Waffles & Weissbier Wanderlust - Day 5: Bobbejaanland & Leuven

[Hutch]

With Phantasialand being my top bucket list park for several years now, and Ride to Happiness being the top coaster on my bucket list, a coaster trip in this region was something I’ve been itching to do these past couple years. Originally we looked into a shorter trip that involved the Belgian parks and finishing off with Phantasialand, but adding on Europa Park was too tempting. And in turn that makes Holiday Park and Tripsdrill a no-brainer as well, so this trip extended into a two week journey, which is the longest theme park related trip I’ve ever done. We made sure to set aside some days for sightseeing in between, so thankfully the trip wasn’t all “go-go-go!” (although to be honest every day was still very busy).

Day 1 - Ghent

I flew out of Boston the day before Labor Day, giving myself a morning layover in Zurich before arriving in Brussels around midday. I actually did a family trip to Brussels 10 years ago as my first visit to Europe (throwback to this trip report here). Having done the city then and not leaving myself with a big impression (and hearing the general consensus of the city otherwise), Brussels was not considered for this trip, with priority focused on some of the smaller cities instead. I was very drawn to Ghent, with its medieval city center and Dutch-style canals, so we started out with a few days there.

I failed to get any decent sleep on the overnight plane, so I was pretty out of it when I arrived in Ghent. So naturally I hopped on the tram in the wrong direction. Fortunately it was pretty easy to correct that mistake, and before long I was in the city center.

Turn around the corner of this church and this is what you see:

I met up with my friend at the hostel (which had an amazing location), dropped my bag, and had a wander around.

Most of what there is to see in Ghent (mainly the three church towers) is pretty close together, but we did wander further out (somewhat) along a canal on the east side, before looping back in.

Eventually making it back through the Vrijdagmarkt...

…and the Gravensteen Castle (didn’t go inside).

And by then our room was ready, allowing us to settle in for a bit. The view from our hostel was the reason we stayed here (and still much cheaper than a basic hotel).

So that was all very lovely to walk around. That main corridor in particular with the three churches is just incredible. Again, we didn’t really go inside much. We’ll peek into some churches if they’re open (more to come later), but didn’t really bother with any upcharges or museums and whatnot. Those generally aren’t really my thing, plus the exteriors of the structures are much more interesting.

And while there were definitely some tourists and a couple of tour groups out and about, the city center did not feel overwhelming at all, especially compared to some of the other cities we'll see. It was pretty nice and, outside of the tour boats and some other groups, it really did feel like it was locals doing their thing.

Our walk earlier gave myself a second wind, so I was good to go out for dinner and grabbing some drinks at Dulle Griet, or what we called the “Shoe Bar.” You can get a half-yard of beer, but it requires a deposit of one of your shoes! They dump them in a bucket that’s hoisted up to the ceiling, and you don’t get it back until you finish your drink! Some hostel mates met up with us as well, so it was a great evening to kick off the trip.

 

[TheSDCoasterRaptor]

Man, the architecture is sublime. You don't see streets or buildings designed like that in America. I'm glad you can indulge your wanderlust bug!

 

[Gavin]

You've pretty much summed up my feelings on Ghent as well. It's a gorgeous place that fortunately feels ignored by a lot of tourists, meaning that the locals are really friendly as well. It's a million miles away from that s**thole of a capital city.

 

[Hutch]

Day 2 - Bruges

My friend had to work this day, leaving me on my own to do whatever I please. I left this day open in case I was too exhausted the previous day and wanted more time to explore Ghent, but it was pretty easy to see most of what there was in a couple hours. Instead, I decided to do a little day trip to Bruges, which originally wasn’t on the itinerary, but was one of those "if we had time" scenarios.

Weirdly enough the main station for Ghent is near the southern edge of town rather than being close to the center. From our hostel/city center, it’s either a 30 min walk, or about 20 min using the nearest metro station. I ended up just waking this time around as I wasn’t in any rush, hugging the canal southward.

And the train to Bruges was very easy, only 25 min, with frequent departure options. Like Ghent, the station to Bruges isn't very central. I took a stroll in, using the church towers as general destination points, while wandering off and getting distracted by other things on the way.

The old neighborhood between the station and city center seemed fairly quiet at first. There were definitely a few people out and about, clearly here for some sightseeing, but as I went further in I began to see more and more tour groups. At one point I turned a corner and wound up on a main street just filled with touristy shops and packed sidewalks. I'm pretty sure I saw more selfie sticks this day alone than the last 10 years combined.

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by how touristy Bruges ended up being, but I just wasn’t expecting it at all. Especially compared to Ghent, which is a little closer to the larger Belgian cities, and whose city center is much more magnificent.

I kept wandering around some more, getting distracted by other things on the way to the main plaza.

I popped into this beer garden that was tied to some very touristy shops. Didn't stay for a drink, but they had a "Tintin Chapel" upstairs and a nice view of the canal nextdoor.

I eventually made it to Grote Markt. Again, lots of horse carriages on standby and tourists working on their Instagram posts. Buildings were very nice though.

At €15, it’s a bit pricey to climb the Belfry, but it’s kind of the main thing to do in Bruges, so I went along with it anyway (and this was the only time on the trip I did something like this). Nice views at the top, with all the bells chiming/scaring people at seemingly random moments.

City Hall plaza:

And from there I slowly made my way back, popping into another church on the way while avoiding the rain.

I’m really glad I got the chance to visit Bruges, especially since I didn’t really plan for it despite hearing good things. That said, I’m happy I did it as an easy day trip instead of staying there overnight. All the tourists were somewhat of a surprise, especially for a random Tuesday in September. I also didn’t get the sense that there was a ton to do or places to go out, outside of the basic sightseeing. With that said, we were really satisfied with our stay in Ghent.

Speaking of Ghent, that night a hostel mate and I met up at a blues bar, which was an absolute blast and one of the highlights of the trip. A saxophonist and pianist put on an incredibly fun show, and the bar was filled with locals with some pretty impressive swing dancing. I honestly would’ve been fine taking it easy that night as we had an early start the next day, but I’m glad I made the spontaneous choice to stay out a bit.

I've got coasters coming up next... we'll be starting out with a bang.

 

[TheSDCoasterRaptor]

Haha, you weren't kidding when you said, "tintin chapel"
I'm glad you decided to climb the Belfry, the view was beautiful!

 

[Hutch]

Day 3 - Plopsaland de Panne

Creds, at last.

From the main train station in Ghent, Plopsaland has a direct train at around 1.5 hours. Our train arrived shortly after park opening, but with it being a Wednesday in September, crowds were not a concern.

First impressions were nice, despite some of the facades being a little too colorful and tacky.

As tempting as it was to sneak a ride on Happiness, we hit the rest of the creds first, prioritizing Heidi: The Ride.

Solid coaster to kick off the park portion of the trip. It’s VERY smooth, honestly one of the smoothest woodies I’ve ever done. It’s a quick and tight layout with quite a bit going on, but without being too aggressive. I wouldn’t say Heidi is any better nor worse than White Lightning (which I think still runs pretty fine), though the presentation is much nicer here.

My reaction on the brake run was “that could be really good later in the day,” and the airtime had definitely improved then. Luckily they had two trains, so getting a reride in the afternoon wasn’t a problem, especially after hearing stories about how slow the line can get.

Draak, the first of many Mack powered coasters on this trip, was alright. These types of rides are amusing enough, and luckily they’re always easy to get out of the way.

The next two family creds were quite funny, both in their theme, and for the lack of children among the riders. It might’ve been a coincidence, but we had full trains of just teenagers and adults. So no worries about the shameful +1s.

K3 Roller Skater had a cute “everything is giant” theme.

And #LikeMe Coaster had some sort of high school/homecoming theme, complete with a DJ dance room in the queue. Loved the landscaping though.

Take the Dare Devil Dive layout (which did not ride well back at Over Georgia a couple years ago) with Gerstlauer’s worst trains (Lynet’s OTSRs), and you get a ride that I was kind of dreading. Thankfully, Anubis: The Ride turned out okay, limiting itself to a few awkward transitions at the beginning. Great launch too, but the station building is probably the highlight.

With the main cred loop complete, it was time for pretty much the only reason we showed up here. With Plopsaland being the family park that it is, The Ride to Happiness seems to be pretty quiet compared to the rest of the park, being an “xtreme spinner” and all.

I’ve got a lot to say about Ride to Happiness. They’ve done a fantastic job integrating this ride in the park. You can see its inversions and drops from anywhere in the park’s main loop, as if everything else was designed around this ride. Nice plaza as well, with plenty of opportunities to get up close to certain moments.

It’s such a strange theme isn’t it? But it works. The calming music in the station. The steampunk sets in the queue. “Nature embraces your inner being.” The literal name of “Ride to Happiness”... that’s exactly what this coaster achieves.

And how about these trains? I haven’t done Time Traveler yet, but these things are awesome. Comfy, but it was also really cool to see a simple button press to lower the lap bars, as opposed to the ride op having to check each restraint individually. Really opens up the door for some quick dispatches.

So a great presentation, but how about the ride itself? Let’s get the weak part out of the way first. As with Copperhead Strike and Hydra, the jojo roll adds nothing to the ride. I don’t despise slow super slow hangtime, but it’s just awkward and not exactly comfortable. At least here the profiling and spinning aspect makes it a little more interesting, but if it was up to me I’d just remove it.

But I can forgive (and forget) the jojo roll, as the rest of the ride is simply incredible. As expected, these launches are exceptions to the slow, rolling launches we’ve come to expect from Mack. More often or not you’ll start off sideways, backwards, or at any other angle besides the usual forward facing position, leading to a cool tug on your body as the launch kicks off.

And of course the spin midway through the launch cranks up the unpredictability of the ride. This initial spin rate varies, with a handful of rides counteracting the free spinning from the jojo roll to slow it down, while other rides turn you into a tornado. For one of my rides in the middle, my car did a 900 on the straight section alone.

And then you climb this thing. Our first ride was in the front, and while I knew we’d get some great airtime, I was not prepared for the level of intensity (and not just for this moment). Bit of a shock near the start of the ride, but you’ve already earned a breather up on this slow corner.

And of course, this drop, as fun as it is everywhere, is absolutely insane in the back. It’s ridiculous airtime, but it’s also the full weight of the train pulling you down like a monster dragging you off a cliff. Easily one of the best moments on any coaster ever.

I hear those stories about your upper body getting folded over on the lap bar. I expected that to occur on inversions and airtime hills, but the most intense moment were some spine-crushing positive gs at the bottom of this drop. There was one ride in particular where I was pinned from the bottom of the drop until the top of the banana roll. Insane.

These next couple inversions are among the “tamer” moments on the ride. The banana roll in particular didn’t quite hit the first few rides and felt like more of a blur, but as we rode more I realized it always leads to some more spinning or directional changes, keeping things out of control.

And what the loop lacks in intensity is more than made up for in the visual matter. Entering sideways and seeing the horizon line rotate 360 degrees never gets old.

Here’s a zero g roll. These are everywhere, yeah? Tired of them? Well f—k you, how about a backflip instead?

The turn into the second launch is a welcome one. You’ll need another breather before the rapid fire finale. The second launch is another visual highlight, receiving another tug in the restraint while seeing the flying snake dive approach out of the corner of your eye.

There’s a good change you’ll be sideways or some unusual angle entering this roll, leading to more flips. The train takes these inversions pretty slow, but the rotation continues for so long, so there’s no shortage of playful hangtime and even some whip going back down.

And again, I must emphasize the severity of airtime here, ragdolling your upper body. It almost feels unnecessary to have ejector airtime on a spinning coaster. Not that I’m complaining… it’s a fantastic finale to a fantastic coaster.

As you can probably tell, we were both wowed from our first Ride on Happiness. Each ride was filled with laughter and left me speechless on the brake run.

One of my concerns going into it was how the smoothness would fare. Knowing that Helix and Copperhead Strike had varying rattles in the train, and hearing impressions about Happiness having a rattle, I was worried that this could have been a make-or-break factor for me. That said, I'm pleased to report that I did not have an issue with the smoothness at all. It probably could’ve ran a tad smoother, but I was so overwhelmed by everything else going on that it didn’t come into play.

So after a few rides to start out, we pulled ourselves away and did a leisurely loop around the rest of the park. There’s a whole other kids area, though not a ton of stuff we were interested in. Only flat ride we did was the Nachtwacht Flyer. We would’ve done the indoor boat ride if it weren’t closed.

I also did the SuperSplash, thus completing the cred run for real this time.

I’m not kidding. This counts.

Oh! I forgot we did this awesome log flume, Dinosplash. The water looked nasty (as did the pond housing the Supersplash), but the volcano set was really cool. It also had a fun double down finale.

And then basically spent a couple hours Riding Happiness. Most of the time a queue never formed outside the station, but it did pick up a little as the day went on. Our last ride still only took 15 min though, so can’t complain really. We racked up a total of 13 rides throughout the day, and easily could’ve done more if we made the effort to. Happy goon:

So Plopsaland was a nice park to start off. Everything was quite pleasant, despite some tacky looking buildings near the front. I especially liked the charming village around Heidi, and I enjoyed Happiness’s area as well. That said Ride to Happiness really makes this park, otherwise we probably would’ve ran out of things to do in a couple hours. The cred run only took an hour, and Heidi and Anubis are probably the only other coasters worth reriding, but even then those won’t keep you busy for a bit. But I’ll without a doubt return just for Happiness. I knew then it would end up being the best coaster of the trip, and it’s going to rank VERY high for me.

We attempted to take a train departing at 4:50, but of course we cut it close, and thanks somehow getting lost in the parking lot we ended up missing it. Not to worry. We ended up getting an early dinner back inside the park before taking the next train an hour later.

My friend was pretty exhausted when we came back, so instead of going out on my own, I ended up just having a nighttime stroll around Ghent before checking out the following morning.

 

[Hutch]

Already slacking on this, although the last couple weeks have been pretty busy. Still plenty more to come!

Day 4 - Antwerp

Our next base of operations was Leuven, but “on the way” we spent the afternoon in Antwerp. Again, easy train ride (loved how simple and accessible the whole system was, as well as the frequent schedule… why can’t the U.S. have nice things?), and the main station had lockers to store our bags for a bit.

Antwerp impressed me. With it being one of Belgium’s larger cities, I wasn’t expecting the best, but there were some cool neighborhoods to explore and lots to see. The main corridor from the central station is packed with shops and such so of course that drew in lots of people, but it wasn’t hard to find some peace and quiet at just a block or two outside. And of course, the architecture continues to be incredible.

Most of the pictures I had seen of Antwerp online were the Grote Markt, but I was otherwise pretty blind for what city had to offer. I definitely wasn’t prepared to see a freakishly tall cathedral.

I won’t show off all the meals we ate, but I did want to highlight this sandwich cafe we found, run by a husband and wife. The food was fantastic. Tasted great and filled us up, while also feeling healthy as well.

We perused some shops and eventually found our way to the riverfront.

We walked north along the river towards some cool-looking building, and eventually made our way back to the city center.

Before heading out, we stopped Chocolate Nation and loaded up on some sweets, somehow spending here than I did at the thrift store we were previously in.

Also have to highlight the extravagant train station. Pretty cool first impression upon arriving in Antwerp, and much more interesting than some of the other train stations we passed through on this trip.

I think we were in Antwerp for about four or five hours. Obviously, with it being a larger city, there was lots more we hadn’t seen, as we mostly explored the northwest corner of the city. I think that’s where a lot of the highlights were located though, so we were satisfied with our visit, both with what we saw and the amount of time we kept ourselves busy.

We arrived in Leuven at a pretty good time in the evening, and our hostel was right next to the train station. I actually wouldn’t recommend the place we stayed at, but at least the proximity to the train station was very nice.

We settled for dinner and drinks at a cafe near the station instead of going further into the city center. It worked out nicely as it ended up raining pretty hard for a bit. We were gonna take a walk into the center after dinner when it stopped raining, but we realized it would’ve been a bit of a walk and it was kinda late at that point. So proper Leuven sightseeing would have to wait until tomorrow evening.

 

[Hutch]

Day 5 - Bobbejaanland & Leuven

Compared to pretty much all the other parks we had planned, Bobbejaanland seemed rather…unattractive. It would’ve been the first park to get cut from the itinerary, however, eight creds sounds pretty nice doesn’t it?

The transit option required the most travel time out of all the day trips we had planned, but it was still just under two hours each way by bus. There was a transfer just before the final couple stops to the park, which funnily enough ended up being the exact same bus. From the bus stop, it’s a ten minute walk through the neighborhood before reaching the park. The bus route, while technically late on schedule, timed out perfectly as we arrived at the ticket gates right at opening.

Plan of attack was just to go straight to Fury and stay ahead of the masses, but that ended up having a delayed opening. We settled for Typhoon instead. The queues for both coasters, along with a couple other rides, were nicely tied to the same plaza, so there was minimal backtracking and allowed us to beat most of the crowd.

It took the ops a couple cycles to get the queue moving at an efficient pace, but we still got on in less than ten minutes. As expected, Typhoon was pretty poor, though I supposed it could’ve been a lot worse. It’s a pretty uninspiring layout with a bunch of crude barrel rolls and the usual, questionable Gerstlauer transitions. Though there was some fearful comedy upon seeing those transitions ahead and going “What the hell is that!”.

Fury was still delayed, so we continued on with the cred run, grabbing Naga Bay. Most everyone was still stuck with Typhoon and some of the other rides up front, so the following few creds were very easy to obtain.

Naga Bay was decent. Just a Mauer spinner so it was never going to be that exciting, but the thicker track spine made it a bit peculiar. It has a nice location by the water, with some hops over the pathway as well.

Skipping Revolution for now thanks to its outrageous capacity, Speedy Bob was next. If you know me, you’ll remember I tend to find Wild Mice annoying, but this was actually one of the better ones. It ran pretty well, as in the laterals up top weren’t too violent. But they also had seven or eight trains running, with multiple going through the course at once. I “almost” died loading into the train as well. The car started moving before I even got the chance to sit down, so that was fun.

The few opinions I remember about Dream Catcher seemed to rate the ride poorly, but I was still pretty curious about this old Vekoma model. I was surprised to see that it actually had swinging trains, but the layout just seemed rather boring. Just a bunch of shallow turns and no real drops? Hmmm.

Comfort wise, it was generally fine. I don’t think the seats had any padding to them, but it felt fine throughout the course (for what it’s worth, we sat towards the front). It started out slow, but it actually started to do things in the second half. There was a decent swing on one of the transitions, and at that point the train had picked up enough speed for some forces in the last couple of helices. Not bad? Thanks to low expectations.

We did a quick walkthrough of the maze in the back corner, before hitting up Oki Doki. This was pretty good for a family coaster. Though it’s sort of on its own in an area that doesn’t know what to do with itself.

I was pretty surprised to learn that it's already 20 years old, because otherwise it feels just like the newer Vekoma family rides.

We weren’t sure if Terra Magma was an indoor log flume or a simple indoor boat ride, since the park had another outdoor log flume. Turns out it was a legit log flume, and it was amazing! Some of the theming is a little dated, but there were some pretty impressive sets themed to different storms.

Also, you know the waterfall gag that shuts off right before you go underneath? Well, we figured we'd be fine when we saw it spare the flume in front of us. But horror unveiled when the waterfall decided to f*** us over.

Honestly, you can make an argument that this is the best ride in the park. What a great surprise.

Bob Express might be one of the better Mack powered creds I’ve done. It picked up enough speed on both laps for it to actually be pretty fun, with some fun helices and a little airtime hill as well. It appears I failed to take any decent pictures of the ride, so here's a nice view of the lake:

By then Fury had finally opened (didn’t have any spite concerns as they had been cycling it all morning), so we grabbed a couple rides on it. The queue never took more than ten minutes, with front-only and voting queues being about the same length (am I wrong for thinking the split was further back in the queue and not just the station?).

To keep things dramatic and unpredictable, all of our rides were on the voting train. I really like the voting concept, as it adds a layer of rerideability, interactivity, and just more excitement upon reaching that turntable. The physical buttons themselves don’t seem very intuitive though, as it was never clear if my vote had been cast or not.

Anyway, our first two rides wound up being forward-facing (we came back later to finally get our backwards ride). So Fury was… pretty decent? It’s easily the second or third best Gerstlauer coaster, but we all know that’s not a high bar to achieve.

Ok, there’s some genuinely great moments in the scorpion tails. I love the beyond-verticality of them. When you’re facing the sky, you can look up and see the whole layout of the ride upside-down, which is a wild visual.

The swing launch is fun, though nothing special. I think the backwards launch had a pretty good kick to it. The big top hat thing is the other highlight, with some pretty good airtime at the top before twisting back down.

But otherwise, the ride is not my style. The focus on inversions and turnarounds didn’t really excite me, and some of it is just a bit awkward. The final loop thing had some intense positive forces, but it wasn’t the most comfortable.

I’d compare Fury favorably to a Sky Rocket II. It’s essentially a better swing launch in a tight, compact layout, but some of the issues I have with the SRII’s are still here, particularly with the tight and awkward forces. At least it starts and ends off great with those spikes, and the voting gimmick is cool.

In between our Fury rides we grabbed a ride on Sledge Hammer. Frisbee rides are always good fun, but the cycle was way too short here.

Last cred of course was Revolution, the famous “long-ass train” cred. I knew very little about the ride, but honestly, I had I feeling this would end up being my favorite ride in the dark. I was not wrong.

It doesn’t DO a whole lot, to be fair. But at the end of the day, what’s most important is how you react during the ride. I had a full grin from station to station, and it was awesome! I loved the trains, lift hill, music, and overall vibe of the arena. Yes, I do wish it went on for a little longer and was a little more intense (though the final turn pulled some really good g’s), but I had a ton of fun. We made sure to get a few rides on it, as it’s unlikely I’ll ever return to this park, and it probably won’t be around for much longer either.

Creds and rerides taken care of, there was one other ride we had to check out. They have a dark ride shooter, yes? Here it is… oh no… OH NOOO.

For all the wrong reasons, The El Paso Special was an entertaining time.

So that was that for Bobbejaanland. Like I suggested earlier, I have no desire to come back to this park. I got all my creds, but none of the rides are really that great to warrant the return effort. We still had a good time though, Revolution and Fury were both good and unique enough to check out, and the indoor log flume was amazing. The park looked better than expected as well. The location was pleasant and there were lots of trees (the area at the far back could probably use some updating however).

With it being another easy cred run, we returned to Leuven at around 4:00, which allowed for a little bit of downtime and the entire evening free to explore the city.

I had a stroll into town on my own while my friend planned to catch up later for dinner. There seemed to be some concert or event going on in one of the plazas from all the noise I was hearing, but at first I ignored it as I was trying to head in a different direction.

NO F—KING WAY!

You can IMAGINE the rapid change in emotions I had upon discovering this unexpected pop-up fair. My mind immediately sprung to cred-hunt mode.

I scouted around, but alas, there were sadly no bonus creds. Either way, it was hilarious that I stumbled across some fair during my stay in Leuven. Pretty nice backdrop too!

After that detour, I had a look around the city center before meeting up with my friend for dinner. And after that we went into the Oude Markt for a drink at one of the cafes.

Another park day up next. Last park in Belgium!