vuurvogel

You must cover it up at all water parks, baths, etc. At the theme parks, I'd say about half wanted them covered up. So make sure to bring long clothes or some bandages to cover them up! In Japan tattoos are associated with mostly negative things. Mostly crime and gang related. So to not offend anyone they ask to be covered up. Most Japanese tattoos will follow a suit pattern which will not show above the collar line sleeve line and ankle line. This report looks great by the way. It makes me really, really, really want to go to Japan.

This would make a great ride

The City Museum is the best random attraction I have ever seen. I am voting for something like that here in the Netherlands. Looks like you had lots of fun.

This was a great adventure to follow. Thank you for all your pictures. I especially liked Erlebnispark Strasswalchen and Wiener Prater. Hope you liked european travel and cuisine.

I must say I found the Wurzburg Fair one of the most memorable moments of the europe trip. Great Fair, I rode Olympia until my head felt it would leave my brain somewhere on the wrong side of my ears. I think I got about 6 rides before that. And if that Mindbender is more intense I don't think that would be a coaster I can ride much. Being a dark-ride guy more than a coaster guy I totally enjoyed psychodelic. It was insane, fun and unexpected. And the souvenir glasses still work . The Beertent experience was excellent, we had fun service at our table. Orders going wrong, the waitress did not understand us or what she had written down herself. The food was very good, I never ate pigskin before and it did not taste bad. It was kind of weird but tasty. And I just had a great time in the tent. Oh, and the view was very nice, there were some good looking bavarian girl with pretzels hanging around. Elissa and Robb, thank you for this more than excellent evening which was a total surprise. Note to all Europa trippers (psychodelic baby): If Hans asked you if you were an american, and if you were nice you will get bonus points.

I can not tell you who made the mini-mouse but the suspended mouse is a Reverchon gliding coaster. (It is French) And TestStrecke looked very violent from around. The first loop was shaking when the train rode through it and the helixes were vibrating as well. But in the train you did not notice anything, so I think the trains are build really well and give it its smoothness.

My brother does not know yet. I will tell him tomorrow. And I can handle him. Yes, they cut down one tree and removed some branches on an other to accomodate the first drop. I do not know who build the new trains

Tuesday 20th of July my brother and I decided to go to the Fair in Tilburg. This Fair is the largest in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). We only had 3 hours so we really had to make the time count. But as the fair just opened as we got there we could do everything we wanted to do and more. I do not really like fairs, but this year there were 7 roller coasters in Tilburg. Yes you did read 7 coasters. One Wacky Worm One powered kiddie coaster One mini-mouse Two Spinning Mouse One suspended Mouse And one Schwarzkopf Looping Coaster Guess which ones were the reason for my visit. The Wacky worm and powered we skipped. Not interesting. One of the spinning mouse we also skipped because we already had done that coaster. It happens to visit the city we live in twice a year. The other spinning coaster we did just for fun and having a new credit (yes I count travelling coasters). The first coaster I really wanted to do was the suspended mouse. It is a short ride but good. The bends are really oddly banked but it runs quite well. It has some surprising drops. And then there was the mini mouse. Advertised as a kiddie, but I would say it is an in between coaster. It runs over the zig-zaggy mouse bit without breaking and then goes with quite some speed into a bendy bit. If your sitting on the left side of the cars you must be warned. Due to some forces be prepared to be crushed! And then there was the main reason for our visit. TestStrecke. This Looping Schwarzkopf is ‘new’ to the European fairs. Some of you may already been on it, because this coaster used to stand in Dorney park as Laser. It is shipped and totally refurbished. Painted, made ready for transport and got some new parts. Including three new trains with theatre seating and themed to Formula 1 cars. And I must really say, it runs smooth. They claim to get 4G but judging how I felt in the coaster they do not get that much force out of it. It felt like velvet. You can ride this coaster over and over and over again, even if you have had problems riding some other travelling looping coaster . Apart from the coasters we just walked around the fair and rode the two ghost-trains. One of them was very long but not so good. The other one, Spuk, starts as a coaster with a spiral lift-hill and a nice first drop and then becomes an excellent haunted house. There was a third haunt, Psycho, this is a horror maze with life actors (or dead, it’s a haunt). We did not do this one because of the time and price. We did do two other ‘rides’ at the fair. One of them was Mouse City. This is a little city with…… mice. Surprise. But it was funny, though the mice were very sleepy because of the warm weather. They did come into action when the owner put some food into the exhibit. The other thing we went to was Jungle life. This was a small, one time, attraction build in the lower floor of a parking garage. A small local zoo put some animals into the garage and you could go and look and even touch some of them. They had Pythons, Alligators, tarantula’s, scorpions, corn snakes, bearded dragons, vultures, parrots, flamingo’s, skunks and a bunch of insects. I could specify them all but I do not have pictures of all of them. It was a bit dark in there. Speaking of pictures, here they are. My Brother and I went on bike Do know that not all dutch ride small bikes it takes a certain type of people to do so We started in the nostalgic area with mouse city A small Ferris wheel FOOD! Just some random nostalgic rides a whip Animal merry-go-round Then we went to Jungle Life not knowing what to expect see you later... Dragons! Darn, I forgot to bring my Club TPR Pen with me Spider, this one was shedding its skin Bird Area The flamingo's were kind of extra, extra, extra pink look a logflume They really think of everyone. This fountain has a disabled entrance. This was a excellent haunt/ghosttrain This was the drop/caoster part of this ride A funhouse of 4 stories high in stars and stripes theming Beer Frog Lots of these food thingy's around Coaster! This one is placed right on top af the dancing fountains did I tell you we are very close to the Efteling Horror Maze The house and the tree were continiously chatting to each other without concerning the people around them. Another spinning coaster (yes its a different one) a very nice pirate walkthrough adventure very nice indeed more nice stuff barrel themed garbage cans. Win? suspended mouse coaster I really thought this thing only existed in RCT weird bends really weird but a nice coaster You are FASHED for a picture. Yes fashed. right were they belong very bad bull They had two of these Artsy shot we don't see many of these around here this monkey welcomed us to the other ghosttrain as did this singing skull. We call him Murray It was a very long ride This was the mini-mouse a nice coaster with some G pulling turns more niceness the reason for our visit a smooth coaster cool trains and nice weather. What more can you wish for loop de loop lucky for me they did not enforce their hight restrictions advise we should all listen to

This report made me laugh out Loud twice!! First your quote Hans that all food must be documented and then Larry's response. And as further information. I thought the Rocking tug was special fabricated for Drouwernerzand to look like a Hunnebed. They are very proud of it. (A hunnebed is a tomb made of large rocks that can be found all over the North East part of the Netherlands. Just for you Nice people to understand what a hunnebed is )

that last picture is indeed a bicycle-bar. You drink and cycle at the same time. Great photo's edward!

I want just to express my thanks for all your stress. The trip was excellent. I normally am a bit stressed myself about what could go wrong on a trip but now I had no worries at all. Thank you for that. I would like to travel with Alvey inc. again and that trip to Mars sounds great. As does the cross europe dash. Thank you again for all your work.

Your report is fun to read Larry. I am curious about the extra parks you did after the trip.

Thanks for the pictures Hanno. They look really great. And they proof I had lots of fun on the trip. Can't wait to see more.

I still can't believe I never went to this park. Seeing the photo's I have to plan a trip soon. Great report Hans. I like that you take interest in escape plans as well.

This is some serious dragon. I like it, can't wait to ride next month. dragonhead (from themepark.nl)

Roller Coasters and HD is a match made in heaven. I got the blu-ray yesterday and watched it immediately. It looks absolutely stunning. Blu-ray is a giant leap forward for roller coasters in the raw.

I'm in, can't wait to see those coasters explode from my screen

I got CE 13 in the mail this afternoon. And I had to watch it immediately. Best CE this far! It has by far the best opening and closing sequences. Lots of babes, boobs, exceptable and unexceptable amounts of wetness. I almost rolled under the table because of the sprinkles in Robb's nose. (I was actually trying to swallow my drink but it almost went out of my nose by the sequence) It has a lot of A rated humor. It is wat I love about the CE series, they are fun. It actually makes you wish you where there. And the editing in this one is superb, I always liked the choice of music for the CE series and this one does not disappoint. The lyric jokes are very well chosen and edited. Another thing about the CE series is that they are a great way to catch up on running TPR jokes. My favorites CE are 2, 5, 9, 11, 12 and 13. They really get better and better over time. I really would like to see more CE coming in the future. And if not maybe one last one, a Coaster Expedition Decade, the best of all compilation. Leaves me only with the question; Is mayonnaise really that much worse then birdpoo? Until next time... ?

Congrats. on euro-mir

I know I am not supposed to place internet links yet, but I have found a video-interview with Rudi Mallasch that was not yet posted here . Maybe one of the moderators can help replacing the link for the real video. http://www.rnf.de/videoportal/sendung/unfall_achterbahn_im_holidaypark 'quick' translation There were 26 people in the train with no major injuries. 8 people said they had some bruises. The technical department of the park and TüV-sud are inspecting the coaster. There is no cause of the incident yet, but one of the coaches lost its tracking. In october last year the coaster has been closed for over 3 weeks. Now, it will not operate until the TüV will release it again.

Great report, you deserve a bloemtje for this.

Amuses and inspire, your photo's of the package were my inspiration to make the dragon attack. It made me laugh and I felt the need to do something weird with my own club tpr stuff. (and a bit of inspiration came from the hoodies movies)

Ha ha, these pen's are truly amazing. You didn't have any dragons or vampires wandering around, did you? (scared off by the pen probably)

After seeing how magical the hoodie is, I wanted to try the t-shirt, my advise; don't try! It is dangerous. See what happened. First everything went well. You could feel the magic happening. but then...A DRAGON! This shirt attracts everything, good and bad. Lucky I had the Club TPR Pen at hand to ward off evil. The dragon was slain. Club TPR Pen, not only good against vampires, but slays dragons as well.

OMG. I can recognize the dome from race to Atlantis otherwise I would say it is a different park. They mean serious business in phantasialand