PTR: larrygator's 2010 European Travels

One last image from the TPR portion of the trip.

Mementos from the trip

^That picture right there is awesome!

Anyway, I really like your trip report too, Larry! You take some great pictures, and it looks like your group(s) had lots of fun! Shame I didn't get to hang out with you guys at any of the parks...

Maybe next time!

Your TPR section was great, so your non-TPR section should probably be great plus one!

Thanks Davon. Glad you appreciate it.

Personally, I think I take crap pictures and end up deleting about 2/3 of them as unusable. The only reason the memorabilia one looks good and clear is that I scanned the items, it's not a picture I took. Although I am responsible for the art direction.

I also try to focus on usual aspects that others might have missed and try to tell a good story. My coaster shots will never be as nice as those taken by people with much better cameras so I have to do things differently.

Good stuff, Larry! You might not take the best photos, but your captions are damn funny!

It was great meeting you. I hope to hang with you on another TPR trip sometime soon. I mean, I do have to get a photo with the "other" cut off sleeveless shirt wearing person on the trips. I only wore 2 of them this trip, but damnit I did have 5 of them with me!

Looking forward to the solo TR's. I'm interested to see where all you ventured to on your own.

It was nice meeting you again, loving your look on this trip so far (keep them coming) and thanks for the surprisingly decent image of myself in this update.. ít was nice to have a break from the camera for a while

If anyone ever wants to understand how much work Robb and Elissa go through in organizing TPR Trips ask Robin Schroeder. On the morning after the trip about 20-25 people went on an unofficial Add-On trip to Walibi World. Robin worked tirelessly to pull this off and all he had to worry about was one day at a park. Multiply that by many days, ERT negotiations, backstage stuff, along with meals and hotels and you only begin to understand work of The Alveys. Of course Robb and Elissa, in an effort to provide even more value for trip participants, went above and beyond helping Robin organize a group meal at the park and coach service.

On the other hand, 7 other trip participants headed in the opposite direction east to Duinrell. Although I had done all the transportation research it was great to have a Dutch speaker (Big Orange - Erik Penders) to make sure we made all our connections. Thank you Erik.

This would be my first day without TPR and I had about 11 hours of train travel ahead of me as the day begin, in order to get to the heart of Bavaria that night. I could not pass up the opportunity to visit a new park and try another Eurofighter. Since it was the first day I would be using my Eurail Pass I only had to worry about bus fare between The Hague and Duinrell and park admission. Combined, I think that was about 25 Euros.

This signs means we successfully made it from the hotel to the airport via the airport shuttle.

Can anyone guess which direction the train will be arriving from?

After some people debated endlessly how to save 30 euros cents on bus tickets we catch the bus for a 30 minute drive.

Sorry about the horrible picture but a big THANKS to Erik for his reassurance that we were on the way to Duinrell and not the Anne Frank House.

The park's mascot is a frog (Kikker in Dutch) so some ride names start with "Kikker"

Like the Ferris Wheel

The park has a huge playground area.

and includes a fun house barrel.

There is not a lot of theming at the park, but this ATM looks great.

Both coasters had do it yourself Photo Booth. I think it was 2 Euro for the photo to be e-mailed to you.

I'm a crazy frog, sorry Kikker, leading a bunch of losers through the woods.

Yes, I was correct. 2 Euros for the photos.

Charlie Chaplin, Madonna and disco in the same show. Sign me up! Oh wait, I have to catch those trains to Bavaria. Damn!

Do not be fooled by the enclosed splash boat option. You will get wetter in the back of the enclosed boat than the open air boat.

Lift hill of Falcon, which formerly went by the code name of Rick's Delight on rcdb for a couple of years.

The other side of the lift hill.

These supports help the coaster stay erect. They sort of form a V as in Viagra.

Hi Eurofighter car, don't be shy like Piers.

OMG, is Larry still posting coaster photos?

One last one as Kikker is about to get all twisty.

The Mad Mill tries to impersonate an AT-AT Walker. FYI - I'm not a Star Wars nerd and had to do a google search.

Dual lift hills on the Alpine Slide, which is NOT a coaster!

Before getting on this train to Frankfurt, Erik introduces me to train station cuisine.

These machines rule! Every thing costs less than 2 Euro.

I was about to get a Krokketten (since they appear to be like Spanish croquettas) and Erik suggests a SateKroketten for 1.4 Euros. I buy it hoping that the Sate means peanut sauce, and that is correct.

Not being a savvy train traveler I sit in these seats.

But the conductor directs me to the more luxurious 1st Class leather reclining seats that I am entitled to. I guess that's why my Eurail Pass says "1st Class", DOH!

4.5 hours later the train pulls into Frankfurt and I have 10 minutes to transfer trains and find those Smullers vending machines. I never find them, it must be just a Dutch thing.

But I do find this advertisment.

I think this rude guy sitting near me on the train was Australian. Next stop for we were Mannheim before transferring one final time for Augsburg. It was a lot of train travel, but that sets me up to visit 2 parks in one day.

Hey Larry! Good to see your pictures from your bonus park day, and looking forward to seeing the rest of your extended trip! For the Walibi event, Robb and Elissa helped out in a huge way - I really didn't have to do all that much, but it still gave me a big insight into what it's like for them to run the trips! I don't know how they do it!!

Erik introduces me to train station cuisine.

Awwwwwesome Larry, you just assisted me in screwing off for 45 minutes at work, can't wait for the reamaining parks, I need to screw off some more, Thanks so much!

Awwwwwesome Larry, you just assisted me in screwing off for 45 minutes at work, can't wait for the reamaining parks, I need to screw off some more, Thanks so much!

I guess I'll have to post my Wiener Prater update on a weekend to not drag down work productivity too much.

^

no no, that's okay, work productivity won't decrease at all, no way, nada, same production level

Actually I spend all day waiting for nodes to break down or people to call and complain, and that, thankfully, doesn't happen too often, and when it does, its 90% of the time an id10t error...

Settling in to my hotel in Augsburg the previous night was key to me being able to cover two parks in one day. I caught a train at 8:16 from Augsburg to Gunzburg and then took a 10-15 ride on the clearly marked Shuttle bus for Legoland Deutschland. I could already tell at 8AM that is was going to be a very hot and humid day.

I had never been to a Legoland park before July of 2009 and I have now visited all 4 of them. Although the parks are not duplicates of each other they are all very similar and deliver the same experience. Best enjoyed by pre-teens or in a larger group. This park has the longest and fastest of Legoland's "Dragon" coasters. The log flume type ride is also a reversing kind, so my strategy of staying dry by sitting in the back did not work well. Luckily, the higher temperatures dried me out farily quickly.

My gameplan was to spend 2.5 hours in the park, and that 2.5 hours was sufficient time to ride everything at the park and take plenty of pictures.

This is the train station at Gunzburg.

While at the train station I grabbed a vanilla drink and a pretzel for breakfast and waited for the bus.

The clearly marked Legoland bus was ready to leave right on time at 9:40.

Victory is mine.

1st ride of the day is Project X Test Strecke

Lego Vinsanity stills plays for the Raptors.

Looks like the same 3D/4D movies as other Legoland parks.

Always a popular Legoland ride on a hot day.

A kid's playground

A boobless Rockin' Tug. Even without boobs it sounds dirty.

Make it an Intamin Mega-Lite.

Not exactly a log flume

But you can see one reversal area.

Which occurs right before a dinosaur spits on your boat.

NOTED!

The Tret-o-Mobil (Sky Cycle) was a nice way to see the park from above.

As was the Aussichtsturm

I have no sleeves

The kiddie coaster from above.

You get a sense of how long Feuerdrache is from above, the dark ride section of the coaster is in the castle building on the right.

Hi, Wes!

Not a Wacky Worm! Not a credit! Not even for Jeff Johnson.

I have not had to resort to Duct Tape yet. The sneakers only need to hold out for 4 more days.

The Legoland Express bearing down on me.

They call him Eagle Eye, don't f with him.

FAIL!

When jaundice sets in

Another kid's playground area

Even with a bad hangover, this is my favorite Legoland ride.

I think I've seen these two trying to sneak into every Legoland park.

^Very cool! Can't wait to go in September. Although I think this will be KT's first Legoland where she can't get any credits.

^Very cool! Can't wait to go in September. Although I think this will be KT's first Legoland where she can't get any credits.

What's really odd is that neither my park map or the website list minimum heights for any rides. Although on the website when you click on the smaller coaster (Drachenjagd) the following appears "This is an ideal alternative for those too small - or afraid - to ride Fire Dragon."

Logistically this was the toughest day of the trip with six train segments and two bus segments to fit in both parks.

Also, the walk from the train station to Skyline was 20 minutes through a cornfield. While not a very stressful walk, the time did need to be factored in to trip planning.

The second park of the day was Skyline Park. Skyline Park was intriguing for me from a coaster standpoint because: I had never ride one of these sad and pathetic butterfly coasters before, it has a Maurer Sohne coaster in the middle of nowhere and another coaster is the unique Caripro Gyroflyer.

What surprised me is how spread out the rides all from each other and that dense brush surrounds the pathways at the park. Also, although Hanno had featured many of their "do it yourself" rides in a previous PTR, the sheer number of them caught me off guard.

Do you see the Ferris wheel on the left? That's my destination from the train station, walking along the dirt path on the right.

I'm halfway there and an amusement park arises out of the corn fields.

I'm a sweaty mess but I made it. Did I mention this is the one day that I could not leave my bags in a train station in storagelockers so that 1.5 mile walk in 90 degree + weather was with about 20 pounds on my back.

First I'm going to show you all the do it yourself rides, like this swing.

Just a rope to swing on aimlessly.

Something to make you dizzy

and dizzier

and dizzier

and dizzier

These random looking bicycle pedals serve a purpose.

They power the Tetrakarussell

They really do have coasters here.

There's the Sky Wheel which had minor mechanical problems when I rode.

A better overview of the Schwarkopf from the Ferris Wheel.

The 3rd non-sad and pathetic coaster.

With funky cars.

and for all you sad and pathetic folks

This ladies' job is to start the Butterfly Coasters once you are seated.

Butterfly POV, I think this was the one on the right. My view from the one on the left was exactly the same. Unlike Boardwalk Bullet, I don't think time of day, temperature, weather or phase of the moon affect performance.

If you are only here for the coasters or pictures of self operated ice cream machines, then turn back now. There will be no more in this post.

I did not realize there was a Bayern Curve in the park.

As member Tezee just informed me via PM, Sky Twister came from Heide Park's "Huss Land".

The BobKart broke when I was next in line.

I never made it to the drop tower. It is hard to see from the rest of the park, I never found and entrance and I forgot about it.

They got one of these whatchyamacallit's that would make a fast food enthuseast from Washington cream his pants.

and they have one of these "thingamajigs" also. It ran an extremely intense cycle, I did not care for a second ride.

New for 2010, spinning raft ride with an elevator lift.

Elevator Lift Powers activate

Form of "water"

Form of a "goat"

There's plenty of other interesting stuff at the park, like this rocking ship.

Climbing Tower without escape slides????????

More spinny things.

Pedal Cars

Nautic Jet Boat Jump. Just like with the Butterfly coaster there was a ride op available to assist on this slow day at the park.

One last interestingthing at the park was these tables that looked like miniature mini-golf holes on stilts.

Since Google is my friend I found out that it is a game called Pit Pat and played with pool sticks. A combination of pool and mini golf, if I was there with others i would have tried it out.

You see that building way the hell in the background. Neither do I, but that's the train station.

Derek - Are these hops? If so I'm walking through a Bavarian hop field.

Never mind. I just googled it, and it's only barley.

The Rammingen Bayern is a rockin' train station as you can see.

But there are ostrich in a nearby pen.

When I got to Munich I checked in to my hotel then walked around looking for a place to eat. But fund only topless clubs, casinos and pizza being made by Arabs so I ended up back at the Munich Bahnhof with some brats and a pretzel.

And watched the Dutch march into the World Cup Finals. Tomorrow, I embark for Austria.

Nice update Larry

I'm also happy to see that Skyline has added some more rides (and other do it yourself stuff) since my last visit.

Great place and i really hope they continue to do well

Nice TR. The table-mini-golf is very comical. I didn´t know that there is a bayern curve. Thank you

^Hanno - I know the Wet n Wild Rafting was installed after your visit, was the Bayern Curve there on your last visit

i do remember seeing a Bayern Curve there, i even think i have a picture of it.

i don't remember the rocking boat or climbing tower though..

Sweet stuff so far, happy to see Skyline getting more rides from my planned visit in 2006. You've found one component of German beer, Larry so good job! However, hops look like little tiny green pinecones and grown on vines which can be raised to grow like bushes.

These are hops

Hops on a vine

Hops on my leg

They got one of these whatchyamacallit's that would make a fast food enthuseast from Washington cream his pants.

I really can't wait to be able to check these awesome little do-it-yourself parks. If only my dad's freaking orders to Naples would cut sooner.....

The Skylineexpress/Bayern Curve/Powerd Coaster whatever you wanna call it was added for the 1999 season when the Löwenthal family bought the place and turned it into Skylinepark.

The do it yourself attractions are rally fun and a good way to spend some time when the lines are getting long.

They also used to have a giant Hamster Wheel for humans but it was taken out a few years back.

That's what I really hate about the US that people seem to be so afraid that somebody could get hurt and therefore have way too many stupid safety rules and policies at the amusement- and waterparks.

It probably wouldn't bother me if I didn't know how less restricted the parks are over here in europe.

Larry, your trek and day at Skyline Park would be a great setup for a new horror movie along the lines of "Saw" or "Hostel."

Thanks again Larry! Another twenty minutes has been successfully burned at my desk, looking forward to the rest of your journey!

This little park looks amazing! I am very much looking forward to visiting it in a few months.

Where are all the ride signs?