Railing Across Europe

[jayjay]

Why am I uploading trip reports at 3am? Anywho

Day 4 - "Happy Magic Fun" (Familypark Neusiedlersee)

Sunday bus services: eurgh. The day started far too early to catch a train from Vienna to Eisenstadt. It turned out the only way to get to the park for opening would be to get a bus to the park at 9am, with rides opening at 10am. Dumped my crap in a locker at the main station (€2 euros - good value for station lockers), hopped aboard and enjoyed a scenic and relaxed journey in a mostly empty train.

The Neusiedlersee area is an understated kind of pretty

After realising we were on the same bus, I met up with Tilen, and we wandered around the park for the hour before the rides opened.

Super whimsical joy

There's something very pleasing about how round this tree is

Continuing the theme of fiberglass pigs from Prater, this one dispenses ice cream

Casual Copyright Infringement is usually an indicator of poor quality, but this is an exception

We grabbed a quick ride on the slides, because they were there

Soon enough, the others turned up and we spent the day slowly sauntering around the park. A great asset that the park has in its favour is how interactive and explorable it is. For example, it's got some of those mechanical water toy areas.

Nearby is a dragon cave, where you can experience being sneezed on by a mythical creature

So this is where Pete's Dragon ended up after Disney

Kanonen to Familypark: you heard it here first!

Some people did the kiddie log flume. And when I say some people, I mean I did the kiddie log flume among others.

I say the non-riders missed out on a well themed masterpiece

Familypark has two creds. Götterblitz is your standard family sit-down, but it's a high quality family sit-down. It's a very comfortable ride, with good forces, and detailed trains and station.

More interactive stuff that CFers love:

Bloody enthusiasts stealing the kids' play areas

My kind of selfie

Owain realises he's slightly too tall to relax on this hammock

Familypark understands the reality of babies (changing area sign)

The left back of the park contains the uniquely well themed flats (and a faux-Dippin Dots stall that was popular amongst the goons). For example, here's a Sky Fly themed to a da Vinci flying machine.

I'm really getting the hang of spinning these, which is bad for nausea

And here's a controlled tower ride, themed to a Maypole.

Bushes in queues make everything better

The group worked its way back over to the other side of the park for the other cred. I sat out the slides, since they'd been done.

Funny how the race order matches up with the order of how relaxed each person is

The slide also has goats. You can spend money to buy goat food

Unfortunately, to buy food token, you must make it past the guard wasp

The second cred, Rattenmühle (Rat Mill), is a Gerstlauer Bobsled.

This artwork is fab!

It's not my favourite of the bobsleds, but it's smooth and bouncy. Perfect for a family park like Familypark.

Some people went round for a reride, but not before somebody found a tunnel to crawl through by the exit. It's the little things that make this park.

Tilen looks like that kid embarrassed by his dorky parents

And, apart from a few animals, that's most of the park. It's got a sizeable range of kiddie rides, which of course, none of us had any part in riding.

He's not with us

I do not know who this Owain person is

In true European tradition, Familypark also has a fairytale forest. Unfortunately, I've been to Efteling, and every other place I've visited looks cheap and nasty in comparison.

I could research European fairytales to find out what's going on here, or leave it with no context

I honestly don't know what's gone on here. Nor would I like to find out

Oh god, he's looking at me, act natural

Just one other sizeable ride on the way out: a leaning mini drop tower. Pleasantly airtime filled.

And that's Familypark. Quick stop off at the Butterfly on the way out...

Whoosh (I don't count these)

We made an early exit around 3pm, not having any reason to stick around. I needed to make my way over to a midpoint stopover at Linz, about halway between Vienna and Munich.

A strange observation in Linz: most places were shut, because Sundays and Austria. However, I did find two places where you could buy ice cream at 8pm in April. Not sure how much there was here. I was just here for a bed.

Main shopping street

...R

Back to regularly scheduled solo traveling next: staying in Munich for two nights and ticking off some local parks.

 

[TilenB]

Tilen looks like that kid embarrassed by his dorky parents

I think I just didn't find you quite as fast as the others did. Tbf, can't really remember people taking photos of us.

And, apart from a few animals, that's most of the park. It's got a sizeable range of kiddie rides, which of course, none of us had any part in riding.

He's not with us

I do not know who this Owain person is

Boo you!

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Familypark seems to be a good place for riding your first coasters! Very decent, enjoyable coasters for everyone in the family. It might not have tons of theming but does convey a nice atmosphere, at least in the pictures.

Good read, again

 

[jayjay]

Day Five - "Not Happy Magic Fun" (Skyline Park)

Time to leave Austria behind and head over the border to Munich. Linz didn't provide me with any burning reason to stick around, and Bavarian creds were calling my name.

So far, much of the rail travel was fairly uneventful romps through cities and countryside, but Salzburg, not wishing to be forgotten, announces itself proudly as "this is where the photo opportunities start!"

Salzburg starts the bidding for "most scenic station" award

If you're ever going to visit Munich and Salzburg, I would recommend doing this train journey. It's essentially a one-and-a-half hour tour through various Bavarian postcard scenes

The tragedy of the landscape photos is that I have a phone camera, which does not do justice to the scenery

Lots of quaint little Bavarian houses scattered around

Quick check in and bag dump at the hostel, then on to the theme park of the day.

Brushie Brushie Brushie

Skyline park is easily reachable by train: a short walk from Rammingen station. As you find yourself walking towards the park, take a moment to notice how peaceful and serene it is.

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with EURGH

Relax and let the atmosphere soak in as you put off getting closer to Skyline Park

It's amazing how this entrance doesn't look good even in bright sunlight

Skyline Park opens with its best cards. As you walk in, there are various water features and rides that try and implant the idea in your head that this is actually going to be a good park. Unfortunately all the creds were located further back in the unfotunate half of the park.

Let's enjoy this walkway while we can

Merlin's been at work in the background </easy_joke>

Bench: the ride

Maybe during my research, I could've realised that two of the creds I was looking at here were actually Butterflies, which I don't count. Still, five to go, and I started with the unorthodox one.

It looks exciting but it's really not

Sky Spin is a spinning, swinging, suspended coaster. The park's operations were in full flow here. A guy on the ride lost his cap and the ride-ops just paused the ride while he ran through the ride area to retrieve it.

And who needs drive tyres when you can just pull the train along

Sky Spin was one of those rides that I don't remember a huge amount of the actual layout. It circles around gently, before hitting its peak near the end. Most notably to me was all of the noises it made during the ride layout. I have high levels of trust in all rides on a conscious level but there's a sort of ride that induces a deep sensation of unease.

Sky Wheel next (who needs originality when you can just name everything after your park?). I found Ukko at Särkänniemi largely unpleasant, and this wasn't much better.

Who invented hangtime?

Back when I was 10, my favourite ride in the whole world was Whirlwind at Camelot, an MS spinner. Returning with CF in 2007 proved how rough it had become. Could Skyline's identical model fare any better?

Nope.

Pain, pain, pain, pain, pain

All I can say in its defence, is that the ride-op was having a great time. On a well maintained MS Spinner, every twist and turn is an energetic but graceful dance. On this, you grimace and brace for it.

Next up is the "Nostalgische Achterbahn," because who doesn't get nostalgic for Pinfaris.

Admittedly, a couple of minor airtime pops off the drops were quite fun.

There looked to be some intriguing stuff over the hill. I forgot that Skyline were testing the new Spike Coaster, possibly because I'd decided that something so weird couldn't have been found here. A group of techy looking people stood around while the train slowly crawled through the circuit.

Cred, or not a cred? For now, the answer was "Who cares, it's closed"

Things I could not be arsed with

Clearly my brain tried to forget about this area to form a bad narrative of the park

Skyline Park had bob karts, which I would usually do, but didn't bother with once I saw that the queue

I'm sure they were fine

On Saturday, I'd been intrigued by the Storm Surge-esque ride at Prater. My choice to ignore it (on account of Prater rapidly unloading my wallet) was rewarded - there was one at Skyline Park! It's fine.

A big solid 5 out of 10

Last cred. Oh no...

I do what I must because I can

Rerides? Screw that, there's a train waiting.

Vroom vroom - take me away from this place

Is Skyline the worst park I've been to yet? There are patches where it looks like they've tried to make it look nice, but overall it just feels like a lot of nothing. The ride selection ranges from poor to mediocre (ignoring the ignored bob karts) and there's a sketchy undertone to the whole place. Still, it felt more worthwhile than Schwaben Park, and doesn't have the downside of sad animals. Would recommend only for the +5 (or +7 if you count Butterflies).

Happy, Magic, Fun!

I camped out in the hostel bar and went to a nearby pizzeria for dinner. Munich is well catered for pizza, which I guess makes sense given Italy is nearby. This is the only picture I took of Munich from this day.

I want an Auto Wolf

On day six, I'll be going to a real theme park. It's owned by Merlin and everything.

 

[Hixee]

Day Five - "Not Happy Magic Fun" (Skyline Park)

On day five, I'll be going to a real theme park. It's owned by Merlin and everything.

Do all these interrailing trains somehow let you time travel?

Skyline Park looks pretty bleak. I mean, literally what else is there to say?

 

[jayjay]

Proof reading's not for everyone Edited

 

[TilenB]

Nice report, James! The MS Spinner actually came from Camelot when that park closed and the Achterbahn thing is not a Pinfari, but a Schwarzkopf Wildcat.

Poslano z mojega ONEPLUS A3003 z uporabo Tapatalk

 

[davidm]

The MS Spinner actually came from Camelot when that park closed

Nice work Tilen, you have just deleted a cred from jayjay. -1

 

[jayjay]

the Achterbahn thing is not a Pinfari, but a Schwarzkopf Wildcat.

I've got this constant idea in my head that anything as rough as that must be Pinfari. Never mind

Nice work Tilen, you have just deleted a cred from jayjay. -1

Oh ffs. Less annoyed with the -1, but I made an effort to make #300 Silver Star. I think that shifts it to Pegasus or Matterhorn Blitz.

But, I mean, is it worth doing that much research on Skyline Park anyway?

 

[TilenB]

I've got this constant idea in my head that anything as rough as that must be Pinfari. Never mind


Oh ffs. Less annoyed with the -1, but I made an effort to make #300 Silver Star. I think that shifts it to Pegasus or Matterhorn Blitz.

But, I mean, is it worth doing that much research on Skyline Park anyway?

Hah, that's why we use coaster-count to count our creds.

 

[jayjay]

So do I, but I never bothered to look at what the (2/3) number by the name meant. Guess some people count relocations (the whores)

 

[davidm]

^ you still mark it in coaster-count, it just doesn't increase your count - and when you look at your "ride sequence" you can see it there but without a # against it.

 

[jayjay]

Fab! That's good, panic over. Silver Star is still #300

 

[jayjay]

Day 6 - "A Beautiful Cathedral City... and Creds I Guess" (Legoland Deutschland & Ulm)

The second day in Munich began by traveling out west again, this time to Günzburg. The train is direct, and half-hourly shuttle buses go between the station and the park.

It seemed fitting that this station had blossoming trees

Finally I took my chance to dispose of the burdenous cereal box and get into Legoland using Merlin's standard half-price scheme (because, and you wouldn't believe this, Legoland isn't actually worth 47 euros).

I like the entrance sign - striking and playful

Three creds to get at Legoland: number one was a Mack Wild Mouse. The park was reasonably popular, presumably since the German schoolkids were on easter holidays. This ride had at least a half hour wait in a cattlepen

This guy looks happy, at least

Of the early Macks I've done, the range in quality is huge. G'Sengte Sau is divine, while Tulireki at Linnanmäki is gross. This one wasn't offensively awful, but the maintanence and ride quality didn't bolster my confidence in the park. The state of some of the track paint was a little concerning.

4/10, see me

So, the first ride right by the entrance wasn't the best of starts. Luckily, the water ride restored some faith in the park's ability to provide entertainment.

Any reasonable person would probably wait for a splash to take this picture

It's got some fun water effects, Lego set pieces and drops. The kids in the front of my boat seemed to think there should have been a dinosaur spitting water at the boat. Never mind, still a solid water ride.

Interesting music choice noted: "Undo" by Sanna Nielsen, the third place Eurovision ballad from 2014 with the awkward title lyric "Undo my sad. Undo what hurts so bad."

I have no idea how to follow that, so here's a Lego giraffe balancing a basketball

There was a police themed walkthrough nearby, which consisted of a perfectly serviceable mirror maze (they really cleaned their mirrors well), followed by a strange laser section where, instead of a maze, you walked through laser barriers that periodically went off.

The pizza dispensary lay nearby to fill a hole. Above average, but expensive, though it did have an open pizza topping machine. Instead of the Lindt advert approach of pretending every individual chocolate is made by a friendly old master drizzling sauce into each individual shell, Legoland says "Nah, we do it the efficient way."

Stereotypes: Finest German artistry = engineering

Before polishing off the cred run, I stopped off at the Pharoah Temple, which is a dark ride shooter.

Now, my metric for a successful dark ride shooter is that it should still be fun if I can put the gun down. And oh boy, does this fail. The ride revolves around one large area, killing any sense of adventure. None of the scenes had any flair, humour or scale. All it had was a shooter ride, and the continuing theme of "hey, everything's Lego." Disappointing.

Bad pharaoh

The other two creds lay in the area with the dragons (always a winner). The first, Feuerdrache (Fire Dragon) was the coaster highlight, though not really for the coaster itself.

I feel like a queue building this grand deserves graphics less sun-bleached than that title sign

As with the Windsor version, we start off with a dark ride section through the castle, which, for quality and humour, blows the pure dark ride clean out the water. The highlight is the predrop below the dragon. The outdoor section just your standard Zierer rumblebum.

Drachenjagd (Dragon Hunt) is a kiddie cred that I queued about fifteen minutes for. Photographic though.

I like to take every opportunity to point out positive things - top marks to the kiddie cred!

Observation tower was done - not a huge amount to see, but lots of audio spiel about the park

I decided not to bother with Ninjago. Just had a walk around the Lego village.

Lucerne - Pay attention to this bridge, for it shall be referenced in two further reports

Hamburg had the harbour buildings where the Hamburg Dungeon is (because Merlin). Unfortunately, the other attraction in said building is Miniatur Wunderland, which puts the model railway bits in tragic perspective.

And no Miniatur Wunderland sign on the building. Wouldn't want to upstage your own work I guess

[[Big domey thing]]

A nice ICE... NICE

Themeparkception

Swiftly out of the gate and back to the station. While in Vienna, Owain left me with a reccomendation to visit Ulm, a small cathedral city a few stops West of Günzburg. If you're bored at Legoland, I can't recommend Ulm enough as a little bonus.

Quaint German streets picture #927

The main attraction, visible from all over, is the Ulm Minster, the tallest church in the world at a vertigo inducing 161 metres.

The sign of a good minster is when you struggle to fit it all in the frame

Apart from the impressive scale of the exterior, venture inside, and you can spend all the time in the world discovering intricate woodwork, ornate decorations and lofty ceiling arches.

"The deceased"

Along the river is the fish quarter (Fischviertel), and this area contains all of your traditional German architecture.

It's a great place to spend a couple of hours just walking around. And since Legoland isn't an especially exciting park, it's a good little place to remind yourself of all the good things in life.

Next up, another day of "meh park, great other stuff" as I visit the forests around Wolfratshausen

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Ulm looks charming! Dat cathedral is monstrous Yet it still has refined details and ornments.

Legoland seems ridiculously overpriced though. It makes €48 entrance for Parc Astérix looks like an excellent deal... The miniature world is cute enough, but isn't helped by its surroundings as you mentioned

 

[HeartlineCoaster]

Sky Abomination still isn't open yet?
Thought I was spited by a couple of weeks. That was 9 months ago.

 

[Pink Cadillac]

So that's where Whirlwind's hanging around these days - it won't evade me. If I remember correctly the Ulm cathedral is the tallest one in the world. Cool to know it's so close to legoland! Brilliant report so far! Love the humour

 

[jayjay]

Day 7 - "Wolfratshausen" (Märchenwald im Isartal)

Wednesday was a light day, with only one solitary roller coaster planned (and a kiddie cred at that). Despite the lack of park substance, it turned out to be one of the more interesting days of the trip, since Bavaria offers pleasant local scenery. And with this being a mostly unknown park, I had zero expectations going in.

Märchenwald im Isartal is a small fairytale forest in the town of Wolfratshausen, just to the south of Munich. It's reachable via a bus or twenty minute walk from Wolfratshausen S-Bahn station.

First things first, here's the ticket I received.

Christ

This picture was actually taken as I left - this length queue is groß

It's another place like Efteling and Familypark full of fairytale diaramas, only their quality is all over the shop. On the one hand you have cool sculptures like this magpie.

Joey approved

Forests usually make for pleasant areas, and the solitary kiddie cred was no exception: it was as aesthetic as it was uneventful.

Oachkatzl

Though unfortunately they'd been taking advice from Drayton Manor on guest noise.

D'aww, they think they can just tell kids not to scream

Unfortunately, since the fairytale scenes were all behind glass and it was a bright sunny day, you can enjoy horrible glare on all my pictures.

I think this is supposed to be little red riding hood

Even in real life, the dead wolf is hilarious

This is far more serviceable as a selfie than of the actual scene - also piercing fox eyes

Obligatory Town Musicians of Bremen

There was one of a larger scene of a woodland, with buttons triggering audio descriptions of all the animals and their calls, which was fun, but I decided to take a picture of the gore.

Blood! BLOOD!

The place had its obligatory train ride, which is always worth a go.

And you thought you were safe from pictures of trains

After it completes the standard parade around the park, the train dives into a tunnel with some arabian scenes.

Though there isn't much here, I'd recommend a quick dip in. It has its occasional charms but it's clearly operating on a budget. More excitingly, I discovered that Wolfratshausen is a pictureque place in its own right, and worth coming to, even without the park. It sits in the Isar Valley (Isartal), and the hills to the west of the town boast a few picturesque walking routes.

The forest group put up a trail with activities for children. For anybody who's been to Greenwood Park, they have one of those weird "learn the forest by walking on random crap" areas.

No offence to the forest people of Wolfratshausen, but I didn't fancy it

At the top of the hill was a wooden hut, with a laminated storybook for parents to read to their kids. It's a really cute idea.

A couple of chapels adorned the hillside. A little walk further, I found a trail of small huts, each containing a religious scene from the crucifixion, leading up the hill from a chapel to a giant crucifix.

I was gonna put some pictures of the actual scenes here, but the glare makes them unusable

More walking and looking at things.

The town itself has some of the usual charm of other German traditional towns. Worth a walk through, but I think there are better places to see traditional architecture.

It's got a nice church though, because everywhere in Germany has a nice church

So, in conclusion, Märchenwald im Isartal is probably worth a visit if you like what I've just described, but definitely worth a visit if you want to pair it with a little local sightseeing.

Back to Munich for some last minute tourism bollocks. There's a pleasant area to walk along the Isar, pleasantly framing Sankt Maximillion in the background.

Stuck for any focus on what to do, I cracked open Wikitravel for some typical tourist traps and headed over to Marienplatz

Even this photo doesn't get across how BRIGHT ORANGE this station is

Glockenspiel

Old town hall

People on Segways - not in the guidebook, I just still find them amusing

And with that, my stint in Munich came to an end. It's somewhere I could come back to (and missing out Bayern Park means I probably will), if only to discover some more of the tourist areas and scenery to the south of the city. Overall, there are better places on my trip I'd want to rush back to.

I finished the day back at Munich Central station to get another sleeper train, this time to Padua. This one was significantly less eventful than Cologne to Vienna. I found a group of British and Italian guys off to northern Italy for their own reasons and passed some time exchanging stories and drinking what version of cider I could find in the local supermarket (cherry and lemon flavoured).

The train rolled into Padua at the stupidly early time of 5.30am, from which I lethargically stepped off, trying to compose myself ready for a fun-filled day at Mirabilandia.

Has anyone else got off a train in Italy at 5.30 in the morning?

 

[Mysterious Sue]

Those budget dioramas are amazing. I'm just imagining someone making that wolf with the silk-lined stomach XD

 

[TilenB]

The second day in Munich began by traveling out west again, this time to Günzburg. The train is direct, and half-hourly shuttle buses go between the station and the park.

It seemed fitting that this station had blossoming trees

This reminds me of an old joke I've once heard. How long does it take one to get from Kissing to ****ing? A bit more than two hours, according to google maps.
https://goo.gl/maps/uiT6cL67Gwy

Great report so far, looking forward to your thoughts on Mirabilandia.