs


And one with barrels

(the barrel is JUST popping into view!

It's a nice park - surprisingly big and quirky with a few nice attractions and the awesome karacho!

 

[TilenB]

Tripsdrill looks quite great. I'd love to go there sometime in the near future
Great trip report so far! Keep them coming!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Day 3 part 2.

After tripsdrill, and before getting the overnight train to hannover, I popped back to the fair for another go on hollenblitz and teststrecke. - still good and I also spotted an interesting stall


VIDEOS:
Schwaben park bobkart
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dtO_vdxDU8[/youtube]
Machinery on karacho at tripsdrill
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks-9DDlC3rc[/youtube]
The karacho cars have a nice flickering rocket booster effect
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUh1cyzLrLs[/youtube]
This guy had ridden too much!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_EG73TJhaw[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLf4-LofMAg[/youtube]
Some sort of cf Mums holiday in the tripsdrill log flume!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4GJFZeYZug[/youtube]
Tripsdrills monorail - with rocking action!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Aby5EUkggs[/youtube]
The baby containing well at tripsdrill in action!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IToC3Sc9Y[/youtube]
The pseudo virginia reel!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbYQvS3_QY8[/youtube]



Train on to hannover, and DB hints!

I found the information at german train stations a bit lacking - they have big yellow posters with all the days departures, but along with the departure boards on the platforms, they don't list all intermediate stations -
egs:
http://www.zapfendorf.de/user_images/fahrplan_k.jpg
http://roter-renner.de/uploads/pics/VBB ... _Tafel.jpg
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/mdb/bahninter ... 04x176.jpg

if you use bahn.de, note down the train number (although it lists the platforms well in advance)!

However - when I went to get the hannover train, I found this


Two trains at the same time? It was actually one train, which divided en route. One good thing they do is have a little poster showing the layouts of the train
http://www.german-way.com/imagesGW/DB_W ... det800.jpg
if you look at the bonn train, it shows several coaches going to bonn, the rest to dusseldorf...

Day 4 part 1
Waiting for Darren, AJ, Tom and Neal at the airport I realised I'd never stood in the arrivals lounge with a sign, a few moments later I'd fixed that


They arrived a few minutes early and we went to serengeti park for their 2 creds - a Zierer bottom vibrator of big vibrations, which crawled over the track, and another kiddie cred, which wasn't too terrible.

then on to Heide!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Day 4 part 2.

After the crowded day on the live all those years ago, I'd promised I'd return sometime when it was quieter so I could really appreciate the place - and it finally happened, after Darren B and Tom's suggestion last year!

I knew it was a good park then, and this week emphasised that - lovely scenery

and theming,

and a decent amount of rides,



all coupled with a dollop of humor


As mentioned in the other TR - Collossos was out of action on the first day. More on the rides in the next report - but first a FOOD BREAK!

The hotel restaurant had a food challenge - finish a 1kg burger or hot dog in a roll, or a 1kg schnitzel and chips in 90 minutes, and not only is it free, but you get 50 euros as well. all options were < 20 euros

The other 4 went for the burger, I went for the schnitzel

It covers pretty much the whole plate - half of it is then covered with chips!

It was really tasty, but 30 minutes later:

STUMPED...

Oh - and breakfast had yummy green jelly!

 

[caffeine_demon]

Day 4 and 5 part 2 - HEIDE PARK

Can't remember the ride order, so I'll go from worst to best

1 - Big loop


I quite enjoyed this on the live - but it's aged horribly - The corkscrew and little drop where disgusting

2 - Limit


Didn't do this on the live - not the worst SLC

3 - indy blitz


4 - Grottenblitz
http://rcdb.com/985.htm#p=26910
MAck powered coaster - meh

5 - Desert race
http://rcdb.com/3617.htm#p=19673
I prefer rita - just feels a bit snappier!

6 - Schweizer bobbahn

http://rcdb.com/984.htm#p=1819
Bigger than avalanche, but what's with the lift hill into the station?

7 - Krake

NOM NOM NOM


I liked the immelman and airtime hill, but for the drop, nothing beats oblivion!

Sexy splashdown though
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hwgCkSv6pI[/youtube]

8 - Flug der daemonen

Better than Swarm, although there is a nasty rattle in some seats at one or two points

9 - Colossos
Having been down all day on the live, except for one go at the end of the day I was really looking forward to this - It was down all of the first day for it's yearly safety inspections (why they can't do that in the off season, I don't know), and down at the start of day 2, At about 11, we saw the train running, and a superzoom on my camera confirmed there were peeps on it!



It was just as good as I remembered - lovely airtime throughout, and extremely comfortable - Had about 7 goes, the back gives better airtime on the first drop, front goves that nice "pushing over" feeling on the airtime hills, and Middle actually gave a really good ride!

Other rides:
SLIDES:

The long straight one has rollers inside, and that's a snake and not a dog turd coiled up....

Screamie:


Darren seemed to like it!

Scream:

My new favorite drop tower

Also took some pics from the monorail


OW!



TUNNEL!!!


BONUS LOG FLUME REMAINS!!!
Seems they left a few bits of the old log flume behind (spotted by Neal)

 

[caffeine_demon]

Final day - Freizeitpark plohn

The final night in Halle an der saale, and last day in plohn was my first time in what was East Germany- There is a big difference in the train stations, etc.

Lengenfeld was lovely

Ticket office

waiting room


I can assure you it isn't abandoned


A little warning about the park - They don't take Visa, and there's no cash machines handy! I had just enough for entry, lunch and the bus back, but had to miss out on tat!

First up had to be el toro!



It's a great little coaster - Delivers those lovely pops of air you get on most new GCIs, just in a slightly smaller package! All parks should have one!

The train was FLYING around the track later!


Other coasters:
Plohsidon - A Zierer, Quite a nice kiddy coaster


Is this Darren humping the mast??
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJuNCE9OK8I[/youtube]

Silver mine - Zierer flitzer - Loved the one at bakken, this one's tamer - presumably due to the different cars


New york / Big apple coaster


And working on the new mack powered coaster


Lunch was Steak, chips and ratatouile for 7 euros - obviously not tgi quality, but tasty anyway! Beer was cheap at less than 2 euros!!



Other stuff:
Geistermuhle - a ghostly walkthrough thing - managed to be crap, but awesome at the same time



More goats:

Deer:

Donkeys:

SHARK!!:

dinosaurs


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y2NyaksS-U[/youtube]
Nessie:



Rapids:

Chuckle:

Mini tower

teeny car ride:

Mini waveswinger
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nW52b9_xBY[/youtube]
How long before you notice they aren't real??

Pinocchio

Fairy tale sheds

Complete with unrealistic sounding wolf
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzb4Bzawz18[/youtube]

Last of all - GOON FRIENDLY PLAYGROUND / funhouse thing


With slides

Tunnels

Ropeladders

Cool stuff to climb


and funhousey bits


Phew!!
Hope you enjoyed!