Europa-Park, Take 2

The kids were cute this morning: Ella rounded up the early-risers and herded them into the bathroom, where she read them Sideways Stories from Wayside School.  It's interesting: Alex never wants to listen to chapter books, so-called grown-up books, when I read them, but any attention from Ella is enthusiastically welcomed.

Since the kids were happy and the amusement park didn't open until 10:00, Dennis and I didn't see any need to get going early, but we did, at least, let the kids out of the bathroom. Ella carried on reading on her top bunk.

Breakfast, included with our room, was in the same restaurant we ate at last night, and was similarly delicious. I think it's actually safe to say it's the best breakfast I've eaten all year, all delicate pastries and freshly-prepared hot foods and strong, strong coffee.  And the park's little mouse mascots, as well as a a few other entertainers, roamed the restaurant, keeping the kids smiling.  Of course, they had no reason not to smile, feasting, as they were, on breads and sugary cereal and cocoa.

Our escort skipped with the kids to the entrance gate.

 Because we were staying at a park hotel, we were let into the park an hour early: general admission wasn't until 11:00.  Only a handful of rides were open to us, but among those was a snow mobile course, only for the narrow age range of 8 to 13 years old.  It's entirely possible that Ella was the only person in the entire park at that hour that fell within the demographic: she flounced right on in and raced around in the snow like a pro.  Dennis and I joke that we're doing a wonderful job of preparing Ella for a career in espionage.  She now speaks German, and is is an excellent swimmer and a swift runner and climber. Now we can add snowmobile driving to her list of skills that might come in useful in CIA fieldwork. She's been campaigning for martial arts lessons.

Warming up at one of the open fires that dotted the park. In addition
to these camp-style fires, they also had large tree trunks placed here and
there, with just the top hollowed out: they would start a glowing fire, which
would work its way through the heart of the tree as the day progressed.

We also took a second ride on the large ferris wheel: I joined the rest of the family this time since Dennis promised a smooth ride that probably wouldn't sicken me. And I was fine, it turned out, and loved the view.  Although it was warm inside the wheel's glassed-in cabins, they gave us little Ikea blankets to snuggle inside: nice touch.








After that, we took the monorail to the far side of the park, poised to jump on the rides before the riff-raff were allowed through the entrance gate at 11:00.  But those crowds that we plotted to avoid never did show up: not only did we walk on to absolutely every ride, all day long, but, almost every single time, we had the rides absolutely to ourselves.

All the same, there was an advantage of rushing to be the very first onto some of the attractions.  One of the first rides we took was an arcade-style dark ride, in which we rode underseas on the backs of turtles and shot at menacing fish with our laser guns.  And even Alex, at 900 points, made it onto the day's scoreboard of top shooters.

Dennis and I also took turns riding the only large roller coaster that was open in the park, a MIR-themed ride in the Russian section.  Dennis went first, and I didn't stop to ask him if it was a good idea when I dashed on. It wasn't: the ride was nothing but twists and turns: the first two minutes of the ride was nothing but spinning in circles as we ascended the large mirrored towers. I held my breakfast, but only barely.

Ordering lunch

And then, unfortunately, it was time for lunch.  But lunch was awesome, and I enjoyed it even despite my queasiness.  We ate at a restaurant called FoodLoop, where all the food was ordered via computer screens at your table and delivered via a complicated series of tiny roller coasters.  Some of these dishes even went on true loop-de-loops, with little rubber-banded pot lids helping centrifugal force keep the food in its place.  Only the hot coffee was delivered by hand.  Even the potato soup I ordered came on roller coaster: it was served in a tall carafe, and a shot of whipped cream in the neck of the carafe served as a plug to keep the soup in place. Neat, huh? Apparently the restaurant is brand new this year, and there's nothing in the world like it yet.

So they're doing some really innovative things at this park, although we did see a few more blatant copies of attractions from another well-known park.

"Piccolo Mondo" is Italian for "Small World," a ride
featuring a boat trip through a puppet-populated Italy.

Among these I found the park's Haunted Mansion ride the funniest: after we rode through the attic and ball room and all the rest, we ended in a grave yard, featured three headstones, each animated with a projected face, singing together.

But really, who cares if the rides are knock-offs. They were well done and fun and plentiful...and we rode every single one by the time the day was over.  We kept the kids fueled with sugar candy as we ran around, enjoying what seemed increasingly like our own personal theme park. 

There were about ten shows on the park's program for the day: ice skating, a few musicals, a circus show, and so on.  We decided we preferred the rides to these and missed most of them, but we did spend twenty minutes watching the park's 4-D movie, Das Geheimnis von Schloss Balthasar, the Secret of Balthasar Castle.  This being Europe, the title building is indeed a true castle, built in 1442 and located on the park grounds, now home to various themed dinners.  

Euromaus's original look

The hometeam mascot.

This little movie is the first time Euromaus and his friends have been on the screen, and it premiered just two days ago. Preceding the movie was a schmaltzy documentary, featuring one of the members of the Mack family, discussing how  this movie is a dream-come-true, but also, more interestingly, discussing how they gave their mascot a new look for the screen.  

Euromaus has gone through many different iterations in the past three decades, and it's so apparent throughout the park, where his images range from cutesy infant to full-grown.  For the movie, they gave him a sporty teenage look.  They also had to give voices and attitudes toward all of the supporting cast. The mountain goat, they decided, would be Swiss: they turned him into a fusty, worried character who was, of course, dressed in hiking boots.

We had a quick dinner in a pseudo-British pub

"The secret place of Queen Elizabeth II"
My Elizabeth found this hilarious, the
toilet throne.

Heh. Old Fahrt.

and then killed a little more time wandering around the park and gardens

One of the great big balls of mistletoe that were an
unintentional holiday decoration of many of the park's trees.

Alex planted himself beneath and
got a kiss for his trouble

before catching a second show, their illuminated Christmas pageant and and fireworks show, featuring dancing Christmas trees and juggling Santas. They gave everyone glasses, too, that distorted the light to make it look like snowflakes: Ella wore hers for most of the rest of the night. This was the only time of the day that we felt the crowds: we arrived late at the site of the show, and so the kids had trouble seeing.  But the boys went up on our shoulders, and a German grandma pulled Ella up onto a rocky perch that she'd staked out and planted my daughter in front of her.  Humorously, the top of Ella's head almost reached the lady's nose. But she wrapped her arms around Ella's shoulders and kept her safe and happy while they watched the show.

After, the park invited everyone to watch a nighttime light parade: we walked to a spot that we thought was on the parade route, but when we didn't see another soul there, we got worried.  One of the workers confirmed that, yes, the floats would be going right by, and, a few minutes later, it did: our own personal parade.

"It's impossible not to look cool."

When we left the park, close to 7:00, some of the workers (who all were older people: there wasn't a teenaged staffer in sight all day) were beckoning us to their rides, looking for someone to break up the monotony, I suppose.  But we'd already gone on every single one, and we had tired kids besides. 

So that was it for Europa-Park.  The kids made one last stand on the hotel playground, we watched one last water show, and we then bundled our undeniably sleepy kids off to bed.