July 27 – Twists, Turns, Flips and Lots of Water

Skipping it while we were in Germany, today we headed out early to get to the local amusement park, Europa Park.

The above is a before and after of what the park was like in the late 70’s to what it looks like now. Before the biggest attraction was the log flume ride (think Upper Clements Park one), now there are lots of roller coasters, a few water rides (in the main park…there is an aquatic park as well) and lots of kid shows/activities.

Patrick and Tori were not interested in going on many of the thrill rides but did agree to go on the large wooden coaster (top speed of 100 km/h, 1050 metres in length and 40 meters high). It was a fun one but that was it for those guys for the big ones.

Sable and I definitely did our share of thrill rides with lots of little ones mixed in. Of the 91 attractions available, here is a list of rides we did:

• Arena of Football (All)
• Atlantic SuperSplash (E, P & S)
• blue fire Megacoaster (E & S)
• Euro-Mir (E)
• Eurosat – CanCan Coaster (E & S)
• Fjord Rafting (E, P & S)
• Koffiekopjes (E, S & T)
• Pirates in Batavia (All)
• Puppet Boat Ride (All…almost sank)
• Silver Star (E & S)
• Voletarium (All)
• Volo Da Vinci (All)
• Whale Adventures – Northern Lights (All)
• Water rollercoaster – Poseidon (E & S)
• Wodan – Timburcoaster (All)

Looking back, we probably should have planned it a bit better but the time we did spend there was very fun…for me at least 🙂

On the way back, while crossing the Rhine River we passed a lock system with boat going through so we stopped to watch one go out and another go in. Cool to see the locks in use.

After a day of walking and waiting it was a quick fall asleep night for most of us. Tomorrow we will go look around Colmar (birthplace of the designer of the Statute of Liberty and a village that looks like it should be in the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast).

Total steps today was 15,912 (on our feet lots just standing around for a lot of it).