TilenB
Strata Poster
This year hasn't been too filled with coasters for me for the first 8 months of it. The only place with coasters I'd visited was the local fair, of which I've also written a short trip report. With that in mind I was crazy excited for a 13 day trip I scheduled myself for the 2nd part of September, during which I've spent 2 nights in Koblenz and rest of the days at Thom place in Nieuwegein, just outside of Utrecht (thanks so much for letting me stay, Thom!). During the trip I've visited most of the major theme parks in The Netherlands (at least those I haven't visited before) and also a couple of them in Germany and added 50 new creds to my count.
Day 0: Travel faff (September 15th)
I did the whole of the trip with help of Interrail's Global Pass option, thus significantly reducing the travel costs. The 15 day option was even on some sort of a discount, so I got it for only 270€ or so, which is about as much as a return plane ticket would cost to get myself to either Frankfurt or Amsterdam from Ljubljana.
I got the early train from Ljubljana to Villach, where I switched trains to the one that would take me directly to my overnight destination in Koblenz. Had it all gone according to plans, I'd arrive to Koblenz at about 6pm, which would allow myself to visit Pützchens Markt fairground in Bonn, which was about an hour travel from my booked accommodation.
But it obviously didn't... My train was stopped in Salzburg (the last station before the border crossing) and the information on the speakers went that this the last stop and the train won't continue its way to Germany, due to the Syrian immigrant crisis. I guess it would be just too hard to properly check the whole of the train before letting it continue to Germany. I panicked a bit, but it all went away when I stumbled upon a trio I'd seen when I was getting off the train. It turned out they were in the same sort of distress as I was. They seemed like quite a random bunch, which soon turned out to be true, since the older guy was some sort of a university professor from Germany and the younger two were a pair of British tourist on their trip around Europe. The German got some info on how to cross the border with public transport buses and then get on a train on the first station across the border. We did that and we got ourselves to Munich, where I'd say goodbye to my fellow travellers and continue my way on ICE train to Koblenz. I arrived to Koblenz at around 9pm, which meant it would be far too risky to try and get the fairground creds in Bonn, so I went for a well-deserved sleep instead.
Police at the station in Germany. Excuse my finger
Day 1: Spite, Koblenz and finally, a cred
The initial plan was to visit Phantasialand with Thom and continue my way to Utrecht in the evening, but it so happened that it turned out to be the day of his Grandpa's funeral (my condolences again, Thom), so we moved our Phantasia plan for a day and I got an additional day of doing stuff in Germany. I checked for any nearby parks and found Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten not being too far to get to from Koblenz (only a good half an hour with train, plus some uphill walking).
When I arrived to Cochem it was raining. Nothing heavy, just a light drizzle and I made my way to the chairlift, which was about a 10 min walk from the station. The guy at the ticket counter said that the theme park was probably closed. Then I made a stupid decision of not buying the ticket and deciding to walk the hill myself. The path to the upper station was quite narrow and steep, but then there was a rather wide public road leading from there on to the park.
Covered in a mixture of sweat and rain, I finally got here.
The place seemed open and there was a lady at the counter. I asked her whether they are open today and she told me yes, but that animals are sleeping or hiding or whatever she tried to gesticulate me with her poor English. Nevermind the animals, are the rides open. Then she started showing me the park map and repeating that the place is open, just that I probably can't see no animals. I pointed to the part with creds and asked whether this is open. She finally managed to tell me it is closed and that they don't plan to open any of the rides today. Then I asked her how much they want to just let me in, hoping I'd perhaps be let in for free to take some pictures and got an answer I'd have to pay the full entrance free, since they have some caged animals in there and that's obviously worth the 16€ entrance price. **** this **** place! And the thing that pissed me off the most was that the light drizzle that has caused them to close the whole park has started to taper off by the time I excited the entrance building.
**** off Klotten, especially since you can't obviously be bothered to put the info of closing the rides in event of inclement weather on your **** website.
Park rank: -1/10
Couple of spites. </3
Not a great start of the trip...
Here are some photos of Cochem I took when descending the hill
Some had it worse than I did.
Deeply angered by the turn of events, which have still left me park-less for the year, I got my ass back to the hotel and checked on coast2coaster if there are any other small theme parks with creds nearby for me to get. I've found some place to which I'll get back later.
By now, the rain has more or less stopped, so I got some sushi at a nearby Japanese restaurant and then made my way around Koblenz. It such a nice city, that I knew so little about beforehand. It instantly jumped to near the top of the list of my favorite cities, despite the weather still being rather grim. Some photos:
This monument is kind of a symbol of the unison of German states, hence all the flags. I find it quite neat they've put it on a confluence of the two rivers.
Then there was some sort of a fortress on a hill on the other side of the river that could be accessed via a cableway. It being only 7€ for students, I simply had to do it. The cashier who was selling the tickets asked me whether I'm from Slovenia after checking my student ID card and it turned out she was Serbian. She was extra nice and probably even more so when she realized she'd found a tourist that understood her if she spoke in her native language.
They also had some sort of a watch-tower thingy, which also offered some nice views over the city
Some more fortress pics
Then I got back to the hotel and continued my way to the aforementioned +1 place, which was a 10min train ride, followed by a 20 min walk away.
Can you guess where was I headed?
The place is called Trampolino Familien- und Freizeitpark and is a small Indoor FEC.
When I got to the cashdesk, the lady who runs the place told me she can't let me in, since they are closing in one hour's time. I argued a bit and said I'd be in and out in 10 minutes. She gave me a confused look and asked what will I do in 10 minutes and I answered I'll only get the cred and get out. She yelled to her colleague, whether the cred was open and after she got a confirming nod, she'd let me in for free! Yay!
So, this was the cred, called Ring Renner:
Built by SBF Visa
The place has quite a lot packed in a small place, including 2 other rcdb listings, which were: this little spite...
...and the pseudo Butterfly cred (see, the parks don't acknowledge them as coasters!)
The outside bit (which was closed today) used to include a much more substantial coaster in the form of abc rides tube coaster. Riding the only remaining one a couple of days later made me really sad this place got rid of theirs.
That was more or less it for day 1. I got in for an early sleep in preparation for what became a day in my new favorite park, Phantasialand.
Stay tuned!
Day 0: Travel faff (September 15th)
I did the whole of the trip with help of Interrail's Global Pass option, thus significantly reducing the travel costs. The 15 day option was even on some sort of a discount, so I got it for only 270€ or so, which is about as much as a return plane ticket would cost to get myself to either Frankfurt or Amsterdam from Ljubljana.
I got the early train from Ljubljana to Villach, where I switched trains to the one that would take me directly to my overnight destination in Koblenz. Had it all gone according to plans, I'd arrive to Koblenz at about 6pm, which would allow myself to visit Pützchens Markt fairground in Bonn, which was about an hour travel from my booked accommodation.
But it obviously didn't... My train was stopped in Salzburg (the last station before the border crossing) and the information on the speakers went that this the last stop and the train won't continue its way to Germany, due to the Syrian immigrant crisis. I guess it would be just too hard to properly check the whole of the train before letting it continue to Germany. I panicked a bit, but it all went away when I stumbled upon a trio I'd seen when I was getting off the train. It turned out they were in the same sort of distress as I was. They seemed like quite a random bunch, which soon turned out to be true, since the older guy was some sort of a university professor from Germany and the younger two were a pair of British tourist on their trip around Europe. The German got some info on how to cross the border with public transport buses and then get on a train on the first station across the border. We did that and we got ourselves to Munich, where I'd say goodbye to my fellow travellers and continue my way on ICE train to Koblenz. I arrived to Koblenz at around 9pm, which meant it would be far too risky to try and get the fairground creds in Bonn, so I went for a well-deserved sleep instead.
Police at the station in Germany. Excuse my finger
Day 1: Spite, Koblenz and finally, a cred
The initial plan was to visit Phantasialand with Thom and continue my way to Utrecht in the evening, but it so happened that it turned out to be the day of his Grandpa's funeral (my condolences again, Thom), so we moved our Phantasia plan for a day and I got an additional day of doing stuff in Germany. I checked for any nearby parks and found Wild- und Freizeitpark Klotten not being too far to get to from Koblenz (only a good half an hour with train, plus some uphill walking).
When I arrived to Cochem it was raining. Nothing heavy, just a light drizzle and I made my way to the chairlift, which was about a 10 min walk from the station. The guy at the ticket counter said that the theme park was probably closed. Then I made a stupid decision of not buying the ticket and deciding to walk the hill myself. The path to the upper station was quite narrow and steep, but then there was a rather wide public road leading from there on to the park.
Covered in a mixture of sweat and rain, I finally got here.
The place seemed open and there was a lady at the counter. I asked her whether they are open today and she told me yes, but that animals are sleeping or hiding or whatever she tried to gesticulate me with her poor English. Nevermind the animals, are the rides open. Then she started showing me the park map and repeating that the place is open, just that I probably can't see no animals. I pointed to the part with creds and asked whether this is open. She finally managed to tell me it is closed and that they don't plan to open any of the rides today. Then I asked her how much they want to just let me in, hoping I'd perhaps be let in for free to take some pictures and got an answer I'd have to pay the full entrance free, since they have some caged animals in there and that's obviously worth the 16€ entrance price. **** this **** place! And the thing that pissed me off the most was that the light drizzle that has caused them to close the whole park has started to taper off by the time I excited the entrance building.
**** off Klotten, especially since you can't obviously be bothered to put the info of closing the rides in event of inclement weather on your **** website.
Park rank: -1/10
Couple of spites. </3
Not a great start of the trip...
Here are some photos of Cochem I took when descending the hill
Some had it worse than I did.
Deeply angered by the turn of events, which have still left me park-less for the year, I got my ass back to the hotel and checked on coast2coaster if there are any other small theme parks with creds nearby for me to get. I've found some place to which I'll get back later.
By now, the rain has more or less stopped, so I got some sushi at a nearby Japanese restaurant and then made my way around Koblenz. It such a nice city, that I knew so little about beforehand. It instantly jumped to near the top of the list of my favorite cities, despite the weather still being rather grim. Some photos:
This monument is kind of a symbol of the unison of German states, hence all the flags. I find it quite neat they've put it on a confluence of the two rivers.
Then there was some sort of a fortress on a hill on the other side of the river that could be accessed via a cableway. It being only 7€ for students, I simply had to do it. The cashier who was selling the tickets asked me whether I'm from Slovenia after checking my student ID card and it turned out she was Serbian. She was extra nice and probably even more so when she realized she'd found a tourist that understood her if she spoke in her native language.
They also had some sort of a watch-tower thingy, which also offered some nice views over the city
Some more fortress pics
Then I got back to the hotel and continued my way to the aforementioned +1 place, which was a 10min train ride, followed by a 20 min walk away.
Can you guess where was I headed?
The place is called Trampolino Familien- und Freizeitpark and is a small Indoor FEC.
When I got to the cashdesk, the lady who runs the place told me she can't let me in, since they are closing in one hour's time. I argued a bit and said I'd be in and out in 10 minutes. She gave me a confused look and asked what will I do in 10 minutes and I answered I'll only get the cred and get out. She yelled to her colleague, whether the cred was open and after she got a confirming nod, she'd let me in for free! Yay!
So, this was the cred, called Ring Renner:
Built by SBF Visa
The place has quite a lot packed in a small place, including 2 other rcdb listings, which were: this little spite...
...and the pseudo Butterfly cred (see, the parks don't acknowledge them as coasters!)
The outside bit (which was closed today) used to include a much more substantial coaster in the form of abc rides tube coaster. Riding the only remaining one a couple of days later made me really sad this place got rid of theirs.
That was more or less it for day 1. I got in for an early sleep in preparation for what became a day in my new favorite park, Phantasialand.
Stay tuned!
