hansrubens

Thanks Elissa for posting this. It's very cool to read your trip review. I'm already afraid of your review of the bus ride to phantasialand. ----Hans

^^ After seeing more of the Red Rocks I realised that this was the venue of the famous 80's live videos of U2. I always thought that the videos were shot somewhere in Ireland. ----Hans

Stunning theater.... Never been to such a venue for obvious reasons. I'm not saying that I speak fluently English but I think it's quite impossible to follow the lyrics of One Week from The Barenaked Ladies. ---Hans

Thanks for sharing Benny!! Too bad we didn't had the chance or the time to properly meet up that day. ----Hans

Amstel Bier during the World Cup Final. ----Hans

Bad Religion - Punk Rock Song

^ Unlike that one, Ocean of Darkness won't drown you. I visited Slagharen from 21-24 of may 2010. Thanks for reading. ---Hans

Part 2. Station picture part 2. Looperdeloop Twisty track. Kids area playground. Water stuff. And some crappy kids rides. Old timers. Hi!! POV shots Some more Looping Star Pirate ship. In action. No park without a church!! Best darkride of the park. It's inside a big dome and other than the "normal" dark rides this one uses the rapids like boat. Escape plan. But you won't get wet unless you pee your pants. I like the use of real fire. And the abuse of donkeys. and the abuse of Indians Chocolate milk terrace. Bye Randy & Rosie thanks for everything. Just some random atmosphere shots. Smaller ferriswheel. In 2010 they opened a new pony petting area. She wants to be petted. And of course there is a bar. Darkride Dome. The eagle and no it's not a Schwarzkopf. Last picture. The main fountain. Thanks for reading and see ya.

Hi everyone, Because it was my mum's 65th birthday we decided to go to Slagharen. Since 2009/2010 they renovated their resort and build some new bungalows. Slagharen is a real family park and most of their rides are for kids nothing real exciting but the park and staff are really awesome. There are two credits a Vekoma minetrain and a Schwarzkopf Loopingstar. The park has parts which are connected by a mainstreet. There are no ride in mainstreet only food and shops. Pictures.... Parks main entrance and parkinglot. Main entrance. But we stayed on resort!! View from our bungalow. The bigger bungalows have a porch. But more important the bigger bungalows also have a beertender. One of the old bungalows. From the ferriswheel you can get awesome views. Right side of the park which contains Vekoma Minetrain, Giant swing, droptower, logflume and some other random flats Also right side. The renovated bungalows. And the left side of the park. With Looping Star, awesome darkride in a dome and some other rides. Even more to the left. This is what the park looked like in the late 60's early 70's. Only the right side of the park no mainstreet or Loopingstar yet. First credit of the day Vekoma Minetrain. Up the lift. Vekoma mintrains are still my favorite Vekoma coasters. POV Action!! You have to imagine the speed to actually feel it. There are also a few awesome dark rides. There is nothing like Ocean Of Darkness. Hold on!! It's old, it's crappy --- It's Awesome!!! Small kids carrousel. Maybe you already saw it but this is the parks big a$$ swing. It's a Schwarzkopf so it must be awesome. Wheee! We even got ourselfs a backstage tour at the enterprise. So if you wanna know anything about Schwarzkopf Enterprises you can ask me. Logflume with just a small splash. Oh that's much better. Logflume theming. More flume. That's a big splash. First small drop. Bigger drop. The very old, antique Paarden carrousel. OMG POV!!! Dreamboat is very popular by the GP. Rosies playground. Yup. Observation tower. The tower used to be the Schwarzkopf Zeppelin tower. Ferriswheel. And of course it's a Schwarzkopf. Any questions about the enterprise? Drop tower. And it's a good tower. Random flat ride. Octopussy the ride. I don't know what it is but I really hate octopussy after the Worldcup. And yep it's a Schwarzkopf. Almost Kabelbaan which connect the both side. Kabelbaan station. And another way to go to the other side. Dumbo the elephant The entrance to the resort is right in the middle of the park. Hi Bennie!!! 4d Theater. Many european 4d theathers get infected by the turtle. And there's always an one hour line. I don't wanna miss that. Terrance is awesome. Just like the other park mascottes. And guess where they live. In a giant windmill of course. Where else? Me with some family members. And some more family members. Let's go to the other side of the park. Mainsteet shops and food. Awesome animatronic. Funny shirt: front Funny shirt: back Mission accomplished. TR already consist Octopussy and shark. There is also real food in Slagharen. Main street reverse view. Some good food too. Finally made it through the other side. Zwunka flying carpet ride. Next ride Tomahawk. Don't ride this when you're hungover!! OK next up the Schwarzkopf Looping Star. 30 years old but still going strong. It has the old Thunderloop Express trains of Loudoun Castle. Station. TBC in part 2.

So you don't really like car races Benny? I love to go to these events, the noisier the better. Maybe I'll go to a F1 race next year. Did you had all access passes? I alway want to enter the pit area but never got the chance. Did Tom Coronel really won? Thanks for the report very exciting!! --Hans

That tram/bus station at Amsterdam Leidseplein is Awesome. The project is coming along very well. ---Hans

^ Thanks for adding the video. Rammstein was also very impressive especially this song where all of the 60.000 sing back in the chorus part. ----Hans

^ I had to look back what you meant with the BMW M power section but it's just the name of a grandstand. It will be quite interesting though to visit the new facilities/museum if the coaster is open of course!!! We skipped Muse to see Volbeat. I've seen Muse several times before and I don't like their last album either. Motorhead is the loudest band on earth indoor and outdoor. We watched the show from a distance cause they played from 01:45 AM - 03-00 AM and I wanted to drinks some beers too. ----Hans

^ Yes I've seen Rammstein. It was yesterday evening and the show is just awesome plus when you're watching the show with 70.000 Germans it's even more awesome. And no they were not testing the coaster. I don't know if there is any testing going on right now but they certainly didn't test during Rock Am Ring. ---Hans

Hi everyone, Last weekend I visited Rock Am Ring at the Nuerburgring in Germany. As the concerts are right at the Nuerburgring and thus being close to the RingºRacer all weekend I just had to bring my camera and take some pictures of it. Since it was the 25th anniversary of Rock Am Ring Kiss played on thursday night. Just one stage was open that night and everybody was going to see Kiss so soon it was very crowed at Centerstage. I don't know the exact numbers but it must have been around 60.000 - 70.000 people. I'll just show some pictures of the thursday night.... This was our home for the weekend. And this was our view. With in the background the long straight of the old Nurburgring. Neighbours trying to put up a partytent. Germans like to play with wood. They managed to start a party. On our way to the Nurburgring circuit. Circuit map and... directions. The newly build 4 star Hotel. Yep almost there. Coaster!!!! I wonder when it will open. Festival people are nice. Rock Am Ring program. Just one bridge to cross. Getting through security. Like I said festival people are nice. Walking to the stage where Kiss will play. But first more important things. Like letting see the other stages of Rock Am Ring. At this tent you can get high with crazy Germans. Let's look inside if everybody's still alive. Cheers. Excitement. That drop looks pretty steep. Nice sexy curves. Launch strip. I had to climb one of that toilets to take the previous picture. Almost forgot to post the first part of the ride. It get out of the buiding here, turns and get launched in front of the grandstands climb that towery thing and get back into this building again. Simple huh?!? Getting closer to Kiss. Above are the Vips. Look at the crowds already. We tried to get so far as possible. Somewhere in the back Kiss is playing. Most of the times we had to watch the video screens. Awesome concert. Guitar!!! Are we excited or what? We managed to get a bit more in front. And during "I was made..." he was nice enough to get a bit closer to us. and after a long, long night and the sun already coming up again we found our tent back.

Great report maybe it's time for a visit... And yes the dutch are cheap!! ----Hans

Thanks all... No Benny I did not ride the logflume cause my friend doesn't like waterrides especially when it's cold outside. ^ I think the paintjob happened 1 or 2 years ago but I'm not sure it sure looked good. ---Hans

Friday april 16 - Parc Asterix France This is a park that I had drive by a lot in the years that I went to Disneyland but never visited because it was closed. I had free admission with my Walibi World 3 Park Pass so that was awesome too. It's very well themed and there are a lot of awesome rides, there are even so many awesome rides that I missed a credit. You can blame it on bad preparation... and yes it was bad preparation. But anyway the main reason for this parc visit was there wooden coaster Tonnere de Zeus. Once the number one coaster (or two) of the world and I can understand why it was so high up. Our first ride of the day was awesome it was early morning and it rode kinda smooth it was fast throughout the whole track. Later that day it was bone crushing rough even so rough that we couldn't ride it multiple times in a row. Pictures.... Welcome to Parc Asterix. Main entrance. and most important parkinglot map. Inside here you can find a *Vekoma* Mack Mad House. It's got the funny Asterix & Obelix theming just like the whole park. See. Asterix is surveilling the public. First coaster the Bobsled. Guests waiting thei fate. and they survived. It's a big a$$ bobsled. actually it is the highest bobsled I've been on. and it was awesome. Through the rocks. Some good soldiers. Familiar site. Wave swinger. There is an awesome darkride too. with a creepy french actor. Can't recall his name though. This ride is really huge. I want food. and you got spit out at the exit. This reminded me somehow of the Pizzahut at Castlepark. Reminds me of home. Next ride: Nationale 7 - Antique cars. There are so many details on this ride. Station picture. Get four fat a$$es in that car. POV!!! There are so many funny sites here. Cub scouts. A man crushed under his stranded car. Passing the station building. Well if you lost your car in the water you can always go fishing and pretend nothing happened. I'm proud of Holland. There is an indoor section too. Looking back at the station once again. Old folks sleeping... Did you catch anything today? This ride is on par with the car ride in Gilroy Gardens. And we're of to some serious injuries. It wasn't half as bad as I expected. It looks so beautiful over the lake. Vikingship of doom. and his evil offspring's coming out. Riders are confused. Going up the hill. and they're screwed. Nirwana. Octopussy disguised in a 8 headed dragon. This was a strange contraption. Overview. Station picture. A real family coaster. Poor kid in front row. The whole park is so awesome. Swinging ship. Walkthrough part of the park. Perfect details. One of the two kiddie credits we rode. Station. Overview. Train flying by. and coming back into the station. We didn't do much water rides. and we had nice weather. Last ride or actually it was our first ride. It's hidden in the trees somewhere. Going out of the station. The finalbrake part did move like 10 feet forward. I think that was the most awesome part of the ride. Coming back. I once ruled the world.!!! Through the trees!! That concludes my Little/mini Europe trip report thanks for reading everyone.

Great trip report of the only modern thing in northern France Benny!!! Thanks for sharing... --Hans

Are you saying that I missed their greatest ride? I should study parks better before visiting!! --Hans

Thursday april 15 - Walygator I planned this park because of the "new" B&M coaster called Monster. After I heard that the ride wouldn't be completed on our visit I thought there is still a woodie and some other random stuff like a topple tower and drop/launchtower and not to forget the haunted house. But how wrong could I be. The place is a dump.... maybe that is a bit to hard but it wasn't a nice park. Not finished B&M, a not working topple tower and S&S tower and some serious lack of maintenance. The woodie is the worst one I've been on. The front running car was closed because they filled the car up to the restraints with sandbags and there were also sandbags on the floor of the rest of the train but even the extra weight didn't give a smooth ride. But I tried to take some good pictures anyway.... The promising entrance. can't start a report without a parkmap. Opening hours or better said closing hours. Dark clouds are gathering. First of to their best woodie. well it is their only woodie so it must be the best. partly removed queing area. Incoming train... but hey nobody in front seat? Let's have a look. Front row closed. OMG filled with sandbags. Let's all vote this coaster dead last in 2010 coaster poll. It sure is worse than Grizzly. Most smooth part of the ride. I never saw a ride op. doing her nails. There were some nice parts too. This apple for example. This one looked nice too. One of their new "old" rides. There is a tow boat ride too. Entrance. But the ride cycle is 45 minutes so we skipped it. The S&S space shot. But it didn't showed any movement. and that was for obvious reasons. Some random theming. I didn't saw an erupted vulcano in the neighbourhood. If you want to have fun come to Walygator. If you want to catch a desease... come to Walygator. Swinging ship. See.. Flying Dino's Mistral the typical chairswing ride. I'm right again. Main street. I always thought that you don't get too wet on these. but 2010 proofed me so wrong. Tea cups ride. This is the worst one out there. A few weeks ago I rode the exact same ride at Bellewaerde and it runned smooth but this one was really terrible. But on pictures it looks nice. I really don't want to be too negative about this park but there weren't just not so much positive things. It's Larry time. Crash Cars sounds good. Bumper Cars for kids. How cool an inflatable farm. River rafting. Announcement fo the new indoor coaster in 2011. If you visit Walygator always keep this in mind. The terror house is awesome. It's an huge walkthrough haunted house with live actors. Enter if you dare!!! Believe it or not but there is also a Vekoma coaster. and it did run quite smooth. for a Vekoma that is. Loopy goodness. and final brakes. There is a 1.90 m height limit on this coaster but they didn't noticed us the first time so I got my credit. But because it runned so smooth for a Vekoma we wanted to check it out for a second run just to be sure that it really isn't rough. But the bloody French denied us. This had to be my first topple tower. But it was closed for the day, the week or even the month. Octopus ride. Instrument themed merry-go-around. There's a logflume too. The thing this park proofs is that even in a park that is crap you can still have some good fun!! This is the view from our last Hotel nearby Parc Asterix. Can't be better.

Anaconda at Walygator parc by far. It is the most painful wooden coaster I've been on and it must beat Grizzly in next years poll. ---Hans

^ Maybe not evil but he gave that fine german wink in that video. ^^ Before Blue Fire I never had the feeling something was missing but then again I only been to a Blue Fireless Europarapark once. Actually he almost grabbed my camera right after I took the picture. ----Hans

Part 2 Tow boat ride. Evil creature #7 This ride is perfect if you just want to chill out. Which of those birds is real. The most evil creature of them all #8 Is this one evil? you decide. Nice scandinavian village. Silver Star. 2010 Formula One Pacecar. I see an evil creature on the giant screen. Going up the lift. It really ran good this year. Hardly any trims on the first two Airtime hills. It will definiately make a jump on my list. The normal line was about a 15 minute wait. The frontline was about 45 minutes though. Pit box... One of the best coaster crews in the world. Spot the viking. I feel so totally at home now. Delfts blauw. Model of Eurosat. <-- In dutch the name of this coaster sounds like you got plenty of money. Euromir.

Tuesday april 13/Wednesday april 14 - Europapark We stayed for two days at Europapark with one night on Resort. We booked Hotel Castillo Alcazar and we got a room with parkview. Europapark is simply amazing everything is just awesome, the rides, the theming. In my opinion it's even a better resort than Disney - Paris and California. We didn't had too much love from the sun these two days but it was dry and more important not too busy. Warning there will be some evil creatures in this update!!! Pictures.... (part 1) If you look closely you can see the hotel resort in the distance. View from my room. Neat view huh!! Pool of Santa Isabel. Early morning Blue Fire already opened up. There were several evil creatures around the park. First credit. Matterhorn Blitz. This coaster had the longest queue. It was about an hour... Blue Fire and Silverstar had only 15 minutes. Queue area. Station picture!!! Evil creature # 2 Did I mention that the food is of a very high quality in Europapark. Delicious. Parks transport system. Swing ride located in Austria. It just youre normal swing ride but because it's in Europapark it's awesome. Awesome powered coaster. See and it even goes through a mountain. A mountain full of diamonds that is. Even people from Alabama can come to Europapark. Cause there is a church you know. A church with many crosses. Inside. There are even two. Inside the same diamond mountain is a Logflume too. Very nice Swiss village. Sledding. Twisting.... It's a very easy going bobsled. The whole bobtrack in one picture. Viva La France. New entrance to Blue Fire. On the left starts the single riders line. That's a big improvement compared to last year when the single riders line started at the very end of the queue line. New entrance building. Inside. Where are we? OMG coaster car. Some launch pictures. Well that's a big a$$ loop. Hitting the final brakes. It's such a great ride. The same element as on Maverick. Evil creature #3 Next up some overview pictures. Eurosat Silverstar Slowly spinning boat ride. Poseidon and.... Evil creature #4 - Is it a terrorist? Look he made it to the top. Parks that have wine take away points are awesome. New for 2010 - Splash battle. Great theming but due to the weather we didn't ride. Family fun. Next spinning kids ride. With an evil dragon that will take your kids with no reason. That makes #5. and spin them around. We love rides with weels. Station picture. Simply stunning. Vindjammer - Swinging ship. Ride sign. It swinged to the left. and to the right. and I missed it. From a distance it swinged too. And further away it swinged even better. Silverstone race track. Some Poseidon Pictures. We did ride it despite the weather cause it's a credit you know. Two train shot. Favorite spot. Two train shot. Pegasus Junior Coaster Evil creature #6 Takes away a lot of view. I finally got this credit. Thank you nice German ride operator.