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Day 13: Thursday, June 15th part 2 - 1st of two full days at Liseberg after our rides on the Schwarzkopf we headed over to a back/quiet area of the park, another one we had not been to yet. back here were several restaurants, a bandstand (with a large area for dancing), and the park's haunt. which apparently used to be an upcharge but now is included. we skipped the line and went to the quick pass entrance, which requires one to go up this spiral staircase (oddly, this was also noted as the handicapped entrance, tho I didn't see any obvious elevator, so maybe it's a test? to do the haunt you must be able to navigate these stairs? I mean the haunt is very large, and well done, with lots of uneven areas) it was themed very "creepy" and the ghouls at the gate kept yelling "no cameras!!!" "keep your hands on the shoulders of the person in front of you" - mainly yelling at the folks in the general line, across the entrance from us she was lovely and posed for a picture with me tho. nice view from up here of the dancehall I mentioned, and across the way is the Ferris Wheel near the main entrance to the park. the ghouls that were working the general admission side of the line, were also happy to pose for a picture with me (before I put the phone away) since no pictures allowed in the house (you wouldn't have a free hand to take them anyways, as they make you "conga line" in groups of 8-10 people), I don't have any from inside. but a REALLY well done haunt, with some stunning set-pieces - my favorite being the flooded ballroom that's sinking into the swamp beneath. I enjoyed it so much, that we went thru it again later - this time via the general line, since there was no wait anyways and I wanted to see it - when we came back for our dinner reservation in the "Haunted Restaurant" that the park had added on beneath the Haunt. leaving this area, you can really see the amount of rides just crammed up on that hillside. . and seeing the top of the Screamin Swing reminded us we hadn't ridden it yet. so headed that way. the swing over the pathway is nice, as you come so close to Helix and the other coaster . but that swing over the hillside is terrifying! and while you're in the queue for the Screamin Swing, just look how close you are to the Helix and Lisebergbanan coasters whee! y'all. . Helix is SO good. . . the view from the Screamin Swing QUEUE! ah. .we forgot to ride the flume, as we hadn't been back towards the hotel today, really. . .but we crossed right over it, leaving the Luna Park area. Speaking of Luna. . . but we didn't' ride it again, instead we went and hopped in the line for the flume. LOL.. they sell ponchos in the line - but the machine was broken. it was pretty popular. .and this is probably the longest line we waited in all day (If I recall there was some miscommunication and our reserved time had been cancelled as the ride went down, but when it came back up there were no times left for the day. . so we just got in line). wasn't' too bad a wait tho, maybe 20 minutes? whee! (I bought this as a magnet. .again, why I was able to get a pic of the screen) we were gonna meet back up in a little bit for dinner at the Haunted restaurant. . so the smaller group of guys I was with split off to go ride coasters (Helix again, I think), and Big Mike and I went to try to ride the Carousel. this is my happy face when the operator told us we could ride! LOOK how happy I am.. I don't ,know WHY I love Carousels so much. . I just know that I do. admiring the Nebulaz from my horse. . but my attention was pulled by the operator who came by to tell me I wasn't allowed. what??? he had told us we were allowed to ride. ride, yes. but not on a horse. Horses were for kids ONLY we could ride in the carriage or on the bench if we wanted to. yes, I was sad..but I really wasn't too upset as had already gotten my pics ON the horse anyways. . so I tucked my tail and climbed into the carriage with Big Mike. it didn't even rock. . . boo.. . but at least it had nekkid cherubs on it. see? I can smile thru the mild disappointment. and at the end of the day, I DID get to ride a carousel here. so it counts as a win. Helix doing it's thing. . oh.. a big concert going on tonight.. .it drew a lot of folks to the park, but not really to the rides. we walked all the way up to the main front entrance (I was trying to get my hands on a park map, and had success in getting a few) the front is very nice, and they have a big music hall up here too, but seems they only use it for very special events. park map listing the themed areas, and the attractions within them. click to embiggen. a very nice sculpture garden around the fancy music hall.. as well as those paths up the side of the hill to explore. here was the advertisement for the bands they were hosting over the Summer. I recognized a couple of the names. tho the band tonight - that drew that large crowd - was one I wasn't familiar with: Bolaget apparently they charge a separate ticket to get into this area, hence it being walled off with queues to go in. as it seemed most folks on this side of the park were at the concert, we took advantage to go back into the kiddie section and ride a few things that earlier had fairly long lines. such as the teacup boat ride. . I think one of the mascots is a baker, possibly Berg? so as far as I could tell, this functioned as the mascot's themed ride, until the dark ride went in. I mean. .the mascots DO seem to be represented on this ride. . . even if just in Scarecrow form. ohhh. . . there's an overhead ride I hadn't noticed before? and it's running basically EMPTY??? I know where we're going next. slow moving overhead ride, that let's one get some nice pictures for the win!! and this pic was able to capture the junior coaster, Rabalder in the pic. this funky ferris wheel was so unique.. I was a bit bummed it was down during our visit. really a great overview of the whole Kids area. and a nice, relaxing ride. LOL. . no, I did NOT ride this. but the one that was more like a coaster - the last park on the trip? yeah, that one I did ride (spoiler) it's hard to take a bad picture of this park. . in particular the hillside rides. wow.. got Atmos Fear actually running! (and Helix there too) yeah. .about the only level of spin I was wanting to do at the moment. just a photo op cup. it was time for our dinner reservation. .so we met up with the others and headed into the Haunted pub. the outside menu wasn't in English, but they had translations inside. it was pretty busy too, so I took that as a good sign that the food was good. hey.. another table of TPR folks! Chris, Hawk, Doug, Shane, and Eric and the group I was with was just one table over the English menu. I ended up having the pork belly loaded fries. the atmosphere in here is just great! the lights flickered, there were creaking noises.. etc. . jon got a fru-fru drink (so did I). .but they were really pretty good. my pork belly loaded fries. it was so much food, I don't think I was able to finish it. but I remember it was very tasty. leaving the restaurant. .that deserted dance hall from earlier? yeah, it was busy. and got MORE packed the later it got. letting the food digest a bit, I just wandered around and took some pics. .. like Valkyria on it's drop. . and the wave swinger. there were TONS of games like this, where one could win a giant box filled with candy. but I was more intrigued by the ride behind it - called Mechanica. it frightened me, but i was determined to ride it- tho not so soon after eating, so would save it till tomorrow. but, I mean. . look at what this thing does! it was getting close to our ERT time, so I headed over to near Valkyria and Balder, and checked out some of the games over here. loved this "norse mythology" themed shooting gallery (with crossbows!) and this "Fascination" type game, where you won a dragon by moving your roller-coaster. no.. really. the park was shutting down, and more TPR folks were showing up for our ERT meetup (hi Erik and Brad) but we were starting on Valkyria. . and I used that as an excuse to take this pic - tho really I was just delighted by this man , who was covered in tattoos, and was schlepping around a giant box of Toblerone, while wearing a Peter Pan hat. So I wanted to get a picture, because I really loved he had no shits to give. had to lock up everything, but before I did, snapped a couple of quick pics of Valkyria's station. . *very* "Nordic" and then after a few rides, we were over to Balder for final ERT of the night. I loved this ride so much, that I rode every train dispatched for our ERT. that's a rarity for me, but this ride was SO rerideable, I didn't take any breaks at all. .and just kept riding until they told us they had to close for the night. I loved this one pretty much anywhere, tho the middle/front seemed to give the best floater air. end of night pic, to thank the Crew, the park, and Robb/Elissa for the fantastic day! and we headed back to the hotel thru the now empty park. . one final pic from Robb's rider cam on Balder that got sent to the group. And with that. . I took a shower and crashed hard. (tho I think some of the folks ended up going out to see Metallica this night, or go bar hopping) it had been a really full day, with a TON of walking. and tomorrow was another full day at this fantastic park. . so time for bed for me. (tho we could hear Metallica thru the windows)

Damn, I miss this park!!! Great first day there, Bert! Yeah, I remember a lot of walking around, but it was worth it.

Bert, Bert, Bert...were you not paying attention during Underlandet at all?! It's all perfectly simple: Måns Tråk is not a magician, he just a Grinch-type who hates amusement parks. Which is why he constantly tries to interfere with the work of the Green Bunnies (Kanina, Kanne, Lisen, Berg, Fixa, and Julius) as they (semi-secretly) run the park above (growing vegetables, making ice cream, filling balloons, powering the rides, and, um, pooping). Now, I know what you're thinking: "Well, then, what's the deal with Kanne doing magic at the end there?" Oh, you silly boy! Kanne is a magician, and was the whole time! And as for Julius, he's white because he's the Green Bunnies' cousin from the North Pole. Duh.