There are only certain rides open for this first 30 minutes and the only coaster open is Vogel Rok. It's an indoor coaster and we have not ridden it yet. We get to ride it three times. First in the back seat without the theme lights on, (oops someone forgot to turn them on), next in the front seat and we were the only ones on the train, and finally in the back seat again. Second and third times all the lights came on to light the effects as we went through. There aren't many, and you get eaten by a snake or bird?? It's smooth, short, fast and mostly very dark. Nice little coaster to start the day.
On to the double track wooden coaster and we choose the right side track this time. We get the front seat for two rides in a row!!! (Maybe it pays to visit in the off season and stay at the hotel.) Joris en de Draak, this wooden coaster, it's queue line reminds me of the Mean Streak at Cedar Point. It's so long and in the center of the coaster's big turn.
Next we did De Vliegende Hollander. It's a wet roller coaster inside the show building and outside when it splashes into the lake. Karen manages to get wet from just above her knees down to her ankles. Pat sustained no such wetness.
Then we did “Baron 1898” in the single rider line: on our ticket it said Room A Row 3. That tells you Whether to enter the left or right room and also what row you'll be in when the queue man takes your ticket and lines you up. This ride is AWESOME in the front seat. In the back row it's not quite as awesome, because the whole car is not hanging looking straight down, only the front row. So in the back it is not quite as thrilling.
Lunch was pancakes at Polles Keuken. It didn't have the Poffertjes that Karen wanted, so she has the hazelnut spread with whip cream and Pat has apples, cinnamon, sugar and raisins with whipped cream. Karen’s came with a wooden spoon and a big puddle of hazelnut spread. She spread it on only half of the pancake (it's the size of a dinner plate) because she knows she isn’t going to eat more than half of it and why waste the stuff. Pat finished his and Karen had a few bites of it.
Their boat ride is called Gondoletta. They are on a track, so we just sit back and enjoy the view and the nice weather. We get our own boat. This boat goes by the Baron 1898 coaster and the little trains that the kids pedal though the windmill. This park is full of trees and flowers are everywhere. I love the little wiggle waggle this boat does. Much better than just a straight line or a circle. Evidently this is the time of day to do this ride, because there's a line after we get off.
We found a trail to walk through the woods.
Carnaval Festival is a poor copy of the “it's a small world” ride, but not in a boat. The fairy tale characters over here in this ride and others are not cute, lovable, pretty characters. Some of them are ugly and scary. There are scenes in this ride of kids in various places in the world; Italy, Eskimo, Mexico.
We loved the Dream Fairy ride yesterday so we rode it again today. “Make one someone happy, just one someone happy and you will be happy too” song played during the fast decent in this ride. It's so dark in here we can't get any "no flash" photos to turn out well.
The Train is next because it's next door and in the station. No outside seats facing forward so we ride in the front of the end of the last car. Here the seats face each other toward the middle, but we have an open doorway to shoot through. Good choice of seats because an employee comes when we start moving and stands in the very back. Pat is on the left and I'm on the right so we can easily shoot pictures out towards the opposite way so we don't have to shoot through the windows. The stop at the second station is longer than I would have thought. The train goes through a lot of quiet areas in the woods.
Next we get an ice cream to share before going to the horse show. You get to add five toppings. It's the size of a small blizzard. We add strawberries, mini caramel squares, mini M&M's and chocolate shavings and add whipping cream. We finished with plenty of time to get a seat at the horse show. This show is in Dutch and seems exactly like one we saw before in a foreign language. We don't know and can only guess at the plot. Five friends walking past a castle and the queen needs their help. So they go in even though they are a little scared. Then they come out with colored helmets on and riding horses and the bad guy comes. The bad guy comes and kidnaps the queen. They fight all the bad guys and do horse tricks, save the queen and then come back out of the castle and find their dad.
We walked through the Fairytales Forest. Here several fairytales are told, some (most) we know, some we do not. A couple have houses you walk in with scenes you see behind glass. Others have a little show, like the “dancing water lilies”.
The Tree is the last thing we see. It's an audioanamatronic tree and it’s very good. The branches raise and lower, a spider drops down, the face is very articulated. He talks and I imagine he’s telling some important story, but, still, we don't know Dutch.
We have finished everything we want to see and it's 4:40. The place that serves the Poffertjes is closed. That's what was recommended that we eat here in all the reviews. Two days and still we missed it both days. They were supposed to be at the place where we had lunch. But not.
This character is all over the park in various poses but always with his mouth open saying, "Papier hier", "paper here".
So we walk back to Gebraad and we each have a toastie, a grilled ham and cheese panini and a Diet Coke. It was delicious and more than enough for me. After we finish we just sit and enjoy the park and the people. We have done everything we wanted to do.
We walked back to the room before the rain starts. It was supposed to rain at 2:30 today, but lucky for us it held off.
I finally caught up on your blog and it brought back a lot of memories from last year. It's hard to read them when one is also traveling. It looks like you have having a fine time.
ReplyDelete