Hello :}
I was just on a little adventure recently. I have photos. Would you like to see them?
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Welcome to My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report!!!
I'm glad you could make it :}
Get ready for a 3 week roller coaster adventure deep inside exotic & far-away lands! Coasters and culture galore! We'll be running around with lots of old friends & a few new ones! All in all, over 10,000 pictures were taken on this trip, but you only have to deal with my favorites. None of the 8,000+ reject photos will ever see the light of day (unless otherwise requested). :}
The OFFICIAL start of the trip is in Budapest, Hungary. However, Michael Morris, Ron Jiu, and I decided that we needed to make a little pre-trip stop in Dusseldorf, Germany for The Largest Fair on the Rhein, featuring the Schwarzkopf masterpieces Olympia Looping and Alpina Bahn!
Olympia Looping is expected to make an appearance during the official trip towards the end of week 2, but we wanted to make doubly-sure that we got our rides in. Best case scenario, we'd hit Olympia Looping in two cities within two weeks of each other!
Okay, enough words without pictures! On to words WITH pictures! (Lots of them).
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| I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but here we are on the Dusseldorf Airport suspended monorail! |
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| Where my Suspended Monorail enthusiasts at? :D |
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| The suspended monorail took us to our first train of the trip! |
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Me: "Smile, boys! We're in Dusseldorf's equivalent to Grand Central Station! Just LOOK at all of the funky soda in the vending machines here!"
Boys: -___- |
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| The lovely train station. |
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| Our first experience of walking around a German city yielded many interesting finds! Perhaps the most interesting is this gas-station-turned-Domino's Pizza, featuring pizza delivery Vespas and Smart Cars! |
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| We've made it to our hotel! Nice choice, Michael! |
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| After depositing our bags in the hotel, we went for a walk about the city. |
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| A wild gothic cathedral appeared! |
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| It's just chillin in the middle of the Japanese district of Dusseldorf. Lookin' fly. |
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| Comic shop! |
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| Manga and pop-culture artifacts as far as the eye can see! |
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| Here's a shop that sells Japanese pop merchandise, fresh artisan coffee & tea, and gourmet pastries! |
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| JAPANESE TOYS! :D |
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| Okay, back to Germany. |
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| I submit for your approval: A picture of several baby ducks playing in pond muck. |
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| Oh, look! A statue. I bet we won't be seeing any more of those... :} |
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| Oh, look! Another statue! |
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| Awesome random wall. A close-up shot of it is currently my computer background. |
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| See? :} |
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| Snack time! Haribo is my favorite brand of candy, so I basically tried a different variety of Haribo every day of the trip. Today's Haribo is Smurf-flavored! |
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| For lunch we went to a delicious Italian place called Pinocchio's. |
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| Across the street is a 3D printing company, featuring several interesting 3D models. This one was probably our favorite. :} |
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| A little ways down the street, we stumbled on this! |
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| I about fell to my knees and cried. Love at first sight. |
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| The tower to our left is actually our next destination. We'll be heading to the fair at around sun-down. :} |
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| Alpina Bahn, Olympia Looping's partner in crime, is just as radiant as its rainbow-colored younger brother. |
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| Seeing the ride from this angle was also quite interesting. I'd only ever seen it from the front. |
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| The fair had just opened not a half hour before we saw it, so it was still waking up. |
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| The largest portable coasters in the world have some other large portable supporting acts. |
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| Olympia Looping refuses to be eclipsed by Bellevue the Ferris Wheel. |
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| People who know me best know that I wanted no part of this business. |
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| One last ground view of the fair! |
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| Time to go up! |
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| "Smile, boys!" |
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| Hey! It's like Roller Coaster Tycoon up here! |
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| The Largest Fair on the Rhine, in all of its glory! |
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| Crowds have picked up & the coasters were flyin'! |
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| More interesting perspectives of Olympia Looping! |
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| The mighty Rhine River! |
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| Hey, look! It's the cathedral from earlier! And some other old stuff. |
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| Both Schwarzys in action! |
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| The fair is just bursting with activity! |
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| Ron, however, is not. |
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| Back on the ground, headed back in the general direction of our hotel for a nap. We wandered into some kind of poultry sanctuary on the way. |
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| There were lots of swans, geese, and ducks. |
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| And a few things we weren't exactly familiar with. |
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| It was nap time for a lot of the birds as well. |
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| Our room was quite cute & it came with free Haribo gummies! |
After possibly the most refreshing shower ever & a 2 hour nap, the boys and I set out for our first roller coaster adventure of the trip!!
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| Hooray! Train ride to the fair! |
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| There were droves of locals piling into the fair. |
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| Oh my goodness! Just look at all of the German culture manifestation! |
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| Let's explore the East midway, shall we? |
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| Here's a midway game where your prize is a potted house plant! :D |
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| Here's the famous gigantic portable drop tower! |
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| And here's Alpina Bahn! |
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Alpina + The Moon.
Sounds like a nice band name. :} |
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| We can't stop yet, Alpina Bahn! We are men on a mission! |
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| YEEEHAWWWW!!!!!! |
I could not believe the moment had finally come! After 17 years of mad-obsession with Olympia Looping, it was time for my first ride!
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| *drool* |
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| Olympia Looping is among the highest-capacity roller coasters ever built, with 5 20-seat trains and a restraint checker for all 10 rows! |
I can proudly say that Olympia Looping lives up to the hype. My first ride, which was in the front seat, provided a smooth-as-glass, wildly-intense ride with stunning visuals--all for just 7 Euro 50! Credit #57 of my Year of 100 New Coasters is a dream come true!
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| Olympia Looping is nothing short of a technological marvel. It's as reliable & consistent as a Swiss watch, gives one of the smoothest rides I've ever had on a coaster, and it can be assembled in under 5 days. |
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| Soaking it all in. |
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| Alright! Time to explore the rest of the fair. |
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| Next up is one of the wildest mice around! |
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| This traveling Wilde Maus is what every off-the-shelf mouse coaster wishes it could be. |
Wilde Maus would be the first of several mouse coasters that do not apply breaks at any point during the ride! American mouse coasters are nothing in comparison! A wild credit #58 indeed!
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| On ride photo from the traveling mouse! |
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| Coaster #4 at the funfair is this Maurer Söhne spinner! |
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| It's the newest of the fair's coasters. |
After riding Salama at Linnanmaki, a custom Maurer Söhne spinner, I was disappointed. We didn't spin much; the ride sort of just...undulated around the course. Spinning Racer was a completely different story. This thing spun like crazy and FLEW through its layout. Fabulous credit #59!
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| I'm officially thrilled that Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk has one of these now. |
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| Look at these delicious chocolate-covered fruit sticks! I'll be back for one of these later... |
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| Seems legit. |
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| The award-winning GeisterStadt would turn out to be one of the best haunted houses I've ever ridden! |
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Ron consulting the ride attendants demons. |
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| It too was quite scary! |
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| It even sports this awesome windmill! |
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| Fruit stick time! It was a delicious, sticky mess! One of the best chocolate things I've ever eaten! It had a grape, some star fruit, a mandarin slice, a strawberry, some pineapple, and a piece of apple! :D |
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| Something else fruity! Coconut shards are huge here! |
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| BEHOLD! One of many kiosks selling the famous gingerbread heart cookie!!! :D |
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| Flashy mirror maze! |
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| Time for round 2! Let's go get that ride on Alpina Bahn! |
German funfairs are fundamentally quite different from US carnivals and fairs. Unlike US fairs, where all rides are owned by a single fair operator, German funfairs host a series of independently-owned attractions. Everything from the roller coasters to the bathrooms are owned by independent vendors. The flamboyant nature of funfair attractions are a result of each vender competing directly with other vendors for business. The most attractive attractions get the most business, naturally, so every year new rides and attractions are designed to be the flashiest, most exotic icons on the midway. The result is this high-octane, chaotic, electric rainbow of funfair amusements!
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| One more dark ride! |
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| While not *quite* as good as GeisterStadt, Daemonium is highly-advanced, featuring a 4-story spiral lift & trains of rotating cars! It even has live scare actors running around inside the ride! |
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| We're comin', Alpina! |
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| The darker it got, the more stunning the midway became. |
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| Who's ready for a twilight ride on Alpina Bahn?!!? |
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| Though not as visually dramatic as Olympia Looping, Alpina Bahn has a much more elaborate entrance marquee. |
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| Looking good in that eyeliner, Michael. ;} |
Alpina Bahn is superb. Totally different from Olympia Looping, but just as good. Great laterals, some pops of air, and wild transitions! And, of course, it's smooth as butter. Excellent credit #59.
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| Warp speeeeed! |
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| Who's happy? I'm happy. :} |
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| You know what's next, don't you? |
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| NIGHTTIME OLYMPIA LOOPING! |
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| I can safely say that, after witnessing it at night, Olympia Looping is the single-most beautiful roller coaster I have ever had the privilege of seeing in person. |
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| Ride #2 was in the back seat and it was WOOOOOW. I don't even remember half of it. |
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| I can also say that this was the most pivotal moment in my life as a roller coaster photographer. |
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| And one of the most pivotal moments of my life as a Coaster Enthusiast. |
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| It was euphoric. I even made friends with the lead ride operator, who was pleased to see me so excited to ride his Olympia Looping! |
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| MÜNCHEN! |
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| BARTH! |
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| I literally spent about 45 minutes just taking pictures of this ride. |
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| The first loop is a doozie! Not a traditional loop, but an elongated, "spiro" loop! |
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| Like a bowl of Fruit Loops, but so much better! |
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| One last shot! See ya in two weeks! |
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| Wilde Maus is also quite impressive at night. |
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| Likewise is Bellevue! |
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| Our night at The Largest Funfair on the Rhein was sensational! What a fabulous way to kick off the trip! |
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| You guys as elated as I am?? |
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| Time for a quick snack before bed! Goodnight! |
Olympia Looping and Alpina Bahn are under the belt, and we've only just begun! Tomorrow we embark on our voyage to the oldest city I've ever set foot in: Budapest, Hungary! They've got it all! Culture, cathedrals, and coasters! Stay tuned! :}
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