Phantasialand

Saturday morning, 5.30am. A song of Marco Borsato sounds through the clockradio and announces it's time to rise and shine. I rose, but I refused to shine. I forgot what a pain it was to get up so early, especially when it was already past midnight when my cheeck eventually touched the pillow. Yes. The cheeck of my face, you weirdo.

But look at the bright side: we're going to Phantasialand today!! It is an amusement-slash-fantasypark where you have variations, going from slow merry-go-rounds (aka a Carousel) to exciting, breathtaking and violently fast thrill rides.

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Phantasialand is located in Germany. I recently bought a Tom Tom One GPS for my car, but unfortunately it only contains the Benelux maps (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg). Most fortunately, a friend has a Garmin GPS with German maps which I could borrow. I swapped it for my Tom Tom since she had to go to Centerparks in the Netherlands this weekend. Good swap if you ask me :-)

After a two hour drive, a short stop in between, and a lot of frustration (our following car wasn't following at all; it was constantly stalling as if the gas pedal had to be touched gently), we finally arrived. The nice computerized GPS woman guided us right to the entrance. What a lady. But so ... artificial.

The cashier, another lady, was a little more reluctant to help us. She had a weird look on her face when we wanted to exchange our prepaid vouchers for a real entrance ticket. She eventually mumbled something in German and gave us the tickets. We must have looked like gangsters.

Our first attraction of the day was the Race for Atlantis. We didn't know what to expect, we thought it had something to do with water. Wrong. Once inside, after the short queue, we sat down on a platform that was raised a few feet in the air. We didn't know what was happening, but seconds later we realised we were inside a simulator. It was an IMAX movie, projected on a screen (a so called "Dome Screen"), so big you couldn't see the edges around it. It was a little fun. Not much more to say if you know IMAX movies. It wasn't 3D, but it was visually satisfying. Fun to do if you have kids. You can view some images here.

We then followed the natural trail of the park, going into as much things that we were even remotely interested in. The Silvermine, Hollywood Tour, Wildwash Creek, Temple of the Night Hawk and River Quest are just a few of the long list. The latter proved to be a lot of waterfun, definitely worth the long wait.

But a few rides were so amazing they still give me the goosebumps. Let's elaborate:

• Mystery Castle: the waiting queue wasn't the classic, boring queue you'd expect. It was a journey through a haunted fortress. Occasionally, a huge hooded man (a real person) would jump out of the dark right next to you. It scared the shit out of most of the women. Once you've passed a library, a chapel, and something that looks like a secret laboratory, you end up in front of a wooden gate. It's the entrance to the tower. You know nothing... you hear nothing strange or out of the ordinary. You don't know what to expect. It was exciting even before it began!
  
  Once inside, it reminded me of the Dalton Terror in Walibi Belgium (ex-Sixflags). We thought that, just like the Dalton Terror, we would be carefully raised and have a thrilling freefall once arrived at the top. Wrong. We sat down and were heavily secured in our seats. Employees in white coats, looking like nutty professors, wandered around, checking if everything was tight.
  
  The lights went out.. it was completely dark. You could hear a pin fall. Then it happened: we were launched in the air at a breathtaking speed of I-don't-know-how-fast but man .. it was amazing! Once at the highest point, you drop down as fast as you got up, and when you expect it to be all over, you'll go up and down a few more times, but in small bits and perhaps even randomized. You don't know where your head is!
  
  
• Colorado Adventure: it looks like an ordinary train, but don't be misguided. It's fast, it's thrilling, it's crazy, and it doesn't stop for anything! It was a rather long ride as well. I don't remember it doing loops, but it has some nasty turns and dives.
  


• Black Mamba: newcomer for the 2006 season. Let's just call it an upside-down rollercoaster where your legs hang loose. It takes you on a thrilling ride of high speed, taking various sharp turns, long dives, corcscrew turns, loopings, etc. The queue was quite short to be such a new ride. I think a lot of people were too frightened to enter. It does look dangerously scary, really. For more info, also visit this dedicated Black Mamba website.
  

General feeling: it was a hot sunny day, it turned out to be a very tiresome trip and the two hour drive wasn't exactly worth it, even with the fun we had. Almost everything is advertised in German. We noticed Dutch and English signs a couple of times only. The food isn't very tasty, nor is there a lot to choose from.

It was also peculiar, and probably a reason for the former, that there weren't many tourists. Most people were German. Lots of cute (lesbian) girls though. That made up for something :-)