Nrthwnd

After the loss of our sweet cat Camille, just after I got back from the Japan tour, we finally got ourself another cat. A 6 month old Bengal-cross young teenager , with a penchant for getting into e - vry - thing that she can climb. Her name? Stella. Great to yell out when she's shredding the curtains, lol. So - for this holiday season we decided NOT to bring down our little fake tree and test fate with such a youngster among us, heh. We left it up in one of our guest rooms, where it is still decorated with lights, and an assortment of small theme park...stuff, I have managed to buy, collect, get gifted with, or just find accidently through all my tours with TPR. And all of the recent buys and such from this Japan tour ended up at the base of the tree, and it looks pretty good, I must say. So A Merry Solstice To All, and in addition - Have a Great Theme Park-Coaster-Filled 2012! Looks pretty good, yes? Next year, it comes downstairs and it gets TINSEL, lol!

Now, where's that snow?

I looked through these last night, just before heading to bed, and was going to post - and forgot, LOL! But - these are really beautiful photographs! Even that first one (Cinderella Carousel) you weren't happy with, because of the "lens flare" or something? It is sill an awesome-looking photo, there. The exterior photos of It's A Small World (first one), and Tarzan's Treehouse are just lovely. My favourites of this group. Keep up the great work and, I definitely look forward to more of what you took.

After a good night's (well, a few hours, if that, lol) sleep onboard the Viking Line ferry, an early rise up; a practically solitary walk around the top deck of the ship (beautiful morning views); a great buffet breakfast; and... the guy who was taking those "Boarding Pix" as you first boarded the ship? There he was, in the boarding lobby, all of the photos on easels for everybody to choose from and buy, if wanted. It was wild! And coming onboard the previous late afternoon, I did NOT feel like having my photo taken. But the pic showed me in a pretty good head space. So I bought it, LOL! (To be shown at end of report). And the whole setup was down within an hour! Swedish-Finnish Magick! We then boarded our coach of an extreeeeeeeeeemely long drive up to our next park. I mean, at least 7+ hours drive, with a nice rest stop "somewhere along the way," heh . The rest stop I found actually interesting to explore, outdoors, once I had gotten myself a bottled drink and some crisps. The back area behind our little stop looked like something out of Lord of The R___s, or maybe even Snow White's seven guys' hangout, lol. Then I saw the Full-Size OUTHOUSE there. Good enough, I thought, and left it at that. We got to our park with the sun out, a few minutes to get our stuff into our resort rooms or cabins, and then we were out and over to have... ~ Evening at Power Park w/ERT on Thunderbird! ~ Power Park is part of a holiday resort set-up, which caters to families for some "country air" and some theme park thills, lol. It has a decent coaster count (4) and several good flats, a cheesy "Western" dark ride (Devil's Mine Hotel)...in fact, a lot of the shops and facade sat the back of the park ("Shopping Street") seemed to be themed to The Olde West. Which was okay with me. I liked the wooden sidewalks, heh. A bit later on, we all grouped at the new wooden coaster in the park, Thunderbird, for some evening ERT (of course, the sun never seemed to go down, being as far north as we were and being June, lol) of it AND some Quality Time doing both "Pass The Sword" (and I think we did very good on this one) and more importantly, breaking the coaster's (then) Speed Record with some help from our more 'weighty' members of the tour. And - they did it!!! Took a few tries, but they got juuust by the record, I remember. And Big Cheers rang out through-out the station! And after that, it was back to our rooms for the evening, but not before having a lovely Welcome Reception (food and drinks!) in the main restaurant of the resort. Then, to bed, and to rest up for one of TPR's Most Important-Ever Tour Events... the TPR Grand Prix! Off the ferry, and on our way to Power Park. One rest stop, but an interesting one, especially out back of the service building. I sat at that centre bench there with my drink and crisps. It was lovely out. And (most of) everybody else stayed inside the building, LOL! THIS is what I imagined to be for Snow White's gang... or a stop-off for The Fellowship? Who knows? Ghastly scratchy old speaker inside with rock music playing. Didn't fit the themeing, lol. And then - there It stood. Waiting. Quiet. Darned thing didn't even creak. Hmmm. Time to get going... ...to Power Park! This is what we saw, when we walked to the park from where we were staying for the night. It all looked great! This is Pegasus. A clone of what I rode, drunk, at Grona Lund - and survived. But when I saw this at Power Park I decided... no, not even sober, lol. Thunderbird! Lifthill!! ERT!!! For those of you with a taste for sexy curvy wood tracking - here. Enjoy. After the park ERT and after our Welcome Reception, me and my roomie Terry had Nice Restful Cocktails (yay duty free!) on our room's balcony with Power Park's Grand Prix racetrack behind us. Oh, and this is what 11 PM (made a note of it) looked like, too.

^ @ Mitsui Greenland Haunted Shrine (I think) That's the one! (Totally screwed up in 2007 - but held 'the candle' still and nailed it last June, LOL!)

Next morning, we were up bright and early, loaded the coach and then back to where we started last night... ~ Grona Lund ~ Great park. Lots packed into essentially two parts of the whole, with a bridge to join everything together, lol. I found it was one of the most 'packed' in-city parks I had ever seen, up to that point in my touring. And still there was space to stroll around, and not bump shoulders too often, heh. Part of Grona Lund is at the water's edge so two flats (now one after "recent changes") had their own 'piers' to be on. The coaster collection was another terrific reason to love this park, and want to come back. A properly maintained Schwarzkopf (JetLine), screaming over and around a pretty wild bobsled (Vilda Musen); the family suspended Vekoma (Kvasten) was really smooth and actually had separate themeing at one of it's turns, to work in with the park's spookhouse, which had sound effects - and fire when you flew by, lol! Very cool. A nice Zierer Tivoli coaster for "the kid in us all," credit whores that we were - and finally... INSANE. It looked as crazy as the night before, from what I could remember of riding it, heh. So, after we were continental breakfast feted and given a wonderful Slide Show and Tell about the history of Grona Lund and future plans the park was working on, everybody was taken on an optional BackStage Tour of you guessed it: this crazy bizarre coaster called INSANE. And after the previous evening, and how overwhelmed I remember was at all the machinery (in the small space) used for SpeedMonster at Tusenfryd... I declined the offer, with thanks, and stayed outside of "it" with a few others. Which was fine with me, lol. After that, we were on our own for some time, before meeting up again for a nice outdoor lunch at one of the park's main eateries over-looking part of it's layout. Very nice setting I remember. Nice plush rattan too, hee hee. A bit more time on our own, then back together and on the bur for our next Scandi Adventure... ~ Viking Line Overnight Ferry - Stockholm to Helsinki ~ Thuis was our third and final use of the ferry system in the Scandinavian waterwayas. It was also The Best One - an overnight in our own little 'stateroom' (most of us had never done this before, including myself) which for most of us, was within the ship itself, but with a nice layout and a nice cheesy artwork in our "porthole window" lol. The ship had a casino; a disco and show lounge which did an "ABBA Tribute!"; a karoake bar which several of our group used to entertain each other, heh; and a couple fo other very important things for us to enjoy... Duty-Free Shopping - it was nuts. A HUGE floor with everything you know is wanted in these places, like booze and ciagarettes of course, candy and mmmm chocolate everywhere, some fashions, perfumes and watches - it was very trippy to just browse through all of it. i found myself buying some "airport size" liquors for 'Add-ons' to my coffee and/or tea in whatever room Terry and i were next in, lol. It was fun. Nothing like my ferry system back home. Very cool. ..and after we had gotten to our rooms, looked around, SHOPPED, we re-gathered for what most of us had signed up for before the tour started, and had two+ hours to enjoy... OnBoard Viking Line BUFFET - I mean, it was an amazing setup of food islands for everything from salads and appetizers from different cultures (mostly Scandi but others, too); some freshly done seafoods, as side dishes and main courses; meats and poultry in various ways and ethnic styles; a kids island for their faves, including those darned nuggets, fries, pizza (world wide, hmm?); and last but least ... the dessert island. At least three types of mouse, two of freshly made ice creams, cakes and pies and tarts, oh my! And it included all our drinks and beverages, alcoholic and non- too! I think we were all responsible drinkers, but I do remember having at least two glasses each of red and white wines, lol. It was really a dinenr treat for pretty well all of us who did it,. Definitely one of the higlights of this tour... And then, into the night, staying up the night to see hardly any nightfall happen, doing the karaoke and disco lounge and show, gambling a bit, losing a bit , And finally to the cabin for sleep, an early wakeup, breakfast (a great buffet, too) and then on a long long drive up into...FINLAND! Here's where we started the day, with a light breakfast and GronaLund giving us a great slide show & tell of it's history. And - there IT is. And right here is where I stayed, outside of IT, lol. Truly a very twisted looking piece of machinery, INSANE is. A big group got together to storm the park's FunHouse. A number of them got pretty winded from all the physical stuff they had to do, thru it. And this is how they "exited" the FunHouse. Cool, huh? And here's my roomie again, Terry, proving you can go anywhere as long as you have a good sliding start and a good piece of.... uh...rug. This random selection of coaster pix was on the bridge that connects the two parts of Grona Lund. The Canadian part of this group found Behemoth from Canada's Wonderland! I think it's at the bottom, there. Not knowing Swedish, we couldn't figure out why these were grouped together. So we figured it to be a Grona Lund random kind of thing, lol. (o; I found this poster - interesting. Not only did it change into... well... a more "revealing' shot of this lovely couple. But the whole thing was up on a regular walkway thru the park. And several families walked by. Nothing. It's no big deal over here. Which was great! But also depressing, knowing it won't happen at my home park any time soon, LOL! Saying my goodbyes to one of Grona Lund's "regulars," here.I was charmed by this park. Want to come back. But got to go catch the ferry now...... and off to Finland! On the Viking Line - and on 'half' of my state room, heh. Actually I wanted (and got, thanks Terry!) the upper berth to enjoy. And - I did - and did not fall out either, LOL! And check out that view! Leaving Stockholm. But more important - THIS is a view of Grona Lund you can't see any more, hmm? I heard some "twisty wood" has taken over some space there and cluttered this park view up, now. )o: Sad to hear. Will be back (I hope) to check that 'rumor' out. And just before going inside, a shot from the deck, of an interesting setup on shore, here. Neat huh? Now to (yum) dinner, night fun, some duty-free shopping (yes), and finally... sleep! But first - THANKYOU GRONA LUND for a BLAST of a visit! (o:

YES! Nothing better just a lap bar between you and possible coaster ejection, LOL! My home coaster is just with lap bars, and has been that way for over 50 years. It rocks, that way. But - must get back here, eventuallly.

hi guys - Found this thread, and decided to bump it up, because I know some of us do have a tree trimmed in some way and/or fashion theme park/coaster-themed...or not. (o: To celebrate The Holiday Season in whatever way we enjoy. So - this year, just a month ago, we adopted ourselves a new 'problem' for this season's (I like) Solstice Tree. A short hair, bengal-cross, five+ month-old... female cat. We named her......STELLA! And decided NOT to put our regular little fake tree in the living room, which I had moved upstairs from last Solstice, lights still on it, and now adorned with... various parks' ....stuff I collected through the past years touring with TPR, lol. And at its base, I put my newly-aquired gifts and souvenirs from the Japan tour I just did with Robb & Elissa & everyone, this past summer. So, I decided It was too risky, even with a tough fake tree and lights that have lasted a few years. I think it was my nightmare of her attacking all the TINSEL on it, and trying to devour it all, that had me really worried... So - THIS is my Solstice Tree (still upstairs and away from Her) for the Season! You can barely make out the what-nots and thing-a-ma-jigs I've got up there. But it's all tour-related. From UK in 2006, to this past Japan tour. And we have a small little tacky old aluminum decorated tree I used to have at my sorting station at work, years and years ago. It's fine (and working out, whew!) for this year, with Stella. Next year, we'll bring down the bigger one and try, when She's older. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYBODY! (However you celebrate the season, the month, the year.) Big Bearhugs - Bill & David & Stella ~ I see a Western STAR from Norway('06); above that, licorice stix from Denmark('09); at left, cellphone figures on cards from Japan('07)... lots of neat stuff. With Japan('11) goodies underneath. Score!~!~! By the way, map up and behind is original 1963 map of Disneyland. And personal pix on walls of (then) fave coasters. And a print copy of orig.drawing of orig.Space Mtn. behind it all! ~ Happy Solstice Greetings Everyone!

Another day of an early breakfast, loading luggage back onto the coach, depart our loooovely Gotesborg hotel and continue on to our newxt park with a rather unusual coaster.... ~ Skara Sommerland ~ This was the home of another coaster on the tour we weren't too sure whether it would up and operating when we got there. But after an hour two, and some initial testing, not only was Tranan up and running, but because the late operating probs ran into our scheduled ERT with it, the management generously let us have First Rides on Tranan, once they got it going! AND they also gave us a neat gift of an On-Ride photo of us on it, if we wanted one! Cool and Thankyou Skara Sommerland! Tranan is literally two canoe-like ride cabs on either side of (what I call) "a balancing act of machine, track and wheels" that kept us 'flying' up, around and under/over this interesting coaster's track. One of the tricks the ride ops kept rtelling us was to keep our arms out "for balance." Uh huh. Well, we did, as you can see later on in my on-ride photo (set), lol. Backing up, to keep us 'busy' while they tended to getting Tranan going for us, we got put on their other coaster, Gruvbanan, and honestly the number of cycles we went through on that..... thing? For a powered coaster.. I was really - feeling slighty - well, winded afterwards from it going round and round and round and...Not a repeat ride for me thankyou. And after we did get on Tranan (which was very cool to ride), our visiting schedule was shorted up a bit, so we got some food into us, then back on the bus, and several hours' drive to our next hotel. But more importantly, this was the hotel that got us (for a couple of hours' visit) within walking distance of one of the original... ~IKEA Sweden ~ I am honestly jaded about this thing, as there are two IKEAS within an hour or so drive from Vancouver. And I do visit the place, from time to time. So it wasn't the 'contents' that I was interested in seeing (been there. bought that), so much as the "presentation" of it all. And it - was - amazing! At least four floors, with GI-normous set-ups of furniture and accessories - including what I found really cool... small cafe and restaurant 'sets'! Not seen in my IKEAs, I can tell you. And of course, a MUCH BIGGER Swedish grocery area, than what ours had at home. Probably four times the size - very impressive. With Swedish Meatballs & Lingonberry Sauce to take home, too! Nice. But no photos of it sorry - although I do remember Jon and me posing in the Cafe Set for a pic...like we owned the place LOL! (Any chance of posting it here, guys? Might as well ask, hmm?) After we spent time oohing and ahhhing (and some even buying) at the IKEA, it was back to the hotel, then back on the bus to do something really special... ~ Evening at Grona Lund! ~ The owners were there to greet us, take us to a reserved part of a Grona Lund bar/eatery where we had snacks, beverages (guess what?), and T-SHIRTS for us of our soon-to-ride (then) original coaster, INSANE! And after some time of snacking, talking and drinking, we were let loose on the park, till meet-up time for INSANE and JetLine (another Schwarzkopf!), once the park had closed! My memories of that time period were mainly of, a few of us not only scaring other park guests but the actors too, in their great haunted 2-story walk-through, Spokhuset, heh heh. Evil us. And a flat ride I thought several of us were going to puke our guts out, from. Euuuuuuuw! But - amazingly - we didn't, lol. And we got to ride the two coasters at night, after the official closing time. JetLine was so cool as the park had it dipping and diving all around several of the other park rides, including a coaster! This was Blackpool-style layout at it's best, I felt. Everything all over each other, but still with space to get around and get a great ride out of it - which we did, ee hah! And then... INSANE - well, Magic Mountain Calif. now has one (Green Lantern) but this little (little?) beauty is/was the original design. And we got to ERT it to death - nearly for some of us too, LOL. One of us got a nosebleed, I remember, and a few others nearly pulled several muscles from the "WhoooOOOOOOOOOSh and OOOOHHHMIIIGAWWDDDSWTFFFFFuuuuuUUUUUU!!!" we got on it. I think I only made it through five cycles and then I - was - done. Can't remember the rest of the night after that. I do remember the ride ops had a great time running it with each ride vehicle "im-balanced" which they weren't going to be able to do with the general public. So, in essence, we suffered for their most intense cycles and (no-brake) runs, heh heh. It - Was - (true!) INSANE!!! And the next morning, we came back to the park, and had almost a full day there, including a Backstage Tour of INSANE, and a lovely outdoor lunch, before our next Big Scandi Adventure... Overnight on Water to Finland! At Skara Sommerland while we waited to ride Tranan - a possible new beau for KidTums? Naw, she turned him down. So far, so good. Everything was checking out good for us...'testpilots' lol. And you can see one of the 'canoes' that we sit in, there. Wierd looking, huh? Four to a vehicle, one behind the other, (DL) Spash Mountain-style, lol. And look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Well..... it's a coaster. A wierd coaster. And check out that "arm spread" up there, hee hee! And that's all I got - Bye bye and Thanks Skara Sommerland! SO - after the IKEA run - Welcome Shot #! - here we are, drinking, and snacking and Drinking at Grona Lund YES! And no, I am NOT helping Josh drink a beer... I photoshopped that. Grin. I also think we need to count guys/arms/beers, too. We look like an optical illusion, LOL! Welcome Shot #2 - More of The Group. I got Stacey there with a look like, "not again with the camera," Ryan and Marc posing...perfect, and Tom and Terry looking up at.....? We'll never know, until they tell. And that foursome in the back, plotting and planning... again, we'll never know, darnit. (o; Welcome Shot #3 - And this is all of us, right here! Before we're let loose on the poor unsupecting Grona Lund general public, ! And I'm not quite sure but for now - left to right - a Park Owner, a JetLine Ride Op...and Me! Before I left the station to head over for INSANE ERT - and - it WAS INSANE! And after that, the rest of the night was a total blank foggy non-memory in my head. (I didn't even remember the coach ride back to the hotel!) Fortunately, no bones or muscles were harmed or brain injuries ocurred, heh. So - see you tomorrow morning, Grona Lund!

Totally forgot about that on that coaster, LOL! Made coming back into the station, all the more "special," hee hee.

^^ Yes, Nara Dreamland was definitely more of a "Fake Disneyland," one that was actually 'completed' and running for awhile, before it closed up it's...uh....drawbridge?

.. and after finding my way back to our hotel, and all all meeting up in the lobby, we were then off (by foot) to one of my fave parks, with a lot of great stuff in it, coasters too! ~ Liseberg ~ This is one of those parks that has a lot going for it, as far as the number of attractions it has, the variety for all age/thrill levels, and the experience that it has to grow and change somewhat, while keeping it's past successes alive and thriving. Landscaping and great architecture, too! It's home to one of the nicest non-looping Schwarzkopf coasters you could ever ride round and round on the side of a hill; the most amazing haunted house walk-through (Gasten); Sagoslottet - a slow moving suspended dark ride through scenes of various (and sometimes wierd) fairy tales; a pretty WET flume ride - three drops - WET - built by Arrow - did I say you got W - E - T?... We started the day with a Welcome Reception (!) inside Balder's layout, where we had soda and beers (!!!) and snacks awaiitng us, some souvenirs of the park and of course Balder itself, as gifts, and (yes!) we got to do to Balder, what I had gotten to do a few years before, on that 2006 add-on! That being, taking a nail and driving it into the lovely framework that supports this wonderful amazing wooden coaster! And then date it and sign your name to it too... Awesome! So I got to add the day's date to where my signature was from '06 and then after photo-taking and lots of geek chat, we started our ERT with many rides on Balder itself, along with it's steely younger sibling Kanonen, next to it. And later on, we got the opportunity to enjoy a hosted tour (by one of it's actors) through the actors' walkways and 'backstage' of one of The Best Theme Park Walk-Throughs - Ever: Gasten Hotel. Doing that, and then going into the Hotel later on, only made the backstage tour ever more cool to remember. Another nice group meal in on of the park's main restaurants, recently renovated and opening that summer; more time on flat rides and some shop buying; getting up into the (still standing then) Liseberg Tower for some great park shots... And finally, at 10pm when the park closed - Night ERT on Balder for one - full - hour. Then back to the hotel, sleep, breakfast and then off and away, from a wonderful day at Liseberg! But before we head to Liseberg - here's me, Big Mike and one of the "I'm a valuable BIG MIKE reader" buttons, Robin (he's 3 pix down) made up and gave out to some of us back in 2006 - at Liseberg - in front of Balder! Hi Mike, and Thanks again Robin! Now in Liseberg - within Balder - at our Welcoming Reception - With beer (o: Here I am! From 2006, and now 2009. The Park's Mascot's Ears are part of the Welcome Pack, lol! Hi Robin! (at left) And there the rest of them all go, hammering into the poor thing. Amazing it still runs so wooonderfully well, heh heh. Nailing Balder Group Shot #1 - Mostly UK, with a traitor or two in there, somewhere. (hi Andrew) Nailing Balder Group Shot #2 - Bigger Group - More Nails. More Beer. Woo Hoo! My Coaster Count Project continues with... Coaster # 3-6-9. (I like the number '3' and all it's combinations, lol.) "RaBalder" (original title, hmm?) replaced "CircusExpressen" which I got credit for, back in 2006. Kool! Group meal with Tim, me, my tour roomie Terry, and Stacey, who's probably wondering when the 'cool beans' we're going to stop taking photos, so she can EAT! Heading up the escalator to the Lisberg (observation) Tower. And it looks like "somebody" got too close to some radiation, hmm? Tower Shot #1 - Some nice Schwarzkopf love down there, with the Uppswinger beside it. Mmmmmm Lisebergbanan (name of coaster). Tower Shot #2 - Showing our group meal restaurant at left; various flats, dance/entertainment areas, shops and lovely landscaping; and a shadow of what is now no more - a drop tower now in it's former place. Tower Shot #3 - Mmmmm Balder we love ye. (And little Kanonen there, too!) Bye Bye and Thanks again for another great day, Liseberg! Missing you since....2009 lol!

The castle looks like a great place to eventually live when overpowering and enslaving the world.* *(And a definite fixer-upper, too.)

Love it. Just love it. Thanks for the updates, Larry. The walk-through facade is looking amazing!

^ Somebody told me afterwards (I guess someone who did it after me), that I looked so ultra-serious/concentrating and trying to remain calm while staring at that hook, about to let me go, lol. I didn't know my hands were holding onto the straps so tight, either. It was such an intense you-are-there moment there, so high up. And "apparently" it was reported, that instead of what I thought I was yelling/screaming as some kind of Tarzan yell or war cry - was actually... Mommeeeeeee! Also, it had been raining all day, there was still some drizzle coming down and it was getting c-c-c-cold with some wind up there. I think at first, we couldn't do it immediately when we arrived, because the wind was stronger than they would allow it to be done. So we came back later after riding the coasters etc. And it had calmed down... a bit, ha ha.

So after a niiiiice night's sleep in Goteborg, we left our looooovely rooms for our bus ride up to another country! Yes, it's Time For Norway and for me, a repeat visit to a park that worked at "working you out", heh heh.... ~ Tusenfryd ~ This was a reunion visit for a few of us on this tour. For myself, this park was part of the 2006 add-on we did with the first TPR UK Tour. And it rained most of the day we were there, but it was an awesome park with a really good selection of coasters and other rides and attractions. However, time has gone by, and I did have two little disappointments with this tour's visit to Tusenfryd. #1 - No Haunted House Walk-thru. The building was still there, and even still on the (then) current park map, but the thing had been shut down and I guess it was just heading for a tear-down, eventually. Sad, because although a bit 'tame' by some other walk--thrus I had andf have been thru on my other tours, this was a neat little scare or three with a live actor too, and I am sorry I didn't get to experience that again. #2 - No Norse Legend Theatre Show. The Dragons mouth (Is that what it was? I forget, sorry.) is still there, as it (again) is on the park map. But they closed that production down, and now the space is only open for company event get-togethers and group meets, etc. Sad, because it was a neat "How Norway Got Put Together by Norse Gods" production, with a motion seating base looking like a Norse ship, some fairly good animatronics and some pretty good special effects in projections and sound. Smoke and watersprays of course included, too LOL! So I was sorry to see that I couldn't do that again. And what I also found again, is that Tusenfryd still had this bizarre way of making me think "Fuji-Q of Scandinavia" with some of its loading practices, especially rides like Superplash and SpeedMonster took - for - ever. So, no wonder the lines were long and long and .... There was a new GI-Normous frisbee (or maybe it was one of those new 'Giant Discovery' rides?) called SpinSpider debuting the time we were there, but the loading and unloading was interminable, IMhO. And since I had practically been on one or two similar ones (but much smaller of course) in other tours - not worth the long queueing, personally. Their woodie, ThunderCoaster was still awesome, even without the rain pelting you left - right and lower than you want it, LOL! Awesome coaster and we got some ERT on it, too! SpeedMonster was still a great zippy launch, but once was enough for me. I had done it a couple of times on the 2006 add-on, and now after riding Blue Fire in Europa? Meh. It's still fun, SM is. And of course THIS is the home park to The Most Awesome Coaster Ever - Teeny Weeny! It runs in a vague rectangle, the cars are actually quite spacious compared to other (ahem) children's coasters, and if you are TPR Lucky, "maybe" the ride op will send you around and around and .... on 10+ ride cycles??? (burp indeed) It was fun reliving that little coastering nightmare too, heh heh. And finally - this is The Workout Park for You if you like your thrills and a good invigorating (hah) walk/climb/HIKE uphill and downhill and everything in between for those tired overweight...feet, lol. Man, even after another great group meal in one of the park's main restaurants (Buffet again - Yay!) I am totally certain this meal was easily walked off by the time we re-boarded our bus, and got back to Goteborg, lol. Which was great! (o: And between the next morning's breakfast and meeting up for our 'stroll to Liseberg' I did a quick little "street culture tour" safely within distance of figuring out how to get back to the &^%$@# hotel in time for the meet-up, heh heh. I'm pretty sure this is "the border" between Sweden (driving from) and Norway (driving to). Woo hoo Country Credit! No wait )o: I already got this from the 2006 add-on! Oh well. No rain Woo hoo! (it did back then) See the park there, all nestled in those (gulp) hiking hills? Top of ThunderCoaster at left there. And that's the loop of SpeedMonster going 'around' the entry/exit escalators up into the park. And that's all ya got, for people-moving LOL. Hiking hiking from there on... Loopen. I did not ride it. I had the credit. It was an artsy fartsy shot for me, lol. Oh, and there's the Haunted House walk-thru on the right there. {Disappointment #1.} Another great (Buffet!) TPR Group Meal. Yeah, chow down guys. We got lots more 'walking" to do here, lol. We got a Walk-Back to where the engines and such of SpeedMonster made it all happen. Scary place; lots of huge machinery; and loud noise; pretty amazing for a coaster! Thanks for a great day, Tusenfryd! (And then - we got going back to Goteborg, another night's sleep, breakfast, My Street Culture Tour, and then - <3 LISEBERG!) Goteborg Morning Street Cultural Tour = GMSCT Shot #1 - What swings look like in Goteborg! (I needed the restup first for my 'walk' ahead of me, lol). And a great idea of using used tires (I hope) for swings! InGREENious! GMSCT Shot #2 - there was moving water, and a lot of spoons in this sculpture. And when the water fell - bell chime sounds suddenly happened, to just stand and enjoy listening to. Great stuff. GMSCT Shot #3 - I think this was supposed to be "Egyptian"-like. In one of Goteborg's street walkways. Just - there. Standing. Interesting. GMSCT Shot #4 - And I DID find myself very close to Liseberg's Front Gate (our hotel was that close!), so one of these was definitely used to find my nice comfy hotel with the old-fashioned elevator, lol. And finally Cultural Shot #5 - with our lovely model for today, Lou! {Hi Lou!} Lou is demo-ing the latest in smoking luxuries, your own semi-private Hotel Lobby Smoking Closet - doorless! And it makes neat tornado/cyclone-like smoke tunnels, when the smoke is sent to the centre of The Table. Cool! But I am still glad I quit, several years ago, lol.

Oooh, you guys on next year's TPR Europe tour are going to be sooooooo lukky. (Fron one who toured w/TPR there last year, when it was Blue Fire.)

Great! "Pacific Overtures" was my very - first - Sondheim show I lucked out on seeing on Broadway, in my very few trips to New York. (I also later got to see the orig.casts of Sweeney Todd and Into The Woods.) The music of PO is quite beautiful. I think my favourite track (and staged number as they did it) was/is "Someone In A Tree". Then again, there's "Pretty Lady" and the simple but effective "Bowler Hat" (as it was staged then). EDIT to add: Totally forgot about the beautiful haunting "There Is No Other Way", espcially when there is the 'outcome' from this number (SPOILER ALERT)..... where the hero's wife commits suicide. Very powerful number. This was the logo for the 2004 Brdwy revival of the production, with B.D. Wong leading the cast.

grrrr. "holiday music" turning up in unexpected places you wouldn't think they'd play it. grrrr. (I'm not against the music - just the overload of it every - where.)

^^^^ Hanno, you didn't see up close, what happened after I....uh.... dropped. I literally blissed out, right before I hit the net, and somehow the netting had scraped at that 'thing' at the end of my right elbow there? I lay a few extra seconds on the ground, once they lowered the net after it caught me - and a few of the guys saw the (by now) bleeding on my arm, and then some others thought I had passed out. But I was truely just enjoying the awe of what I had just done, really! So I can now point to your photos and say "See? It wasn't the net that hurt me! I was already hurt before The Drop, LOL!" And thanks for posting them, too! It was all so exciting, hee hee hee. ^^^And I was sooooo glad to get back down to earth, Jason! Would I do it again? Sure. As long as I was doing it with a group like this one. Then I would feel a way more support, as this is an attration I do not want to do solo, lol. So after that day was done, we got our night's sleep at the hotel, breakfasted, loaded luggage, and were then off to our next two parks, one of which had a new coaster we had all been posting about, on and on and on... and the rain had STOPPED, too. Woo! ~ Djurs Sommerland - A large park, with plenty of room for rides, thrills... and exercise! Truly one of the largest playgrounds/areas in a theme park I had ever seen. With trampolines, climbing triangles, and hula hoops and lots of neat stuff to hurt ourselves on and with, LOL! Of course there were "a few coasters" too we got to enjoy early riding on. First up was Thor's Hammer, a Gerstlauer Bobsled that was really fun and had some great themeing to it, especially in the loading station. Then there was a children's coaster, Karlo's Taxi, which I think the majority of us whored out on, much to the consternation of childrfen in line with their attending parents, heh heh. But in between these two, and ongoing ERT after we had ridden the bobseld.... was what I think was one of The Highlights of the tour for many of us, a new Intamin Mega-Lite... Piraten A beautiful coaster with a small footprint, but some great airtime hills, and enough speed and changes in direction to make it (for myself) a great ride. And the themeing.... "Arrrrrrrr - Ye cants go wrong thar with that olde 'embellishment' types of Pirate themeing, arrrrr." It was a great coaster. I loved it, and even went back, as several of us did, for re-rides with the gp, before we had to leave the park. Besides the coasters there were some interestingly themed other attractions klike the Colorado River log flume, which had a few thrills (unexpected drops) of its own we found out; another Un-PC boat ride called..."Jungle Safari with Chico and The Poachers"...enough said, hmm?; Rio Grande raft ride, which at first had to shut down while we were in a long queue - then, loads of people just turned around (?) and left the queue, we moved up and just a few minutes later... FastPass-like ride entry! And the ride wasn't too bad either, heh heh; and a wave swinger ride (Wild West Karusellen) that was one of these with jets of water that shot up at you from the ground! And it went in reverse too, some of us found out, suprised! Another group meal, which seated us in a small tight little "group corner"(had we been bad or something?) of the Western Saloon "Home of The Wild West Buffet" eatery. A snug sit for us all, but the food was great and there was plenty of it. And after a bit more time in the park (and those re-rides on Piraten, yes?), we got back on the bus, and headed to... ~ Karolinelund ~ An in-city park, which had three coasters of it's own for us to enjoy, as well as a few flats and another wonderfully cheesy dark ride. It seemed like we were really going to wear down the family coaster (Caterpiller) with the number of times the ride op had to keep running it with all of us re-riding it one or two times more, lol. There was an old Pinfari coaster there, clunky and a bit unsteady at times in those curving tracks (IMhO). And a Boomerang that was wasn't really running too much, until we "took over riding it" LOL. A small small park, but lots of fun. And then, back on the bus, and to our second ferry crossing. This one was a bit longer - 3+ hours - with MORE Duty-Free Shopping to enjoy, as we were now leaving Denmark...and heading over to Sweden! (With a bit of Norway on the side, lol.) Goteborg, here we come! We arrive at Djurs Sommerland... parking lot. And it has Stopped - Raining! Woo hoo! Waiting for early entry and ERT - and a bit of time 'for those who had to have an early smoke..." (o: This is Lena. She was our Awesome Bus Driver for the first part of the Scandi Tour. And a coaster freek, too! We got her on a couple, I remember. Thanks for the great transport service, Lena! First ERT up - Thors Hammer time! Great themeing and landscaping around all the track. And ARRRsome ERT on Piraten in back. With me and my "ARRRRR of Approval" in front. My first Mega-Lite, and I loved it! (But I gotta stop saying ARRRRRR.) My "Jungle Safari with Chico and The Paochers" Ride Group - Olov, Tim, Jason, Josh and Jon. Whatta safari team we were, guys! (But it's still a cheesy long wierd title for a boat ride.) Our little group in our little eating corner of the Western Saloon eatery. Thank goodness there were windows! Snug, snug, snug. Part of the playground area at DS, with my 2008 tour roomie Ron, showing us how trampoline-ing is REALLY done. Go Ron! Karolinelund Entrance - and there IS the park's name up there, somewhere. Darned sunlight, lol. The park's Big Map. The park was pretty small, so we found everything we needed to ride, w/o it. Boomerang! What more is there to say? (o: Looping TL59! (They were really original with these coaster names, hmm?) And of course a name for the ghost train ride I can't begin to pronounce: Spogelsestog - with our guest riders for today, Marc and Ryan! Hey guys! Enjoy the cheesy Danish gore? Thanks Djurs Sommerland & Karolinelund for a great day! And after that, here some of us are, waiting for our second ferry crossing - Denmark to Sweden. And on to our Goteborg hotel for a good night's sleep, and then bussing on...to Norway!

"Life was fun but oh so intense. Everything was possible and nothing made sense."

Oh well. What can you do, hmm? All things considered (RAIN), I think we did pretty good in the next two parks we visited in a day. And even though it got wetter and wetter in the afternoon, eventually things dried off a bit for our trip to the second park. But there, it got mighty chilly (for some). Mighty high up too, lol. But first: ~ Farup Sommerland ~ Definitely a "green" park in every sense of the word! Forests of trees hiding most of the park itself, and for a few of us, it looked like we would 'miss finding' the Spinning Mouse (Flagermusen) and the Vekoma Jr. (Mine Expressen) for all the trees surrounding them both. But I know we did find them, ride them, count them, get soaked on them, lol. The wooden coaster, Falken, proved to be the testing ground for the group's new onride challenge Pass The Sword, which is basically starting a sword (in our case, a nice foam one from Legoland) at the front of the train and once we go over the first hill, it just keeps getting passed down the train and then back up to the front, etc. It was fun, sometimes a bit scary (for dropping the sword, OMG!) and well worth doing again - which we did, later on. And then Lynet, a zippy Gerstlauer launched coaster with a couple of lovely airtime hills and a few very "sexy curves" in it, heh heh. I really liked this one, even with the rain coming down blah blah blah. The raft rapids ride was appropriately 'drenching' lol; the log flume ride was nice and 'refreshing (I even got it's souvenir wristband - Traestammerne, yay!); the 4-D movie was.... nice and dry; and our group meal at Restaurant Loen was great (pizza, and pasta buffet with beer!) and even drier, hee hee! And the rain - but not the chill - finally lightened up for awhile (but not completely) when we got to our second park for the day... ~ Tivoli Friheden ~ An in-city park, it wasn't too hard to get around. We got our four coaster credits - just barely for most of us, although I am still not too sure if we all got a turn on the park's totally original and totally freeky inverted steel, Cobra. It had past maintenance problems (not to mention the layout had a wierd twist and turn element that was pretty jerky and intense) and we knew coming to this park it might not be operating. But it was for a time, and I got my ride/credit on it (and once was enough, thankyou!). There was a great dark ride there, called Elses Hotel with some great cheesy gory scenes in it; some good flats to ride and get dizzy on; another group meal at Pizza-Karrussellen; but before the meal and after the flats had been ridden, a group of us had signed on to do Sky Tower - now for those who don't know, this is called a SCAD Tower some places. Whatever the case, each small group of us got harnessed up, helmets on, and proceeded up a teeny little 'elevator lift' up the side of this thing.. and found ourselves over (gulp) 50 meters up above the ground - with a light rain and a chill BLOWING through us all, LOL. We then individually, got hooked to something that then swung us out over.... nothing but a fine mesh steel net below us. And then - the thing holding you up - let go - and you dropped freefall - butt first - - 50 meters - to that suspended net below. I never thought I would do it, still having (I thought) that 'wee little problem' about heights and all? But since I had started touring with TPR in 2006, and doing drop towers, upsurge towers, shooting up and freefalling down was becoming easier for me to handle. But this - this was really something intensely different to do. And survive, heh heh. But I did. We all did. And even though they were back dated to 2005 .... WE GOT THE T-SHIRT too, woo hoo! (Which I then proceeded to 'alter' when I got it back home, lol.) On the road, and through another rainy day, to... (I have no idea who these 3 silly persons are. ) Mmmm Lynet. A rainy day for riding, but a great ride in the rain. Here's a few of Lynet's sexy surves. <3 Farup Sommerland's woodie - Falken - and where PASS THE SWORD in this tour, started up. Crazy wet coaster peeps. You can never be too wet to enjoy a rapids ride, right Josh? Another great group meal; nice and filling... and dry inside LOL. Sadly, only two photos is all I got from Tivoli Friheden - Sad and Pathetic Us on the Dragen coaster, Take 1. Sad and Pathetic Us, on the Dragen, Take 2. And smiling! Here's my Sky (SCAD) Tower t-shirt circa.2005 - and my "supplies" to change all that, heh heh. Ta-daah! The finished results! That '5' turned into a '9' easy! (o: Thanks Farup Sommerland and Tivoli Friheden for the day's visit, rain & chills and all!

Well, it had to happen some time. We knew it was coming, from previous reports and stuff. Rain. And a bit of a ch-ch-ch-chill in the air this day, and the next, too. But we got every credit in the 2 parks we visited, and enjoyed our wet days in Denmark, and eventually, the rain let up and we were back to (mostly) dry days, woo! But first... ~ Sommerland Syd ~ Basically we were there for the credits - all two of them - and the rain didn't help out in the start of this day. But the park management were very nice to us, made sure we all enjoyed ourselves at the park, as best we could in this weather, and besides the coasters, some of us ventured (first) onto a rather "un-pc" boat attraction of the park's that was best left...um....un-described? I think I blocked it all out by now, LOL! But it was ...interesting. And - I got my first and (so far) Only Invertigo coaster credit to my count, there! I actually enjoyed it, even with the rain hitting like little thumbtacks into our foreheads, heh heh. It was fun. And wet. And then after here, we got back on our bus, dried out as best and as fast we could, and some even took a quick nap as we continued on to... ~ Legoland ~ This was a really fun park, and although it was mainly set up for smaller thrill seekers and their families, there was enough stuff around for us 'bigger kids', lol. The park also had my first (what's it called again?) "Arm ride" in their new attraction, Power Builder. Neat concept with you choosing how intence or how many 'inversions' you want for your "experience"; it's all put on a card, you get strapped in with a ride buddy, the card's inserted into the mechanism's main drive ... and it pretty much does all the new Harry Potter's Journey stuff - but not moving on a track, heh heh. And upside-down, too! We had a great fun group meal at the park's main dining place (chicken nuggets and do-it-yourself sundaes!), then got back out exploring and riding in the park under our protective and varied rain ponchos, and waterproof coats. Some of the group even got into a "challenge" at the Falck Fire Brigade attraction, which involved pumping and spraying a lot of water... which I felt was totally redundant, under the current weather conditions, ha ha. Oh yes - and they sell Lego there too. And I believe it is here where The Sword was found. Huzzah! (More on that, next report.) At Sommerland Syd - this is on the shore of the boat ride. See the wet table? And the waterdrops in the water? Yes - we got rain. Nice landscaping, too. This - is (here we go) Kaemperutschbanen. A small coaster. And not too bad, most of us felt. Here's my first and so far only invertigo coaster I've ever ridden - Tornado - fun ride, even in the rain! Travelling Sleep Shot #2 - on the way to... Legoland! And my 353rd Coaster too! (This was a birthday #s thing.) Stacey, Terry (my roomie on this tour, hi Terry!), Jon, and moi! All wet geeks. On the Timber Ride. LEGOTOP view #1 - mostly of the amazing buildings and vehicles and peoples (oh my!) they create out of you-know-what. LEGOTOP view #2 - this shows the Peugeot Driving School (reservations a must!) below, along with... (music up) "It was an itsy - bitsy - teeny - weeny - yellow mini-rail...on beam-y?" (o; And once more (view #3), from LEGOTOP - more Lego! More mini-rail! More rain! Falck Fire Brigade attraction themeing inside queue - all made of Lego!... Really! And - they're off - like a herdful of turtles in a bowlful of (wet) milk! Pumping and pumping and.... And then - spraying and spraying and - I forget who won - but they were all "soaked with desire to win". (o: Bye bye Sommerland Syd and Legoland!

This is The Story of a Fuji-Q Capsule Machine Capsule - with seeds inside of it. For a cactus to grow of them. In a cute little plastic pot! Photos attached with my steadfast start. Unfortunately, and after a few tiny little itty bitty leaves started to poke through.... Damn squirrels got it. Here it is, all out and ready to go, even with it's own peat pellet! Awesome! (Capsule and tiny unreadable book also shown.) Can you Find Wal--- uh, cactus? (It's actually 'dead centre' of the shot. Oooh, the irony!) Giving cactus seeds a little Greenhouse Luv. (Still cannot read instructions.) Last known whereabouts (i.e. still intact) Note to self: Get more capsules at Fuji-Q.... again.

^ I think that was a small group of us, Jason, there. And I remember that if we 'bumped' anybody else not from TPR, it was frowned on, as this wasn't the way this attraction worked.... we eventually found out, lol. But the really wierd part for me was watching these young locals tearing out the exit and then speed back in through the entry, and getting back into new cars before it started up again. I kept thinking "why don't the ride ops just let them stay there?" But I guess, ride ops protocol and all that. But apart from us, it really wasn't that crowded an attraction I remember, no real queue of any size was there at all. And Chuck? In my photo of the two coasters together, the Space Scooter building was (pretty sure) that white bldg. directly above Nessie's loop.