Weather: the first sort of nasty day, with drizzle and clouds.
Woke up in my kickass hotel room somewhat on time (overslept every single day of the trip pretty much, but in the end I got more than enough time at each park), collected my belongings along with whatever I didnt finish from the minibar plus soap and anything else I could snag and get away with and I go to check out amazing the morning staff with my €12 rate, paying that €12 plus €15 for parking(being a downtown location) and hitting the road.
Bobbejaanland (dont even ask me how it's pronounced, it complicated) was about a half hour from the hotel so getting there was relatively fast and singage from the highway to the park was good, though once in the parking lot it wasnt so good, but anyways found a parking spot which was easy to find as I was one of 15 or so cars in the lot, then head to the gate and pay my enterance fee and purchase a parking token, and head in. First off was the Schwarzkopf Santa Maria, kinda like a rocking boat but on a coaster track rather than hanging from a frame like most, it ran an incredibly lame cycle and within about 30 seconds of getting on, I exited the ride and headed towards the star attraction which drew me to the park, Typhoon the Gerstlauer 95 degree drop coaster. Walked though an empty queue and into the station to find the gates open and 8 empty seats in the 8 seat train, I chose a front row seat at which point the other 7 OTSR's were closed and I was on my way. First off I notice the incredible comfort of the seats, the seats are extremely well designed lots of support, and the OTSR is nearly perfect for an OTSR, very wide so no headbanging, padded, bulging in the center so all body types fit and secure feeling, so far I'm impressed. Head towards the lift and stop at the bottom to wait for a catch car to roll around and grab the train (it's a 2 car train, basically a B&M type setup with 4 across but only 2 cars long), head up the vertical lift slowing down for about 1/4 of it then making it to the top going over the super sharp rollover and go flying down the drop with a good powerful pop of airtime followed by a loop and blimb into the first block brake, but from the start of the pullout all the way nearly to the block brake it delivers crushing G's forces, it felt like a good Schwarzkopf (Werner Stengel designed the ride, and he got his start with Schwarzkopf and actually designed some of the later Schwarzkopf rides, including the speed racers), after the block it does dual heartline rolls at low speed (a stengel trademark) and another block, then a fairly powerful downward spiral some turns and a fairly powerful upward spiral, followed by a block brake and another heartline, turns and another heartline followed by the final brakes. Ride was amazing, good powerful ride, very smooth (tracked funny probably cause of the rain and cooler temps but it was not rough in the least), was so good, I got off went in the reride gate and got on the other train which was waiting in the station, though there were a few more people on the train this time, and I rode in back for a similar ride but with a damn strong pop of airtime going over the first drop.
After that I went towards Sledgehammer their Huss Giant Frisbee, but it was closed cause the ride ops were at lunch and the sign indicated it'd be open within an hour, so I moved onto their Huss Fly Away, which is an enterprise but with lay down cars, though it ran a lame cycle only going forwards (FlyAway is capable of going backwards, and it's more fun flying feet first), after that I dont remember a whole lot, but I ended up riding Revolution next I believe which is a Vekoma Illusion coaster but with no screens, I guess it was fun, or at least funny with a 25 car train, went on to the Wild Mice, which is 2 mirror image mice next to eachother but only one was running, though cant blame them as there couldnt have been more than 500-1,000 people in the park, after that I think I scoped out some food which I remember wasnt so great and hugely overpriced, rode the Vekoma Suspended swinging coaster, got new floorless seats this year, used to have those spiffy Airplane shaped cars, gave a good ride, but I think I would have liked riding the airplane cars better, also rode Oki Doki their custom Vekoma Roller Skater, somewhere along the line I also rode the ferris wheel which was rather small and you only got 2 rotations made it back to the Huss Giant and after XXL the day before it left me very disappointed, though I rode it 3 times just to be sure as it was walkon. Breakdance was decent, rode their monorail and some other stuff. Overall the park is pretty nice, lots of landscaping and some nicely themed flats and whatnot. Also noteworthy there is a windmill in the park that actually generates power for some part of the park or so they say, at the bottom of it there was a history of power generation some of it in english, being a techno nerd I enjoyed that. I ended my day with a dozen or so rides on Typhoon and another lame ride on the Santa Maria and I ended up staying nearly til close which was 5pm, left at like 4:30-4:45 as I had a major carnival left to visit, which was next to the hotel I woke up at this morning.
Haselt Septemberfoor.
So I drive back to Hasselt and park a few blocks away from the fair (across the street from my hotel actually, in a shopping district parking lot which happened to be free), and when I get to the fair I ride my first ride Wild Mouse a spinning mouse which I actually saw at a fair in Brussels during the ACE trip, however there was a transformer in the middle of the ride which was on fire, deeming the ride closed, noticing they leve all electrictal equipment outside the ride area now and it was open I hopped on for a ride and it was like €3 or so, after that I walked around, rides there (short list, there were loads of rides), but Fabbri Booster (didnt ride), Technical park clone of Huss Take Off which I didnt ride but should have, DecaDance a absolutely gorgeous Huss Breakdance (€2, rode once), KMG Afterburner, Flume, Powered Coaster and whatnot...
So I started with the coaster and started walking down the street (fair was a mile or so long going though the center of town), I checked out a few rides trying to get a grasp of prices to see what I planned on riding on my return trip and looked at all the funky Euro Games, there are lots of shooting games and on each and every one of them it says American Shot Guns, and there was a gangster themed arcade called Chicago (stereotyping perhaps)
, but anyways walked down to the end which dead ended at a large flume, made a short mental list of what needed to be ridden and started back where i came across a ride I didnt notice on the way there and I would have been pissed if I missed it. KMG Discovery, I cannot and will not describe it, it was a holy expierence, new #1 top spin esque ride, here is a video instead, in the video that is actually the very one I rode, though at a different fair...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJBvvuQ ... ed&search=
edit: dont feel like making this look normal, tired, but in the video they dont show the water jets I dont think, it has water jets also, and also there is a menu with other videos to the right of the window, one of the first ones is Superman 2, I suggest watching that, rode that at Prater, gets funky) now pretend this wasnt here and continue on........
Rode it with 2 other people (fair had just opened at 5pm and was slow), after that waited 20 or so mins for another cycle so I could take some pics, then moved on to the Afterburner, I had ridden this one before but figured what the hell, I rode XXL might as well do the whole KMG catalogue (I forget most of the ride prices so I'm not listing them), from there I think I rode another ride or 2 then ended at DecaDance right as a really nasty looking storm front was moving in (made for kickass pics), but after that ride it was starting to rain so I took shelter at a bratwurst stand which offered half meter brat's, sounded good and got one for a reasonable price and it was covered with onions and this kind of spicy and sweet brown mustard, was damn good, after it stopped raining I started heading back to the car, it was around 7pm had to leave early though I didnt want to, but the hotel that night was about 3-4 hours away still.
Got on the road and found the highway relatively easily and headed back towards Germany and out of Belgium, stopped to eat and whatnot and didnt get to my hotel til about Midnight. It was my first Multi Night hotel stay, it was a Motel One Koln west. It's a super basic hotel modeled after Motel 6 basically though rooms were alot smaller and the bathroom was incredibly small (sink was in the room, toilet and shower were in the same area, like the toilet was literally inside the shower and it was one piece plastic, very efficient though I'm not sure I cared for that arrangement), room was cheap €37 a night which was a good price for that area, also got my first taste of a clerkless hotel, there is a machine outside and from that machine you can book yourself a room or if you insert the credit card you used to make your reservation it looks it up, and after you fill out some quick info it prints you a reciept for your room and a reciept with a 6 number code on it, and that code actually gets you into the hotel and then into your room, instead of the card swiper or a key, there is a keypad on the door lock, a very cool system. Also of note in the hotel lobby there was a vending machine that had Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Water, and Beer. The last option was of extreme interest to me as it was a locally brewed beer called Fruh and it was only €1.40, was a good beer, looked like everyone in the area was drinking it, was kind of millerish but a bit better flavor and smoother, very enjoyable, Fruh seemed to be the kind of beer a working man would drink after a long hard day
Watched some CNN on my 9 or so inch TV, backed up my pics(I did this every night, will explain later, or look up what a Delkin Burnaway is), and I went to bed (also had a bunkbed)
Next Day 6, Phantasialand.
