07-04 Bakken - Oldest Amusement Park in the World

We left this morning at 11:00. We hopped on a bus to get out to Bakken, about a 30 minute bus ride to the north. We arrived at the bus/train station and walked a short distance to Bakken, the oldest amusement park in the world. Opened in 1583, Dyrehavsbakken is it's full name and it means The Animal Park's Hill.

They open at noon today and it's just before. We bought our wrist bands online a week ago to save money and to maybe avoid the ticket buying line. Alas, the wristband-getting line is just as long as the ticket-buying line.

Our first stop is lunch. We split a burger at a place just behind the ticket booth.

First ride of the day is Tornado, a 2009 Intamin spinning coaster. This coaster really whips you around the first turn. It's nicely themed as it spins through several cut outs in a house torn apart but a tornado.

Their oldest coaster is Rutschebanen and it is a  wooden coaster built by Valdemar Lebech in 1932. We rode it twice, once in the back seat and then in the front. They retrofitted this coaster and unfortunately it is not a classic coaster any more. It has ratcheting lap bars, a cable lift hill, lots of trim brakes on all the curves. The cable does get you to the top of the lift hill very fast. We rode once in the front and once in the back. No air time.

Next was Mine Train Ulven, another Intamin coaster built in 1997.  It was nice, but short. We rode it twice. In the queue of this ride they play loud nasty rap music. They sing in Danish, but the bad words are in English. So strange to hear. We rode the front seat and then the back. It's fairly fast, not too jerky, except the initial jerk out of the station.

Sky Roller is an airplane ride, high in the air, that you control by moving the wings up and down. You can make your plane spin upside down if you like going upside down. Some people spin a lot. Not Karen. Pat spun a few times and then said that was enough.

Wild Mouse was built in 2012 by Mack Rides. We rode it twice in the front seat. I still think I'm going to fall off the edge on this ride. It's still the same cool coaster I rode for my very first coaster ride for my seventh birthday at the Seattle Worlds Fair. Thanks Mack Rides for bring this classic coaster back.

Next Karen did some old fashion Skee Ball. That old music it plays when the balls drop drew her right in. Her scores were not great.  It's been a while since she played. 190 220 170.

The Double Shot Tower had two good air bounces at the top. Always a fun ride.

The Racer Coaster is a Zierer coaster built in the 80's that we rode twice. There was great race car themeing on this ride. It's a nice smooth fun ride. It is a single car similar to the original Matterhorn bobsled cars. One person sits between the legs of the other.

Spogelsesslottet is a very dark haunted house, kind of cheaply done with blood and scary guys popping up. You can't see much in here.

Dillen is what we call the "splash alligators". OK here's a unique ride. You stand on an alligator and you have a steering wheel you turn to make your alligator spin out and splash the sides. Kind of feels like a whip when you spin out. Then you steer back and forth while your going around and around and spinning out. Fun. We have seen nothing like it at any other amusement park.

5-D Cinema is a 3D movie theater that has added water and effects. It shows four different movies. The first movie was Canyon Coaster. We got to stay in our seats after the show and she came around and scanned our bands, then let in the next new people, then started the next movie. Red Star Films did the second movie, the Dinosaur Park movie with a Jurassic Park plot line. Fly me to the Moon was the third movie and Dracula 4D was the fourth movie. Nice to be able to see all four without getting up. And it was a nice break also being able to sit that long.

The Crazy Theater was right next door. It was crazy alright. You sit on a horse and shoot at the movie scenes. Half the guns didn't work and you don't know till the movie starts if yours works or not. We tried twice. The first time Karen was lucky and got a gun that worked and the second time Pat's gun worked.

Safari is a dark ride where you shoot at the jungle animals. The sounds of shooting really takes away from this cheaply themed jungle ride.

Next was the Swan Ride, an elevated ride that you pedal to make it go around. It's right over the log flume, so you get an elevated view of the logs splashing down.

Next we had dinner at Al Dente, an Italian place, while watching the Pjerrot show. Pjerrot is their mascot. He is a white-painted face magician. We, of course, couldn't understand it, but it's a magic show where he gets kids from the audience to help him. He was really good with them and sat down and greeted each one who stayed after the show and gave them each some card.

We sat at the huge open doors of the restaurant, so we were just inside, but looking out through the open doors. Karen had spaghetti with meatballs and Pat had pasta bolognese.

Then it was into the Fun House. It had a slide, lots of different kinds of moving floors, slanted floors, a bridge, the kind of things we don't have in America any more.

Last we did the Simulator. It was an old one, the kind we used to have at the malls. The kids behind us talked all the way through it.

Time to take a walk to the train station to get back home.

06-28 Tivoli Gardens - Walt's Inspiration

We changed up the schedule again today. Today is going to be the least rainy day of all our days here in Copenhagen, so we are heading for Tivoli Gardens, located between the main train station and City Hall.

But first, the arm on Karen’s glasses broke yesterday so we went looking for someone who could repair it. No one had one that would fit, so Karen bought a new pair of non-prescription polarizing sun glasses.

That done, we stopped for lunch at a sandwich shop before boarding a bus for Tivoli at 12:35. (It opened at 11:00 today).

We can't wait to visit this park and see where Walt Disney's inspiration came from. Walt and his friend Art Linkletter visited here in 1951 and Walt went around scribbling notes about the rides, the gardens, food, and anything else he thought was important.

Walking into Tivoli is amazing; everywhere you look are beautiful flowers. I think my mouth was wide open for the first ten minutes, then I had to tell myself to shut it.

We walked in by the new hotel/eating area they are building. The Chinese theater was on the left.

Next came the big white building with the fountain. And flowers are everywhere: hydrangeas, rhododendrons, roses, and the lighted archways over the paths (not lit yet of course).

And the Mountain. I know the Mountain is Rutschebanen, a wooden roller coaster built by Valdemar Lebech in 1914 and has a brakeman riding mid train. Can't wait. But more pictures first.

There's another large stage, the one Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys will be on, on Friday. It had a large grassy area for people to sit and watch concerts on, with lots of sling lawn chairs, not enough for everyone, but a lot.

Then another colorful building with light on it, a fountain in front and flowers and rose gardens.

Ok time to ride Rutschebanen. The line was only about ten minutes.

FUN COASTER, LOTS OF SMALL AIR. We rode the front car first and filmed.

Then, on to the second ride, the kids all knew how to get the back seat, so we rode second to the back. (There are no queue lines on the ground here for seats). In fact, the kids were getting on the coaster before it even stopped in the station!

Cool, the brakeman waves to people out in the park. What a fun job. Riding the coaster all day. It's an easy coaster to ride all day, waving at the guests.

Next it was on to The Mine ride, it's a water ride, themed to a diamond mine and you shoot at lit up diamonds. You shoot with a thing like a short light saber.

Half way through we put down our shooters and just watched the ride, the shooting was too distracting for a first ride and you couldn't tell if you hit anything. There was no score or winner at the end. Later we found the score board at the exit of the ride. It wasn't obvious.

The Pirate ship ride, built in 1937, is kind of like a caterpillar ride, fun and well themed. The waves moving really added to the action. But the pirate ship in the middle was moving at the same speed that you were, so you always saw the same side of it. It fired cannons and there was sound and smoke.

The swings offered a great view of the park, especially the mountain coaster, but we had to empty everything out of our pockets, so no cameras up here. Doesn't go very fast so, it's not like most swing rides, more like a GREAT VIEW of the park and surrounding Copenhagen. Don't miss it.

OdinExpressen is a powered train coaster built by Mack Rides in 1984. We went around three times and it had a double down helix.

Around the corner from the Odin Express is the Hans Christian Anderson ride, The Flying Trunk. This ride was built in 1993 and renovated in 2010. It is a ride with excellent English narration. You ride in a treasure box and the switch on the lid above your head allows you to choose English or Danish narration. It travels through a lot of scenes from his fairy tales; nicely done and tells each story. Most of the stories we knew. Some were new to us.

Next was the Oriental section and the Daemonen coaster with VR option. The VR option cost $4 extra. We did not try this. We have done it on a coaster we know very well, the Revolution at Magic Mountain. This is a B & M floorless coaster built in 2004. It is not as smooth as most B & M's. No re-ride for us because it was too short and no air time.

On to the boats that you get to drive. Fun, no track here. It's a small open pool about the size of Magic Mountain's original bumper boats. The speed on these was about 1 MPH.

The burgers at the Woodhouse were excellent. There are about 50 other places to eat here that we could have chosen from.

We rode the trolley bus, it was an electric trolley ride that had a trolley front car and a train-looking second car that drove the walking paths of the park. You could only get on and off at one location.

Next we had Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Karen had a butterfinger shake, because she could get it in a souvenir cup. Sadly, her only souvenir except a postcard from Tivoli. There are not many Tivoli souvenirs. That has to be the biggest disappointment of this park. She wanted to get something small, like a shirt. We're sure glad Walt doesn't have that problem at his park.

Started asking about the light show. Nobody knows the schedule or even where things happen in this park. Walked around and took pictures of all the lights. This park is beautiful with lots of flowers during the day and beautiful with lights at night, on the buildings, over the walkways and around the water ways.

Finally found the water light show over by the boats we rode earlier.

Stayed for the fireworks at 11:00. You are really close to where they set the fireworks off here. So close you can see them shoot out of the launchers. We walked out the front gate and took pictures of the main logo and building all lit up before catching a bus back to our place.