Toverland + Cranger Kirmes: My Obnoxious ACE Central Europe Trip Report - Part XIII

Okay, so some cool things are happening today:

We're going to ride roller coasters in 2 different countries on the SAME DAY!!! Sound cool?

Furthermore, we are going to ride ride OLYMPIA LOOPING again! That's right; a mere two weeks later, we're ridding Olympia Looping again, and in a different city no less!

Cool, right? :}

Let's get this cool day started!

Holland park 2 of 2: Toverland!

Toverland started out as a pretty modest-sized indoor amusement park in 2001. The park was such a runaway success that they have since expended exponentially.

Not even 6 years after the little warehouse park opened, Toverland opened the massive "Troy", a GCI instant classic.

This view looks striking similar to that of a certain Smokey Mountain roller coaster. :}

Troy is the epitome of GCI. Big sweeping curves, twisting drops, unexpected airtime, and that signature station fly-through! The last coaster GCI finished before starting to shake up their formula a bit (GCIs such as El Toro, Prowler, Joris en de Draak, and White Lightning being the result of this style shift), Troy is a flawless execution of the fundamentals that led to GCI's colossal success. AND it's credit #126 of my Year of ??? New Coasters!

This is my 5th new GCI coaster in under one week!

In fact, at this point I would now wager that Germany and Holland have the sexiest GCI coasters in the World. 

So far I'm pretty impressed with this "indoor" amusement park. What other spoils await us?

MMMMAAAAAACCCCCKKKKK!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

That's right! We have found a Mack roller coaster at Toverland! :}

(Positive associations of Mack-built rides have increased by about 10million percent as a result of our visit to Europa Park)

Opened in December 2012, D'wervelwind is a relative of Europa Park's Euro-Mir. The similarities between the rides, however, stop at the beetle-shaped cars. While Euro-Mir's trains feature controlled spinning during certain parts of the ride, D'wervelwind's trains spin freely. The track style has also changed a bit since Euro-Mir, with D'wervelwind's track looking a lot more like that of blue-fire Megacoaster. It's a particularly good spinning coaster, and it's also credit #127!

I wasn't sure how well the cars would spin, but we got going pretty good during our rides!

It's certainly a crowd-pleaser!

For an indoor park, Toverland is.....well.....stunning! 

Okay! Now for something completely different. 

One upon a time, Vekoma decided that it would be a good idea to straddle people on motorcycles and hurl them down a runway.

I swear it's more fun than it sounds.

"Booster Bike" (which is both the trade name & the name of this particular ride) is a pretty fun coaster. It's not especially comfortable, but the point of view during the ride is really quite cool. Joel and I took a front seat ride & it was exhilarating! We might've gone again if our ribs didn't ache afterwards. Anywho, yay for #128!

Not a coaster, but still neat: an electric alpine slide!

It could have gone a *wee* bit faster, but other than that, Bobkart is good stuff!

Toverland has 2 buildings that make up the indoor portion of the park. The north building is home to, among other things, Bobkart and the log flume.

Toverland is a "Sommerland"-type-park, which is essentially an amusement park that features a large number of elaborate playground structures. 

Everywhere you look, there are lawsuits good times waiting to happen!

The park's log flume is a solid ride with both indoor and outdoor portions.  The outside part looks cool, but the one picture series I took of it is an underexposed failure. *sadness*

Through this fantastical passageway is the south building of Toverland!

Here's what started it all for Toverland: a giant, custom Vekoma Rollerskater!

They also have a pretty awesome chairswing.

Oddly enough, the Vekoma Rollerskater here is called "Boomerang"! I literally have no idea why. The only thing I can think of is that they just wanted to confuse coaster enthusiasts.

WOOOSH!

For a kiddie coaster, Boomerang is pretty dynamic. They weren't messing around! It's a pretty potent #129.

Just in case you forgot where we are. :}

Check out the view from up here! Where's up here, you ask?

Some lovely wet/dry slides! 

Toverland's funhouse has some slides as well!

And some other things cause people to end up on the floor. :}

Speaking of ending up on the floor, let's check out some of Toverland's deathtraps playgrounds!

One of our humble trip coordinators shows us how it's done!

Joel and I remained spectators. Neither of us felt like going to the hospital.

DUCKIES!!!

As you can see, the park was very busy that day.

While most of Toverland's guests were inside beating the mid-day summer heat, I had to come back out and take some pictures!

Something about this feels a bit "E.T."-ish.

And something about THIS feels a bit Thunderhead-ish! :}

BEHOLD! A Ferris Wheel Tree!

Every Autumn, fresh, ripe Ferris Wheels are plucked from the tree and distributed around the world. :}

Also, the baskets SPIN! 

Back outside, we have more ground to cover!

Toverland is so large, established, and detailed that it's hard to believe that the park was basically a Family Entertainment Center 12 years ago. I think their strategy to start as a small indoor park first is a winner!

Toverland sure loves some color! 

View from the rapids ride's cave/station!

The rapids ride is fairly mellow, but the landscaping is top-notch!

Who wants to go for another ride on D'Wervelwind??

The view from D'wervelwind can give you a pretty good idea of just how much there is to Toverland's outdoor area.

XTREME D'WERVELWIND POV CRAZINESS!

Oh, and there's music too. 

ACErs are really just big kids.

Right, Terry? ;}

The time has now come to hop back over to Germany and hit up the obnoxious Cranger Kirmes! While it doesn't feature as many roller coasters as the fair in Dusseldorf, Cranger's enormous shopping & food midways make it the 2nd largest annual funfair in Germany, behind Oktoberfest. 

Why hello, Olympia Looping! Fancy seeing you here! :}

In addition to more food & shopping, Cranger Kirmes also has quite a lot of gambling!

Okay, we've got some unfinished business to attend to! LOG FLUME TIME!

I'm assuming this is the log flume that was in Dusseldorf. It's probably a safe bet.

As it turns out, this log flume is AMAZING. I'd say it's the Olympia Looping of log flumes for sure. :}

Olympia Looping looks a lot different here at Cranger. I'd say Dusseldorf's funfair did a better job of presenting the ride, but part of that just has to do with their stellar location on the river. 

Also making its second appearance of the trip is Bellevue!

Okay, now this was not in Dusseldorf!

As a huge Top Spin fan, riding a Top Spin at a German funfair is a right of passage. 

The ride cycle was about 4 minutes long and we flipped 14 times. SCORE!!

I wonder if this kiosk would fit in my luggage. 

Somewhere in the middle of Cranger Kirmes is this sign, which serves as the threshold between the ride midways and the shopping midways.

Okay! Now that I've done a lap around the ride midways, let's take a ride on Olympia Looping!

Riding Olympia Looping in two cities on the same trip is probably the single-coolest thing I have ever done in my life. 

Jeff and Janna agree that Olympia Looping is one of the best coasters in Germany!!

For a ride that hits 5.5 positive Gs, it's pretty re-rideable, too.

That guy to the left is the operations manager for Olympia Looping. I met him in Dusseldorf & he recognized me here in Cranger! We talked for a bit about the ride. It's his baby. :}

A ride on the nearby ghost train can give a pretty nice view of Olympia Looping.

GAMBLING TIME!

Some of the coin machines incorporate slot machines!

But I prefer going the traditional route. :}

We were only given a couple of hours to play with at Cranger, but our hotel was close enough for us to get there fairly quickly via train! After we settled into our room, I set off with a large cluster of ACErs to do Cranger Krimes: Round 2!

It's the Cranger Kirmes Crew!

This must be the place!

Hooray! It's twilight at Cranger Kirmes!

Every funfair we've visited has had no less than 2 Break Dances, and all of them were ball-out insane. 

I think Schoko-Früchte would have to be one of the highlights of my funfair adventures.

Cranger Kirmes's other coaster is Spinning Racer, which we also saw in Dusseldorf. I found it odd that the 2nd largest fair in Germany only has 2 coasters. 

A peek inside one of the famous beer tents!

Once the sun went down, the people of Germany came in DROVES. I have never seen crowds quite like this under any circumstance.

Germans really love bumper cars. There were about 5 of them at Cranger Kirmes, and all of them were enormous and wild! A few were like giant bumper car dance parties!

Suddenly, all of the lights on every ride turned off & a firework show started!

The entire fair stood still as the fireworks went off. It was remarkable.

The show lasted about 15 minutes & it was quite impressive!

Just before the show ended, we quickly made our way to Olympia Looping while most of the crowd was at a halt.

The picture above is a rare look at Olympia Looping at night with most of its lights turned off.

A few moments later, all of the lights came on & operations continued :}

Michael, Richard, and Ronnie all pitched in and bought me 2 rides on Olympia Looping. :}

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever. 

After our rides on Olympia Looping, we each got Butterbeer floats!

Yes, they were exactly as good as they sound. :}

The boys then did a 3D funhouse. I supervised. :}

Looking good, M&M!

The barrel of fun might be my new favorite spectator sport. Watching tipsy Germans with 3D glasses get tumbled around in this thing was a hoot!

Michael made a swift but careful exit.

Ronny ditched his glasses and flew through it like a bat out of Hell.

And Richard shuffled through it cautiously. 

Oh, and there's this carwash thing right at the end. Or, in this case, an M&M wash. :}

That concludes our Toverland + Cranger Kirmes adventure! It was the perfect day to turn 22. :}

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY of the ACE Central Europe Trip! I don't know about you, but my feet are killing me and I think I may have actually turned into a zombie somewhere along the way. It's going to be sad to say goodbye to Germany, but damnit, I need some SLEEP! lol

Stay tuned. :}