Machtin

Well, considering that you're planning for 2 days, I'd strongly recommend that you go to Europa Park. There are more things to do to keep you and your children occupied for 2 days. Phantasialand is also a great park, but honestly, you can hit the park in one day if you don't choose to go there during summer holiday. Concerning children friendliness both parks have great things in store. Phantasialand has enormously enlarged its kids area just a few years ago but I still think Europa Park delivers more of that kind. But either way, you'll have fun however you'll decide. Of that I'm sure. PS: The notorious "c#nt" animatronic says nothing more than "Kommt" which is, grammatically speaking, the imperative plural of "to come". That's all there is, I'm sorry

This thing got me curious. What the hell is a Pretzel Knot?

New photos and even some airplane shoots can be found here: onride.de Only 5 days left before the public can finally ride the snake. On the photos you see that construction now is in its final spurt. All the buildings are almost finished. Last thing to do will be hoisting a 100-year-old oak into the village to give it its final patch. Slowly the hype begins over here in Germany. Newspaper articles accumulate. The project manager is pretty confident and praises the ride as globally unique. He even claims that, besides Phantasialand, only Disney and Universal put so much effort into theming and detail (well, you can argue that). Even the biggest tv-station in Germany, RTL, will report live from the opening ceremony in its local program. Well, you cannot accuse Phantasialand of not properly advertising their ride, can you?

Your daily dose rate of Black Mamba photos: onride.de Words can't describe...

Well, now we actually know where Phantasialand got its inspiration from for Black Mamba. It's not Nemesis, but Anaconda! In fact, the similarities are striking. They have almost the same sequence of inversions and the genuinly African snake goes round some rocks including some near misses, just like its German counterpart. Seriously, this should be without a doubt the best themed coaster on the southern hemisphere.

Ok, here's a little trip into German pronunciation for you to know how to say all the German coaster terms. That's not as easy as it sounds because some sounds are almost impossible to describe with English characters. Before I begin, let me say the German R differs extremely from the English one. Try to make an R and then go down with your tongue to the throat. If the sound that you hear comes solely out of the throat and isn't formed in your mouth anymore, then you do right. The U is indeed pronounced as ooh, but most of the times a lot shorter. And for the A: Just try to immitate an English accent as in dance. I'll use an ' to mark the stressed syllable. Schwarzkopf = 'Shvarts-koppf (means black head in English, by the way) Gerstlauer = 'Guerst-low-er (ow as in tower) Maurer & Söhne = 'Mow-rer oond 'Zu-neh (try to pronounce the U as in murder, means Mason & Sons' in English) Maybe you saw here that the character Ö is completely different to the character O. I feel so sory for Sören because he is is always mispronounced by everyone here. Maybe you could make him happy by trying to pronounce his name the right way: Sören = 'Zu-ren (with murder-u again ) Back to the topic: Mack = 'Muck Zierer = 'Tsee-rer Huss = 'Hooss (remember to shorten the oo) Werner Stengel = 'Ver-ner 'Shtengle (the g is pronounced rather softly) Immelmann = 'Im-mle-munn Now, on to the parks: Heide Park = 'Hy-deh Park Europapark = Oy-'ro-pa-park (for the Oy, try to imagine a very strong Australian accent) Phantasialand = Fun-'ta-zee-a-lund Hansa Park = 'Hunn-za Park Robb said in his trip report that this one was the hardest to pronounce, so this is just for him: Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten = 'Vild oond 'Fry-tsight-park 'Clot-ten (this means "park for wildlife and leisure time" Klotten) Well, that's all I can think of at the moment. I hope this helps.

Now look at this: new photos Best photos I have seen in a while. Does anyone still doubt that they won't come near to the artworks? Everything is taking shape now and the evolution the area has had in the last few weeks is nothing but amazing. I'm counting the days (if I only knew how many days that is)

Schwartzkopf's Dreier Looping sometime in the middle of the 90s on a fair in Bonn. Wherever you are now, I miss you

^^You got me wrong there. I wasn't refering to you, but to the speaker of the program talking with this discovery channel style. I cannot remember that well, but you did tell something good about X. It was like:"X is a really unique experience" or something like that. The thing I didn't get was that Ian, your friend, enjoyed X pretty much whilst getting sick on Batman.

Speaking of old shows where you are in: They're even broadcasted in Germany! Yesterday, while zapping through the channels, I found one of these Discovery Channel programs about rollercoaster and you were in there with some friend of yours, Ian was his name, I think. How old was that footage? Can't be that old because X was already built. Comments like "Coasters like X will mark the future of coaster development" were quite funny. You're German voice-over was quite sexy, Elissa. Thought you'd like to know.

The scariest drop tower I've ever been on was for sure the Giant Drop at Dreamworld, Australia. Not that the fact that this thing is 120 meters high is not intimidating enough, what made me almost wet my pants was that you were held at the top of the tower for about a minute. (without a doubt the longest minute of my life) Well, that's not enough: While you hang there it can happen that the train of the Tower of Terror ride climbs the very same tower as well. It's one of these Intamin Reverse Freefall Coasters and the tower is literally shaking. Totally awesome. Theming-wise, I'd have to go for Mystery Castle at Phantasialand, Germany. In fact, it's the only enclosed drop ride I know of, the ToTs excluded. The ride itself may be not that jaw-dropping, but the queue makes up for it. It's often scarier than the ride itself with so many figures trying to scare young blonde girls to death.

There are some new interesting photos at http://onride.de/viewtopic.php?t=21366&start=440&-1 The main temple building is now almost completely freed from the scaffolding and looks great. these wood logs stuck into the holes really add to theming. This wing coming out of the temple just seems to get higher and higher. In the new map, you can see that this is likely to become a third tower. Also, you can detect that they started to form the rock scenery on the wall at the back side of the ride. Everyday you see the coaster, it becomes more and more clear how ambitious this project is. It's massive.

^^How perceptions can differ from each other. I wonder if I saw the same video you are claiming to have seen. Considering the temperature and the weight of the train during the test run, personally, I was really impressed by the speed. Concerning the track layout: Either you are fixed on inversions or you missed half the ride because you ignored three banked turns and two helices which are elements as well, imo. In fact, the track is much longer than, lets say, Nemesis Inferno. Whereas this coaster takes not that much more than 30 seconds from top of the lift to the breaks, it's about 50 seconds with Black Mamba. Not that short for a coaster that has no break in the middle. And to argue about the sound of the train... Come on, that's childish. Considering that Phantasialand has some harsh problems with its neighbours about the noise of the attractions, the silence of the train can only be welcome. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to riding this coaster that may be able to give Nemesis a run for its money.

There is a new artwork that depicts the area of black mamba as a whole. Gives you a nice overview. Just click on the bosky area up the picture to see it zoomed in. http://195.135.166.98/parkplan/plan_de.html

^^Oh no, it isn't! This is neither photoshopped nor a joke. This is the actual subtitle of the coaster since Michael Jackson actually rode this one while being in Germany and the park was so proud that they decided to make him the godfather of this ride. There are even pictures of him riding it, although I'm not able to find them right now. I remember that they were in almost every German newspaper, but this was years ago.

My nearest coaster is the new aspirant for best inverter in the world: Black Mamba! If I were you, I'd be jealous of me right now.

What a waste!

You've got to be careful with this news, but one big German tabloid newspaper reports in its Sunday issue that the train will come as close as 50 cm to the ground and the walls which is less than 2 ft. It also sais that the coaster should be ready for public for the summer season. The rumoured restaurant fly through turns out to be an African bar inside the lift building. But as I said, you got to be careful with tabloids.

What's most impressive about it is that you practically can't perceive any sound at all. This thing runs as silent as a cat. At http://onride.de/viewtopic.php?t=21366&start=100&-1 you can also see that work is progressing really fast now. You can detect some queue line theming. Typical of Phantasialand this will be quite an experience for people suffering from claustrophobia.

Finally, Phantasialand has released a website for the coaster gem: http://www.deepinafrica.de/ No new information at all, but at least they do have a webcam and a sweepstake, better than nothing. For a bigger photo of the webcam click here

So what's so ugly about Kreuzberg? I can't understand its bad reputation. A very vivid place and melting pot of cultures. In fact, it's one part of the city where cultural integration seems to work, at least superfically. Except for may the first (burning cars due to protests every year) I wouldn't mind going there at all. But there are indeed some "not so nice" parts in Berlin, e.g. Märkisches Viertel, but I think every big city has to cope with places like this.

Shame on you, Sören, for not knowing our Lady Chanellor's first name. It's Angela, not Angelika (setzen, sechs ) But nevertheless, Berlin is so awesome! If you are into architecture and stuff, Berlin is the place to be. So many modern buildings surrounded by or even integrated with historical buildings. A bit too pompous at some points, but still very exciting. It's such a shame that there is absolutely no theme park near Berlin. I hope they grant your visa, Sören. Good luck.

The construction site gets a lot busier now. They've rebuilt the scaffolding, you see construction workers about everywhere, and best of all: The helix of death at the end is going to be indoor! New, breathtaking photos at: http://freizeitparkweb.de/cgi-bin/dcf/dcboard.cgi?az=show_thread&om=2805&forum=DCForumID1

Don't be that pessimistic! I mean, look at how many people laughed about Kahn saying:"I want to win the cup!" 4 years ago and then the "Oh so pathetic" Mannschaft went straight to the final. As much as I don't want to overestimate the team's skills, I hate it when people say that they don't have the slightest chance. But I think this is just a German thing to lower the expectations beforehand for not being disappointed if it doesn't work. Don't be a pessimist, we'll get very far. And if not, it's just a sport.

There's still a lot to be done, but at least they've begun painting now. Lots of new concrete as well, the buildings begin to take shape. Some points are so narrow, I still wonder how this is supposed to work without any legs chopped off. Pics: http://www.turbolaaf.nl/nieuwforum/viewtopic.php?p=6552#6552