Hansa Park + Hamburg, Germany + Sommerdom: My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report - Part X

Hello. :}

The last three parks certainly were interesting, weren't they?

Well.

TODAY we have a GAME-CHANGER park in our midst: 

Hansa Park!

Originally built as a Legoland in the mid 70s (and sold to a local group not three years later), Hansa Park is one of those parks that has it figured out. They have a spectacular 1-2 punch in the form of their two flagship coasters, Nessie and Fluch von Novgorod, and there's atmosphere around here for days! 

So I see a castle & a custom Schwarzkopf looper. Feeling pretty good about this!

Park management took AWESOME care of us! Look at what they gave us in honor of our Fluch Von Novgorod "Extra Ride Time"!

I had heard nothing but rave reviews about Fluch, so I was curious to see what made this mostly-indoor Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter so special!

I couldn't help but hope for something along the lines of another semi-enclosed Euro-Fighter (and one of my favorite steel coasters), Mystery Mine at Dollywood!

The ride is brimming with theming!

Look at that! Charles AND Donald are both hitting 500 coasters on Fluch von Nogorod!!

Fluch von Novgorod is an excellent fusion ride. Several elements come together to make it a truly spectacular experience! The barn-like doors of the ride's station swing open & you roll through a dark-ride portion featuring a handful of well-excecuted storytelling scenes. We couldn't understand the story, but the scenes looked great! After the story scenes (some sort of struggle between evil and royalty or something), you are ROCKETED down a runway & then up and out into broad daylight! The outdoor portion is a solid series of acrobatics with flawless, comfortable transitions (camelback hump, overbank, pretzel turn, elongated barrel roll into the midcourse break run).

More barn doors swing open & you roll into another building that houses the signature Euro-Fighter vertical lift hill. Going up the hill is a sensory experience akin to the ride's dark ride portion. Now, coming over the top of this thing is just horrifying. The 95-degree drop of this Euro-Fighter is in total darkness, and it's immediately followed by a series of chaotic coaster-type-things that I was just in no position to comprehend. 

This ride is top-notch; it's Mystery Mine's bigger, badder, SMOOTHER German cousin, and...

IT'S MY 100TH NEW COASTER!!!!!!!!!

My Year of 100 New Coasters is a success! And we've still got lots of new coasters to ride!

Let's go!!

The exit from Flucht von Novgorod spits you out in Mexico! Between the ride's entrance and exit is a remarkable Schwarzkopf DOUBLE Bayer Kurve! Who's ready for a ride on the "El Paso Express"?

Here we go!

WOOOOOO!

Man, this thing books it! Schwarzkopf for the win!!

In a world where old Schwarzkopf rides are disappearing due to the scarcity of parts, riding such an excellent & unique Schwarzkopf ride made my heart possess much happiness. :}

"El Paso Express is Billy-approved!"

What a great ride! And how nice of Hansa Park to have it open for us during ERT. :}

Next to El Paso Express is this curious water obstacle course.

Getting across dry requires some trial and error.

Alright, time to move on! The park opens soon! Bye bye, El Paso Express!

And hello Hansa Park Express!

Note the guests sitting in the coal car. :}

Here's a portion of the Hansa-Garden. You can add Hansa Park to your list of awesome European parks with large gardens. :}

We're back at Fluch Von Novgorod now! The ride is really quite lovely to look at. That tall building houses the ride's vertical lift and drop.

I appreciate Hansa resisting the urge to cram Fluch with inversions. They could have easily done some sort of boomerang thing here, but I quite like the pretzel turn.

And the lack of other inversions really makes the ride's barrel roll a focal point!

Speaking of focal points, let's check out Hansa's pride and joy, "Nessie superrollercoaster"! 

Nessie is the beating heart of Hansa Park. It's located at the center of Hansa; the park's other rides and attractions seem to be in orbit around it. Nessie's layout is not as spectacular as some Schwarzkopfs, such as Mindbender or Lisebergbahnan, but it's thrilling, forceful, and totally delightful! It's my 101st coaster of my Year of 100 New Coasters, and it's truly a gem.

Nessie's partner in crime is the enormous Vekoma Rollerskater, Rasender Roland!

The two coasters live harmoniously with one another. <3

As you can see, Rasender Roland gets quite close to Nessie indeed!

Oh look. Another wild mouse.

This one at least looks nice.

Credits #102 & #103 are the third train themed ride we've encountered at Hansa Park so far & the thirty-three-billionth wild mouse we've encountered in Germany so far. 

Rounding out Hansa's collection is the most elaborate kiddie coaster of all-time.

"Die Schlange von Midgard" features extensive scenery, and elaborate show-building/station/lift hill, and a pretty potent little track layout!

Hansa has really made a point of appealing to the kiddos in recent years.

I'd say Hansa is 5 for 5 on coasters! That's 104!

This is Gloche. It's...well...a bell.

A bell-type Frisbee-ish-sort-of thing.

With water.

And FIRE!

More on that later.

Hansa Park has three log flumes.

*backflips*

We took full advantage of being allowed to ride the kiddie log flume!

Is anyone really surprised that we went for the kiddie flume once all of the credits were taken care of?

LOL

Well, if Jeff is with Mat, and John is with Ron, then who am I riding with?!

It's Rus, of course! :D

Everybody say, "Hi, Rus!"

Feeling that we had already exceeded the acceptable level of wetness for a cloudy morning in north Germany, we passed on the wavy slides. There're some later in the trip, however. :}

LOOK at this portal of cosmic delight! Are we in a funhouse?

Nope! We're about to ride bumper cars with a twist!

Each car is equipped with a laser beam, which is used to shoot the 9 targets that surround the ride.

The 9 targets correspond to the different planets in our solar system ( + Pluto). Whoever gets all of the planets in the shortest amount of time wins!

Best bumper cars ever.

Back outside, we did some orbiting of our own around Nessie.

This while threading-the-loop business with these rides reminds me of a certain SoCal theme park!

Here we have a classic example of "not noticing what the people in the picture are doing until the 4th or 5th time I look at the damn photo".

Like I've said before though, I do appreciate the guests playing to the camera. :}

……..…../´¯/)……          ….. (\¯`\              
…………/….//………          .. …\\….\            
………../….//………          … ….\\….\           
…../´¯/…./´¯\…         ……../¯ `\….\¯`\      
.././…/…./…./.|_…        …_| .\….\….\…\.\..                          :}                                                     (.(….(….(…./.)..).           .(..(. \….)….)….).)  
.\…………….\/…/…          .\. ..\/……………./  
..\…………….. /…          …..\……………..…/   
….\…………..(……         …. ..)……………./     


Lol. Okay, moving on...

Next we decided to do Hansa Park's awesome ropes course! I fell in love with the one at Dollywood (*sheds tear*), so now I try to do them at every park that has one.

No lightning bolts while drinking and no clothing that is unflattering to your figure.

Kate and John are eager to get started!

If heights aren't your thing, stay away. lol

BEHOLD! The Logs of DEATH.

THE LOGS OF DEATH ARE MULTIPLYING!!!

Dollywood's ropes course was quite fun, but Hansa's is a great deal more challenging!

Just look at these obstacles!

Some of the steps are even booby trapped! They will appear sturdy, only to give way when stepped on!

Mat and Tom decided that they'd enjoy the ropes course better from down below.

Nice view from up here! Hansa's really into the whole barn-door thing on their coasters.

This one on the left was ridiculous. As you can see, it's just 3 ropes. Half way through my attempt, I fell straight through the ropes and was left dangling by my harness! Fortunately I made it to the other side alive.

Look at that spectacular upper-arm strength! Both Jeff and John nailed the monkey bars, while Kate and I were content to handle the wobbly bridge.

Whoo-wee! That was great! Feels nice to be back on the ground again.

Hey! What's everyone looking at?

Oh, look! It's the Baltic Sea. :}

That would explain the lovely, crisp air & cooler temperatures.

So here's this thing again.

Gloche was originally built for Wiener Prater, but it was purchased by Hansa Park a few years ago. Despite its dreadfully-low capacity, Hansa does not charge extra for the ride. As a result, the line was huge.

We noticed a bridge leading out of the park over by the exit for Fluch von Novgorod. What does it lead to?

A lighthouse! Hooray!

It's pretty far inland, but it looks nice & the view is great!

Okay, enough of the ocean. More of Fluch!

Notice how the ride changes color during the barrel roll!

This ride is just so good. It made me fall in love with Euro-Fighters all over again!

The park's original, middle-sized log flume looked nice, but I skipped it due to time constraints. 

This bizarre-looking log flume, however, was a must-ride!

What we're looking at here is basically a cross between a log flume and a shoot-the-chute-type-ride.

Upon subsequent researching of the ride, I discovered that it's actually Intamin's first flume ride! 

It's got a pretty cool drop & a nice splash!

I decided to wrap up the day with a Nessie photo shoot! The weather had become quite perfect for one.

*swoon*

This is the view when you make your way past the park's entrance. Pretty nice first impression, right?

"This loop is property of Hansa Park Inc."

The ride apparently has 3 trains, but we only became acquainted with red train and green train.

Almost time for us to leave :{

Farewell, Hansa Park! You are totally amazing.

Local produce was for sale in the parking lot!

I bought the fattest, most delicious raspberries ever.

Next stop: Hamburg! Once the buses deposited us at the hotel, we headed to the train station to explore the city!

HARIBOGASM!

So, this is for sale at a lot of the stores around here. Does this even exist in the US?

I decided to stay in the energy drink realm of things. It says it boosts body + soul!

Who's ready for Hamburg time?!

"I'm ready!" said the Hamburg Swan.

Hamburg is quite a lovely place. :}

Here's a thing.

Here's a DAYGLO ORANGE fire truck!

Here's a hipster taking an angst-y selfie with a fountain.

Here's a plug-in sports car.

Have you ever seen such a stunning clock face before? :D

Here's some high-class dwellings!

And here's an enormous cathedral covered in soot. 

Who wants to go to the top? :}

Into the glass elevator!

Hello, Hamburg!

I just love the little gargoyle-ish things on the roof corners. :}

Okay, I know you're ready for Hamburg Sommerdom! Let's roll!

This is your view immediately upon exiting the underground!

Me Gusta!

OoOoOoOoOoOH!!!!!!! Now here's something I've only seen on YouTube before!

First things first: Dinner time!

This is Höllenblitz der Coaster! It's a psychadelic indoor spinning mine train (seriously). I was still eating dinner, so I didn't ride it until our second lap around. Moving on!

DESSERT! Yissssssss. Funfair food is best food. :}

*o*

While not as large as Der Größter Kirmes am Rhein, Hamburg Sommerdom was quite charming and had a lot to offer. 

Heading back down the other side of the loop now.

Reminder that you are not in America: Tobacco Kiosk!

Okay guys, here's something pretty cool! This is called XXL Wild Maus. 

It's a basic Maurer Söhne Mouse that has been...well...frankenstein'd with two large drops/turn arounds.

And the queue is a funhouse!

Are you guys ready for XXL Wild Mouse?!

The two big drops on XXL Wild Maus are probably the highlight of the ride! Parks everywhere should be inspired to do this to their mice!

While not drastically different from its original state as a whole, XXL Wild Maus really felt like a unique ride that has a clear advantage over the typical mouse. Yay for credit #105!

Sommerdom's Ferris Wheel is quite striking.

While it looks cool during the day, the lack of real estate set aside for the LED lighting package made it less remarkable at night than other wheels. 

Oh boy. Who's ready to get a little shook up?

Shaker is a quintessential German flat ride. It's loud, fast, obnoxious, and long. Mat and I got a 3+ minute ride cycle & I screamed in terror the entire time. Great ride!

The Tagada at Sommerdom looked to be a much wilder experience than the one at Prater. People were getting pretty courageous with their conduct while on the ride!

Wacky Worm Shark. Check!

What do Pirates of the Caribbean, Sponge Bob Square Pants, and Finding Nemo all have in common? Their copyrights have all been infringed upon by this shark-themed Wacky Worm! Yay piracy! Credit #106!

Germany's proximity to Italy has led to appropriately-delicious Italian food being available in abundance!

OK! Time for a ride through Hell on Höllenblitz!

The long-short of Höllenblitz is that it's amazeballs. That's all that really can be explained, and it's all you really need to know. Credit #107 is a feast for the senses!

There's a nice view of XXL Wild Mouse from the exit of Höllenblitz.

Seriously, can we do this to at least a large chunk of the wild mouse population? Please?

Höllenblitz's light package is probably the standard upon which all other German fair rides are judged. 

Airwolf time! Everyone find a seat on the giant loaf of bread!

(I thought the ride's cars looked sort of bread-ish. Maybe it's just me? They actually look quite similar to the garlic bread thingies they served at that Italian food kiosk.)

This is another interesting German flat. Lots of swooping, swinging, and flipping! And an even longer ride cycle that Shaker!

Speaking of shaking, if the weight of Airwolf's two cars shifted at the same time, the whole thing would shake violently. Legit if I've ever seen it!

Sommerdom's dark rides were definitely not up to the standard set in Dusseldorf. This one was apparently the least bad of the three, and it didn't get good until the 2nd half. A deliberate shift in ride quality to shock the rider, or a budget that ran out too soon? You decide!

Sommerdom is where I got my first taste of gambling! Who doesn't love a good coin pusher?!

AHH! SHH! PUSH IT! PUSH IT REEEAAL GOOD! 

Gambling at funfairs goes like this:

Step 1. Convert local currency into gameplay tokens.

Step 2. Use gameplay tokens to potentially win MORE gameplay tokens by playing the coin pushers.

Step 3. Win point chips (or in some cases, small prizes) that rest on top of the game play tokens inside the coin pushers. 

Step 4. Trade in point chips for prizes.

Step 5. Repeat until bank account is empty.

The small amount of gambling I did at Sommerdom (I successfully won myself a keychain in the shape of a dolphin) gave me an inordinately-high level of joy. The lack of immediate funds at my disposal to set aside for gambling was no doubt a blessing in disguise. 

I leave you with a Harlem-Shake-esque dance party going down on the Hip Hop Jumper!

G'night, y'all! I hope you enjoyed this jam-packed report. It took longer than it should've to post, but I get distracted easily by things, like the cat that lives outside my apartment. And tin foil.

Tomorrow we explore the impressive (if corporate-y) Heide-Park Soltau! Shenanigans will likely ensue & whatnot. See you there. :}