Germany RC Trip 1 (Part 3)

Okay now, I'm back from another trip but I have alot of catching up to do. . .

I went to Bayern Park, located in Reisbach, Germany. It is a nice little park and has two rollercoasters, Achterbahn (a steel family rollercoaster that is themed after a caterpillar) and Froschbahn (a junior family steel coaster that is themed after a frog). The park itself was good but I did not stay there for too long. I walked around to see what they had and it was pretty good/descent.

Next, I went to Freizeit-Land Geiselwind, located in Geiselwind. It is a pretty descent park and for only 17 euros (about $15.50), it is an inexpensive way to have a day full of fun. The park looked very nice. It was green, had lots of scenery, props and themes. One area was the dinosaur area. Before I got on the rollercoaster craze, I knew every dinosaur there was and such. They had huge models of dinosaurs (like T-Rex, Stegosaurus, etc) and other prehistoric creatures (sabre-tooth tiger, etc.) standing all over in a section of the park. Also, they had an animal section, with all kinds of fowl, woods animals, and farm animals that was pretty neat (although the goats were a little rough on each other and the people who were trying to feed them - but the kids were cute). The grass was green and many flower arrangements were scattered throughout the park. My favorite photo shoot was a bunch of arranged flowers with the pink flamingos walking and playing in the background.

As far as rollercoasters are concerned, this park boasts 4. The Marienkaferbahn was a red, family rollercoaster with ladybug trains (I think that what the German word marienkafer means). It was rather long and it was a nice ride. The Blaue Enzian (Blue Beetle) was a blue junior powered coaster like the Kansas City Express (another German RC). Drehgondelbahn was a steel coaster that had an oval layout, with a circle on one side (towards the inside of the ride) that sent you through a small tunnel. This ride was fun because it had spinning cars on it and you travel through the course 5 times. Last is their big coaster, the Boomerang. It looks like the one in Kansas City (Worlds of Fun) with it's yellow track and red supports but this one had red-only trains where WoF had hot pink, orange and another color. It was also a fun ride but after awhile, I remembered why one doesn't do successive laps on a boomerang. . .

Other notable rides include a hammerhead ride, a ride like the Zulu at WoF (I don't know the technical name of it right now), and a rotating observation tower to get even more great photos of the entire park and the surrounding German countryside. A water ride they had was pretty neat. You are in a small boat and are pull back a boomerang-like spike (it only about 20-25 ft high). You are let go, go down the spike, up a small bump and go airborne until you splash in the water pool below.

They also had two themed houses. One was a dinosaur themed house with all kinds of animatronic dinosaurs and creatures moving and roaring. It reminded me of the one they had in Knott's Berry Farm I rode in the 1980s (Do they still have it there?) or the train ride in Disneyland where they had a dinosaur section (Do they have that there too?). The other house was like a science-fiction themed house with techno music, black lights, strobe, stars and planets from the ceiling and etc. In a bubbling-glass container in a wall, they had a Face-Hugger from the Alien movies. Another great photo with me touching it. It was tan/brown (like animals preserved in a bottle that you would see in a biology class), creepy and real-looking. At the end, there is two simulator machines that showed a futuristic hovercraft race to the death. It was pretty cool but a tad bit too bumpy. . Overall, I was impressed with Freizeit-Land Geiselwind and I went home to rest up for the next parks. . .

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http://pages.prodigy.net/dominguezgarage

Very cool and rare TR! Yeah Knott's does have Kingdom of Dinosaurs. The park ruined it byt connecting the cars and the ride will stop mid course to load passengers at the beggining.

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X-Flight World's Only flying coaster!
Batwing World's only flying coaster!
S:UF World's only flying coaster! Don't you love SF ?

I went to Geiselwind and Europa Park in 1989 while I was in the military stationed in Germany. It sounds like Geiselwind has come a long way since my 2 visits there. They only had the ladybug coaster then. A lot of childrens rides and the gardens. Loved the spin-n-spew themed to wine jugs! The best part of my visits were going to the monkey cage. You could go into the monkey area and feed them whatever fruit you brought with you. But you had to watch out cause the little suckers would try to take anything that wasn't tied down. One reached for my glasses but I saw him and moved out of his reach. Wish I could go back. Thanks for the memories!

It has come a long ways from what the German nationals tell me. Yes, they still have the monkey cages too - I forgot to mention it (too little time on computer and too much story to tell). It's pretty cool to find a fellow enthusiast who's also in the military. Thanks for the story. . .

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My place

http://pages.prodigy.net/dominguezgarage