EuropaPark FINALLY! (may 11th)

After planning to go to Europa Park about 5 different times on 5 various weekends, I am relieved and satisfied that I finally made it on Saturday (May 11th)!
 
Seriously, the planning process was terrible. Tyler told me that if he heard me say "I'm going to Europa Park this weekend" one more time, we weren't getting married.
 
BUT somehow, thankfully things fell together this weekend and we made it there. I won't say we made it there without problems, but we did arrive. At noon. And left at 7pm, taking 3 different trains and a bus which totaled 4 hours travel time. (it takes about 2 by car).
 
I would spare you the details of how no one checked the train times and we had to wait in the bahnhof for over an hour before we could leave, but then again, I think that's a good theme for the day- waiting-, and all of you know I am occasionally hindered by details.
 
Firs of all, the group consisted of French guy Valentin, and Turkish girl Duygu. We all met in the intensive language course, and immediately after the course ended, those two told us all that they started dating. How cute. Anyway, it was us 3 as well as one of Valentin's friends from Strassbourg (which is I found out is only 2 hours away by car! Can you say Day trip? )
 
Now, you guys probably have realized that I tend to have trouble letting someone else come up with a plan and lead the group. Well, sometimes that's for good reason. I actually had not thought about Europa park in the last couple weeks, until I saw Duygu on Thursday and she asked if I wanted to go with them on Saturday. So of course I said "Sure, just let me know when and where we need to meet." On Friday I got a facebook message that said to meet at the train station at 7:15 the next morning to take the 8am train, and that they had already gotten the tickets and I just needed to pay Valentin the 44Euro which was the group price for train and park entrance combi-ticket (train alone is normally 40!)
 
So when I got to the train station, I was indeed surprised to discover that they were only then buying the tickets at the automat, and that the train times they had were for "ICE" trains, which are super express trains that are not allowed with combi-tickets. So then we had to go up to the help desk and show our ticket and ask for a "Fahrplan" of how to get to Europa Park. It was straight forward after that: take 3 trains, then a bus, however the problem was that we got to the main station at 7:40, and the first train we needed to take didn't leave until 9am. So, I wasted an hour in the train station bookstore.
 
Flash forward to noon, and there we are getting off the bus and finally entering Europa Park!

 
 

Me and Duygu at Europa Park- in the "frankreich" area

 

Just one problem, noon tends to be the busiest time for theme parks. And indeed it was. Getting in was fine, but getting on the rides was awful. I've never waited that much in line at ANY kind of amusement park! 
 For the 6 roller coasters we went on, we waited 45, 45, 35, 35, 40, and 75 minutes respectively!!!
Out of the 7 hours we were there, we spent 5 hours and 15 minutes just WAITING!
 

And let's not forget the 15 minutes we had to wait to get on the observation tower ride thing- so that I could survey the park and we could get a cool birdseye view. (which was actually disappointing because you could see how small the park really is) For being the biggest theme park in Europe aside from EuroDisney, I was actually underwhelmed.  Maybe it's just because I kept thinking about the trip to Cedar Point last summer that I made with Wilke and Rica, and how much I miss my friends at home, or maybe the U.S. really does have much bigger Amusement Parks.
 
                                  
 

 

 

 

 
Anyway, I will say that the rides (although not worth the wait in my opinion) were quite good!
 
 Silver Speed -
 
the first roller coaster we went on. Sponsored by Mercedes. The line wound through a little museum-esque type building dedicated to Mercedes race car stuff.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 
Eurosat - 2nd ride and roller coaster, in a dome inspired by R. Buckmister Fuller (google a Bucky Ball. Mz mom used to build one like one a year with a chemistry model set when Matt and I were kids and it was awesome.  Tyler: I think this is the equivalent of how you played Dinosaur Mountain. Except this game was Mom-builds-a-Bucky-ball) It's a lot like the Disney Epcot Dome, and the roller coaster is like a rave version of space mountain. It also is actually space themed. Lot's of sharp turns and dips, and rave music and glowing things and party lights, and a creepy mannequin of an astronaut in the middle somewhere.

Cool robot outside

And this! What is that firs "no sign" supposed to be? We've got no smoking, no food or drink, no heard problems, no pets, not handicapped people, and no.... party hats? no dragons? no letting birds drop party hats on small people? ???

 
 
Annnnnd then, I almost forgot we got intercepted from going to the next ride by the ridiculously cheezy park parade:
 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Next ride:
Dino-fahrt! (that's pronounced fair-t) Watch the Beverley hills cop movie that has a chase scene through a dinosaur ride at some fair or theme park. That is EXACTLY how I describe this one. The end. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matterhorn Blitz- pretty good roller coaster. But the line for this ride had to walk through a mock alp farmers house. It was super creepy. There were animatronic mannequins that looked like old hill-billys, with antlers on the walls, and a big pot of stew, and then a room of real fake moving animals: chickens, cow, horses. However, the actual track was neat, because the cars only held 4 people, which meant there could be lot of tight turns and an elevator that took each car from the starting platform up to the starting point of the track, which was a few stories up. 

 

 

 I almost forgot to mention how the fake alp house part was super creepy and reminded me of in the Mask of the Phantasm Batman Movie, Joker is living in an abandoned amusement park ride, like this but set in the future and talks to the mannequin robots. This ride even had a kitchen scene with a lady peeling potatoes. EEEEEEP!  

 

 

 

Schweizer Bobbahn = swiss bobsled - the track looked like a bobsled shoot, and the cars were designed for 2 people to sit like you would in a bobsled. It was strange.

skilifts! with the bobbahn ride track above them! dangerous?

 
 
 

 
Euro-Mir- this is a roller coaster in the Russia area of the park, and also space themed. People sat in round cars for 4 people, with 4 or so cars per train, and each car slowly spins as the train goes down the track. That means at some points, you are going backwards down the roller coaster. It was pretty crazy, but not too many steep drops, more so fast downward sloping spirals.
 











Wodan- this one was crazy. It's a wooden roller coaster themed in Norse Mythology. It was cool because it is so heavily themed that the line takes you through a building designed to looked like places or scenes from Norse Myth, but on the other hand, we had to wait 75 minutes, and it felt like we were being brain washed. I also spent the whole time with a group of 5 kids standing behind me, who periodically kept pushing me or accidentally backing into me as they were all play fighting in line. So Angry!   But then eventually we got on the ride (I seriously had nearly forgotten the ride by the time we made it to the platform) and it was quite fun. over a km long track, reaching speeds of 100 km/hr. (I read a sign about it many times in line).
 

 

 part of the line wound around a pond, which every 30 seconds or so dispersed fog everywhere.
 

 Giant statue thing in the line

thought we were almost at the ride platform, but then we found out it was another half hour of waiting in line, winding through a building themed in norse myth instead.

 

 

And finally stairs leading to the platform!!!

 

Following the Wodan ride, Duygu and Valentin went on one last roller coaster. It had a loop-de-loop so I didn't want to go on it and risk injuring my spine. I mean I'm fine on normal roller coasters, but I don't how about the upside down forces.

Anyway, I took the time instead to get a hot dog.

they call this "hot dog delicious" from the islandic part of Europa park

 

And that, I believe, concludes my Europa Park experience.