ginzo

I would love to see something based on Up. It was such a great film, especially the flawless opening montage. Even a re-theme of Soarin' would be cool by me.

This past summer, Liz & I took a three week trip across Western Europe using EU Rail passes. After that, we joined TPR for the Scandinavia Trip. For simplicity, I'll put both parts on the same TR. May 16-18, 2009: London, England: Part 1 May 16-18, 2009: London, England: Part 2 May 16-18, 2009: London, England: Part 3 May 19, 2009: Brussels, Belgium May 19, 2009: Bruges, Belgium: Part 1 May 20, 2009: Bruges, Belgium: Part 2 May 21, 2009: Amsterdam, Netherlands: Part 1 May 22, 2009: Amsterdam, Netherlands: Part 2 May 23, 2009: Rhine Valley, Germany: Part 1 May 24, 2009: Mosel Valley, Germany: Part 1, Burg Eltz May 24, 2009: Mosel Valley, Germany: Part 2, Klotten Amusement Park May 25, 2009: Rhine Valley, Germany: Part 2, Rheinfels Castle Ruins May 27, 2009: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany: Part 1 May 27, 2009: Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany: Part 2, Medieval Crime Museum May 28, 2009: Füssen, Germany: Part 1, Hohenschwangau Castle May 28, 2009: Füssen, Germany: Part 2, Neuschwanstein Castle and alpine slide May 29, 2009: Munich, Germany: Old town, English Gardens, surfin' May 30, 2009: Hallstatt, Austria: Part 1, Dreary Arrival Day May 31, 2009: Hallstatt, Austria: Part 2, Beautiful Day May 31, 2009: Hallstatt, Austria: Part 3, Beautiful Day Continued, Boat Ride May 31, 2009: Hallstatt, Austria: Part 4, Beautiful Day Continued, Funicular Ride, Hike June 1, 2009: Salzburg, Austria: Cathedral, Graveyard, Fortress, Augustiner Brau June 2, 2009: Mürren, Switzerland: Travel Day, Swiss Alps June 3, 2009: Mürren, Switzerland: Schilthorn, Piz Gloria, Breakfast at 10,000 feet June 3, 2009: Mürren, Switzerland: Hiking In The Alps We started off in London, which is a great place to start any European trip as it involves slightly less jet lag than "The Continent" and there are abundant flights. Here we go: And this is what's left of 221B Baker Street. No Sherlock, but I bet you can buy a few souvenirs here. Welcome to Covent Garden. Number of Norwegians here: 0. Number of drunk Brits: Countless. Since we were "going local", we had dinner here. Not. We actually had dinner at a very nice Covent Garden restaurant called "The Crusting Pipe". Thanks to SteveC for the tip. This was the only sunny day this year in London. Liz in a TARDIS. One of the famous Ravens of the Tower. They're real comedians. The entrance to the Tower of London, one of the 10,000 or so must-sees in London. Priceline.com booked me this really nice hotel. A lesson for the ages. You stand across the street. That's how. St. Paul's is a very impressive. Many famous people are buried there. You should go there some day! Crap, this thing is big. How do you get a decent picture of it? And here is Liz standing in front of this very handsome mailbox. Coming in the back way to St. Paul's. Note the friendly, non-authoritarian tone to this sign. You can tell you're not in the US already.

I think I'm going to post a TR of the European tour I took this summer before the Scandi trip.

Is the Dollywood Christmas event that good? We've been kicking around the idea of spending Christmas down there. The only problem is that's super duper peak season for house rentals.

So far my favorite is Mind Bender SFOG, but I haven't been on Shockwave yet.

^Personally, I'd be more interested in a really good roller coaster history book. But that's just me. I went to a liberal arts college and had to read plenty of philosophy books.

It seems like Mummy at USF will be my last ride and park for 2009. Our group used the single rider line and the woman next to me asked me if it was a scary ride. I told her no, but apparently she didn't agree with me as she freaked out and grabbed my shoulder/arm and didn't let go as soon as we hit the coaster part. A strange, but amusing way to end the 2009 season. Mummy is still one of the greatest indoor coasters, if not the greatest.

I think the main thing MK's Space has over DL's is that it never had the Rockin' overlay. MK having a much more thrilling lay out doesn't hurt as well.

You did also have the greatest cyclist of all time, but that's been a long time now.

It's always funny to see how seriously Belgians take their fries! Yeah, I've had the real Flemish fries. They are better than what I got in Amsterdam. Yeah, they probably are the best fries I've had. But, then again, some of the worst fries I ever had were in Belgium as well. Some really nasty fast food place called Quick. YUCK! But that wasn't in Flanders.

^Apparently, it was a big enough deal that you've chosen not to use DCL for your next cruise. It's not finicky or unreasonable to expect premium service for premium price.

14/20. Though it really should have been 15/20 because I certainly know what NAD stands for.

^Did you try politely complaining about the poor quality of your highly priced cabin?

^Weak!

I'm amazed that this hasn't generated more discussion! While I think it's nice that they're offering this, I wonder how popular the season pass is going to be considering how the park is in a sparsely populated area. I wonder how many repeat trips they get per year, outside of the locals of course. Still, I don't think this is a bad move at all.

^A Legoland could also be a pretty darn nice reason to go back out that way!

Zach, you're clearly taking too easy of a course load if you have time for a weekend trip! If you want less free time, I can suggest some professors who will help you out there.

This makes me want to send Elissa a deposit for the 2010 Europe trip! Although I liked Europa a lot last year, I thought that their coaster collection could have used a slight boost. Blue Fire sure seems to exactly what I thought the park could use. Also, I must investigate the food situation in Switzerland better next time I go to Europa. Anyway, very impressive park in general. They are strong in basically everything: good food, good rides, great diversity of attractions, excellent theming, park is immaculate, Disney-quality hotels, etc.

Some day, somehow I will make it to PPP!

Richard Garriott is a name I haven't heard in a very long time. I played most of the old Ultima games, up to about Ultima VII. They were excellent games for their time. I knew Garriott had a mansion with secret passageways and all, but I didn't know he ever converted his house into a haunt. I bet that was really friggen good. It's nice to see that Richard is having fun with his money, being an self-funded astronaut and all. Good for him!

^Now if they could just get OzCat running again! I'm kind of holding off on visiting the Branson area in the hope that they might work that out somehow.

A water coaster on a cruise ship? Color me impressed.

I've actually been stapled a fair amount in Europe. Though usually on Intamin coasters. This might just be because the ride computer won't dispatch the train if the bars aren't down far enough.

^^That Falken ERT was definitely one of the best sessions on the entire trip. It was like we were all giving the middle finger to the weather at once. I also have to give props to Farup for being so friggen nice to us. A group of us hung out in the restaurant for an hour or two before the group meal started and they gave us unlimited beverages for free.

Hmmm, I missed the PoTC Lego ride. Darn. Legoland Billund was really amazing. I'd really like to go back!