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Today we took the train to stuttgart en route to Tripsdrill tomorrow. When i was planning things out i discovered they were having their Canstäter Wasen festival, a smaller cousin to Oktoberfest and thought it would be neat to go. Without knowing what to expect we were impressed and had a great time. It is smaller and more manageable than Munich but had a nice vibe to it. The local breweries run smaller tents here with horses and wagons with beer barrels. One of the traditions is the fruit tower, though it seemed to have more vegetables than fruit. We found a suspended mouse coaster which was a nice ride. As well as the Mondial air wolf. Canadas Wonderland has a similar model called Soaring Timbers but Airwolf has a much more aggressive program to the point that you can see the tower shake side to side. They had some nice themed food stalls on the midway. And then we turned a corner and saw this: The rock and roller coaster, a Schwarzkopf Wildcat. i have not seen or rode one in a long time and wasn't sure i ever would. we rode it a couple of times and it was great. It was remarkably smooth and fluid for one of the earliest steel coasters, Ca.~1967. Ran like a charm. The drops and helixes were really good with nice transitions. Worth the visit just to see and ride it. If you are ever going to oktoberfest, try to check this out, and while you are at it head to Tripsdrill, where we are going tomorrow.

Woke up this morning in mannheim and took the s- bahn and bus to holiday park, aka plopsaland deutschland. It is a quaint little park with a lot of attractions aimed at kids. Expedition ge- force is however an exception and a very forceful younger brother to millennium force. That is why we visited. We got there an hour after opening and saw the monster in all it’s glory… and an apologetic ride op explaining that it was down and they were working to get it running again. Something about zoltar messing with g-force seemed to be the problem. Not going to lie, we were a bit disappointed but decided to explore the rest of the park and hope they get it going. They had a really neat log flume with three hills, a backwards drop and a spectacular double down finale. And an apologetic ride op. They had one of those gerstlauer flying things like ninja turtles at mall of america. This one themed to airplanes with a p51 mustang model as scenery, so i thought i would try it, but as i got 2 cycles from the front, the previous riders did not come down and stayed 20 feet in the air. Moving along we went to try the premier skyflier in the background. We werent really looking forward to it since we had both passed up the chance to ride one at bgw a while back. The prospect of hanging in mid air and rolling back was unsettling but we had to ride something. It was a walk on and worked properly. Not sure i would ever deliberately ride one again but now we know. They had a zierer wellenflug without the upper canopy and just the frame which was neat to see. They are also putting the finishing touches on a new gerstlauer junior coaster with some neat trick elements. It looked really good. Checking out just beyond it looked like Baywatch: the ride. There are 9 rescue boats in a circle which go around and when you turn the steering wheel it swings out. It was pretty fun. Had a beer break and then made our way back to see how progress was on ge- force The flume was running as we walked by so we rode it and only got a bit wet. It was really good with some fun themeing along the way. We could hear and see the train running on ge-force so we made our way over to try it. It was awesome, much more forceful than millennium with strongly banked curves and ejector airtime hills in between a-la skyrush. we met lots of excited new friends in line and everyone was stoked that it was running again They only have one train on the track but it was about right for the crowd they had there. Apparently there is another but it was not on the transfer track. The whole park was in the middle of a forrest and it felt like a terrain coaster between all of the trees. As you climbed the lift hill you could see all of the track laid out beside you. It ends off with some intense ejector bunny hills and then into the magnetic final brakes. It was worth the trip to the park to ride it. We took a lunch break for some schnitzel and beer which were both really good and inexpensive. Rode a smurfs vs voldamort dark ride which was weird but fun after lunch. The rest of the afternoon we spent marathoning expedition ge-force. It was awesome. Tomorrow we go to stuttgart for the canstatter wassen which is their answer to okroberfest and then tripsdrill erlebnispark.