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Photo TR: Tomatron's view of the TPR 2009 Scandi Trip

Tomatron

Giga Poster
...Here we go again!

Now for those of you who know me well know a couple of things: I'm awful at actually getting these things done, so PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PESTER ME UNTIL THIS IS FINISHED! That way I might actually complete it. Also, since my brilliant/disastrous fence jump at Lagunasia in 2007, I did not jump over anything on this trip. So, I'm sorry to disappoint the bloodthirsty masses but I wanted to set the record straight before we begin.

I'm gonna try to balance a few choice words with the photos. I'm not a novelist, but I have a lot of opinions that I will not not be bottling up, so if there's something you don't agree with there's probably a good reason why. I don't just say things for the sake of causing argument.

Anyway, to begin with I wasn't even going to be on this trip. My budget simply said no. But after looking at the itinerary and how things were going to work, I was gutted I couldn't join the great group of people already on the list. Then after a chance to go on the tour came up, the opportunity was too good to turn down. Thanks to some skilful manoeuvring of money, I just managed to scrape enough together to afford the trip, and I didn't have to starve or eat out of rubbish bins!

So, just two months after I was officially welcomed as a participant on the forums, it was time to make it happen. On the morning of Saturday June 6th, I set off for Manchester Airport for the start of what would become a truly memorable 16 days...



This was breakfast. Since I was flying to Copenhagen, what you are looking at is a Danish pastry. More mildy ironic captions may occur at any point during this report.
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And this is inside Terminal 1 at Manchester Airport. Like most big airports, it looks more like a shopping mall than a gateway to the skies.
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And here I am! This truly flattering photo is brought to you by...
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Coors Light! Damn, that's a light tasting beer!
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That's my flight - 10:20, BD3892. Better knock back my refreshing Coors Light made with over a century of brewing tradition!
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In Copenhagen Airport I managed to walk right past Larry and the group before I saw it was them!
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And here's our first hotel of the trip.
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With rooms checked and baggage dropped, it was time to explore.
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Here's the main sqaure in they city. The very centre is the furthest point from any 7-Eleven in Copenhagen.
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A great picture ruined by a hideous car in the foreground.
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There's lots of bars and street drinking to be had here.
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This building sitting over the harbour looked pretty cool. We didn't bother with the little mermaid because it was too far to walk to, and it's a lot smaller than you think.
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But we did past this exhibit of weird and wonderful signs, which I will put up and some point later in the report. To give you an idea of what they were like...
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...here's an example. Modelled by Larry.
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Most of the group got together later that evening and sat down for dinner at Hard Rock Freestyle Music Cafe.
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This first of many group dinners. Tomorrow, we hit our first park of the trip - BonBon Land!
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Tomatron

Giga Poster
Day 1 - BonBon-Land
Flatulent dogs were never this much fun!

Our first day of parks was at Bonbon-Land, a park which is infamous for it's crude style of humour in the form of X-rated park mascots and merchandise. It's been toned down a little since my visit with Divv last year. All of the self-operated rides have now gone, and there are some more permanent attractions filling the park, and a few of Betty Babs figures (she's the cow with the enormous tits) have disappeared. This could be attributed to the park's owners, the international group Parques Reunidos trying to turn into more of a slicker operation. Whilst I can't really complain about this, it would be sad if the park got rid of a lot of its more risque attrctions. But after my visit, I've got good reason to believe that Parques Reunidos and the management know what they're doing, and the park won't lose all sense of identity and the quirkiness that makes it what it is.

The park's big rides are all pretty solid. Vild Svinet (Gerstlauer Eurofighter) was runnign much better than the previous year, and HanKatten (Gerstlauer Spinner) with 3 people in each car was giving out all sorts of head trauma and dizziness! The new coaster for this year, Viktor Vandorm (Zierer Tivoli) has possibily the longest train in the world and covers a huge area. Amazingly this thing is not a custom installation, it's been relocated from Panorama Park in Germany, and dives into the big lake at the back of the park. It must have been quite a job to get it all fitted, but it's a fun ride and a nice step up for kids who aren't quite ready for the two big Gerstlauer rides. There's also a new indoor area near the front of the park, which is a bit like a walkthrough Small World but with the annoying Marmite music that people love or hate. Sadly I totally forgot to get any pictures. But I was having too much fun on the ball pits!

Before I get onto the pictures, there's one deliberate mistake I've made in this photo report. If you can spot it, I will buy you a pint of shandy if you can meet me at a Live!

This can only be a good sign of things to come.
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No entrance picture for this day - because we have a couple of awesome organisers who pull out all the stops, we were let in the back entrance for our exclusive morning at the park!
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Good job Garfield's not coming here from Kennywood any time soon!
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Spinny Gerstlauer goodness was the name of the game here!
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Robb and Dave can't quite believe what's happened to them.
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With Erik and myself now onboard, Dave wanted to demonstrate what this ride does in a menage a trois-hot-spinning-death-vomit inducing-OMFG kinda way.
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LOL! Nearly forgot Ryan was there as well. Make that a menage a quatre-hot-spinning-death-vomit inducing-OMFG kinda way.
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Chins will flap!
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Testicles will pop!
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And thanks to Robb, it's all on film!
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Mark and Jon get ready for their chin-flapping-testicle-popping ride.
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There go the chins!
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For you layout geeks, here's the layout.
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Next up, it was time for some Beyond Vertical goodness!
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Today's language lesson: Vild Svinet is Danish for Wild Boar.
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This was the very first EuroFighter coaster made, and it's holding up pretty well.
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Who's up for a bit of overbank?
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And here's the rest of the layout.
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Time for the big relocated Zierer thing!
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TAKE THE TRENCH!
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That's a lot of train.
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Erik strokes a giant cock.
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Divv carries everyone's sacks.
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And this is too obvious.
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Steve and Ben get ready for some beaver rafting action! Before...
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...and after. There wasn't much white water stuff going on, more like a light splashing.
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The second half of this water ride section is brought to you by the 6 men and 1 lady in a boat.
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I was a bit concerned when I saw the boats getting water sucked out of them. It's only supposed to be a gentle ride!
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But part from one little drop, it's mostly random stuff like this. Wave to the Native American mentalist animals!
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If you're a wild boar dressed as a hula girl and you're reading this, do not fight a big blue octopus!
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Proof that hippos have hydraulic mouths.
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Something tells me this boat might have some water in the bottom.
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And I'll end this section of the report with a photo out of the Divv book. Tivoli Gardens tomorrow!
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